ATLAS / WORLD HISTORY IN PICTURES

The reading room

Find your way through history.

Explore 279 entries across places and centuries. Follow an event, compare its context, and examine the evidence.

Jump to the pictures and stories ↓

2 entries · Oldest periods first

Back to filters ↑
650–1300 CEIn-depth study
The Kedukan Bukit inscription, dated to 682, photographed in a National Museum of Indonesia display. The catalogue description and camera date disagree, so no photograph year is asserted here.
Picture source & rightsGunawan Kartapranata / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP; derivative under the same licence · Licence terms

Asia / Trade

Srivijaya: rivers, seaways and Buddhist learning in early Indonesia

Early Indonesian history was shaped by river communities, ports and religious journeys. Srivijaya connected southern Sumatra to wider Asian exchange without resembling a modern nation with fixed borders.

Read →
1000–1300 CEIn-depth study
Sulamani Temple and the Bagan landscape, photographed on 20 November 2008. A modern view of surviving architecture, not a reconstruction of medieval Bagan.
Picture source & rightsVyacheslav Argenberg / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP · Licence terms

Asia / Faith

Bagan: Buddhism, patronage and a living landscape in Myanmar

Bagan’s temples open a history of religious giving, political authority and artistic work beside the Ayeyarwady River. Myanmar’s past extends far beyond its modern conflicts.

Read →