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	Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde, in Colorado. image file name: AHA009.jpg Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde, in Colorado. About 1400 years ago a group of stone-age peoples, named "Anasazi" or "the Ancient Enemies" by the Navajos who came after them, settled in Mesa Verde and other plateau and canyon areas in the Southwest. Formerly a nomadic people, they built great masonry and stone towns, hunted small game, and cultivated crops of corn, beans and squash. For 700 years, roughly the 7th through the 14th centuries, they flourished in three regional centers: the Kayenta (Arizona); the Chaco (New Mexico) and the Mesa Verde (Colorado). These settlements were loosely linked by a network of roads, showing the importance of trade in their economy. Cliff Palace is the largest Anasazi cliff dwelling in North America.
	Kush Pyramids. image file name: WHA011.jpg The stone pyramids of Kush at Merowe in the Sudan. The kingdom of Kush arose along the Nile in northeastern Sudan in the early 2nd millennium B.C., lasting until about 350 A.D. Kush was a commercial and cultural center linking Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations with African civilizations to the south. Kush conquered Egypt in the mid-8th century B.C., before the Assyrians gained control. With the rise of Axum in the 4th century A.D., the power of Kush was eclipsed.
	Map, Italian city-states in the Renaissance. image file name: WCF001.jpg A map of the Italian city-states in the Renaissance, 1494. While northern Europe and southern Italy maintained the feudal system, the Italian city-states had achieved individual autonomy. By 1494 many of the smaller city-states had come under the control of more powerful ones. This map shows the most notable examples. The political independence of the city-states made possible the dynamic commercial activity that supported the Italians’ great interest in reviving their Roman heritage, which was the essence of the Age of the Italian Renaissance.
	A steamboat race on the Mississippi river. image file name: AHD041.jpg A steamboat race on the Mississippi river. Steam power continued to be an important component of an inland transportation network tied into the Mississippi system. The number of steamboats in service continued to grow throughout the 1830s and 1840s. Between 1811 and 1880, nearly 6,000 steamboats were built on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; in St. Louis, 3,184 steamboat arrivals were recorded in 1852. Painting by George F. Fuller, lithograph by A. Weingartner (New York, 1859).
	Torii, Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima Island. image file name: WHN004.jpg A Torii at the Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island. The Japanese indigenous religion is called Shinto, or "the way of the gods." These gods or spirits are known as Kami. It is a religion based on nature worship and reverence for all spiritual things of power and beauty, with great stress on cleanliness and purification. Shown here is a Torii or gateway of crossed pillars such as are found near all Shinto shrines and sacred places.
	Henry VIII of England (1491-1547). image file name: AHA157.jpg Henry VIII of England (1491-1547) brought the Reformation to England for political and dynastic, rather than religious, reasons. Before 1527 England had sought alliance with Spain through Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, but the alliance with Spain seemed to help Spanish monarch Charles I's domination of Europe and the Americas, with little reward to Henry and England. Infatuated with Anne Boleyn, Henry in 1527 began questioning the legality of his marriage to Catherine and the legitimacy of her only child, Mary. He appealed to Pope Clement VII for an annulment, which was refused. In 1533, Henry secretly married the now pregnant Anne, and declared himself, rather than the pope, head of the Church of England. This portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger shows him in 1540 at age 49.
	The original atomic pile. image file name: AHI027.jpg The original atomic pile. The Manhattan Project involved scientists from around the world, but some of the most important early experiments took place in a secret laboratory under the football stands at the University of Chicago. This is a sketch of the original atomic pile constructed there in 1942, illustrating the dramatic moment when the last control rod was withdrawn, and a self-sustaining atomic reaction was found to be possible.
	Emperor Babur (1483-1530), founder Mughal dynasty. image file name: WHU037.jpg Emperor Babur (1483-1530), the founder of the great Mughal dynasty, was descended from both Genghis Khan and Timur. At the age of twelve, he became the ruler of Farghana, a small principality in present-day Soviet Central Asia. In 1504, Babur captured the important Afghan stronghold of Kabul and began to move toward India, which he entered in 1524. Two years later, he defeated the Sultan of Delhi at the decisive battle of Panipat, and in 1527 he defeated the powerful Rajput coalition led by Rana Sanga. Babur’s victories were partially due to his use of artillery and match-fired muskets of European manufacture. He died in 1530 before he could consolidate his conquests, but his conquest and retention of India was itself a great achievement. Babur was also a poet of distinction; his prose memoirs, the Babur Nameh, have been translated from Turkic into Persian and English, and are considered a masterpiece by many critics.
	The palace of Minos at Knossos, Crete. image file name: WCB003.jpg The portico over the north entrance of the palace of Minos at Knossos, Crete. An ancient city on the island of Crete, Knossos was the economic and political center of the Minoan civilization during the Bronze Age, ca. 1950-1450 B.C. This palace of the legendary King Minos, built around 2000 B.C. and rebuilt in 1700 B.C., includes a throne room, a ceremonial or theater area, a central court with adjoining state apartments, and warehouses for oil, wine, and other food. Palaces such as this one were the center of an urban civilization based on maritime trade and manufacturing, and were not merely the residences of powerful kings.

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