Smallpox – lethal infection

The Quran, holy book of Muslims, tells about the miraculous escape of Mecca from Prince of Abissinia’s troops. When in 569 BC war elephants reached the gates of defenseless Mecca birds with small clay balls in their claws came. The birds attacked the besiegers. They threw balls that killed soldiers, horses and elephants. These birds were called Ababil, which in Persian meant “smallpox”.
Aron, doctor from Alexandria indicated that a flash of smallpox almost completely destroyed the army.
According to genetic studies, the human smallpox virus evolved from camel pox approximately 20-60 thousand years ago. Descriptions of the disease similar to smallpox are known to mankind since ancient times. The first epidemic was presumably in ancient China around 3,000 BC. Traces of smallpox were found on some mummies in the Egyptian pyramids.
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Castle of the Holy Angel

At the request of the Emperor Hadrian people began to build his tomb in 130. Emperor was fifty-four years old and it was time to think about the last resting place. He ordered to build a magnificent tomb for himself and his family.
The Roman, like the Greek, funerals had always been considered a sacred ritual. The Romans believed in the sad fate of unburied men. Therefore, many emperors had wonderful tombs. The imperial funeral processions were luxurious, with musicians, actors and mourners.
Hadrian was called the Restorer, because during the years of his reign a number of buildings were built in Rome. The most interesting of them are the temple of Venus and Circus Maximus. Hadrian decided to build a mausoleum and surround it with a wall. The building was supposed to reflect the greatness of the emperor. They decided to build it on the right bank of the Tiber. But Hadrian did not see his mausoleum completed. His tomb was fully completed only a year after his death. Since then Hadrian’s mausoleum became the burial place of the emperors.
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Dangerous and mysterious alchemy

Alchemist and swindler have long been synonymous. In fact, there were many crooks among them. But the most famous of them believed that the philosopher’s stone could help to create an elixir of youth and precious metals. And their experiences enriched human knowledge. They say that the Egyptian queen Cleopatra even dabbled in alchemy and wrote a treatise.
Alchemy was the first science in human history which combined theory and experiment.
In ancient times people practiced various forms of alchemy in China, India, Greece, and the Middle East.
In Europe, alchemy spread in the XII century. At the beginning of the XIV century English King Edward promised Ramon Llull to send a fleet to the holy war against the infidels, if he provided expedition with gold. And Llull produced 60 thousand pounds of gold from mercury. It was used to mint coins with the image of the king and the inscription: “Edward, King of England and France.”
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Babylon – ancient city

According to the legend, the people who lived more than four thousand years ago in Mesopotamia, near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, after the Flood spoke the same language. They were complacent and proud. And they decided to build a tower up to the sky. God learned about this, became angry and gave them different languages. And people didn’t understand each other, quarreled, abandoned the building and went to the different ends of the earth. The tower remained unfinished, but the city where it was erected, gained popularity. It was named Babel.
Until the end of the XIX century the Tower of Babel was considered a biblical legend. There was no physical evidence of construction of the tower.
The Bible says that the builders made the tower of mud bricks, as there were not enough stones. These giant bricks (6 m long) were burned and resin was used as a binder between them. The descendants of Noah, as the Bible said, spent three years searching for materials and about twenty-two years to build the tower.
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Colosseum – arena for gladiators and beasts

Roman Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus (ruled 69-79), razed the palace of extravagant Nero in Rome, decided to build the Flavian Amphitheatre – enormous building for 50 thousand spectators. The construction began in 75. Vespasian wanted to erase Nero from the memory of people as quickly as possible, and glorify the Flavian dynasty.
The current name of the Colosseum is a modified Latin word “colossus”, which meant “enormous, huge.” Gladiators had to fight with each other, with wild lions, leopards and panthers.
The amphitheater was built at the bottom of the former artificial pond that was dug in front of the famous Golden House of Nero (Domus Aurea). Thousands of slaves worked like ants around the clock. The giant construction site was a regular ellipse – 190 m long and 156 m wide.
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Palace of the Sun King

King Louis XIII, a great lover of hunting, built a small hunting lodge in the old village of Versailles, which was located in the forest about 23 km from Paris. His son, Louis XIV (1638-1715), an ambitious Sun King, who loved balls and performances, decided to build palace with park ensemble at Versailles and turn it into the main residence of the French kings.
Famous architect Louis Le Vau created the original version of the palace. The work began in 1661. André Le Nôtre was responsible for the construction of the park ensemble, planting trees, making flower beds, avenues. 23-year-old king spent a huge amount of money during the first two years of the construction and the palace treasurers warned him that the royal treasury quickly would be empty.
After the death of Le Vau, architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart led the building at Versailles for thirty years. The total number of employees working in different years was about 30 thousand people.
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The mystery of the tomb of Tutankhamun

Pharaoh Tutankhamun, his throne name was Nebkheperure, died at the age of eighteen. According to other sources, he was killed. He ruled the country as a child for nine years. Nevertheless, he was buried with royal honors. Only in 1922, the British explorer Howard Carter was able to find a tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.
Egyptologists knew that the young pharaoh was buried in the Valley of the Kings. But where?
Since 1900 there were excavations on the west bank of the Nile in the same Valley of the Kings, which was considered to be the burial place of many great pharaohs (1567-1320 BC).
American scientist-Egyptologist and millionaire Theodore Davis managed to find a number of tombs of famous pharaohs of the New Kingdom, including the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, Thutmose IV of, Horemheb, Ramesses. In 1914 he declared that there were no more tombs in the valley. The First World War began and works were stopped.
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