There are over 3,000 species of lichen in Iran, with 500 to 700 varieties making ancient monuments their home. Some of the species at Persepolis were more than 1,700 years old.

Conservationists at Persepolis, Iran's most iconic ancient site, are waging a delicate battle against an unlikely adversary: tiny but persistent lichens eroding the millennia-old monuments. The fight, ...

Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Monuments Nearly 2,000 years ago, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus — better known as Claudius — ascended the throne as the emperor of ancient Rome.

Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Monuments Nearly 2,000 years ago, Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus — better known as Claudius — ascended the throne as the emperor of ancient Rome.

And yet it is one of Iran’s most treasured antiquities. The cuneiform script that covers its surface recounts the capture of Babylon, in modern-day Iraq, by Cyrus the Great, a Persian emperor.

History Unlike Us, Ancient Societies Knew What to Do With Their Outdated Monuments Smashing. Scrubbing. Symbolic humiliation. How Romans, Sumerians, and Egyptians handled the old-statue problem.

For the people protesting against it, a new dam near these sun-drenched ruins may be more than an environmental upheaval: In it they detect an affront to the country's pre-Islamic identity.