4 NEWS
A research boat probing the
Pacific depths found the
wrecks of two Japanese carriers lost in
World War II’s pivotal Battle of Midway.8 PROFILES
French author Christine de Pisan
defied 15th-century conventions
by writing for a living, penning influential
books that championed women’s education.12 MAPPING THE PAST
Leonardo da Vinci’s 1502 military
map of the Italian city of Imola
used new surveying techniques to help
transform cartography from art to science.14 MILESTONES
A short but deadly gunfight in the
town of Tombstone in 1881
became part of frontier mythology, turning
Wyatt Earp and his clan into heroes.90 DISCOVERIES
In the 1800s a forgotten cluster of
ancient Armenian stone churches
fascinated travelers. This site was Ani,
once the rich capital of a thriving
medieval trade network.18 Wa r on W he els
The Hittites built a formidable empire in ancient Turkey aboard their fleet
of war chariots. Thousands of Hittite chariots clashed with Egypt at the
Battle of Kadesh in 1275 b.c., the largest chariot battle in the ancient world.
28 Egypt’s Eternal Goddess
The mother goddess Isis originated in Egypt’s distant past. Her worship
spread beyond the Nile and throughout the Mediterranean as she charmed
the Greek and Roman worlds, her cult reaching as far north as Britain.44 Pirates of the Mediterranean
A threat as old as seafaring itself, piracy threatened the prosperity of the
great empires of antiquity. From Ramses the Great to Pompey, mighty
rulers struggled—often in vain—to rid the seas of brigands.58 Triumph of Kublai Khan
The grandson of the fearsome Genghis Khan
united China under Mongol rule, and reigned
over the largest contiguous empire in history.
72 The Works of Jules Verne
From the bottom of the sea to the surface of
the moon, the French novelist fused fantasy
and technology to create scores of novels and a
new literary genre: science fiction.Features DepartmentsJULES VERNE’S 1870 BLOCKBUSTER IN WHICH CAPTAIN NEMO,
THE AUTHOR’S MOST POPULAR CHARACTER, MAKES HIS DEBUTVOL. 6 NO. 1VOL. 6 NO. 1HITTITE HUNTERS
Charioteers chase a lion in a hunt scene
on a neo-Hittite relief made around
750 b.c. Pergamon Museum, Berlin.