Wonders of the World

In 1204, Christian crusaders sacked the world's largest Christian city, destroying or pillaging countless artifacts, books, and works of art. Some of those works of art ended up in the Most Serene Republic of Venice, for which 1204 represents the beginning of her dominance of the Mediterranean world. The story of how a canal-lined city in a marshy lagoon became a superpower and how cross-wearing s...

The abbey on the lonely island rises from the tidal bay like a castle out of a Disney movie. Mont-Saint-Michel is one of France's best known sites, with a history to match. Some of that history connects with the story of one of medieval Europe's most renowned women: Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Married first to King Louis of France and then King Henry of England, she and her family would both reach incr...

A quick break from the wonders narratives to answer many questions about Drew, the show, the wonders, food, travel and more!  Find out which wonders missed the list, why there won't be a WotW cookbook, and why Drew has issues with "synergy" and "win-win" scenarios. Plus a new Demetrios Poliorcetes!

The greatest of squares throbs with life: the scent of spiced, roasted meat, the cacophony of voices and drums, the visual rainbow of color. The Djemaa el-Fna is everything and more. Its history reflects the great medieval golden age of Morocco under the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties, a golden age for prosperity but not necessarily for culture. Both dynasties began as fundamentalists determined...

The Cambodian jungle hides one of the world's largest pre-industrial cities: Angkor. Highlighted by its magnificent main temple, Angkor Wat, the city's other monuments testify to the prosperity of the Khmer empire. Those other monuments, many still semi-ruined by the jungle, make for even more compelling travel than Angkor Wat itself. From Suryavarman's exploits in battle to Jayavarman VII's count...

Perhaps America's most famous landscape, Monument Valley and its fantastically shaped red-streaked buttes have starred in countless films and television shows. But its story truly hearkens to the people who have lived here for centuries: the Navajo, and before them, the Ancestral Puebloans. In this episode, we'll discuss how the Ancestral Puebloans rose and then collapsed, victims of social breakd...

At the southern end of Arabia, Yemen was once rich from trade and frankincense.  By the 11th century, it had fallen off the map, but two strong queens led it back to prosperity, particularly Arwa Al-Sulayhi, whose reign did more for Yemen than 350 years of men who followed. There's assassins, executions, heads on pikes. Among Arwa's accomplishments was refurbishing the Great Mosque of Sana'a, Yeme...

THIS EPISODE CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT. A group of temples sits in the hills of central India, stunningly studded with sculptures. Built by the Chandela dynasty, they are remarkably well preserved testaments to medieval power, but they are best known for their many erotic images. Anirudh Kanisetti of the Echoes of India podcast returns to discuss the Chandelas, their connection with tantra, their...

It's the world's greatest comic strip. The Bayeux Tapestry, technically an embroidery, documents the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest. We explore this cheeky document and tell its tale: the story of 1066, that most crucial year in English history. It's the tale of Edward the Confessor, powerful earl Harold Godwinson, one-man military machine Harald Hardrada, and...

It's our bonus holiday episode! Nestled in the mountains along the border of North Macedonia and Albania sits Lake Ohrid, a deep, blue lake as old as time. On its shores, in the town of Ohrid, Samuel, tsar of the First Bulgarian Empire, directed his kingdom's last hurrah against the mighty Roman Empire to his east. His opponent: Basil II, known now as the "Bulgar-Slayer."  I guess you can figure o...

THIRD ANNIVERSARY BONUS EPISODE! People often ask me where they should go when they visit the US. Having been to all 50 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico, which should be states), I can actually answer this. And in this not-at-all-serious episode, I try to answer that question. Being a nerd, I created a spreadsheet and complex formula tanking each state in terms of natural scenery, historical sites,...

Europe and North America are drifting apart, and where the plates diverge, an underwater volcanic mountain range has formed.  It peeps above the ocean in several spots, the largest and most magnificent of which is Iceland.  Iceland's underground magma and mountaintop glaciers have conspired to create a wonderland of fire and ice, the perfect setting for the development of a remarkable medieval cul...

Carved by glaciers during the Ice Age, Norway's more than 1100 fjords are spectacular. The sea enters narrow valleys with high cliffs laced with waterfalls. This rugged seacoast nurtured ancient Norway and its ruthless seafaring raiders: the Vikings. The Vikings came out of the north like a thunderbolt to ravage the coastlines of Europe, but the people of medieval Scandinavia were so much more tha...

You've seen the Pyramid on countless tourism brochures, but what do you really know about the Mayan city of Chichén Itzá and it's magnificent pyramid? Did you know it's built over a cenote, a natural water-filled sinkhole? Have you heard the legend of the Toltec king from Central Mexico who might have conquered the city in 987? To help explore the answers, Robert Bitto from the Mexico Unexplained...

Sometimes a wonder which no longer exists is worth an episode. In the 9th century, the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad created the Bayt al-Hikma, the House of Wisdom, a great library which served as the starting point for a remarkable intellectual program. There, hundreds of scribes translated as many Greek, Persian, Indian and other documents that they could, and these widespread translations fueled n...

Nestled in the hills of north central Morocco, Fès' ancient walled medina is a labyrinth of narrow alleys, passages, lanes and souks: the world's largest car-free urban space.  Founded by Idris, an Arab refugee-turned-Moroccan king, Fès also claims the world's oldest university, built by Fatima al-Fihri, herself a refugee from Tunisia. There's no specific wonder here other than the medina, and tha...

On the western fringe of Germany, near the Dutch and Belgian borders, sits Aachen, favored city of Charles the Great, or Charlemagne. He was King of the Franks in the late 8th and early 9th centuries, and through conquest and economic success, he unified much of Western Europe. Crowned Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day, 800, he could be considered the father of Europe. Or he might just have b...

In the soft volcanic rock of Cappadocia, eroded by wind and water into fantastic shapes, ancient peoples carved dwelling places.  By the Byzantine era, locals created vast underground refuges: places to hide from raiders and foreign armies.  They painted murals on rock-cut churches, exemplars of medieval Roman religious art. In the 8th century, this art, both here and around the empire, became the...

The eighth century's greatest adventure story.  Abd al-Rahman, low-ranking Umayyad prince, finds himself the only male member of his family to survive a massacre at the hands of the Abbasid rebels.  He escapes through many adventures to the Maghreb (present-day Morocco) where he decides to try his luck in Spain, or as it was called then: Al-Andalus.  More adventures await him there before he event...

On April 15, 2019, a fire started in Notre-Dame de Paris and caused significant damage.  In its honor, here is a bonus episode on the great cathedral. We know that Notre Dame will survive this calamity, because it has survived other calamities before.  From Baroque refacing to revolutionary desecrations, Notre Dame had become an absolute wreck. Then Victor Hugo's novel started a restoration moveme...

On the coast of Northern Ireland lies a remarkable feature: a field of more than 40,000 interlocking hexagonal columns, leading down into the sea. To the ancient Irish, the basalt columns -- the result of a long ago volcanic eruption -- seemed like the foundations of a bridge made for giants. And so they are still called the Giant's Causeway to this day. On this abnormally long episode, we discuss...

While the Silk Road gets the fame, and the catchy nickname, the Indian Ocean maritime trade moved far more goods over a longer period of time.  That trade, combined with its own unique products, made Indonesia and its first great kingdoms possible.  The result were Indian-influenced trading empires and regional behemoths capable of creating the world's largest Buddhist monument on the island of Ja...

Early medieval India saw the rise of an empire based in the Deccan plateau: the Rashtrakutas.  Despite their significant power and influence, their story is little-known and under-appreciated.  From their most remarkable king, Amoghavarsha the author, to their architectural masterpiece at the caves of Ellora, we will remedy this shocking omission. The Kailashanatha Temple, carved from the Deccan r...

We return to the land of the Maya, to visit their most stunning artistic achievement. The stelae of Copán, many constructed to honor Waxaklajuun Ubaad Kawiil, 13th king of the city, are remarkably intricate, humanist yet fantastic. His reign marked the highest point and also the lowest, as within decades of his untimely death, Copán and the other Classic Mayan cities would be abandoned. Or were th...

After the Muslims exploded onto the scene in the 7th century, they learned that anyone can take a empire, but holding an empire is another matter entirely.  We go to Syria, where Damascus served as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate.  The Umayyads were the family who eventually took control following the turmoil of finding successors to Muhammad. Ali A Olomi, historian and host of Head on Histor...