◆ Journey Through Time ◆
Timeline
A chronological journey through the events that shaped civilizations across the ages.
◆ Journey Through Time ◆
A chronological journey through the events that shaped civilizations across the ages.
c. 3500 BCE
Uruk and other cities rise among the first urban societies.
c. 3200 BCE
Sumerians develop one of the earliest writing systems.
c. 3100 BCE
King Narmer unites Upper and Lower Egypt, founding the First Dynasty.
c. 2600 BCE
Great planned cities emerge with grids and drainage.
c. 2560 BCE
The pyramid of Khufu rises as a wonder of the ancient world.
c. 2000 BCE
Mohenjo-daro thrives with trade reaching Mesopotamia.
c. 1754 BCE
Babylon issues one of history’s earliest written legal codes.
c. 1332 BCE
The boy-king takes the throne; his intact tomb later astonishes the world.
c. 1300 BCE
The cities are slowly abandoned, perhaps as rivers shifted.
c. 1200 BCE
Early Chinese writing appears on bones used for divination.
c. 1070 BCE
Nubian kings build a powerful state south of Egypt.
c. 1000 BCE
David unites the tribes and makes Jerusalem his capital.
c. 957 BCE
King Solomon builds the First Temple in Jerusalem.
776 BCE
The earliest recorded games are held at Olympia.
c. 720 BCE
Kings of Kush conquer Egypt and rule as its 25th Dynasty.
586 BCE
Babylon destroys Jerusalem and exiles its people.
550 BCE
Cyrus the Great unites the Persians and Medes.
509 BCE
Rome casts off its kings and becomes a republic.
c. 508 BCE
Cleisthenes’ reforms lay the groundwork for Athenian democracy.
c. 500 BCE
Confucius shapes Chinese thought on ethics and governance.
c. 500 BCE
A 2,500-km road speeds messengers across the empire.
c. 450 BCE
Under Pericles, the Parthenon is built and the arts flourish.
336 BCE
Alexander the Great spreads Greek culture across three continents.
330 BCE
Alexander defeats Darius III and burns Persepolis.
c. 300 BCE
Nabataean traders carve a great city into desert cliffs.
c. 300 BCE
The capital moves to Meroë, where steep royal pyramids rise.
c. 220 BCE
Qin Shi Huang links earlier walls into a great frontier.
c. 100 BCE
Ingenious channels and cisterns turn the desert city green.
30 BCE
Egypt becomes a Roman province after Cleopatra’s death.
27 BCE
Octavian becomes Augustus, beginning the Pax Romana.
43 CE
Roman legions cross the Channel and begin the conquest of Britain.
80 CE
The Flavian Amphitheatre opens for games before tens of thousands.
c. 100 CE
A trading kingdom grows wealthy on Red Sea commerce.
c. 100 CE
Early farmers settle the canyons of the American Southwest.
106 CE
Rome absorbs the kingdom as the province of Arabia Petraea.
122 CE
A great stone wall is raised to mark the empire’s northern frontier.
c. 250 CE
The Classic Maya period begins; Tikal and other cities flourish.
330 CE
Constantine refounds Byzantium as the new Roman capital.
c. 330 CE
Aksum becomes one of the first states to adopt Christianity.
410 CE
The legions leave and Britain is left to defend itself.
476 CE
The last western Roman emperor is deposed.
537 CE
Justinian completes the greatest church of the age.
c. 550 CE
A ceremonial city grows on the high Andean plateau.
c. 600 CE
Farming communities coalesce on the high plains of Colombia.
c. 700 CE
Maya astronomers refine remarkably accurate calendars.
c. 700 CE
Monumental stone gateways and temples are raised at the capital.
711 CE
Forces cross from North Africa and swiftly take most of the peninsula.
768 CE
Charlemagne becomes king of the Franks and begins his conquests.
793 CE
A raid on an English monastery opens the Viking Age.
794 CE
A golden age of art and literature at the imperial court.
800 CE
The Pope crowns Charlemagne Emperor, reviving the Western imperial title.
802 CE
Jayavarman II declares an independent Khmer empire.
843 CE
The empire is split among his grandsons, shaping future Europe.
862 CE
Norse and Slavic peoples unite under a ruling dynasty.
c. 870 CE
Norse settlers colonise the North Atlantic.
c. 900 CE
Many southern cities are abandoned over a few generations.
929 CE
Córdoba becomes one of the largest, most learned cities in the world.
939 CE
Ngô Quyền defeats a Chinese fleet on the Bạch Đằng River.
c. 940 CE
Shifting trade and climate bring the kingdom to an end.
962 CE
Otto the Great is crowned, founding the Holy Roman Empire.
988 CE
Vladimir the Great adopts Orthodox Christianity for the Rus’.
c. 1000 CE
A new chief is gilded in gold dust and offers treasure to a sacred lake.
c. 1000 CE
Drought brings the highland civilization to an end.
c. 1000 CE
Leif Erikson reaches Vinland, centuries before Columbus.
c. 1010 CE
A new capital at Thăng Long (Hanoi) ushers in a golden age.
c. 1100 CE
A great dry-stone city grows on the Zimbabwe plateau.
c. 1150 CE
A vast temple-city rises as the largest religious monument on Earth.
c. 1180 CE
A line of kings, the Obas, builds a powerful forest kingdom.
1185 CE
The first shogunate begins centuries of warrior rule.
c. 1200 CE
Elaborate stone dwellings are built into sheltered cliffs.
1206 CE
Temüjin is proclaimed Genghis Khan and forges a nation of horsemen.
1235 CE
Sundiata Keita defeats his rivals and founds the Mali Empire.
1240 CE
The Mongols destroy Kiev, ending the unified state.
c. 1279 CE
The Mongols rule from the Pacific to the gates of Europe.
1288 CE
Đại Việt destroys a Mongol invasion fleet at Bạch Đằng once more.
1293 CE
Raden Wijaya founds Majapahit on Java after repelling a Mongol fleet.
c. 1300 CE
Great Zimbabwe controls gold and ivory trade to the coast.
c. 1300 CE
Drought drives the people to abandon their cliff cities.
1324 CE
The famously rich king journeys to Mecca, dazzling the world with gold.
1325 CE
The Aztecs build their capital on an island in Lake Texcoco.
c. 1350 CE
The empire’s influence spreads across the archipelago.
1351 CE
King Ramathibodi I founds a new Siamese capital.
1356 CE
A decree fixes how the emperor is elected by seven prince-electors.
1368 CE
The Yuan are driven from China as the great empire splinters.
1392 CE
General Yi Seong-gye founds the Joseon dynasty.
c. 1400 CE
Timbuktu flourishes as a centre of trade and scholarship.
1428 CE
Three city-states unite to dominate central Mexico.
1431 CE
The capital is abandoned after wars and changing trade.
1438 CE
Pachacuti transforms the Inca into a vast empire.
1443 CE
King Sejong creates the Korean alphabet so all can read and write.
c. 1450 CE
A royal estate rises high in the Andes.
c. 1450 CE
The capital is left as trade and people shift elsewhere.
1453 CE
The Ottomans capture the city, ending the empire.
1492 CE
The last Muslim kingdom in Iberia surrenders to Castile and Aragon.
c. 1500 CE
Guild artists cast extraordinary brass plaques and heads.
c. 1500 CE
Internal strife and rising rivals bring the empire down.
1521 CE
Tenochtitlan falls to Cortés and his allies.
1533 CE
The empire falls to Pizarro and disease.
1540 CE
Spanish forces overrun the Muisca lands in search of gold.
1592 CE
Korea, with its turtle ships, resists a massive Japanese invasion.
c. 1600 CE
Ayutthaya trades with China, Japan, and Europe alike.
1603 CE
The Tokugawa shogunate brings 250 years of stability.
1767 CE
A Burmese army sacks and burns the great capital.
1806 CE
The empire is dissolved during the Napoleonic Wars.
1897 CE
A British expedition burns the city and loots its treasures.