Middle East

Mice Have Called Human Houses Home for 15,000 Years

Even before the dawn of agriculture, house mice plagued homes

Hundreds of Liquor Bottles, Downed by British Soldiers during WWI, Found in Israel

For nine months, the troops waited for orders to advance into Jerusalem. And while they waited, they drank

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre's Edicule, a shrine that encloses Jesus’ purported resting place

One of Christianity's Holiest Sites Gets Its Grand Unveiling

A team of 50 experts spent nine months cleaning and reinforcing the shrine that is believed to be above Jesus' tomb

"The Siege of Acre," Dominique Papety, c. 1840

Crusader Shipwreck, Likely From the Siege of Acre, Discovered

The boat in the Bay of Haifa included ceramics and a stash of gold coins

Celebrated Middle Eastern Food Writer Claudia Roden Shares Stories and Recipes From Her Kitchen

For Roden, food is a lens to understand history

CAMS results for November 28 to December 14 from 2010 to 2016. Each point is direction from which a meteor was measured to approach, with red showing faster meteors and blue slower ones.

Introducing the Global Effort to Map the Night Sky

How astronomers around the world are piecing together a patchwork quilt of celestial activity

An interior shot of Hagia Sophia. Its name means "Holy Wisdom" or "Sacred Wisdom."

You Can Hear Hagia Sophia’s Sublime Acoustics Without a Trip to Istanbul

Stanford scientists have digitally created the building’s unique sound, taking listeners back to the Middle Ages

An ancient grape seed found at the Lake Hula site

The Paleo Diet May Need a Rewrite, Ancient Humans Feasted on a Wide Variety of Plants

Archaeologists in Israel have counted 55 species of plant foods a an early hominid site on Lake Hula

Yasir Arafat Museum Opens in Ramallah

The three-story building tells the story of the controversial Palestinian leader and includes artifacts like his Nobel Prize and views of his bedroom

Cedar 7 at take-off

The Bizarre Tale of the Middle East’s First Space Program

In Lebanon, reminders of what could have been still stand

Lion’s Head
 Historic Syria, 9th–8th centuries BCE 
Ivory, carved


New Art Exhibition Celebrates 5,000 Years of Syria's History

Syria is more than just a refugee crisis

Scientists Virtually Peek Inside Ancient Biblical Charred Scrolls

A completely burned Biblical text is now readable

Were the Women of Petra More Important Than Men?

The Nabataeans worshipped powerful female deities and built lavish shrines in their honor

April 5, 2014, Maarat al-Numaan, Idlib. At the time I made this picture, the area was controlled by Jamal Marouf’s Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF), but was still contested by Syrian Government forces from their Wadi Deif and Hamadiyah bases about 2K away. SRF, which had recently displaced ISIS from the area, was itself displaced by Al Qaeda Affiliated Jabhat al Nusra (JAN) later in 2014. Wadi Deif and Hamadiyah bases were captured by Islamist rebels including JAN and Ahrar ash-Sham in December of 2014.

Photographer Nish Nalbandian on Bearing Witness to the Violence in the Syrian Civil War

In a new book, “A Whole World Blind,” the American photographer documents the tragedy in the Middle East

Why Syrian Bakers Are Still Making Bread in Spite of the Civil War

Bakers are going to great lengths to preserve a little bit of normalcy

Captive Bactrian deer at The Wilds, a conservation center in Cumberland, Ohio. Until recently, the deer was feared locally extinct in Afghanistan.

Rare Afghan Deer Endures Two Major Wars, Is Ultimate Survivor

Researchers feared the endangered ungulate had gone locally extinct. The Bactrian deer proved them wrong

Cute Sand Cat Spotted for the First Time in a Decade in the United Arab Emirates

Researchers set out to photograph the elusive cat to help create a conservation plan for the endangered feline

Rachel Kalisher, a member of the physical anthropology team, measures a 10th-9th century BC skeleton

New Dig Shows the Philistines Weren’t Such Philistines

A graveyard containing over 200 sets of remains is giving researchers their first deep look into the little-known biblical tribe

How Real-time Translation Apps and Online Tools Are Helping Refugees in Turkey Forge New Lives

Refugees and the technology of exile

UN Report Shows Refugee Numbers Have Hit a Historic High

More than 65 million people are now displaced from their homes due to extended wars and a lack of new solutions

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