Explorers of the Ancient World

This is an interesting map depicting the routes followed by the most renowned explorers of the Ancient World.

Phoenician, Greek, Punic, Egyptian, Persian and other ‘pathfinders’ or

Constructional plan of Persepolis’ palaces area

A constructional plan of Persepolis’ palaces area. Persepolis was one of the four capital cities of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
Also a modern restoration of a

Post-Hittite “Little empires” in Asia Minor: Phrygia and Lydia

These are some political maps of the Phrygian and Lydian kingdoms at their greatest extent in the 8^th and 6^th centuries BC respectively. These two kdms were a kind of “Little empires” of the Anatolian Iron Age that appeared some centuries after the fall of the main Bronze Age empire of Asia Minor that is the Hittite Empire (the last map). The Phrygians were actually invaders from the Balkan Peninsula, kinsmen of the Thracians, the Greeks and possibly the Homeric Trojans. In the Balkans they were known as ‘Brygae’. They were actually a group of tribes, one of which was probably the Proto-Armenians. The main body of the Phrygians settled in an area that included the old Hittite heartland. Gordion and Midas city were their capital cities, and their main sanctuary was at Pessinus.

TURANIC ARMS AND ARMOUR (part II)

Full armor of rider and horse of an Ottoman qapikulu (heavy cavalryman of the “court slaves”, similar to the Mamluks). He also has a metal kalkan shield (Museo Stibbert Florence).

TURANIC ARMS AND ARMOUR (part I)

An Ottoman full armor of rider and horse (Museum of Islamic Art, Doha Port Doha, Qatar.).

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By Periklis Deligiannis
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In the following images, I present an indicative collection of arms and armour of the Turanic empires and peoples of the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era (according to European chronology) which witnessed the greatest extent of the Turanic realms. They are arms and armour for men and horses, coming from the Sultanate of Delhi, the Mughal Empire in India, the Tatars of the Golden Horde, the Ottoman Empire, the Mamluk Sultanate, the Turkoman-controlled Empires of Iran, the Central Asian Turanic tribes and elsewhere.
The images are taken from museums and organizations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Furusiyya Art Foundation, Topkapi Palace Museum (Constantinople), Museum of Kulikovo Battlefield (representations by M. Gorelik whom I sincerely congratulate for his lifetime work), Museo Stibbert in Florence, Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, the Royal Academy of Arts (London) and others. If I do not know the museum of origin of an image, I mention that in its caption.