Historical Places
This general category includes a selection of more specific topics.
Historical Places Encyclopedia Articles
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ancient Rome
Ancient Rome, the state centred on the city of Rome. This article discusses the period from the founding of the city and the regal period, which began in 753 bc, through the events leading to the founding...
African Meeting House
African Meeting House, meetinghouse, built in 1806 and located at 46 Joy Street in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., that is the oldest standing church for African Americans in the United States. It was one...
Russian Empire
Russian Empire, historical empire founded on November 2 (October 22, Old Style), 1721, when the Russian Senate conferred the title of emperor (imperator) of all the Russias upon Peter I. The abdication...
German Empire
German Empire, historical empire founded on January 18, 1871, in the wake of three short, successful wars by the North German state of Prussia. Within a seven-year span, Denmark, the Habsburg monarchy,...
Soviet Union
Soviet Union, former northern Eurasian empire (1917/22–1991) stretching from the Baltic and Black seas to the Pacific Ocean and, in its final years, consisting of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (S.S.R.’s):...
history of Mesopotamia
History of Mesopotamia, history of the region in southwestern Asia where the world’s earliest civilization developed. The name comes from a Greek word meaning “between rivers,” referring to the land between...
Wartburg
Wartburg, castle, renowned in German history and legend, standing on a steep hill overlooking the town of Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. The hill was fortified as early as 1080. The landgrave Hermann I...
Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan, historical Japanese empire founded on January 3, 1868, when supporters of the emperor Meiji overthrew Yoshinobu, the last Tokugawa shogun. Power would remain nominally vested in the imperial...
Auschwitz
Auschwitz, Nazi Germany’s largest concentration camp and extermination camp. Located near the industrial town of Oświęcim in southern Poland (in a portion of the country that was annexed by Germany at...
Mongol empire
Mongol empire, empire founded by Genghis Khan in 1206. Originating from the Mongol heartland in the Steppe of central Asia, by the late 13th century it spanned from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the...
ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt, civilization in northeastern Africa that dates from the 4th millennium bce. Its many achievements, preserved in its art and monuments, hold a fascination that continues to grow as archaeological...
Anatolia
Anatolia, the peninsula of land that today constitutes the Asian portion of Turkey. Because of its location at the point where the continents of Asia and Europe meet, Anatolia was, from the beginnings...
Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China, extensive bulwark erected in ancient China, one of the largest building-construction projects ever undertaken. The Great Wall actually consists of numerous walls—many of them parallel...
ancient Greek civilization
Ancient Greek civilization, the period following Mycenaean civilization, which ended about 1200 bce, to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 bce. It was a period of political, philosophical, artistic,...
Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire, empire created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia (Asia Minor) that grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Ottoman period spanned more...
Forbidden City
Forbidden City, imperial palace complex at the heart of Beijing (Peking), China. Commissioned in 1406 by the Yongle emperor of the Ming dynasty, it was first officially occupied by the court in 1420. It...
Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire, the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived for a thousand years after the western half had crumbled into various feudal kingdoms and which finally fell to Ottoman Turkish onslaughts...
