Midyat, Turkey (AFP) -- Through a basement door in southeastern Turkiye lies a sprawling underground city -- perhaps the country's largest -- which one historian believes dates back to the ninth century before Jesus Christ.
Some might suggest that a doorstopper about "the influence of the horse on human history" couldn't possibly be interesting. Neigh, say I. Neigh. In fact, Timothy C. Winegard's "The Horse" is fascinating, offering a fresh perspective on how crucial horses were in human development. And it almost didn't happen.
The record for writing the maximum number of Bible chapters in the Syriac language was set by Aneesh P.K. (born on February 17, 1996) of Alappuzha, Kerala. He wrote Psalm verses of 117 chapters of the holy Bible (from chapters 1 to 117) in Syriac language using Serto Syriac font on a single A4 sheet, as confirmed on June 5, 2024.
It is, says Linda Güven, a colorful community. "Secularly colorful," she stresses. The 35-year-old teacher belongs to the Syrian Orthodox church congregation "Mor Petrus and Mor Paulus" in Bietigheim-Bissingen, a town in Baden-Württemberg, about 20 kilometres north of Stuttgart. The congregation was able to inaugurate an impressive church building in 2019.
Amman and its surroundings were a main centre of the Ammonite Kingdom and some of their structures can be found on the Amman Citadel, in Abdoun and Bayader Wadi Sir, on the western outskirt of the capital. The Iron Age was characterised by the power struggle between Egyptian dynasties and Mesopotamian kingdoms who fought over the control of modern-day Jordan.
Within the magnificent stone halls of the Neo-Assyrian Empire's court in the 7th century BC, the name of the scribe Ahikar was synonymous with integrity. A royal advisor and chronicler who served under kings such as Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, Ahikar was mandated to record important matters of the state, and provide his lords with wise counsel they could use to better serve the ends of the Empire.