Pantheon Facts: What's The Difference Between The Paris Pantheon and The Roman Pantheon?

by Lindsay Shapka in , , ,


Yes, there are two famous Pantheons that you can visit in Europe — one in Paris and one in Rome — but they were both constructed for very different reasons, and were built hundreds of years apart.

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Before European Bus Tours: The History of The 16th Century Grand Tour of Europe

by Lindsay Shapka in , ,


What is the Grand Tour?

Long before Contiki Tour busses started carting tourists around Europe at breakneck speed — beginning in the late sixteenth century to be exact — young aristocrats from England, Germany, Scandinavia, and America started travelling to Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome as a way to round out their classical educations. This practice came to be known at the Grand Tour of Europe.

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Lion City: The Chinese "Atlantis" Preserved Under Water For More Than 50 Years!

by Lindsay Shapka in , , ,


About 130 feet under Qiandao Lake in China sits a perfectly preserved city that disappeared under the water in 1959 when the valley where it sat was purposely flooded to make way for the Xin'an River Dam. Almost 300,000 people were relocated.

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What is the Ides of March, and Why Should I Beware of It?

by Lindsay Shapka in , ,


Before we get to the "beware" part, let's start with the basics.

The Ideas of March, or Idus Martiae in Latin, is the day in the Roman calendar that corresponds with March 15.

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One Of The Oldest Maps In The World

by Lindsay Shapka in ,


This ancient clay tablet is inscribed in cuneiform with a map of the countryside around the important Mesopotamian city of Nippur, now part of southeastern Iraq, south of Baghdad. Written in cuneiform, it is dated to some point in the 14th-13th century BC, making it one of the oldest known maps in the world!

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Technology is Allowing Researchers to Read Damaged Ancient Texts From Herculaneum

by Lindsay Shapka in ,


When Mount Vesuvius exploded in Italy in AD 79, it not only buried the city of Pompeii but a lot of the surrounding homes as well. One of the most luxuries properties engulfed by layers of ash was the Villa of Papyri located in nearby Herculaneum.

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