Flipboard 2025 World History

Above the entrance to one of Christianity’s holiest churches sits a small wooden ladder. It looks ordinary. It isn’t. That ladder hasn’t moved since 1728—and it can’t be moved unless six Christian denominations all agree. For nearly 300 years, no one has.

People adapted again and again, changing habits to keep going. Each adjustment worked for a while, until the familiar world no longer looked the same.

The Mediterranean has a habit of keeping secrets. For centuries, historians argued over whether the Roman city of Neapolis in present-day Tunisia truly vanished in a catastrophic event—or whether that story grew taller in the retelling. Now, archaeologists have uncovered sprawling underwater ruins that suggest the legend wasn’t exaggerating after all. Beneath the waves off the coast near modern Nabeul lies what appears to be a massive slice of the ancient city—streets, structures, and industrial installations included—quietly resting on the seabed.

Millions visit Hoover Dam without noticing that it records time on a planetary scale. Beneath ordinary footsteps lies a monument designed to outlast nations, encoding a single human moment within motions that span tens of millennia.

Inside a glass-and-steel structure in the Arizona desert, eight people agreed to do something no one had ever attempted before. They would live sealed inside a completely enclosed ecosystem for two full years. No resupply. No fresh air. No stepping outside. This wasn’t a reality show…This was reality.

Archaeological teams working along the north bank of the Huan River in Henan Province's Anyang City just made a discovery that completely reshapes what we know about ancient Chinese urban planning. The find involves a massive thoroughfare that once served as a main artery through Dayishang, the name the Shang Dynasty people gave to their capital over 3,000 years ago. Niu Shishan leads the excavation team from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and his crew has uncovered something that challenges previous assumptions about how Bronze Age cities were designed and built. The National Cultural Heritage Administration announced these findings in December 2024, and they reveal a level of sophistication that few expected from a civilization that existed between 1600 and 1046 BCE.

Discover the mystery of the Qabr-er-Rumia tomb near Kolea, Algeria—an awe-inspiring 2,000-year-old royal mausoleum believed to be linked to Cleopatra Selene II and King Juba II.

For more than two centuries, a small island off Nova Scotia has promised buried riches and engineered secrets beneath its soil. Oak Island became famous for a pit that supposedly floods by design and hides unimaginable treasure. But stories grow faster than evidence. Let’s separate documented fact from dramatic legend.

Construction plans for a new exit at Port-Royal station seemed routine until France's National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research arrived in March 2023 to conduct mandatory excavations. What emerged from the 200-square-meter dig zone stopped everyone in their tracks.

Something strange rises from a Montana mountainside. Granite blocks stack in patterns that look unnervingly deliberate. The formation predates human existence, yet visitors can't shake the feeling they're staring at ancient architecture.

In Copenhagen's harbor, archaeologists discovered something remarkable beneath the seabed. A massive wooden ship had rested there since approximately 1410 AD—over 600 years untouched. What they found would rewrite our understanding of medieval maritime capabilities.

Laser mapping revealed geometry where chaos should reign on the seafloor. Divers descended into cold Atlantic darkness and found organized rows of standing stones. These were coastal communities doing the impossible centuries too early.