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.
Region
Europe
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
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
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.
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
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.
Middle Ages
Hedeby: Viking Trading Town and the Danevirke (804)
Hedeby became the largest trading centre of Viking Age Scandinavia before its destruction in the 11th century; with the Danevirke it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Middle Ages
Battle of Pliska (811): Khan Krum Destroys a Byzantine Army
Decisive Bulgarian victory; Emperor Nikephoros I was killed and much of his army destroyed.
Middle Ages
Plan of Saint Gall (c. 820): A Carolingian Ideal Monastery
A detailed parchment plan of an ideal Benedictine monastery survived; it is the only major architectural drawing to survive from the early Middle Ages.