Middle Ages
Battle of Roncevaux Pass (778): Roland and the Rearguard
Basque victory; Charlemagne's rearguard and baggage train were destroyed and several leading Franks, including Roland, were killed.
Era · c. 500 – 1500
Middle Ages
Kingdoms, crusades and plagues: the medieval world from the end of the Western Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople.
Middle Ages
Carolingian Renaissance: Learning Under Charlemagne
A revival of Latin education, book production and scholarship that reformed handwriting and preserved much of classical Latin literature.
Middle Ages
Borobudur: Building Java's Great Buddhist Monument
The Sailendra kings created the largest Buddhist monument in the world, a stepped stone mandala covered with more than 2,600 relief panels.
Middle Ages
Nestorian Stele (781): Early Christianity in Tang China
The stele preserved the main record of Christianity in Tang China and, after its rediscovery in the 1620s, became famous worldwide.
Middle Ages
Massacre of Verden (782) and Charlemagne's Saxon Wars
According to the Royal Frankish Annals, 4,500 Saxons were beheaded in a single day; Saxon resistance continued until about 804, when Saxony was absorbed into the Frankish empire.
Middle Ages
Offa's Dyke: King Offa's Great Earthwork on the Welsh Border
A long bank-and-ditch earthwork marked Mercia's western frontier with the Welsh kingdoms and survives as Britain's longest ancient monument.
Middle Ages
Great Mosque of Cordoba: Masterpiece of Umayyad al-Andalus
The mosque grew into one of the largest in the Islamic world and, after the Christian conquest of Córdoba in 1236, became the city's cathedral.
Middle Ages
Harun al-Rashid (786–809): Caliph of Baghdad's Golden Age
Harun's reign marked the high point of Abbasid wealth and prestige, but his division of the succession led to civil war soon after his death.
Middle Ages
Bonampak Murals: The Maya Paintings of War and Court Life
The best-preserved Classic Maya wall paintings, giving an unrivalled picture of royal ceremony, warfare and the treatment of captives.
Middle Ages
Viking Raid on Lindisfarne (793): Start of the Viking Age
Norse raiders plundered the monastery and killed or enslaved monks; the attack shocked Christian Europe and is the conventional start of the Viking Age.
Middle Ages
Heian-kyo: The Founding of Kyoto as Japan's Capital (794)
Heian-kyo became Japan's imperial capital for more than a thousand years, until 1869, and gave its name to the Heian period (794–1185).
Middle Ages
Papermaking in Abbasid Baghdad: How Paper Reached Islam
Paper replaced papyrus and parchment across the Islamic world, making books and documents cheaper and fuelling a boom in writing and learning.