Visiting the Tower of London: A Prison for the Powerful
Visiting the Tower of London: why its most famous prisoners weren't criminals, but people who had once stood closest to the throne.
Stories
Discover extraordinary stories from remarkable places. Explore historical articles, podcasts and documentaries revealing the people who shaped history, and were shaped by it.
Visiting Göbekli Tepe: The World’s Oldest Temple
Göbekli Tepe predates Stonehenge by 6,000 years and was built by people with no farms, pottery or metal tools.
Visiting Sigiriya: King Kashyapa’s Lion Rock
Sigiriya: how a Sri Lankan king's fifth century fortress, built out of guilt and fear, became one of Asia's most sophisticated ancient sites.
Visiting Ushuaia: Argentina’s Gateway to Antarctica
Ushuaia brands itself the end of the world. Its prison, railway, lighthouse and city title are all disputed, except one: the gateway to Antarctica.
Visiting Samarkand: Tamerlane’s Silk Road Capital
Timur built Samarkand on conquest. His grandson built an observatory that outmeasured Europe for a century. Visit both, and the tomb that unites them.
Visiting Borobudur: The World’s Largest Buddhist Monument
Borobudur was built to be climbed, not entered. A guide to the world's largest Buddhist monument, its unsettled origins, and why the climb is now restricted.
Visiting Milford Sound: New Zealand’s Deep-Water Fjord
Milford Sound receives more rain than most rainforests, yet that same rain is why deep-sea black coral now lives just metres below the surface. The story of the fjord Cook sailed past twice, and the hermit who chose to live there alone.
Visiting Great Zimbabwe: The Ruins Colonialism Denied
Visiting Great Zimbabwe: how a medieval African trading capital became the centre of a decades long colonial lie, and what the ruins reveal today.
Visiting Culloden Battlefield: Scotland’s Last Pitched Battle
Visiting Culloden Battlefield: the site of Scotland's last pitched battle, why the moor had to be rebuilt to look like 1746, and what its clan graves reveal.
Visiting Chichén Itzá: The Sacred Cenote
Visiting Chichén Itzá: what a 2024 DNA study revealed about the Sacred Cenote sacrifices, plus the pyramid's equinox phenomenon and visitor tips.