Etemenanki: name of the large temple tower in Babylon, also known as the Tower of Babel. Its Sumerian name E-temen-an-ki means "House of the foundation of heaven on earth".
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Eye of the king (Old Persian Spasaka?): inspector in the Achaemenid empire. Sometimes called "eyes and ears".In his charming description of the youth of the founder of the Achaemenid empire, Cyrus the Great, the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus suggests…
Tyre (Phoenician רצ, ṣūr, "rock"; Greek Τύρος; Latin Tyrus): port in Phoenicia and one of the main cities in the eastern Mediterranean.In 598/596 BCE, king Jehoiachin and the Jewish elite had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia. In the eleventh year, shortly after the…
Fayaz Tepe: ancient Buddhist monastery near modern Termez (southern Uzbekistan).Early Bactria
Bactrian imitation of an Athenian drachm
Since the early Achaemenid age, Bactria…
Ardašir Khureh ("fame of Ardašir): Sasanian city in Persis, modern Firuzabad. Except for the city, there is a castle, a palace, a large relief celebrating Ardašir's victories, and a small relief commemorating his investiture (discussed on this page). The second Sasanian rock relief near Firuzabad is better visible than the first one: it…
The Great Flood: mythological story about a great destruction that once befell the earth. There are several variants; the Biblical version is the most famous. The possibility that there is a historical event behind the story (a local flood in southern Babylonia in the…
The Great Flood: mythological story about a great destruction that once befell the earth. There are several variants; the Biblical version is the most famous. The possibility that there is a historical event behind the story (a local flood in southern Babylonia in the…
The Great Flood: mythological story about a great destruction that once befell the earth. There are several variants; the Biblical version is the most famous. The possibility that there is a historical event behind the story (a local flood in…
The Great Flood: mythological story about a great destruction that once befell the earth. There are several variants; the Biblical version is the most famous. The possibility that there is a historical event behind the story (a local flood in southern Babylonia in the…
The Great Flood: mythological story about a great destruction that once befell the earth. There are several variants; the Biblical version is the most famous. The possibility that there is a historical event behind the story (a local flood in southern Babylonia in the…