World History Archive July 2013

Architectural slab of king nectanebo I. Thirtieth Dynasty, about 370 BC. This decorated slab is of a type used to create screen-walles between columns...

Ishtar Gates, Babylon plus details showing palms, lions and animals.

Detail from the Parthenon Frieze. Greek marble sculpture, made between 443-438 BC. The full frieze shows a narrative procession of men, women & horses...

The north coast of the Island of Hokkaido, Japan lies at the southern end of the Sea of Okhotsk. February 11, 2009. Satellite image.

A detailed, global natural color view of Saturn and its rings. Cassini.

Saturn embraced by the shadows of its stately rings. Cassini.

View of Saturn's rings as they surround the planet. Cassini.

From on high, the Cassini spacecraft spies a group of three ring moons in their travels around Saturn.

The Cassini spacecraft looks toward Rhea, Saturn's second-largest moon

Architectural slab of king nectanebo I. Thirtieth Dynasty, about 370 BC. This decorated slab is of a type used to create screen-walles between columns...

Ishtar Gates, Babylon plus details showing palms, lions and animals.

Mimas appears to hover above the colorful rings. Cassini.

The shadow of the moon Mimas has just slipped off Saturn's rings and onto the planet in this Cassini spacecraft image.

Saturn's moon Tethys casts a shadow on the planet's A ring alongside the larger shadow cast by the planet itself. Cassini.

A pair of Saturn's moons accompany the planet and its rings. Dione is in top left and Tethys is below. Cassini.

The Cassini spacecraft captured this natural color view of Saturn almost a month after the planet's August 2009 equinox. The shadow cast on the planet...

Architectural slab of king nectanebo I. Thirtieth Dynasty, about 370 BC. This decorated slab is of a type used to create screen-walles between columns...

Ishtar Gates, Babylon plus details showing palms, lions and animals.

Detail from the Parthenon Frieze. Greek marble sculpture, made between 443-438 BC. The full frieze shows a narrative procession of men, women & horses...

Early March eruptions of Karymsky volcano on Russias Kamchatka Peninsula. March 6, 2009. Satellite image.

Spokes, those ghostly radial markings on Saturn's B ring, appear bright compared to the rings in this image taken a little more than a month after the...

The large Penelope crater on Saturn's moon Tethys. Cassini.

Saturn's shadow interrupts the planet's rings, leaving just thin slivers of the rings visible in this image, which shows a pair of the planet's small...

Rhea emerges after being occulted by the larger moon Titan. Cassini.

Rhea's trailing hemisphere shows off its wispy terrain on the left of this image which includes Saturn's rings in the distance. Cassini.

Limestone tombstone for Maximilla Bassi. Tunisia, Punic, 2nd-3rd century AD from Carthage. This finely carved monument was set up in memory of a woman...

Ishtar Gates, Babylon plus details showing palms, lions and animals.

Detail from the Parthenon Frieze. Greek marble sculpture, made between 443-438 BC. The full frieze shows a narrative procession of men, women & horses...

Saturn's small moon Prometheus. Cassini.

The Cassini spacecraft examines the rough dark-light dichotomy of the terrain on Saturn's moon Iapetus.

Dione's shadow is elongated as it is cast onto the round shape of Saturn. Cassini.

Saturn's moon Mimas. The large Herschel Crater dominates Mimas. Cassini.

Sunlight scattering through the periphery of Titan's atmosphere reaches Cassini as the spacecraft's camera is pointed at the dark side of the moon.

Limestone tombstone for Maximilla Bassi. Tunisia, Punic, 2nd-3rd century AD from Carthage. This finely carved monument was set up in memory of a woman...

Ishtar Gates, Babylon plus details showing palms, lions and animals.

The oldest material on Earth which has yet been dated by man is a zircon mineral of 4.4 billion years old from a sedimentary gneiss in the Jack Hills...

Shadows seem ubiquitous in this Cassini spacecraft view of Saturn's rings captured shortly after the planet's August 2009 equinox.

Saturn's moon Enceladus brightly reflects sunlight before a backdrop of the planet's rings and the rings' shadows cast onto the planet. Cassini.

Shadows cast by Saturn's rings darken the southern hemisphere of the planet and give a truncated appearance to the bottom of this Cassini spacecraft i...

Two moons, Rhea and Dione, join the planet and its rings in this view from the Cassini spacecraft.

The Cassini spacecraft observes three of Saturn's moons set against the darkened night side of the planet. Rhea, Enceladus and Dione.

Ishtar Gates, Babylon plus details showing palms, lions and animals.

Saturn's small moon Prometheus appears embedded within the planet's rings near the center of this Cassini spacecraft view while the larger moon Mimas...

The Cassini spacecraft takes one of its last good looks at Iapetus, a Saturnian moon.

The Cassini spacecraft looks toward Saturn's tiny moon Aegaeon within the G-ring arc.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft chronicles the change of seasons as it captures clouds concentrated near the equator of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

A huge arrow-shaped storm blows across the equatorial region of Titan in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, chronicling the seasonal weather c...

Marble figurine of a woman (Plastiras type) Cycladic (grotta-pelos culture)3000-2800 BC. Said to be from Grave 'D' of the Kapros cemetery, Amorgos. Th...

Ishtar Gates, Babylon plus details showing palms, lions and animals.

Detail from the Parthenon Frieze. Greek marble sculpture, made between 443-438 BC. The full frieze shows a narrative procession of men, women & horses...