Exhibits

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.

The Maya civilisation of Mesoamerica developed one of the most sophisticated writing systems in the ancient world, an astonishingly accurate astronomical calendar, and cities that endured for over two thousand years.

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.

Between 1810 and 1826, Simon Bolivar led one of the most ambitious military campaigns in history, liberating six countries from Spanish colonial rule and dreaming of a unified South American republic.

On 14 October 1066, William the Conqueror defeated King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, changing the English language, legal system, and culture forever.

Between 1347 and 1351, the bubonic plague killed between one third and one half of Europe's entire population, destroying the old social order and inadvertently paving the way for a new world.

Flourishing in the city-states of 14th to 17th century Italy, the Renaissance produced Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, and a transformation in how humanity understood itself and the natural world.

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 Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was the only successful large-scale slave revolt in history, producing the world's first Black republic and the first nation born of a slave rebellion.

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.

Great Zimbabwe was a medieval stone city that served as the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe between the 11th and 15th centuries, the largest ancient structure in sub-Saharan Africa.