Empires

The Tang Dynasty, which ruled China from 618 to 907 CE, is regarded by historians as one of the highest points of Chinese civilisation, a cosmopolitan golden age of poetry, art, trade, and religious diversity.

From a small principality in northwestern Anatolia, the Ottoman Empire grew to rule three continents for six centuries, controlling the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa at the height of its power.

Rome began as a small city on the Tiber and grew into an empire that ruled the entire Mediterranean world for five centuries, leaving behind a legacy in law, language, architecture, and governance that shapes the modern world.

At its peak, Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities on Earth, built on an island in Lake Texcoco and home to over 200,000 people in a civilisation of extraordinary complexity.

Perched at 2,430 metres in the Peruvian Andes, Machu Picchu was built by the Inca emperor Pachacuti around 1450 CE and abandoned less than a century later, remaining hidden from the outside world until 1911.

Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscure Corsican origins to dominate Europe, winning over 60 pitched battles and remaking the legal and political landscape of the continent before his final defeat in 1815.

The Kingdom of Kush ruled from the Nile's fourth cataract and at its height conquered Egypt itself, producing the 25th Pharaonic Dynasty.

At its zenith under Mansa Musa, the Mali Empire was the wealthiest kingdom on Earth, controlling the world's largest gold and salt trade.

Shaka kaSenzangakhona transformed a small Nguni clan into the most powerful military kingdom in southern Africa in less than a decade through revolutionary tactics.

Founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire became the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen, stretching from the Balkans to the Indus Valley.

The Mughal Empire ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for over three centuries, creating an extraordinary synthesis of Persian, Turkic, and Indian culture that produced the Taj Mahal.

At its peak in 1920, the British Empire covered a quarter of the world's land surface and governed a quarter of its population, becoming the largest empire in history and reshaping every continent it touched.