As superintendent of finances, Nicolas Fouquet implemented several reforms that helped to modernize and centralize the French economy. He established a system of tax collection and introduced measures ...

The Shaolin monks brought the Gùn (Chinese: 棍), a staff used in their style of stick combat, to Japan. In that region, the gùn underwent various changes before becoming known as the bō. During this ...

The European black slave trade began in 1441, when Portuguese navigators Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão captured 10 black people near Cape Bojador in Africa and brought them back to Portugal to be ...

The Parma shield was a round Roman shield that was widely used by Roman soldiers from the 1st to the 8th century AD. It resembled the Greek aspis and played a significant role in Roman military ...

The Tokyo Tower of Babel is a proposed hyperbuilding in the city of Tokyo that is 33,000 feet or 6,2 miles (10 km) tall. The Tokyo Tower of Babel was designed as a new megastructure by Professor ...

Xibalba (freely translated as “Place of Fear”) – the underworld in Mayan mythology, ruled by spirits of diseases and death. Traditionally, the entrance to Xibalba was located in a cave near Cobán in ...

Djoser was the first ancient Egyptian king (Pharaoh) of the 3rd Dynasty (Old Kingdom). He reigned from around 2720 to 2700 BCE, according to some estimates a few decades later in the 27th century BCE.

The flamberge sword was advantageous because its blade significantly reduced the striking surface upon contact with the target. The concentrated force of the wavy blade’s impact made the curved edge ...

The Lucerne hammer is a type of polearm weapon, which combines the features of a stabbing, striking, and polearm weapon. It was used extensively by European infantrymen from the 15th century up to the ...

The Song Dynasty began in 960 CE, following several decades of political chaos in China. China was divided and in the midst of civil war, with each faction trying to recreate the Empire and take ...

The Sky City 1000 is a project to build a mega-skyscraper that is 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) tall. It was first proposed by Takenaka Corporation in 1989. The Sky City 1000 was formerly known as Tokyo’s ...

The sarissa is a spear that was in use in the early third century BC and was between 180 and 300 inches in length (4.5–7.5 m). During Alexander the Great‘s conquests and the Wars of the Diadochi, this ...