The fall of the Aztec empire in the early 16th century appears to have been one of history’s clearest before-and-after moments. According to the myth, a handful of Spanish conquistadors quickly crushe

Adrian Tchaikovsky returns to the darkly exuberant world of The Tyrant Philosophers

The elevator pitch made this trip sound very glamorous, but it’s nearing 43ºC and I’ve been stooping around in the desert for over an hour, eyes fixed on the arid earth. We’re in the Turkana Basin in

The grisly fate of more than 16,000 soldiers and civilians during the First Anglo-Afghan War serves as a timeless lesson in hubris and bad leadership

Europe’s frozen northeast became a new sacred frontier of holy war, forced conversion and occupation against Europe’s last pagans

After a decade and a half of excavations, archæologists have uncovered the naturally mummified remains of well over 100 indigenous Yakuts of north-eastern Siberia, one of the coldest places on Earth.