Ancient World
Aryabhata and the Aryabhatiya (AD 499): Indian Astronomy
A concise Sanskrit treatise that shaped Indian mathematics and astronomy for a thousand years and reached the Islamic world.
Region
Asia
Middle Ages
Hagia Sophia (532-537): Building Justinian's Great Church
Justinian's Hagia Sophia, dedicated in 537, became the cathedral of Constantinople and the largest domed interior of its age, serving as a church until 1453.
Middle Ages
Silkworm Smuggling (c. 552): How Byzantium Got the Secret of Silk
Silkworms reached the Byzantine Empire, allowing local silk production that slowly reduced dependence on imports through Persia.
Middle Ages
Chang'an: The Tang Capital and Greatest City of Its Age
A walled grid city of about 84 square km that served as the capital of the Sui and Tang and, at its height, was probably the largest city in the world.
Middle Ages
Sui Dynasty Reunification of China (589): End of Division
The Sui captured the Chen capital Jiankang and its last ruler, reuniting northern and southern China under one dynasty for the first time since the early 4th century.
Middle Ages
Zhaozhou Bridge: The World's Oldest Open-Spandrel Stone Arch
A segmental stone arch of about 37 m span with open spandrels, still standing after more than 1,400 years.
Middle Ages
Prince Shotoku's Seventeen-Article Constitution (604)
A set of moral instructions for court officials that promoted harmony, Buddhism and loyalty to the sovereign, and became a founding text of Japanese political tradition.
Middle Ages
Imperial Examination System: China's Civil Service Exams (605)
Written examinations became the main route into the Chinese civil service for some 1,300 years and influenced Korea, Vietnam and Western civil service reform.
Middle Ages
Grand Canal of China: Emperor Yang's Great Waterway (605)
A connected inland waterway of roughly 2,000 to 2,700 km linked the Yangtze and Yellow River basins, carrying southern grain north for the next thousand years.
Middle Ages
Harsha's Empire (606–647): Kanauj and the Last Northern Kingdom
Harsha built a loose but extensive overlordship across northern India, which broke apart after his death without an heir in 647.
Middle Ages
Horyu-ji: The World's Oldest Wooden Buildings in Nara (607)
A Buddhist temple whose Golden Hall and five-storey pagoda are the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world, listed by UNESCO in 1993.
Middle Ages
Battle of Salsu (612): Eulji Mundeok Defeats the Sui Army
Decisive Goguryeo victory; according to the Book of Sui only 2,700 of a 305,000-strong Sui expeditionary force returned, and the 612 invasion was abandoned.