This illustrated history of the ancient world explores the great cultures, including Persia, Greece, Rome, Egypt, China and the Americas. A wide range of maps and site plans, together with artists' reconstructions. This family reference also includes a series of time charts summarizing main events and cultural achievements, providing at-a-glance information about these civilizations. The atlas sheds light on the cultures that created the pyramids at Giza, Stonehenge and the Acropolis. Author Margaret Oliphant revisits the nine great cultures - Mesopotamia and the Near East, Egypt, Persia, prehistoric Europe, Greece and the Aegean, the Roman world, India, China and the Americas - providing a history of the peoples and their achievements. The accounts describe the rise and fall of empires, the rulers who governed them, and the adventurers and archaeologists who later rediscovered their treasures. There are features on religion, coinage, human sacrifice, pottery, writing and warfare, giving a broad picture of the peoples of the past.