Sunday, July 05, 2026

History Highlights

Island of Björkö Birka

The Viking Marketplace Where Northern Furs Bought the Silver of Baghdad: The Story of Birka

On a green island in a lake west of modern Stockholm, sheep now graze among grassy mounds where, more than a thousand years ago, one of the busiest marketplaces of

Hallstatt village and lake

The Alpine Salt Village Whose Cemetery Gave an Entire Age of Europe Its Name: The Story of Hallstatt

High in the Austrian Alps, a picture-perfect village of steep-roofed houses clings to a narrow strip of shore between a dark mountain and a still green lake. Hallstatt is one

Panorama of Butrint

The City That Lived Through All of Classical History and Then Vanished Into the Forest: The Story of Butrint

In the far south of Albania, on a wooded peninsula between a shining lagoon and the channel that separates the mainland from the Greek island of Corfu, lie the ruins

Neapolis of Empuries

The Gateway Where Greece Reached Spain and Rome Landed to Conquer It: The Story of Empúries

On the Mediterranean coast of Catalonia, where a curve of golden sand meets a plain rising gently toward low hills, lie the ruins of a place that is unique in

Temples of Paestum

The Greek Temples in Italy Better Preserved Than Almost Any in Greece: The Story of Paestum

In a broad coastal plain south of the Bay of Naples stand three of the best-preserved Greek temples anywhere in the world, and they are not in Greece at all.