Timeline – She’s probably the most controversial woman in Chinese history – Wu Zetian, who rose from lowly concubine to become the only woman in all Chinese history to dare to take the title “Emperor”
Since her death 1,300 years ago, Wu Zetian has been remembered as a callous tyrant, who brought calamity to China. But now, extraordinary new discoveries are revealing a very different picture of her reign. Continue reading
For centuries it was thought to be a legend, a city of extraordinary wealth mentioned in Homer, visited by Helen of Troy and Paris, her lover, but apparently buried under the sea.
In fact, Heracleion was true, and a decade after divers began uncovering its treasures, archaeologists have produced a picture of what life was like in the city in the era of the pharaohs.
The city, also called Thonis, disappeared beneath the Mediterranean around 1,200 years ago and was found during a survey of the Egyptian shore at the beginning of the last decade.