Jun 12th, 2013 at 3:30PM: Emilio Labrador
A team from UNESCO has visited Timbuktu in Mali to make its first on-the-ground assessment of the damage caused by last year's occupation by the Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith).
The group took over Timbuktu in April 2012 and imposed a harsh form of Shariah law. Believing the city's famous shrines and medieval manuscripts to be against Islam, even though they ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
medieval posts
UNESCO Reports Damage To Timbuktu Worse Than Previously Reported
Jun 12th, 2013 at 3:30PM: Emilio Labrador
A team from UNESCO has visited Timbuktu in Mali to make its first on-the-ground assessment of the damage caused by last year's occupation by the Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith).
The group took over Timbuktu in April 2012 and imposed a harsh form of Shariah law. Believing the city's famous shrines and medieval manuscripts to be against Islam, even though they ...Lake Bled: A Tourist Trap In Slovenia You Really Must See
Jun 12th, 2013 at 12:00PM: Sean McLachlan
If you don't already know that Lake Bled is the most popular tourist attraction in Slovenia you'll know it the moment you arrive. There's a casino. There's a Shamrock Irish Pub. There's even one of those tourist buses made up to look like a choo-choo train. It's horrible.
But look out across the emerald-green water sparkling in the sunshine and all that disappears. Instead, you ...Like Castles? Go To Slovenia
Jun 10th, 2013 at 10:00AM: The little nation of Slovenia is situated on a crossroads. On the southeastern edge of the Alps and on the way to the rest of the Balkans and to central Europe, it's seen more than its fair share of invading armies.
No wonder, then, that this country that's slightly smaller than New Jersey has some 700 castles. Many are in ruins thanks to those invading armies, while others were dismantled ...Gorizia: Italy's Overlooked Historic Border City
May 29th, 2013 at 9:00AM: Sean McLachlan
Visitors to Italy tend to skip Gorizia. Tucked away at the northeast edge of the country on the border with Slovenia, this small city tends to get bypassed on the way to Trieste or Slovenia.
I would have never gone there myself except that I was a guest author at the city's annual history and book fair, the èStoria Festival. Now in its ninth year, the festival is drawing ...Archaeologists Digging At Lincoln Castle Uncover Early Christian Community
May 17th, 2013 at 3:00PM: Lincolnshire County Council
Archaeologists excavating at Lincoln Castle have discovered the remains of an early Christian community, according to a Lincolnshire County Council press release.
The team, which was digging inside the castle to clear the way for an elevator shaft, found the remains of a church that dates back at least 1,000 years. Inside a sealed niche in the wall they found human ...Postcards From Carcassonne: Exploring A Medieval French Village
May 1st, 2013 at 11:00AM:
While on a film production in southern France (no really, for this), we were cruising along the autoroute between Toulouse and Narbonne. I was in the driver's seat, which, for the record, is not the spot you want to be in while driving through this part of France. You get the occasional glimpse at the countryside, but as the sun shines and the southern landscape passes by, you definitely want ...Smithsonian Channel To Air Special King Richard III Discovery
Apr 17th, 2013 at 12:00PM:
The Smithsonian Channel will soon air a documentary about the remarkable discovery of the skeleton of King Richard III in a parking lot in Leicester, England.
"The King's Skeleton: Richard III Revealed" premieres Sunday, April 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The two-hour show was produced by the only team allowed access to the scientists, the excavation and the lab tests used to determine the ...
5 Overlooked Castles Close To London
Apr 16th, 2013 at 9:00AM:
England is famous for its castles. Giant fortresses such as Bamburgh Castle and Lincoln Castle attract thousands of visitors a year, but people tend to overlook the many smaller, lesser-known castles close to London. These are often as interesting as their more famous cousins and make for enjoyable day trips from London. Here are five of the best.
Hadleigh Castle
Near the town of Hadleigh ...Crypts Discovered Under Coventry Cathedral
Mar 27th, 2013 at 12:00PM:
Workers at Coventry Cathedral in England have discovered several well-preserved crypts underneath the ruins, the Daily Mail reports.
A maintenance team has been working to repair a crack in the ruins of the 14th century St. Michael's church, which became a cathedral in 1918 and was mostly destroyed by the Luftwaffe in World War II. When the workers investigated the floor of the cathedral, ...The 'Christopher Columbus Of China' May Have Visited Kenya, A New Find Reveals
Mar 16th, 2013 at 10:00AM:
An explorer from medieval China may have visited an island off the coast of Kenya, archaeologists say.
A joint expedition by The Field Museum and the University of Illinois at Chicago unearthed a 15th-century Chinese coin on the Kenyan island of Manda, according to a Field Museum press release. Starting around 200 A.D., Manda was a trading hub and home to an advanced civilization.
The ...London Crossrail Project Unearths Black Death Burial Pit
Mar 15th, 2013 at 11:00AM: "Bring out your dead!"
If you lived in London in 1348-50, you'd hear that call a lot. All of Europe was swept with the Black Death, a virulent plague that killed an estimated one-third of the population. London, like other congested urban areas, got hit hard.
Now archaeologists working in London have uncovered a mass grave of Black Death victims, a Crossrail press release reports. Digging ...A Medieval Monastery In Estonia
Mar 5th, 2013 at 1:00PM:
Estonia had an interesting time in the Middle Ages. Along with the other Baltic States of Lithuania and Latvia, they were the last bastion of paganism in a continent that had become entirely Christian.
Various Christian kingdoms decided this was a good excuse for conquest and launched the Northern Crusades. From 1208 to 1224, the Germans, Danes, and Swedes attacked Estonia and eventually ...Tallinn's Medieval Old Town
Feb 18th, 2013 at 10:00AM:
Tallinn is a medieval wonderland. The capital of Estonia isn't on a lot of people's bucket list but anyone at all interested in history, architecture or art will love this place.
The central attraction is Old Town, a medieval walled city filled with old buildings and fortifications. The sheltered bay and the easily defended Toompea Hill made it a natural place to settle. Sometime about 1050 ...Search Is On For Another Lost Medieval English King
Feb 7th, 2013 at 12:00PM: In the wake of the media blitz around the discovery of King Richard III's remains under a parking lot in Leicester, England, archaeologists have announced they're looking for another medieval English king.
The Times reports that archaeologists are seeking permission to exhume an unmarked grave at St. Bartholomew's Church in Hyde, Winchester, that they think contains the remains of King Alfred ...Scientists Confirm Remains Of King Richard III Have Been Found
Feb 4th, 2013 at 2:00PM: Archaeologists from the University of Leicester have confirmed that they have found the remains of King Richard III beneath a parking lot in Leicester, England.
Richard III was the last of the Plantagenet kings and fought an epic struggle with the Tudors during the War of the Roses for control of England. He was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Support for the Plantagenet line crumbled ...Damage To Timbuktu's Antiquities Not As Bad As Originally Thought
Feb 1st, 2013 at 11:00AM:
Earlier this week we reported on the possible destruction of Timbuktu's collection of medieval manuscripts. Now it turns out those initial reports were exaggerated.
Timbuktu in Mali is a UNESCO World Heritage Site thanks to its many shrines to Muslim saints and its collection of some 300,000 manuscripts dating as far back as the beginning of the 13th century. They're in several languages and ...Goetz Of The Iron Hand: On The Trail Of Renaissance Germany's Biggest Badass
Jan 30th, 2013 at 3:00PM: Renaissance Germany was a violent place. A patchwork of different kingdoms, principalities, and baronies with constantly changing allegiances, the land was wracked with near-constant warfare.
The people in charge were some pretty rough characters. By far the roughest was Götz von Berlichingen, also known as Götz of the Iron Hand. You can also spell it "Goetz" if your browser hiccups ...National Museum Of Scotland Takes New Look At Vikings
Jan 24th, 2013 at 12:00PM:
How much do we really know about the Vikings? A new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh asks this question and comes up with some interesting answers.
"Vikings!" collects more than 500 objects from the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm to show a side to Scandinavia's most famous culture that most people don't know.
While most of the public is aware (hopefully) that ...The Northernmost Castle In The World
Jan 21st, 2013 at 1:00PM:
I'm in a northern state of mind. Perhaps it's the hail tickity-tacking off my window, or maybe it's because Gadling is sending me to Estonia this February. That's right, I'll be freezing my butt off for your edification and entertainment.
Reading about the great Estonian castles such as Narva and Paide, I wondered which is the northernmost castle in the world. That great provider of facile ...Notre Dame De Paris Celebrates 850 Years With Special Events
Dec 26th, 2012 at 4:00PM:
One of the icons of Paris is turning 850 this coming year. Notre Dame de Paris was founded in 1163, although the beautiful Gothic cathedral wasn't completed until 1345 and the building has been altered several times since.
To celebrate, Notre Dame is hosting a series of special events throughout 2013. A concert series has already started. Some of the shows will feature the cathedral's great ...
