The Xenophile Historian

Figure 1: A 16th-century artist’s conception of what the Tower of Babel looked like. By Peter Bruegel the Elder.

Figure 2: Sumerian farmers at work near Ur. The Ziggurat of Ur can be seen in the background.

Figure 3: Clay tablet with cuneiform writing. The diagram on the lower two thirds of the tablet is a map of the world, showing the ocean surrounding all land and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers running through the middle.

Figure 4: Top of Hammurabi’s law code. Here he pays homage to the sun god Shamash, who he claimed gave him the laws.

Figure 5: The Step Pyramid of Zoser.

Figure 6: The Pyramids of Giza.

Figure 7: Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahri.

Figure 8: A modern artist’s portrait of Akhenaten.

Figure 9: Ramses II in a typical heroic pose, with Nubian captives.

Figure 10: A crowd gathers at the palace of Knossos to watch athletes somersault over bulls. This may have been a religious rite as well as a sporting event.

Figure 11: Called the "mask of Agamemnon" when found by Schiemann in a Mycenaean grave, this gold mask probably belonged to a king that lived centuries earlier.

Figure 12: The Lion's Gate of Mycenae is a fine example of masonry in Bronze Age Greece.

Figure 13: Phoenician warship, from an Assyrian bas-relief, eighth century B.C.

Figure 14: Stela depicting the god Baal.

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