SYMHC Classics: The Nazca Lines

When Madame Bovary was written in the 1850s, it fell under the accusing eye of the French government for its perceived immorality. Flaubert recognized that the trial would only stoke interest, and that it would set the tone for his career. Research: Barzun, Jacques. “Gustave Flau ...  Show more

Journalist and writer Elizabeth Bisland was sent on a trip around the world in 1889, in a sort of race against Nellie Bly. But that was not something she wanted to be known for. Research: Bisland, Elisabeth. “At the Sign of the Hobby Horse.” Houghton, Mifflin and Co. Riverside Pr ...  Show more

Carved into the Peruvian landscape over a millennia ago, the Nazca lines are some of the most famed, and ancient, geoglyphs in the world. When viewed from above they create astonishing, detailed images of animals that were sacred to the Nazca people. But despite being some of ...

Les géoglyphes de Nazca, appelés communément lignes de Nazca, sont de grandes figures tracées sur le sol, souvent d'animaux stylisés, parfois de simples lignes longues de plusieurs kilomètres, visibles dans le désert de Nazca au sud du Pérou. Le sol sur lequel se dessinent ces gé ...  Show more

The arid shoreline between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific seems like an unlikely place to host one of the world's earliest complex societies. But more than 5,000 years ago, the people of the Norte Chico Culture built cities, temples, and monuments that laid the foundation ...

While Mesopotamia and even the Indus Valley get the lion's share of the attention, sophisticated and long-lasting societies inhabited the lands fringing the Caspian Sea for thousands of years. The people of the Kura-Araxes Culture, the Oxus Civilization, and Elam left their ma ...