Added by: Maria | Karma: 3098.81 | Multimedia » Audio | 31 July 2008
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From August 8 to August 24, more than 10,000 athletes from 205 nations will convene in Beijing, China, to take part in the XXIX Olympiad. Athletes will compete in a variety of sports ranging from archery, basketball, and diving to rowing, soccer, and weightlifting.
Although the modern version of the Olympic Games has been around for over 100 years since its revival at the 1896 games in Athens, the Olympics have a rich and exciting history that goes back to ancient Greece. A crucial aspect of Greek culture, the ancient Olympics emphasized the ideas of heroism and honor established by Homer's epic poetry. The games were meant to celebrate physical strength, speed, and manhood. Most importantly, they embodied the spirit of competition (agon) that defined ancient Greek life.
Sorting through the myths of popular culture and contradictory
historical evidence, this volume provides a clear, detailed picture of
the life and history of the ancient Egyptians.
Great Empires of the Past series
128 pages - PDF - 7 mb
Argues that the ancient structures at Giza, including the pyramids and the Sphinx, may be much older than originally thought, and discusses a mysterious underground chamber recently detected beneath the Sphinx.
In this riveting account of historical and archaeological investigation, the authors present hard evidence that the Sphinx, the Pyramids, and the other monuments at Giza are of far more ancient origin than previously believed. Complete with evidence of a conspiracy between the Egyptology establishment and various confidential organizations to keep the secrets of the Pyramids from the world, The Message of the Sphinx is also a modern-day detective story.
For the greater part of the period from the end of the 10th century to
the 7th century BC, the Ancient Near East was dominated by the dynamic
military power of Assyria.
At the zenith of its rule Assyria could lay claim to an empire that
stretched from Egypt in the west to the borders of Iran in the east and
encompassed for the first time in history, within the realm of a single
imperial domain, the whole of the 'Fertile Crescent'.
Discusses the voyages undertaken, navigation routes followed, and watercraft of explorers in the ancient world, from prehistoric times to the beginning of the Middle Ages.
