Middle Ages
Palatine Chapel of Aachen (c. 796-805): Charlemagne's Church
Charlemagne's palace church became his burial place, the coronation church of German kings for six centuries and Germany's first UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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
Empress Irene of Athens: Byzantium's First Woman Sole Ruler
Irene restored the veneration of icons and became the first woman to rule Byzantium alone, but was deposed in 802 and died in exile in 803.
Middle Ages
Book of Kells (c. 800): Ireland's Illuminated Gospel Book
The finest surviving Insular manuscript, it has been kept at Trinity College Dublin since the 1660s and is a symbol of Irish heritage.
Middle Ages
Coronation of Charlemagne (800): Emperor of the Romans
Charlemagne became the first emperor in the West since 476, creating a rival to Byzantium and the foundation of the later Holy Roman Empire.
Middle Ages
Ciudad Perdida: The Lost City of the Tayrona in Colombia
A major Tayrona settlement abandoned during the Spanish conquest; known to outsiders after 1972 and now protected as Teyuna Archaeological Park.
Middle Ages
El Tajin: Pyramid of the Niches and the Ballcourt City
A major Classic Veracruz city that declined around 1150–1230; its ruins became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.
Middle Ages
Classic Maya Collapse: Why the Southern Maya Cities Fell
Divine kingship ended in the southern lowlands, most large cities were abandoned and population fell sharply, while Maya society continued and shifted north.
Middle Ages
Koumbi Saleh: Archaeology of the Ghana Empire's Capital
Excavations revealed a large stone-built Muslim trading town, widely but not universally accepted as part of Ghana's capital.
Middle Ages
Swahili Coast City-States: Medieval Indian Ocean Trade Hubs
A chain of independent Muslim trading towns linked inland Africa to Arabia, India and China until Portuguese attacks after 1500 weakened them.
Middle Ages
Walls of Benin: The Great Earthworks of the Benin Kingdom
A network of earthworks, estimated at many thousands of kilometres, defined the communities of the Benin region and protected its capital until the British conquest of 1897.
Middle Ages
Frankish Capture of Barcelona (801) and the Spanish March
Barcelona passed from the Emirate of Córdoba to the Franks and became the leading county of the frontier zone later called the Spanish March.
Middle Ages
Abul-Abbas: Charlemagne's Elephant from Harun al-Rashid (802)
The elephant reached Charlemagne's court as a diplomatic gift and became a lasting symbol of contacts between the Frankish and Abbasid worlds.