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FROM THE EDITOR
This is not the gun that

killed Grigory Rasputin, but it does look
a lot like one believed to be involved in his
murder. At least two others were fired on a dark
December night in 1916 when he died. Today, the
whereabouts of all three firearms are a mystery, as is
the truth about what happened that cold winter night.
The best known account of Rasputin’s death comes from

one of his murderers, Prince Felix Yusupov. It’s a fantastic
tale, depicting Rasputin as impervious to cyanide, bullets, and
beatings. In 1983 Ukrainian American actor Jack Palance dressed
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as the Russian prince and delivered Yusupov’s account during an
episode of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! In his signature raspy voice,
Palance made Yusupov’s story seem like the absolute truth. I was
ready to believe it.
But now I am not. Yusupov’s writing has an undeniable flair for

the dramatic, which makes him a very entertaining but terribly
unreliable narrator. Another complication: Many documents,
including the official autopsy, went missing in the chaos of the
Russian Revolution and its aftermath. Corroborating Yusupov’s
fantastic narrative has become difficult, if not impossible.
Incomplete records, missing documents, and flawed testimonies:

Historians run into these problems all the time and must do
the painstaking work of filling in the gaps as best they can. But
sometimes those gaps just can’t be filled definitively.
And we must choose to believe it, or not.
Amy E. Briggs, Editor in Chief

D I S C OV E R N E W R E V E L AT I O N S
A B O U T O U R P R E H I S TO R I C PA S T
Join Berger on the adventure of a lifetime

as he explores the Rising Star cave system
and
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telegram the complicated
ya WhatsApp process of
This number 8890050582)
explaining these extraordinary finds—finds

that force a rethinking of human evolution,
and discoveries that Berger calls the
“Rosetta stone of the human mind.”
AVA I L A B L E W H E R E V E R B O O K S A R E S O L D
NatGeoBooks @NatGeoBooks © 2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC

EDITOR IN CHIEF AMY E. BRIGGS
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GRIGORY RASPUTIN IN AN UNDATED CAROLINE BRAUN, MARC BRIAN DUCKETT, EMILY SHENK FLORY, SARAH PRESANT-COLLINS,
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Please recycle.
VOL. 9 NO. 6
FALLEN GLORY
Photographed before ISIS
destroyed it in 2015, Palmyra’s
monumental arch was built
during the oasis city’s third-
century a.d. heyday.
Features Departments
6 NEWS
20 The World’s Oldest Papyrus
Stashes of papyri found near the Red Sea in 2013 were written around Found in China, the oldest saddle yet
2500 b.c. The author, Merer, was an Egyptian foreman who detailed his discovered overturns assumptions
daily tasks as part of the team who built of the Great Pyramid of Giza. about who was doing the riding: Its owner
was not a male soldier, but a female herder.
34 The “Gaul” to Attack Rome 8 PROFILES

The rich Roman Republic was ripe for invasion in 387 b.c., when Gallic Dr. Charles Drew earned the
warlord Brennus pillaged Rome and was paid in gold to leave. Rome’s greatest nickname “Father of the Blood Bank”
days lay ahead—but it would always fear the barbarians at its gates. by saving many lives during World War II
through his pioneering work in hematology.
46 Palmyra, Cosmopolitan Capital 12 DAILY LIFE
A lush Syrian oasis, Palmyra grew wealthy around the first century b.c. In the 1800s leech mania almost
A robust trade in spices and silk gave birth to a rich culture with diverse drove the creatures to extinction,
influences from Mesopotamia to Rome.
as they were touted all over Europe as a
miracle cure for scores of sicknesses.
60 Spying for the Union
16 MILESTONES
After the Civil War erupted, Harriet Tubman
joined the Union army, employed first as a nurse Swedish balloonist S.A. Andrée tried to
and cook but then as a raider and a spy. fly over the North Pole, only to vanish
in 1897. Found decades later, his diary reveals
the dark tale of his expedition’s end.
74 Rasputin Must Die
Revered by the tsarina and reviled by 90 DISCOVERIES
the nobles, Rasputin failed to see the An ancient Assyrian capital, Assur was
murderous forces swirling around often overlooked by scholars until the
him in December 1916. early 1900s, when archaeologist Walter
Andrae revealed the splendor of its remains.
Harriet Tubman, ca 1868
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Buried with aThis
saddle
PDFand
wasriding clothes,
uploade To Telegram channel_https://t.me/Magzines_latest_Newspaper(send Me Message telegram ya WhatsApp This number 8890050582)
a female skeleton found in a grave at
the Yanghai cemetery likely lived as a
herdswoman some 2,700 years ago.
PATRICK WERTMANN
TRAILBLAZING SADDLES
Ob
R U S S I A
A
LT
AY
Pazyryk
burial
mounds Ancient Chinese Saddle
Surprises Archaeologists
M MONGOLIA
KAZ. OU
NT
AI
NS
Turpan A horsewoman’s leather saddle, buried in China thousands of years ago,

Tar
im C H I N A overturns assumptions that horseback riding was only for military men.
A
s early as 2,700 between 700 and 400 b.c., this organic components often de-
THE SADDLE was found
years ago, a herds- saddle, the oldest yet found, cay. Other kinds of horse gear,
in a burial at the Iron
Age Yanghai cemetery woman who lived challenges assumptions about such as bridles and bits, are
located in the Turpan in the arid stretch- who was using such gear, and more commonly found, but
district of Xinjiang, es of northwest China was for what purpose. they do not necessarily indi-
in an arid zone of buried in a coat made of ani- The find was “a surprise,” cate saddle usage.
northwestern China. mal hides, woolen pants, and according to Patrick Wert- Until the Yanghai find, the
The Yanghai were a leather boots. Dressed to ride, mann of the University of oldest known saddles be-
sedentary people who
she was also buried with her Zurich, lead author of a study longed to the Pazyryk culture,
used horses to herd
sheep and goats. leather saddle. of the saddle, published in centered on the Altay area of
NG MAPS Found in the Yanghai ceme- Archaeological Research in Asia. Kazakhstan and Russia to the
tery near Turpan and dated to Saddle finds are rare, as their north of Yanghai and Turpan.
6 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
NEWS
SCULPTURES WITH
SADDLES AND STIRRUPS
HORSES AND RIDERS are popular subjects in ancient
Chinese art. Two of the oldest are bronze horses
from 1191–1148 b.c., wearing simple mats rather
than saddles. A bronze mirror dating from 770 to
256 b.c. features a decorative rider on a horse with
a saddle similar to the one found at Yanghai. The
saddles on the famous Qin dynasty terra-cotta
cavalry horses (246 to 208 b.c.) are more sophis-
ticated, resembling Scythian design. Perhaps the
most famous—and colorful—are the figurines
made during the Tang dynasty
(a.d. 618-907). By this
time, saddle blankets
and stirrups often
appear, as shown in
this image.
HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY
The saddle found at Yanghai is made from leather and stuffed with
straw and animal hair. It was a well-crafted, but inexpensive, item used
by everyday herders in the region.
PATRICK WERTMANN
Although the Pazyryk sad- climate, the Yanghai saddle

dles have been indirectly dat- offers rich insights into early
ed to the fifth century b.c., horse-riding technology and
Wertmann considers that the the society that created it. Its
Pazyryk culture had pioneered two wing-shaped hides, filled
saddle use centuries earlier. with a mixture of straw, deer the younger finds from the before the saddle emerged,
“Horse riding was probably hair, and camel hair, were sewn elite Scythian burials, this ear- horse riders rode bareback or
introduced to northwest Chi- together along the outer edg- ly saddle was made from in- sat on mats or blankets.
na from the [Pazyryk] region, es and separated by a section expensive materials and used The Yanghai saddle also
and it’s possible that saddles without stuffing (known as by a common woman,” Wert- shakes assumptions that
also arrived that way,” he told the gullet), which eased the mann’s study notes. “Yet it is horse-riding saddles were
History. However, until such pressure on the horse’s spine. testimony to the same mas- used solely by men for mili-
earlier specimens are found The emergence of such de- tery of craftsmanship.” tary purposes.“The discovery
(or the fifth-century b.c. sad- signs reveals “the increasing When people began to ride of this saddle inside the tomb
dles are redated and found to care about the comfort and horses and when they began to of a woman suggests that
be older), the Yanghai saddle safety of the rider, and the use saddles are much debat- women participated in the
is considered to be the world’s health of the horse,”said Wert- ed topics. One study suggests everyday activities of mounted
oldest yet recovered. mann. Greater comfort made horseback riding originated in pastoralists, which included
it possible to travel longer dis- what is today Romania, Bul- herding and traveling,” said
Comfortable Seat tances, increasing interaction garia, and Hungary around Wertmann.
Preserved by the region’s arid with different people.“Unlike 3000 b.c. In the centuries —Braden Phillips
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 7

PROFILES
Dr. Charles Drew:

Father of the Blood Bank
A Black surgeon and researcher pioneered new ways to process and store blood, saving
countless lives during World War II and leading to the creation of a national blood bank.
n the late 1930s, people could donate blood that contains no cells and lasts
Innovation blood, but very few hospitals could longer, overseas. Shortly after, as the
store it for later use. Whole blood United States prepared to enter World
and breaks down quickly, and there were War II, he drew on that experience to
Service no protocols at the time for safely organize what became the first U.S. na-
preserving it. As a result, hospitals of- tional blood bank. His discoveries and
1904 ten did not have the appropriate blood his leadership saved countless lives.
type when patients needed it. Charles
The oldest of five
children, Charles Drew Drew, a Black surgeon and researcher, Path to Medicine
is born on June 3 in helped solve this monumental problem Drew was born on June 3, 1904, in seg-
Washington, D.C., to for medicine, earning him the title “Fa- regated Washington, D.C., to middle-
Richard and Nora Drew. ther of the Blood Bank.” class parents who stressed education
In 1938, while obtaining his doctorate and responsibility. The oldest of five
1933 in medicine, Drew became a fellow at children, Drew showed maturity and
Drew graduates second Columbia University’s prestigious ingenuity at an early age. At 12, he was
in his class from McGill Presbyterian Hospital in New York. He selling newspapers from a street corner.
University Faculty of studied the storage and distribution of By 13, he had six newspaper boys work-
Medicine in Montréal,
Canada. blood, including the separation of its ing for him.
components, and applied his findings He attended Paul Laurence Dunbar
1938 to an experimental blood bank at the High School, a nationally recognized
hospital. His revolutionary work led to Black high school in the city. He was
At Columbia University
in New York, Drew writes the discovery of methods for safely and considered bright, but he excelled more
his doctoral thesis, which effectively processing and preserving in athletics than in schoolwork, letter-
will lay the foundation for blood and his recommendation that ing in four sports.
modern blood banks. hospitals create their own blood banks. After graduating in 1922, he attended
Drew then directed the Blood for Amherst College in Massachusetts on
1941 Britain campaign in 1940, which suc- an athletic scholarship, where he was
Drew becomes head of cessfully sent one of only 13 Black students in a class
the American Red Cross much needed of 600. He and his Black teammates
Blood Bank. He invents
blood plasma, routinely faced hostility from opposing
the first mobile donation
stations, or bloodmobiles. the portion of teams and were refused service at
1950
“On the battlefields nobody is very
Driving to a medical
conference, Drew is fatally interested in where the plasma comes
injured in a car accident
and dies near Burlington,
from when they are hurt.”
North Carolina. —Charles Drew
Wartime poster produced in 1945 by the American Red Cross
BILL WATERSON/ALAMY
RUMORS OF
HIS DEATH
DREW SUFFERED serious injuries
in a car accident on April 1, 1950,
near Burlington, North Carolina.
The doctors at Alamance Gen-
eral Hospital, a segregated fa-
cility for white people, cared for
Drew, but he was too severely
injured to survive. Soon after
his death, rumors spread that
Drew died because the hospital
refused to treat him. Witnesses
at the hospital, survivors of the
accident, his family, and others
have all repeatedly discredited
the
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WhatsApp ThisThe urban
number legend
8890050582)
lingers because there was a his-

tory of African Americans often
being denied treatment at white
hospitals during this era.
Charles Drew in his lab at Howard University,
Washington, D.C., 1945
COURTESY THE MOORLAND-SPINGARN RESEARCH CENTER,
HOWARD UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, HOWARD UNIVERSITY
restaurants when they traveled for When choosing a medical school, Transfusion Medicine
games. Drew was also denied captain- race limited Drew’s options. Most Black After graduation, Drew took an intern-
ship of the football team in his senior medical students at the time attended ship and surgical residency at Montréal
year because of his race, even though he either Howard University in Washing- General Hospital, where his interest in
was the school’s best athlete. ton, D.C., or Meharry Medical College transfusion medicine was born. Blood
As an undergraduate, Drew became in Nashville, Tennessee. Drew was re- transfusions had only become widely
interested in medicine and was encour- jected from his first choice, Howard, used 30 years earlier with the discovery
aged by a biology professor to pursue it. and accepted but deferred from Harvard of the four basic groups of blood type
By the time Drew graduated in 1926, he University, which only took a few non- antigens: A, B, AB, and O.
knew he wanted to attend medical white students each year. Anxious to Drew returned to Washington, D.C.,
school. To afford it, he worked for the begin, Drew decided to attend McGill and taught pathology at Howard Uni-
next two years as an athletic director University’s Faculty of Medicine in versity College of Medicine. He was
and a biology and chemistry teacher at Montréal, Canada. In 1933 he graduated also a surgical instructor and chief sur-
Morgan College in Baltimore, Maryland. second in his class of 137 students. gical resident at Freedmen’s Hospital.

PROFILES
BEDSIDE MANNER
Charles Drew (center) teaches
interns and residents in 1947
at Freedmen’s Hospital, today
Howard University
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8890050582)
Washington, D.C.
In 1938 Drew began postgraduate Drew’s work with Scudder became Wartime Needs
work at New York’s Columbia Univer- the basis for his 1940 dissertation, As Drew was finishing his degree at Co-
sity, and he was awarded a prestigious “Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Pres- lumbia, World War II was erupting in
fellowship at Presbyterian Hospital. He ervation,” in which he reported their Europe. Great Britain was asking the
studied under John Scudder, who had findings for the long-term storage of United States for desperately needed
been granted funding to set up an ex- plasma. Scudder called Drew’s thesis “a plasma to help victims of the Blitz. Giv-
perimental blood bank to study the masterpiece.” It would form the basis en his expertise, Drew was selected to
storage and distribution of blood. of Drew’s major innovations to come. be the medical director for the Blood for
Britain campaign.
Using Presbyterian Hospital’s
blood bank as a template, Drew
established uniform procedures
REVOLUTIONARY IDEA and standards for collecting blood
and processing blood plasma from
DREW’S GROUNDBREAKING thesis advocated nine New York hospitals and sending
for an advance that seems ordinary today. In the plasma safely overseas. The five-
his paper, he argued that blood banks would month campaign collected donations
be so valuable to patients that they “should from 15,000 Americans and was
become a part of the hospital service.” deemed a success.
Title page of Charles Drew’s 1940 thesis With the increasing likelihood that
the nation would be drawn into war, the
United States wanted to capitalize on
GOING
MOBILE
DONATING BLOOD is so easy to do
now that it can happen almost
anywhere, thanks to mobile do-
nation units, better known as
bloodmobiles. When Charles
Drew invented them in 1941,
they were called “self-contained
collection centers on specially
built trucks.” There were 63 of
them in use during World War II
as part of a national blood drive.
By the war’s end, some 6.7 mil-
lion American volunteers had
donated more than 13 million
pints of blood.
NEW BLOOD
A modern bloodmobile is
Thiscontaining
Test tubes PDF was uploade
samplesTo Telegram channel_https://t.me/Magzines_latest_Newspaper(send Me Message telegram ya WhatsAppparked
outside a church in
of blood taken from donors High Springs, Florida.
MOUSSA 81/GETTY
PAT CANOVA/ALAMY
what Drew had learned from the cam- discriminate against such a large group Drew continued to be recognized for
paign. He was recruited as the assistant of its people,” he later said. “One can his achievements, but his life was trag-
director of a three-month pilot program say quite truthfully that on the battle- ically cut short in the early hours of
to mass-produce dried plasma in New fields nobody is very interested in April 1, 1950, when he was just 45 years
York, which became the model for the where the plasma comes from when old. Drew was driving to a medical con-
first Red Cross blood bank. His innova- they are hurt … It is unfortunate that ference in Alabama when he fell asleep
tions for this program included mobile such a worthwhile and scientific bit of at the wheel near Burlington, North
blood donation stations, later called work should have been hampered by Carolina. The car flipped several times,
bloodmobiles. such stupidity.” leaving Drew with life-threatening in-
Ironically, Drew was initially forbid- juries. He was rushed to a local hospital,
den to participate in the program he Greatest Contributions which had segregated wards but a
created because the U.S. military re- Drew returned to Howard University shared emergency room. Three white
fused to allow the Red Cross to accept as chief surgeon at Freedmen’s Hospital, doctors gave Drew transfusions and
donations from Black Americans. After where he mentored a new generation of consulted with doctors at nearby Duke
protests from the Black press and the medical students and residents while University Medical Center to try to
NAACP, the policy changed in 1942 to campaigning against the exclusion of save his life, but his injuries were too
allow Black people to donate, but it still Black doctors from local medical soci- serious to overcome. In November
required all blood to be segregated. eties, medical specialty organizations, 1950, seven months after his death, the
Categorizing the policy as unscien- and the American Medical Association. American Red Cross announced that it
tific and insulting, Drew resigned his He considered his training of young would omit the racial designation once
position in 1942. “It is fundamentally Black surgeons to be his greatest con- required of blood donors.
wrong for any great nation to willfully tribution to medicine. —Cate Lineberry

DA I LY L I F E
Leech Mania,
a Bloody
Health Craze
In the 19th century, leeches were coveted in medicine, celebrated
in fashion and art—and nearly driven to extinction.
W
hen people think of mar- treatment session applied across the
ket crazes, Dutch tulips chest. For gastritis therapy, as many as
or real estate come to 20 to 40 leeches could be prescribed.
mind. But in the 19th As a result, wild Hirudo medicinalis
century demand for Hirudo medicinalis became increasingly scarce across its
—the European medicinal leech— range in Europe.
nearly drove the species to extinction.
Its medicinal properties were touted as Good Medicine
a cure-all across Europe, and the ani- Victorian-era Europeans weren’t the
mal wasThis
used to treat everything from first to look to these bloodsucking
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cancer to tuberculosis to mental illness. worms for succor. Leeches were used
The coveted worm—dark brown or medicinally by ancient Egyptians, and
black in color, with a thin stripe of yel- later in India, Greece, and Rome. Greek LEECH GATHERERS
low, green, or red along its back—was physicians typically used the animals George Walker’s 1814
engraving depicts
popular because it supposedly had a for bloodletting, to balance the humors, rural Englishwomen
gentle touch, yet also, importantly, a and also for conditions as varied as gout, harvesting medicinal
voracious appetite. fever, and hearing loss. leeches from a wetland
to sell to doctors.
Physicians of the period often pre- Leech use reached new heights in University Library, Leeds
scribed dozens of leeches to treat the 19th century largely because of the UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UIG/BRIDGEMAN
what ailed a patient. Someone with influence of François-Joseph-Victor

suspected pneumonia, Broussais, the head doctor of Val-de-
for example, might Grâce in Paris. The physician declared
have up to that all ills, ranging from smallpox to cure. Bloodletting via leech became de
80 leeches cancer, were the result of inflamma- rigueur because it was relatively safe
each tion, and bleeding, he said, was the and didn’t require any specialized skills.
And leeches have natural anticoagulants
in their saliva, which helps stop bleeding
once they drop off a patient.
FANCY PHARMA Broussais treated his own indiges-
tion by applying dozens of leeches, and
LARGE, GILDED CERAMIC JARS dominated the window he believed leeching could have salu-
displays of 19th-century drugstores in Europe and the brious effects on animals, too: He bled
United States. These ostentatious vessels advertised his fighting cocks weekly, though the
the pharmacist’s supply of medicinal leeches. No weakened birds performed poorly. Such
matter how ornate the container, the lid always had was the demand for leeches that from
holes for air to circulate to the leeches. 1830 to 1836 Broussais’s hospital alone
Leech jar, 19th-century England used over two million of them, some-
B CHRISTOPHER/ALAMY
times applying large numbers of leeches
The Poetry of
to new patients prior to any diagnosis.
Other French hospitals recorded robust
Population Decline
use during the years of peak leech popu- WILLIAM WORDSWORTH was an English Romantic poet who
larity, too: From 1820 to 1850, some used wrote about the leech craze and the troubles it was caus-
between 5,000 and 60,000 leeches an- ing the people who gathered the creatures for a living. In his
nually, according to work by Roy Sawyer,
1807 poem “Resolution and Independence,” the narrator
the founder of the Medical Leech Mu-
seum, in Charleston, South Carolina. comes upon an impoverished leech gatherer who laments the
hardships of his trade. He notes the growing challenges of finding
Supply Chain the animals, even decades before the leech trade peaked:
To meet demand, hospitals relied on
rural workers who gathered the wild Once I could meet with them on every side;
animals. Leech gatherer, unsurprisingly, But they have dwindled long by slow decay;
was a distinctly unenviable job in the Yet still I persevere, and find them where I may.
19th century, but the work was reli-
able. Wading into a freshwater pond or

DA I LY L I F E
Bloodletting
Methods
HUMANS HAVE BEEN using bloodletting
to treat illness for millennia, starting
some 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt.
Early practitioners would use simple
tools, like plant thorns or animal teeth,
to bleed patients. Leeches were an early
method, but more methods evolved.
As the practice spread to Europe and
Asia, double-edged blades, known as
lancets, became popular. Fleams were
another tool with a fixed blade that were
popular in medieval Europe. They would
be placed over veins and struck, quick-
ly cutting the blood vessels. Smaller
amounts could be extracted by scar-
ification. A scraping tool ran over the
skin, and dome-shaped glasses were
placed over the cuts. Suction created a
vacuum to extract the blood.
A 15th-century illustration from Giovanni Boccaccio’s
Decameron depicts a scene in which leeches are
appliedThis
to aPDF
patient. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
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ALAMY
muddy ditch to offer up his—or often Clamping onto their prey with three and art. Leeches were embroidered
her—body as bait to parasitic worms, formidable jaws, each studded with on women’s dresses. Apothecaries
a leech gatherer’s job was described as about 100 teeth, leeches would often purchased elaborate, two-foot-tall
“employment hazardous and weari- extract a tablespoon of blood before ceramic containers to prominently
some” by poet William Wordsworth. they were satiated and could then be display and house their leeches. The
Leeches were found in freshwater easily detached. Repeated blood meals need to transport leeches across vast
ponds, streams, wetlands, and ditch- took a toll on beleaguered leech collec- distances for transcontinental and,
es throughout Europe. They would sup tors, who endured hazards including eventually, transatlantic journeys also
upon the blood of many creatures: deer, fatigue and extreme blood loss as well inspired innovations in leech storage.
horses, cattle, and humans, as well as as infections from organisms in the To help meet a burgeoning Ameri-
fish, amphibians, and waterbirds. leech’s gut or transmissible diseases can demand, in 1835 a $500 award—
like syphilis. There was always a risk roughly $17,000 in modern-day
that the animal might regurgitate pre- dollars—was advertised for anyone
viously ingested blood. who could breed European medicinal
leeches in the United States, but that
Leech Mania venture never proved successful.
During the Victorian era, enthusi- The relationships between people
asm for leeches spread widely across and their parasites also gave rise to
Europe and also gave rise to a leech surprising long-term bonds: British
trend glorified in European fashion Lord Chancellor Thomas Erskine, who
lived from 1750 to 1823, was so grateful
As medicinal leeches became scarcer, to two leeches that bled him when he
artificial bloodletting kits were designed,
such as this French model from 1850. was extremely sick that he kept the
SSPL/UIG/BRIDGEMAN pair as companions. Storing them in
DYING TRADE
An Italian leech collector
(left), known as a mignattero,
shows his wares in this
photograph from
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BRIDGEMAN/ACI
a glass, he gave them fresh water daily of marshlands for agriculture—and the the animals eventually fell out of fa-
and named them Home and Cline af- likely related losses of amphibians that vor as a first-line medical treatment.
ter two celebrated surgeons, according the leeches relied on as food staples— Medical leech use endured for much
to Leech by University of Manchester fueled declines. more limited applications. In the early
medical historians Robert Kirk and To help save the medicinal leech 20th century, the animals were sold in
Neil Pemberton. from extinction, a small number of barber shops, recommended as a treat-
Despite the popularity of the Euro- 19th-century European governments ment for black eyes.
pean medicinal leech, it was not an ide- implemented some of the first ever Today, the European medicinal
al product for commercialization. The wildlife protections, either prohibit- leech is considered near threatened
species only needed a blood meal every ing leech exports or regulating leech by the International Union for Con-
six months and didn’t reach reproduc- collecting. In 1848 Russia banned tak- servation of Nature (IUCN). Its range
tive age for a couple years. Used leeches ing them from May to July, the prime still extends across Europe, and along-
were often disposed of in ditches or breeding season. side local collecting pressures, wet-
ponds, where they could theoretically Yet these actions were not enough. land destruction, climate change, and
reproduce, but species overexploitation By the early 1900s, the medicinal leech lack of blood meals from mammals
alongside draining and redevelopment became endangered in many locations and amphibians are considered its
throughout Europe, and the animal most pressing threats. The animal’s
Hirudo medicinalis, the most common species of was incorrectly believed to have dis- use in modern medicine continues,
medicinal leech, can grow to over seven inches long. appeared from Great Britain, Germany, particularly to assist with transplants
JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK,
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION Sweden, and the Netherlands. and plastic surgery, but the animals
Partly because leeches could are now often bred at laboratories in
not tamp down the cholera Europe and the United States.
epidemic that ravaged Eu-
rope and the United States, —Dina Fine Maron

ANDRÉE AND HIS CREW were forced
to crash-land the balloon on July
14, 1897, after less than three days
in flight. Nils Strindberg’s haunting
photograph of the wreckage reveals
how large a threat the men were up
against in the Arctic.
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
North Pole by Balloon:

The Andrée Expedition
In 1897 Swedish scientist Salomon August Andrée’s audacious quest to reach the
North Pole by air became one of the great unresolved dramas of Arctic exploration.
H
undreds of people tried to his“balloonatic”notions. There was no wowed at the Philadelphia World’s Fair
reach the North Pole in the way to control speed and direction, theyby aeronautic and balloon displays,
19th century, all by ship or said. Failure was inevitable. Undaunted,seeding his lifelong fascination with
sledge. All failed; dozens per- Andrée would take off from Sweden balloon flight.
ished. But only three tried to reach the with two fellow explorers two years Andrée was born into a period of Arc-
so-called Arctic Grail by balloon. They later to try to reach the pole—only to tic exploration. High-profile attempts
were led by Swedish engineer Salomon disappear. Decades would pass before to reach the North Pole were all the
August Andrée, who told a London the world knew of their fate. rage, yet none had been successful. In
audience at the Sixth International 1871 American explorer Charles Fran-
Geographical Congress in 1895 that a The Balloon Bug cis Hall had tried and failed to reach the
hydrogen balloon could succeed where Born in 1854 in the Swedish town of North Pole aboard the ship Polaris. Un-
other methods had not. Gränna, Andrée grew up to be a me- deterred by Hall’s failure, British naval
Andrée’s critics heaped scorn on chanical engineer with a keen interest officer George Nares set out for the pole
what the London magazine Punch called in aviation. In 1876, at age 22, he was in 1875, and likewise did not make it.
MILESTONES
AVOIDING DISASTER
WHEN IT WAS INFLATED for the first time in 1896, Andrée’s balloon was
leaking hydrogen gas. To make it airtight, the silk was doubled and var-
nished on both sides. Although no balloon had flown more than 36 hours,
its maker said this balloon could stay aloft for a month. Seeing that it still
leaked gas, however, an original member of the team, Nils Ekholm, backed
out of the mission. He was replaced by civil engineer Knut Fraenkel.
Workmen examine the fabric of Andrée’s balloon on Danskøya (Danes Island). MONDADORI/ALBUM
Nares’s venture convinced many there gas leakage, thus ensuring they could crew—Nils Strindberg, an assistant
was no way to sail to the North Pole. stay aloft for many days. His wicker- professor of physics and photographer,
Having caught the ballooning bug in work “car” carried bunks for a crew of and Knut Fraenkel, a civil engineer—
Philadelphia, Andrée threw himself into three men, three sledges, two light boats, lifted off from Danes Island, Spits-
flight, making several crossings of the tents, and significant provisions. He at- bergen, in their balloon, dubbed the
Baltic Sea. These experiences paved the tached sails to steer, and dragropes to Örnen (Eagle).
way to the conference speech he gave in control altitude. His study of winds had After briefly soaring above the crowd,
London in 1895, when he made his much convinced him that a steady northerly something went wrong: Either a sudden
criticized proposal that the pole could be wind would take them over the North cold current of air or the effect of the
reached by balloon. Pole to Alaska in a matter of days. hanging dragropes caused the craft to be
Andrée, however, forced downward so sharply that the car
had answers for ev- Taking Flight struck the water. Onlookers screamed
ery objection. His Although still regarded as reckless by as Andrée released ballast. The balloon
balloon would be many, Andrée’s plan impressed Swe- climbed and was visible for about an
100 feet tall and den’s King Oscar II. Alfred Nobel, the hour, calmly soaring away to the north-
made of double- wealthy inventor of dynamite, provided east. It was the last time the three men
ply silk, var- the funding, eager for his country to were ever seen alive.
nished on both make a mark in Arctic exploration. An- “Among the mysteries of the fates
sides to prevent drée’s scheme attracted global attention. of several North Pole explorers, that
The press would be updated via buoys of Andrée and his balloon expedition
and carrier pigeons. may be the greatest,” said P.J. Capelotti,
On July 11, 1897, following many professor of anthropology at Penn State
frustrating delays, Andrée and his University and author of The Greatest
Show in the Arctic. “He used a novel,
Salomon August Andrée, 1897 portrait AURIMAGES daring, and, as many thought, foolhardy

MILESTONES
10°E 15°E 20°E 25°E 30°E 35°E 83°N

ALAS July 14
(U.S KA AR The expedition crew
.) C
aborts the mission 4
TI
NORTH
C
and lands on the ice.
CIR
AMERICA ARCTIC
July 13
CLE
North Pole
Shifting winds push
5 July 20–22
OCEAN RUSSIA the Örnen on an
Abandoning the balloon,
AREA eastern and then a
the crew begin a months-
ENLARGED northeastern course.
long journey to the
A
Greenland Franz
Josef Land 2
south. Drifting ice and
82° N
S I
3 winter’s approach
complicate their travels.
A
July 12
AY
RW
SWEDEN The balloon sails

NO
Stockholm far to the west.
EUROPE
81°N
A R N
C T I C C E A
O
July 11, 1897 White Island

Captained by (Kvitøya)
Andrée, the
R
6 80°N
Örnen takes off B A D October 4–5
for the North Pole. A L The men reach
V W A Y) White Island
Danes Island
1 S (N O R (Kvitøya), where
North East
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20 km S p i t s b e r g e n come to an end.
NG MAPS
technology all but guaranteed to appeal “Where is Andrée? is the question of them or the balloon was found. The
to the imagination.” being asked the civilized world over,” mission was lost.
Over a week after the launch, one declared the Galveston Daily News on
of Andrée’s carrier pigeons was inter- August 6. Years would pass before two Unexpected Recovery
cepted with a message. Written on July buoys were found, both dropped on the More than three decades later, the mys-
13, it stated: “82 deg. north latitude ... day of the launch. One read:“We are now tery would be solved. In August 1930 a
Good journey eastwards, 10 deg. south. in over the ice which is much broken up team of Norwegian scientists were
All goes well on board. This is third in all directions. Weather magnificent. studying glaciers aboard a seal-hunting
pigeon post.”No other messages, how- In best of humors.” Expeditions were vessel. They took advantage of the
ever, were found. sent to find the three men, but no trace unusually warm summer to land on
White Island.
Exploring the island, they were
surprised to find the remains of a boat
sticking out of the ice. In it was a
A STORY BURIED IN ICE hook with the words “Andrée’s
Pol. Exp. 1896” stamped on
ANDRÉE’S DIARIES were found within an insulating
it. More than three decades
layer of hay that had been carefully wrapped in a had passed, but the fate of the
sweater and scraps of the silk balloon. A few months Andrée expedition was finally
after their recovery in 1930, Andrée’s Story: The Com- known.
plete Records of His Polar Flight was published amid
After further exploration, the re-
great international interest.
mains of Andrée, Strindberg, and
Diaries of Salomon August Andrée, found in 1930 AURIMAGES
Fraenkel were recovered, as were
their diaries, logbooks, camera, and
NILS STRINDBERG joined Andrée’s expedition to document the Arctic landscape in photographs. His film was found in
1930, together with the team’s diaries. Out of 240 negatives, 93 were recovered and 20 were successfully developed.
Taken around July 19, 1897, this is a photograph of the camp setup near the balloon’s crash site, just before the crew began
heading south on foot. Fraenkel stands in the center, and Andrée can be seen farther back, scanning the sky.
GRANGER/AURIMAGES
film. The three men’s bodies were While this entry was being written, the the ice started to drift west.“This is not
transported back to the Swedish capital, mission was already running into trou- encouraging,” Andrée wrote.
Stockholm, where they were cremated ble. Shifting winds pushed the craft The three continued trying to move
and buried. westward from July 12. Hydrogen gas toward safety, but by mid-September,
The diaries and photographs clari- was leaking from the balloon, which was with dropping temperatures, they had
fied much of what had befallen the crew hovering at low altitude. Fog caused a no choice but to hunker down. They
after takeoff in July 1897. The Örnen layer of thick ice to form on the bal- built a shelter from ice blocks and hunt-
had remained airborne for nearly three loon’s surface, weighing it down. To ed seals and polar bears. In early October
days as it drifted northeast. Andrée’s stay aloft, they threw out ballast and shifting ice forced them to White Island.
sense of wonder is apparent from his some equipment, but to no avail. For On October 8, as bad weather closed in,
journal entries: long stretches, the balloon bounced Andrée made his last entry.
along the ground “about every 50 me- The causes of the men’s deaths are
Is it not a little strange to be float- ters.” On July 14 the team decided to still unknown. Experts believe the trio
ing here above the Polar Sea? To be jump ship and abandon the mission, had enough supplies to have survived
the first that have floated here in a 300 miles away from the pole. the winter but were struck by illness.
balloon ... We think we can well face Photographs developed from Strind- Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska In-
death, having done what we have berg’s frozen film reveal the remains of stitute, together with Andrée historian
done. Isn’t it all, perhaps, the ex- the crashed balloon and the camp the Bea Uusma, are applying the latest tech-
pression of an extremely strong men set up near the crash site. Just over nology to decipher Andrée’s last diary,
sense of individuality which cannot a week after the crash, the team decided much of which is illegible.“We are find-
bear the thought of living and dying to try to reach Franz Josef Land, an archi- ing clues that look promising, but there
like a man in the ranks, forgotten by pelago in Russia, where they had stashed is still work to be done,” Uusma said.
coming generations? emergency supplies. After they moved
equipment across drifting ice for days, —Braden Phillips

PAPYRI IN THE DESERT
Arid conditions at the Wadi al-Jarf
site in Egypt helped preserve the
ancient Merer papyri, which were
discovered there by a French-led team
of archaeologists.
WITH THANKS TO PIERRE TALLET. ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION TO WADI AL-JARF
SECRETS OF THE WORLD’S OLDEST PAPYRI
In 2013, archaeologists made a sensational

discovery on the shores of the Red Sea: the diary
of Merer, head of a team of workers employed
by Khufu to build his Great Pyramid.
JOSÉ MIGUEL PARRA

A satellite photo centers on
the Red Sea, which Egyptian
traders had to cross to obtain
copper from Sinai.
GRANGER/ALBUM
ocated on the Egyptian coast of the The Wadi al-Jarf site was first discovered
Red Sea, Wadi al-Jarf is a quiet, unas- in 1823 by an English traveler and antiquarian,
suming place today. Dry desert sands John Gardner Wilkinson, who believed its ruins
and placid blue water stretch out as far to be a Greco-Roman necropolis. Then, in the
as the eye can see; across the water one 1950s, two archaeology-loving French pilots,
can spy the Sinai Peninsula. This seeming tran- François Bissey and René Chabot-Morisseau,
quility masks the busy hub it once was more stumbled upon the site again. They suggested
than 4,000 years ago. Wadi al-Jarf’s historical that it had once been a center for metal produc-
importance was cemented in 2013 tion. But the 1956 Suez crisis delayed further
when 30 papyri, the world’s oldest, investigation.
were found hidden away in man- It wasn’t until 2008 that work at the site
made limestone caves there. resumed. French Egyptologist Pierre Tallet led
Aside from their age, the so- a series of excavations that definitively iden-
called Red Sea Scrolls are re- tified Wadi al-Jarf as an important port that
markable for their contents. dated back some 4,500 years to the reign of
Not only do they reveal Wadi Khufu and the building of the Great Pyramid.
al-Jarf’s distant past as a bus- Tallet’s teams revealed that Wadi al-Jarf was
The Pyramids of Giza are
tling port, they also contain a vibrant economic hub at the center of the among the greatest
eyewitness accounts of a man trade in materials used to build the pyramids, engineering marvels in
history. Khafre’s tomb
named Merer who took part some 150 miles away. Supporting the archae- (center) still retains some
in the building of the Great ology was the landmark find of Merer’s diary of its original limestone
cladding. The limestone
Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu. among the papyri. that once enveloped
Khufu’s Great Pyramid
This ivory statuette is one of the (right) was transported
only depictions of Pharaoh Khufu that Pyramid Port from the quarry by
survives from his time, some 4,500 many teams like the one
years ago. Egyptian Museum, Cairo The Wadi al-Jarf site consists of several different overseen by Merer.
AKG/ALBUM areas, spread over several miles between the Nile RENÉ MATTES/GTRES
HARBOR’S HISTORY
ca 2613 b.c. ca 2580 b.c. ca 2509-2483 b.c. ca 2480 b.c.
Founder of the Old Shortly before Sneferu’s Wadi al-Jarf becomes a Around the time of
Kingdom’s 4th dynasty, heir, Khufu, becomes trade hub for the copper Khufu’s death, the
Sneferu comes to power. pharaoh, a port is built and other materials harbor complex
Several pyramids are at Wadi al-Jarf, on the needed to build Khufu’s at Wadi al-Jarf is
built during his reign. shores of the Red Sea. massive pyramid at Giza. decommissioned.
EGYPTIAN SHIPS
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A sketch (above) the first area, about three miles from the coast, pottery and inscriptions found at the site,
of a 15th-century contains some 30 large limestone chambers used archaeologists have been able to date the
b.c. relief from the
temple of Queen for storage. It was in these caves that the papyri harbor complex to Egypt’s 4th dynasty, some
Hatshepsut at were discovered. 4,500 years ago. They believe the harbor was
Dayr al-Bahri Continuing east toward the sea for another inaugurated in the time of Pharaoh Sneferu
shows workers
500 yards, a series of camps appears, and af- and abandoned around the end of his son
loading ships
sailing to the Land ter those, a large stone building divided into Khufu’s reign. It was active for a short period,
of Punt. 13 parallel sections. Archaeologists surmised but during that time the port was devoted to
ALAMY/ACI
that the building was used as a residence. building Khufu’s tomb, known then as Akhet-
Finally, on the coast is the harbor itself with Khufu, meaning “Horizon of Khufu.”
Along with the papyri, many other impor-
tant archaeological finds there have revealed
the importance of the port. Large structures,
like the 600-foot-long stone jetty, show deep
material investment in the area. Tallet and
his team uncovered some 130 anchors, whose
presence implies a busy harbor
From the harbor, called “The Bush” by the
ancient Egyptians, the pharaoh’s ships would
sail across the Red Sea to the copper-rich Sinai
Large stones block the entrance to

storage caves at the ancient harbor
complex of Wadi al-Jarf, on the Egyptian
coast of the Red Sea.
WITH THANKS TO PIERRE TALLET.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION TO WADI AL-JARF
EUROPE Mediterranean Sea
IA
A S
EGYPT
AFRICA Present-day coastline
Buto
N i l e R i v e r D e l t a
Mendes
L O W E R E G Y P T
Bubastis
Shifting
Ports Abu Roash
Giza
Heliopolis
Abusir Tura quarry

THE SINAI PENINSULA was rich in the mate- Saqqara Memphis
rials Egyptians needed to build their mas- Dahshur Lower Egypt capital
sive monuments in the Old Kingdom. Dur- Ayn
Lake Moeris Tarkhan S I N A I
ing the reign of Snefru some 4,500 years Soukhna
Maidum
ago, the harbor at Wadi al-Jarf was built Faiyum
to secure a regular supply of copper from el-Lahun
Gu
Sinai. This port was the main trading hub Herakleopolis
lf
for only a short time. Several decades af- Dishasha Wadi
of
al-Jarf
ter its founding, it was decomnissioned in
Su
favor of Ayn Soukhna, which was farther
ez
north and closer to Memphis. Ayn Soukh-
na was in use for the remainder of the Old
Kingdom. In the Middle Kingdom, the port
of Mersa Gawasis grew in importance. It
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and Thebes. Beni Hasan
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Armant Luxor (Thebes)

Upper Egypt capital
Gebelein
el-Kab
Hierakonpolis
Egypt during the Old Kingdom Edfu
Old Kingdom, 2686–2160 B.C.
Pyramid site
Nile
Present-day coastline or river

Cataracts of the Nile 50 mi
Historical city 50 km
NG MAPS Aswan
Elephantine
1 t GE
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ANCIENT
MULTITASKING HARD
LABOR
Construction
MERER’S DIARY recorded his team’s seemingly mundane tasks, and these
workers carry
have given historians important insights into the work that went into build- sandstone
ing the Great Pyramid. Rather than one document, his writings are found blocks in a relief
in several of the papyri unearthed at Wadi detail (left) from
al-Jarf. Papyri A and B deal with the trans- the Temple of
port of limestone blocks to Giza. Papyrus Luxor, Egypt.
Mid-second
C mentions the construction of nautical millennium b.c.
facilities, and Papyrus D details surveil- PRISMA/ALBUM
lance work performed around the Khufu

funerary complex. Papyrus E records the HARBOR
six-month period that Merer’s team spent IN GIZA
crossing the Red Sea transporting work- The harbor at
Giza (right) was
ers, food, and copper from one coast to where workers
another. Papyrus H details perhaps the unloaded the
most important detail of all: payment of stone blocks
rations. Merer’s team was a valuable part to build the
of multiple projects, revealing how com- Great Pyramid.
plex building the pyramid was. Watercolor by
J.C. Golvin
MUSÉE DÉPARTEMENTAL ARLES ANTIQUE
© J.C. GOLVIN/ÉDITIONS ERRANCE
Peninsula. Copper
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available, and the Egyptians needed it to cut the the Red Sea Scrolls, but the writings of Merer
stones for their pharaoh’s massive pyramid. caused the most excitement. The leader of a
When Egyptian ships returned to port, they working party, Merer kept records of its activi-
were loaded with copper. Between voyages, the ties in his diary. It is a daily record of the work
ships were stored in the limestone chambers. his team carried out over a three-month period
during the construction of the Great Pyramid.
Treasures in the Caves Merer’s team consisted of some 200 workers
After the Wadi al-Jarf harbor was decommis- who traveled across Egypt and were respon-
sioned around Khufu’s death, records show sible for carrying out all tasks related to the
that a team was sent from Giza to close the construction of the Great Pyramid. Among
storage spaces carved into the limestone. They the most interesting were the limestone blocks
were known as the Escort Team of “the Uraeus used for the pyramid’s cladding. Merer record-
of Khufu Is Its Prow,” which most likely refers ed in great detail how the team retrieved them
to a ship bearing the Uraeus (protective cobra) from the quarries of Tura and brought them
on its prow. During the process of blocking by boat to Giza.
up the limestone caves, Merer’s now obsolete Merer’s men would load the limestone
papyrus documents likely became lodged blocks onto boats, transport them up the Nile,
among the stone blocks. and watch when they were tallied in an ad-
They remained in the desert air for some ministrative area before being taken to Giza. A
four and a half millennia until their discovery fragment from the diary records the three-day
during an excavation by Tallet in 2013. The first journey from the quarry to the pyramid’s site:
batch of Red Sea Scrolls was found on March 24
that year near the entrance to the storage space Day 25: Inspector Merer spends the day with
designated G2. The second and largest set of his za [team] hauling stones in south Tura;
documents was found 10 days later, wedged spends the night in south Tura. Day 26: In-
between blocks in storage space G1. spector Merer sets sail with his za from south
Merer’s
Diary
Archaeologists found hundreds of papyrus
fragments in the caves at Wadi al-Jarf. Written
in black and red ink, the texts mention Pharaoh
Khufu. Many of these fragments have been
pieced back together to form documents—some
measuring two feet long! The fragment of Merer’s
journal shown here is from Papyrus B.
Day 5:
za: team of workers
…Inspector Merer spends the day with his za hau: special ship for
loading stones onto the hau belonging to the loading blocks
Elite: perhaps a group
Elite of north Tura, he spends the night in Tura… of high officials
Mentioned in Merer’s diary even gives a glimpse of one of the
Merer’s diary,
Ankhhaf was a royal pyramid’s architects. Ankhhaf, Khufu’s half
architect and half brother, held the position of “head of all the
brother of Khufu.
This 4,500-year- king’s works.” One of the papyrus fragments
old bust of Ankhhaf states: “Day 24: Inspector Merer spends the day
was found in his
tomb. Museum of with his za hauling [text missing] with people in
Fine Arts, Boston elite positions, aper-teams, and the noble Ankh-
SCALA, FLORENCE
haf, director of Ro-She Khufu.”
Working Men
Merer also carefully kept track of how his
crew was paid. Since there was no cur-
rency in pharaonic Egypt, salary pay-
ments were made generally in mea-
sures of grain. There was a basic unit,
the “ration,” and the worker received
more or less according to their cate-
gory on the administrative ladder. Accord-
ing to the papyri, the workers’ basic diet was
hedj (leavened bread), pesem (flat bread), various
meats, dates, honey, and legumes, all washed
down with beer.
It has been long accepted that a large labor
Tura, laden with
This PDF wasstone blocks,
uploade to Akhet-Khufu
To Telegram force built the GreatMe
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[the Great Pyramid]; spends the night in She- have long debated the status of this workforce.
Khufu [administrative area with storage space Many have argued that the workers must have
for the ashlars, just before Giza]. Day 27: Em- been enslaved, but the Red Sea Scrolls con-
bark at She-Khufu, sail to Akhet-Khufu laden tradict this notion. Merer’s detailed payment
with stones, spend the night at Akhet-Khufu. records demonstrate that those who built the
pyramids were skilled workers who received
The next day, Merer and his workers returned to compensation for their services.
the quarry to pick up a new shipment of stones: There is something even more extraordinary
in the lines of the frail papyri. In the words of
Day 28: Set sail from Akhet-Khufu in the Merer, there is a firsthand account of a person
morning; navigate up the river towards south who not only witnessed the building of the
Tura. Day 29: Inspector Merer spends the pyramids but whose team was also a crucial
day with his za hauling stones in south Tura; part of the everyday business of getting the job
spends the night in south Tura. Day 30: In- done. Because of this discovery, Egyptologists
spector Merer spends the day have a detailed (and somewhat prosaic) snap-
with his za hauling stones in shot of the final stages of the Great Pyramid’s
south Tura; spends the night construction.
in south Tura.
AUTHOR OF SEVERAL BOOKS ON PYRAMIDS AND DAILY LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT,

JOSÉ MIGUEL PARRA HAS PARTICIPATED IN RECENT EXCAVATIONS AT LUXOR.
Rations were a form

a payment in Merer’s Learn more
time. Lidded basket with
figs, ca 14th century B.C. The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri
British Museum, London Reveal the Secrets of the Pyramids.
BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE Pierre Tallet and Mark Lehner. Thames & Hudson, 2022.
THE GREAT PYRAMID

The limestone cladding
on Khufu’s pyramid has
disappeared over time. Today
only the rougher stones used
for the inner structure of the
pyramid remain.
BRECK P. KENT/AGE FOTOSTOCK
FLOATING
TO GIZA 5 Quarry ramp
Materials used to build the Great Pyramid

came from all over Egypt: limestone
from the Tura quarries near Cairo, basalt
from Fayyum, granite from Aswan, and
copper from the Sinai Peninsula. In order
to transport these materials swiftly and Harbor ramp
smoothly, artificial waterways were built at
Giza so that goods could travel by boat as
much as possible.
3D model made
by Rebekah
Miracle based on
1
a topographical
reconstruction by
Mark Lehner.
2
1 THE FLOOD 2 RO-SHE KHUFU 3 SHE KHUFU

During the annual flooding of the “The Mouth of the Lake of Khufu” was “Lake of Khufu” was opposite the main
Nile that occurred in the late summer an access to two inner lakes close to the construction site for the pyramid.
months, the lakes would swell and spill pyramid construction site. Merer’s diary Building material was unloaded and
over to reach this high-water mark. mentions spending time here. transported to the pyramid via a ramp.
4
Merer and his men

sometimes carried
out surveillance
tasks from this point.
Access causeway
Valley Temple
Nazlet el-Sissi
4 AKHET-KHUFU 5 QUARRY 6 SHE AKHET-KHUFU

The ancient Egyptians called the Great Stone blocks used for the inner structure “The Lake of the Horizon of Khufu” was
Pyramid Akhet-Khufu, meaning “horizon were quarried close to Khufu’s pyramid. a smaller body of water and probably
of Khufu.” Merer wrote often of his When the quarry was exhausted, it was served smaller vessels. Merer also
comings and goings to and from the site. repurposed as a cemetery. mentions this location in his diary.
RIDING TO ROME
The 19th-century painter Évariste Vital
Luminais often depicted ancient Gallic
people in his works, such as “Gauls
in Sight of Rome” seen here, Musée
des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, France.
Opposite: Celtic helmet, fourth to third
century b.c., National Archaeological
Museum, Saint-Germain-en-Laye
PICTURE: ARTEPICS/ALAMY
HELMET: THIERRY LE MAGE/RMN-GRAND PALAIS
THE GAULS
SACK
In the early fourth century b.c., Gallic

warriors conquered Rome and plundered its
wealth. The words of their leader, Brennus,
would haunt Romans for generations:
“Vae victis—Woe to the vanquished.”
JAVIER NEGRETE
he Roman Republic was booming in the beginning
of the fourth century b.c. Wealthy and powerful, it
had just defeated the Etruscan city of Veii, amassed
an immense war chest, and doubled its territory.
But then, out of the blue, the republic suffered the unthinkable:
occupation by a Celtic people, the Gauls. This was the first time
that Rome and Gaul would face off, but it would not be the last.
Over the coming centuries, the Romans and the to Rome for help (they were denied). Roman
Gauls would clash many times. But this first historians described the Gauls in big sweep-
defeat in 387 b.c. caused a collective trauma for ing strokes, which were likely exaggerated. The
Rome that lasted generations, shaping Roman Gauls were tall, pale, long-haired, blond, and
attitudes toward all peoples from the north. mustached. Some of them, according to first-
century b.c. Greek historian Diodorus Siculus,
Early Encounters lightened their hair with “lime-water.”
By 600 b.c. the Gallic people Insubres had al- There are various theories as to why they
ready settled
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founded Mediolanum (today’s Milan). Over the In general, Roman sources suggest that the
next two centuries, other Gallic peoples would Gauls were less developed as a society than the
do the same and expand into southern and west- inhabitants of Italy and coveted their farmland,
ern Europe. Around 400 b.c. the Senones settled in particular their wine. In the first century
on the shores of the Adriatic, in the region that a.d., centuries after early Gallic expansion,
the Romans would later call Ager Gallicus. But the Greek scholar Plutarch wrote that when
this settlement was still a safe distance from the Gauls tasted wine for the first time they
Rome and on the other side of the Apennines became “beside themselves with the novel
that form the mountainous backbone of the Ital- pleasure which it gave” and they set off “in
ian peninsula. quest of the land which produced such fruit,
A decade later, the Senones crossed the considering the rest of the world barren and
mountains and attacked the Etruscan city of wild.” Although the Gauls’ fondness for wine
Clusium, about 90 miles north of Rome. Writ- did tend to be exaggerated, there was a kernel
ing more than four centuries later, the Roman of truth to it. Later, Italian and Roman wine
historian Livy described this Gallic expan- merchants would enter Gaul as the peaceful
sion and how the people of Clusium appealed forerunners to the legions that would follow.
Dating to the fourth

century B.C., this bronze
disk was found in a GAULS Circa 600 b.c.
Gallic peoples move
VERSUS
Gallic chariot burial
in Cuperly, France. south of the Alps
Musee d’Archeologie into northern Italy,
Nationale, Saint-
Germain-en-Laye
S. COMPOINT/ONLYFRANCE
ROMANS where they will found
Mediolanum (Milan).
VENI VIDI VINO
According to some Roman
historians, the Gauls moved
south into Italy because they
adored Italian wines, like the
ones produced in the vineyards
of Ancona.
MASSIMO RIPANI/FOTOTECA 9X12
400 b.c. Circa 390 b.c. 387 b.c. 284 b.c.

The Gallic Senones Clusium, an Etruscan city Gallic commander After a series of
settle on the shores of north of Rome, begs the Brennus defeats Roman conflicts with Gallic
the Adriatic Sea, in the republic for help after the forces at the Battle of peoples, Rome
territory the Romans will Senones invade and seize the Allia. His forces will conquers Ager
call Ager Gallicus. their lands. continue on to sack Rome. Gallicus.
known thereafter as Torquatus, a moniker that
The Gallic Look would pass to his descendants.
As for protection in conflict, many Gallic
T
HE GAULS LEFT BEHIND no written records of their cul- warriors had nothing more than an elongated
ture, so historians must rely on what was written oval shield and a helmet adorned with feathers.
about them rather than what was written by them. A
Their typical weapon was a long sword, best
first-century b.c. Greek scholar wrote a vivid descrip-
tion of how they looked and what kinds of clothes they wore: suited for slashing. Many stereotypes grew
up about the ferocity with which the Gauls
The Gauls are tall of body, with rippling muscles, and fought; allegedly it was more daunting than
white of skin, and their hair is blond, and not only nat- that of other adversaries the Romans had faced
urally so, but they also make it their practice by artifi- until then. Writing in the first centuries b.c.
cial means to increase the distinguishing color which and a.d., Greek historian Strabo explained:
nature has given it. For they are always washing
their hair in lime-water … Some of them shave the
The whole race which is now called both
beard … but they let the moustache grow
until it covers the mouth … The cloth- “Gallic” and “Galatic” is war-mad, and both
ing they wear is striking: shirts which high-spirited and quick for battle, although
have been dyed and embroidered in otherwise simple and not ill-mannered. And
varied colors, and breeches, which therefore, if roused, they come together all
they call in their tongue bracae; and at once for the struggle … As for their might,
they wear striped coats, fastened by it arises partly from their large physique and
a buckle on the shoulder, heavy for
partly from their numbers.
winter wear and light for summer, in
which are set checks, close together
and of varied hues. According to classical sources, the Gauls
attacked en masse to the sound of their war
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chief of the Gallic Senones horns,
Me Message without
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ya WhatsApp This of tactical
number formations
8890050582)
around the fourth to third century
b.c. might have worn checked or reserve troops. Strabo felt it would make it
trousers and been armed with a easier over time for the Romans to conquer
shield, sword, and spear.
PETER CONNOLLY/AKG/ALBUM
Gaul than Hispania, home of the Iberians.
Whereas the Gauls tended to “fall upon their
opponents all at once and in great numbers,”
meaning they would be “defeated all at once,”
CALL the Iberians “would husband their resources
TO ARMS Seasoned Warriors and divide their struggles, carrying on war in
A boar’s head forms
The Gauls were visually striking because of the manner of brigands, different men at dif-
the upper part of
a carnyx (below), their clothing, which was dyed with bright col- ferent times and in separate divisions.”
a wind instrument ors. Unlike the Romans, the men wore pants
used by Iron Age (bracae in Latin), a garment typical of the no- Battle of the Allia
Celts, possibly to
call soldiers into madic horsemen of the Eurasian steppes. The The Etruscans of Clusium called on Rome to
combat. Second or Greeks and Romans considered it barbaric— help them. The Senate sent three ambassadors
first century b.c.; even effeminate—for men to wear such attire. who entreated Brennus, leader of the Gallic Se-
found at Corrèze in The elite among the Gauls wore jewelry, most nones, to withdraw. When Brennus refused,
central France
RMN-GRAND PALAIS notably torques, which are thick metal the ambassadors, instead of returning to Rome,
necklaces of gold or silver, open at the joined the ranks of Clusium in trying to repel the
front and twisted like braids. In 361 b.c., Gauls. By throwing their support so obviously
some years after the assault on Rome, behind the Clusines, they contravened the law
a young Roman called Titus Manlius came of nations, the equivalent of current interna-
face-to-face with a gigantic Gallic warrior tional law. This decision gave Brennus a pretext
in single combat. Despite the Gaul’s im- to declare war on Rome. After defeating the
mense size—in Roman tales the height of Clusines, Brennus led his troops south toward
the Celts is always emphasized—Titus Rome. Livy described their terrifying proces-
defeated him, seized his torque, and was sion: “The whole country in front and around
ROMANS AND GAULS
A 19th-century painting by Évariste
Vital Luminais depicts an idealized
combat scene between Roman and
Gallic horsemen. Museum of Fine
Arts, Carcassonne, France
P. CARTIER/BRIDGEMAN/ACI
Mediolanum
(Milan)
A
Po
SI
EUROPE A
ITALY
Three days later, Brennus and his army of
AFRICA
A Gauls stood at the gates of Rome. The city was
A
p exposed, for it lacked a complete perimeter
d
wall. The bulk of the population fled—even the
r
i
e Vestal Virgins, guardians of the city’s sacred
a
Arno
fire. With no one to oppose them, the Gauls
t
n
i
stormed into Rome and pillaged the city. High-
c
ranking elderly senators, who had refused to be
S
Clusium n
evacuated, sat in their curule chairs in the mid-
e
a
i dle of the Forum or, according to some sources,
Ti in the atria of their houses.
ber
n Roman sources claim that when the first

Battle of
Veii the Allia Gauls arrived, they were stunned by the dig-
ROME nity and composure of these elder statesmen.
e
One invader allegedly tugged at the long white

Ardea
beard of Senator Marcus Papirius to see if the
s
figure might be a statue. Papirius responded

with a blow from his cane. The Gaul then killed
Tyrrhenian Papirius with his sword, and his companions
Sea massacred the rest. Brennus’s men looted and
destroyed the city as the terrified populace
looked on. Livy wrote:
Dominion of Rome circa 390 B.C.
Expansion of Rome, 400–300 B.C. In whatever direction, their attention was
drawn
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telegram shoutsThis
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number the shrieks
8890050582)
of the women and boys, the roar of the flames,

and the crash of houses falling in, thither they
turned their eyes and minds as though set by
NG MAPS Fortune to be spectators of their country’s fall,
powerless to protect anything left of all they
possessed beyond their lives.
The Gauls scale was now swarming with the enemy, who, being
the slope of the as a nation given to wild outbreaks, had by their Some Romans had managed to take refuge
capitol. Engraving
by Henri-Paul hideous howls and discordant clamor filled on the Capitoline Hill and were safely hidden.
Motte, 1900 everything with dreadful noise.” But the Gauls spotted footprints going up the
ALBUM
A Roman army marched north and inter- hill that belonged to a messenger, who the Ro-
cepted the Gauls less than 10 miles outside mans had sent to Ardea to seek help. The Gauls
the city on the banks of the Allia River, a tribu- followed the same route and sent an advance
tary of the Tiber. It was the first time that the party up the hillside that very night. Neither
legions had fought against the Gauls, and the the Roman guards nor their watchdogs heard
result was disastrous. The Romans were out- them coming, but geese sacred to the goddess
numbered, a situation that happened often in Juno that lived there did. The alarmed honk-
their clashes with the Gauls. ing alerted the Roman defenders, who took up
As a result, the tribunes of consular rank arms and forced their attackers back.
who commanded the Roman army redeployed
soldiers to the flanks. The center, with ranks Woe to the Vanquished
depleted, was soon breached, and the Gauls Seven months passed and the Gauls held their
surged unstoppably forward. The legionar- siege. But it took its toll on them. According to
ies from the left flank fled to the neighboring Livy,“They had their camp on low-lying ground
city of Veii, 10 miles northwest of Rome, while between the hills, which had been scorched by
those on the right retreated to the capital itself. the fires and was full of malaria … Accustomed
THE SENATOR STRIKES BACK
During the invasion of Rome in 387 b.c.,
the Gauls broke into the house of Senator
Marcus Papirius and found him sitting in his
curule seat, totally motionless. When one
of them tugged his beard to see if he was
a statue, Papirius struck him with a staff.
Oil painting by Théobald Chartran, 1877,
Beaux-Arts de Paris
THIERRY OLLIVIER/RMN-GRAND PALAISS
Livy say that Marcus Furius Camillus, an ex-
Keeping Their Heads iled general, responds to Rome’s call for help.
He is appointed dictator and uses his might to
R
OMAN HISTORIANS SEEMED TO RELISH tales that highlighted expel the Gallic forces. Writing in the second
the savagery of the Celtic Gauls, including how they de- century b.c., the historian Polybius makes no
capitated their enemies and kept their heads as trophies.
mention of Camillus or an expulsion of the
One particularly gruesome account was written by Livy in
the first century b.c. He described the fate of Roman consul Lucius Gauls. Rather, in his telling, Rome pays a ran-
Postumius, who died in 216 b.c. fighting against the Boii people, who som and the Gauls simply leave.
lived across an area from today’s northern Italy. As Livy recounts,
the Boii took the consul’s head “into the most sacred temple … Facts and Fictions
Afterwards they cleansed the head … and having covered the skull Classical sources undoubtedly contain factual
with chased gold, used it as a cup for libations in their solemn fes- details, but legendary elements and exaggera-
tivals.” Another account from Greek historian Diodorus Siculus tions are woven among them. There is some
details how the Gauls would also preserve the heads in cedar oil.
evidence to show that Rome did suffer a defeat
These accounts may feel exaggerated, but in 2018 scholars found
evidence to back them up. A and sacking around 387 b.c.: Greek authors
research team tested such as Aristotle and Heraclides of Pontus,
11 skulls that showed who were writing not long after the events,
signs of decapitation mention an invasion. Archaeologists, howev-
and found evidence of er, have not found evidence of mass destruc-
conifer resin, support- tion and fires as terrible as in Livy’s writings.
ing the tales of ritual
Rome appears to have recovered very quickly
embalming of heads.
in the years that followed, which would have
been unlikely if the damage were as severe as
described. Evidence suggests that rather than
Celtic sculptedThis
heads
PDFfrom a Gallic
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number 8890050582)
the oppidum of Entremont,
second-century b.c. were a band of warriors who attacked Rome in
sculpture, Granet Museum, a quick raid. They probably looted what they
Aix-en-Provence
DEA/ALBUM could but did not demolish buildings or set
fire to the city.
The story of the Gallic invasion as retold in
the histories written centuries later is evidence
SIGNS OF as a nation to wet and cold, they could not stand of metus gallicus, an exaggerated fear of Gauls
STRENGTH this at all, and tortured as they were by heat and and other northern peoples. This prejudice
Minted by the Gallic
suffocation, disease became rife among them, was galvanized at the end of the second cen-
tribe of the Aedui,
a first-century b.c. and they died off like sheep.” tury b.c. as groups of Germanic Cimbri and
coin (below) shows At last, a negotiated settlement was reached. Teutoni people pushed south into Roman ter-
a warrior with a The Gauls agreed to leave Rome in exchange ritory. Metus gallicus would become a driv-
war horn, or carnyx,
in one hand and a for a thousand pounds of gold. The defenders ing force in Rome’s expansionary policy. The
severed head in the came down from Capitoline Hill bearing trea- perceived threat would serve as the pretext for
other. Bibliothèque sures and weighed them in the Forum before Julius Caesar’s first-century b.c. campaigns
Nationale, Paris their conquerors. When the tribune Quintus in Gaul, and it also explains why his victories
ALBUM
Sulpicius noticed the Gauls were putting fake over the Gauls were celebrated with an un-
weights onto the scales in order to claim more precedented 15 or even 20 days of thanksgiving
riches, he complained. Brennus dropped his back home in Rome.
own sword onto the scales and exclaimed,
“Vae victis—Woe to the vanquished.” Re- AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN JAVIER NEGRETE HAS WRITTEN EXTENSIVELY ON
CLASSICAL GREEK HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY.
signed, the Romans handed over even
more gold to offset the weight of the
Learn more
sword.
Roman historians differ on how the The Early History of Rome
by Titus Livy, edited by Aubrey de Sélincourt,
Gallic siege ended. Both Plutarch and Penguin Classics, 2002
TIPPING THE SCALES
The Gauls use a scale to weigh the
treasures that the Romans have
given them as payment for their
retreat. Brennus adds weight by
placing his sword on the balance
so that it weighs more. Oil painting
by Sebastiano Ricci, 18th century,
Museum of Fine Arts, Ajaccio
GÉRARD BLOT/RMN-GRAND PALAIS
SOUNDS
SACRED GEESE LIVED in the goddess Juno’s temple
on Capitoline Hill during the Roman Republic.
This gaggle became a band of unlikely heroes
(AND HONKS)
when the Gauls sacked the city in 387 b.c. It was
the geese that prevented the last stronghold in
Rome from falling into the hands of the Gauls.
OF ALARM The story appears in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, writ-

ten around the second century a.d.: “There were
some sacred geese near the
temple of Juno, which were
usually fed without stint,
but at that time, since
provisions barely suf-
ficed for the garrison
“Sacred Geese of the

Capitol,” Henri-Paul Motte,
oil painting, 1889, private
collection
ALAMY/ACI
alone, they were neglected and in evil plight. The vasion, the practice ceased. Instead, the sacred
creature is naturally sharp of hearing and afraid geese were allowed to spend their lives on the
of every noise, and these, being specially wakeful temple grounds until their natural deaths.
and restless by reason of their hunger, perceived ONCE A YEAR the geese were pa-
the approach of the Gauls, dashed at them with raded through the streets
loud cries, and so waked all the garrison.” of Rome on litters, to be
THE GEESE WERE kept in the temple because they honored by all the people.
were used in divination practices. Their honks During the same ceremony,
and calls would be assessed for their strength, live dogs were hung from gal-
frequency, and tone. Based on these measure- lows, or even crucified, as sym-
ments, the priestesses would determine if the bolic punishment for the guard
gods were favorable to their plans. In the temple dogs on the capitol that slept
of Juno, geese had been sacrificed to the god- through the Gallic assault without
dess, but after their heroics during the Gallic in- raising the alarm.
WARNING CRIES
A fragment of
a marble frieze
shows several
Capitoline
geese flapping
their wings and
honking to warn
the Romans
that the Gauls
were coming.
Archaeological
Museum, Ostia
DEA/ALBUM
WATCHING
THE PARADE
Romans celebrate
the sacred geese
as they are
paraded through
the streets to
celebrate their
defense of the city,
in an engraving.
MARY EVANS/AGE FOTOSTOCK
PALMYRA
COSMOPOLITAN CROSSROADS
Built on an oasis in the Syrian Desert,
Palmyra grew from a trading outpost into a
prosperous commercial center where many
people, faiths, and cultures mingled and mixed.
FRANCISCO DEL RÍO SÁNCHEZ
ARCH OF TRIUMPH
Photographed before
its destruction by ISIS
in 2015, Palmyra’s
monumental arch
stood at one end of
a great colonnaded
road that ran through
the ancient city.
MATTHIEU VERDEIL/GTRES
ncient Palmyra became a thriving,
cosmopolitan capital of trade
thanks to its geography. The city’s
history stretches back to the sec-
ond millennium b.c., when in-
scriptions referred to it by its original name,
Tadmur. (The city’s name would change when
it came under Roman influence around 64 b.c.)
Surrounded by mountains and desert, Tadmur,
located some 130 miles northeast of modern
Damascus, blossomed atop a lush oasis com-
plete with groves of palm trees. Both a natural
spring, the Efqa, and a wadi watered the city,
allowing it to grow and become a vital
stop along the trade routes between the
Mediterranean and Mesopotamia.
Caravans met, and people developed
innovative styles of art and architec-
ture that reflected multiple cultural
influences.
Historic records show Tadmur pos-
sessed a cosmopolitan quality fromMe Message telegram ya WhatsApp This number 8890050582)
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the start. Writers from other places

mentioned it, like the great 11th-cen-
tury Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser in
his annals. Tadmur appears in works
from other ancient Syrian cities, such
as Mari (modern Tall Hariri) and Emar (Mas-
DIVINE
EAGLE kanah). This quality can be attributed to the
Sacred to city’s strategic location and its water supply.
the god Baal Tadmur became known as Palmyra when
Shamin, eagles, it came under Roman influence in the mid- to the sky. Like Palmyra itself, the architec-
like the one
above, adorned first century b.c. Syria had become a colony ture bore influences of the many cultures that
the walls of Baal of Rome in 64 b.c., but Palmyra remained in- moved through the city, as artistic, spiritual,
Shamin’s temple dependent. In the next three centuries, the and linguistic traditions met and meshed. For
in Palmyra. city would reach its peak, and some 200,000 the next two centuries, Palmyra was one of
Relief, Louvre
Museum, Paris people would call it home. As wealth poured the most prosperous trading centers in the
F. RAUX/RMN-GRAND PALAIS into the city, monumental architecture rose ancient world.
a.d. 14 32 129
Palmyra During the reign of Emperor
Tiberius, the Roman Empire
The glorious Temple of Bel,
a Mesopotamian sky god,
Emperor Hadrian visits
Palmyra and grants it “free
Prospers gains control of Palmyra
and incorporates it into the
is dedicated in Palmyra
and becomes a center of
city” rights, kicking off the
most prosperous period of
province of Syria. spiritual life in the city. Palmyra’s history.
Columns are off

here. Alignment is
weird.
Caravans on Their Way CITY OF PALMS and Mesopotamian worlds. The Tariff of Pal-
Palmyra’s lingua franca was Aramaic, a Semitic Efqa is the natural myra, discovered in 1881, wonderfully show-
language spoken across the ancient world. Ar- spring that waters cases the dual influences. The stone tablet is
the Palmyra oasis
chaeologists have found two systems of writing and allows its written in Greek and Aramaic and lists the
being employed. One is a monumental script famous palm trees taxes due on different imports and exports.
and the other a Mesopotamian cursive, show- (above) to flourish. The tariff dates to the time of Emperor Hadri-
MICHELE FALZONE/AWL IMAGES
ing influences from both the Mediterranean an, around a.d. 137, when Palmyra sat between
the Roman Empire of the west and Parthian Em-
pire of the east. More than 40 inscriptions dis-
covered in the city reveal both the organization
and extent of Palmyra’s trade. The Palmyrenes
131 137 exchanged goods not only with Rome and Egypt
The Temple of Baal Inscribed in Greek and to the west but also with Mesopotamia, India,
Shamin is dedicated. Aramaic, the Tariff of
Its architecture blends Palmyra’s installation in the and China to the east.
Greco-Roman and Eastern agora is a testament to the As the main stop of the great trading route
influences. importance of commerce. between the Mediterranean and Asia, Palmyra
drew its wealth from the caravan trade in spices,

1 TEMPLE OF BEL 2 MONUMENTAL ARCH 3 TEMPLE OF NABU 4 THEATER
Palmyra’s largest structure Triangular in plan, the arch Seated on a podium of Built in the second century a.d.
was a temple dedicated to aligned with the Temple of Bel. large ashlars, this temple in the Roman style, this venue
the city’s main divinity, the It was decorated with carved was dedicated to Nabu, the could accommodate around
sky god Bel. botanical and geometric reliefs. Babylonian god of writing. 4,000 spectators.
6 5 7
3 2
1
5 SENATE 6 AGORA 7 TETRAPYLON 8 TEMPLE OF BAAL SHAMIN
Palmyra’s governing bodies A large central courtyard This junction between the two This impressive structure built
would meet in this small was surrounded by main roads was made up of for a Phoenician god and lord
building, which had a central limestone porticoes on all four pavilions, each formed of of the skies was dedicated
peristyle. four sides. four pink granite columns. in a.d. 131.
CITY LIFE
Streets of
Palmyra
THIS RECONSTRUCTION shows what Palmyra
might have looked like in its heyday in
the second and third centuries a.d. The
monumental city planning of the second
century is evident in the great processional
route that connected the Palmyra’s main
entrance with the Temple of Bel. This
boulevard divided the city into two sectors:
a southern portion, where the luxurious
homes of the rich merchants and most of
the temples were concentrated, and a large
northern neighborhood, where the majority
of the population lived.
ILLUSTRATION: RISE STUDIO
l
silks, works of art, and other goods. Typically,

Crime Along the city relied on two great annual expeditions,
The Trade Routes one in early spring and the other in autumn, be-
tween the Persian capital and the Persian Gulf.
TRADING CARAVANS traveling to and from Palmyra not As they made their way across the punishing
only had to cross the hostile desert, but they also had to desert, trading caravans faced another danger
be on alert for bandits. According to an inscription found besides the harsh elements: bandits. Inscrip-
in the city, dated June, a.d. 144, a group of Palmyrene tions warned that bands of thieves would steal
merchants honored a fellow citizen named So’adu bar goods to sell at their own emporiums. Some
Bolyada for saving a trading caravan from these gangs
texts record the names of the Bedouin ring-
of thieves. The traders were returning from the city of
leaders who were heads of the notorious raiding
Vologesias, to the east, when they were attacked by a
group of Bedouins in the Euphrates desert. Bar Bolyda gangs, as well as the places where they would
left Palmyra with a great force and confronted Abdallat lie in wait for caravans to pass. The Palmyrenes
of Ahitaya and his gang of bandits, who had long been hit back with their own rapid response forces.
lying in wait to rob the caravan. Bar Bolyada’s reputation Merchants, whose goods were being transport-
for heroism would earn him at least 17 honorary statues ed, paid locals who knew the desert and could
in Palmyra and surrounding cities. offer protection against bandit attacks.
Getting a caravan and its cargo across the per- in organizing and defending caravans became an TEMPLE OF BEL
ilous desert intact took months of preparation. example of morality and piety. Their statues oc- Photographed in
Prominent merchants would come together to cupied a prominent place in the city’s temples. 2009, the inner
sanctuary survived
negotiate a joint expedition. They procured For example, in the Great Colonnade that for millennia before
camels from the desert nomads and cajoled runs through the city, a statue was erected in its destruction by
the nomads to their side to help avoid bandit honor of Julius Aurelius Zenobius. Inscrip- ISIS in 2015. Today,
attacks. Even so, a caravan traveled with its own tions recorded that he had been “commander only the great
gateway remains
armed militia commanded by a trusted and ex- at the time of arrival of the divine Alexander” standing.
perienced warlord. and “overseer also of the distribution of corn, NICK LAING/AWL IMAGES
a liberal man, not sparing even of his own pri-

Divine Blessings vate property, and conducting his public service
Palmyra’s esteem of trade was reflected in its reli- with distinction, so that he has been blessed
gious beliefs and practices. It seems that the Pal- by the god Yarhibol and by Julius Priscus, the
myrenes’relationship with their gods was simi- most illustrious prefect and sacred praetor.”
lar to an exchange of goods. According to some When people turned to the divinities, it was
inscriptions, being honest and shrewd in busi- generally to ask for material or economic ben-
ness was a great virtue. So, those who excelled efits or to give thanks for those already received.

SACRED STRUCTURE
The Temple of Bel

THIS SANCTUARY, DEDICATED IN A.D. 32, served Bel, In addition to the main building, there was 3 an
the main divinity of Palmyra. The largest monu- altar for animal sacrifices and 4 a sacred pool
ment in the city, it was surrounded by 1 a wall where priests performed their ablutions. In the
topped with triangular, stepped merlons and center of the enclosure stood 5 Bel’s sanctuary.
standing 50 feet tall at its highest point. The main This central structure combined Greco-Roman
entrance gave access to 2 the sacred enclosure, a elements, such as the columns, with Persian at-
large courtyard with double-columned porticoes. tributes, such as the roof.
A male figure wears a headdress decorated

with a wreath of leaves. Second to third
centuries A.D., Louvre Museum, Paris
F. RAUX/RMN-GRAN PALAIS
2 5
1
THE SANCTUARY
This portion of the temple
was surrounded by columns
with Corinthian capitals.
The only room in the temple
was the cella, some 42
feet wide, where the statue
of Bel was kept. The roof
of this building was not
gabled, as in Greek temples,
but flat, which meant it
could be walked upon.
ILLUSTRATIONS: RISE STUDIO
4
Cult practice was built around trying to secure
favorable trading conditions from the gods, of-
ten within a family context. Numerous funer-
ary reliefs and sculptures have been discovered
in which the deceased are represented in their
prime and dressed in their best clothes. The
tombs in Palmyra’s cemeteries were richly dec-
orated with sculptures of the deceased. These
moving works of art blend Greco-Roman
realism with Parthian influences and fashion.
Diverse Deities
Palmyrene cosmology was also multicultural,
drawing on the faiths of the different peoples
who came to the city. In the Palmyrene panthe-
on, the supreme god was Bel, probably called
Bol in the local language. Originally Bel was
a protective divinity of the oasis and took on
attributes of the Greek god Zeus. His main
temple complex in the city was very similar
in shape and layout to the Hebrew Temple
in Jerusalem.
Palmyra’s religion was not monotheistic, like

that of Yahweh. There were many deities, some
local and some from other cultures. Along with
Bel, and forming a kind of supreme triad, were
Yarhibol and Aglibol, a moon god native to
northern Syria. Baal Shamin, lord of the skies,
was of Phoenician origin, and Atargatis, god-
dess of fertility, came from the Syrophoeni-
cian area. Besides Zeus, other Greek gods and
heroes, such as Hercules and Nemesis, were
Worshipping the assimilated, as were gods from Mesopotamia,
God With No Name North Africa, and nomadic Arab cultures.

Standing at the crossroads where gods, peo-
HUNDREDS OF SMALL ALTARS have been found around ples, and languages met, Palmyra enjoyed more
Palmyra with intriguing inscriptions addressed to an un- cultural diversity than almost anywhere in the
named deity. All of them offer up praise—“he whose name ancient world. In this thriving oasis, people
is blessed forever,” “lord of the universe,” “the good and from different places with very different tradi-
merciful”—to the god while never naming him directly. The tions succeeded in cocreating a culture based
god’s identity has puzzled scholars for years, but Polish ar-
on pragmatism and a passion for trade, accept-
chaeologist Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider of the University
ing one another and their gods.
of Wrocław believes that there was no single anonymous
god. The Palmyra inscriptions used language similar to
hymns sung in the centuries before Mesopotamia; these Protecting the Past
ancient songs often thanked multiple deities rather than Palmyra diminished in importance after a
one. Leaving the Palmyrene altars’ messages of gratitude third-century rebellion, led by the Palmyrene
more open-ended continued that tradition, since so many queen Zenobia, destroyed the city. It was re-
of their gods went by different epithets and names. built but never recaptured its former glory. As
Palmyra altar, circa A.D. 232, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
MET/ALBUM
the city declined, its monuments and build- seized it in May 2015. Control would change DIVINE TRIO
ings fell into ruin. The grandeur of Bel’s great hands several times, but Syria ultimately re- Aglibol, god of the
temple and that of Baal Shamin kept them in gained possession in 2017. By then, ISIS had moon (left), Baal
Shamin, lord of the
use; both became churches. The Temple of Bel damaged the Roman theater, destroyed the Bel skies (center), and
became a mosque in the 12th century. and Baal Shamin temples, and looted treasures Malakbel, a sun god
The world’s attention returned to Palmyra in from the city. Syrian officials have pledged to (right), stand side
the 18th century, when visiting scholars pub- restore what was lost in the hopes that the by side on this circa
first-century a.d.
lished detailed drawings of its gorgeous archi- world can again experience one of history’s relief. Louvre, Paris
tecture. Excavations began in earnest in the first multicultural centers. ALAMY/ACI
20th century, as archaeologists descended on

the site to explore its ancient wonders. Palmyra
proved invaluable in studying the economic FRANCISCO DEL RÍO SÁNCHEZ IS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ARAB AND
ISLAMIC STUDIES AT THE COMPLUTENSE UNIVERSITY, MADRID, SPAIN.
and cultural interactions of the world in the
first 300 years of the Roman Empire, and it be-
came a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980. Learn more
The world’s attention was drawn back to Pal-
Pearl of the Desert: A History of Palmyra
myra during the Syrian civil war, when ISIS Rubina Raja, Oxford University Press, 2022

PALMYRENE
PORTRAITS
Adorning the tombs of Palmyra’s
wealthiest inhabitants were carefully
rendered busts and reliefs of the
deceased. The sculptures presented
their subjects at their best—well dressed
and coiffed in the fashion of the city.
They combine Greco-Roman costume
with elements of Persian-Sasanian
influence, such as the facial expressions
of the eyes and types of adornment.
They were originally brightly painted, but
only traces of their colors remain.
A bearded man appears A young girl holds a branch

before his camel, a sign and a bird, icons often seen
that he is a merchant by on Palmyrene children’s
trade. Relief, a.d. 160, tombstones. Relief, a.d. 150-
Glyptotek, Copenhagen 200, Palmyra Museum
150-200 (
A finely dressed man holds A stylish woman adorned

a game bird with one hand with jewelry rests her hand on
and his brother’s arm with the her face, a common gesture in
other. Relief, second century Palmyrene women’s funerary
a.d., Palmyra Museum portraits. Relief, third century
a.d., Pigorini Museum, Rome
Four finely dressed figures A caravan of camels and

pose as though they are horses wear jeweled harnesses
attending a funeral banquet. while carrying their wealthy
Second to third centuries riders. Relief, a.d. 100-150, PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE): FROM THE GARDENS/AURIMAGES;
BRIDGEMAN/ACI; SCALA, FLORENCE; BRIDGEMAN/ACI;
a.d., Palmyra Museum Cleveland Museum of Art FROM THE GARDENS/AURIMAGES; WOLFGANG SAUBER
ESPIONAGE AND INTRIGUE
Best known as a conductor on the

Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman
continued the fight for freedom by serving
with the Union Army and spying on the
Confederacy in South Carolina.
AMY E. BRIGGS
SD
Right: William H. Johnson based his portrait of

Harriet Tubman on the frontispiece of her 1886
biography. Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Above: The Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, New
York, issued pins as souvenirs in the 1950s.
PAINTING: ALAMY/ACI BUTTON: SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL
MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
A
MARYLAND ny student of American history is power in South Carolina and delivering a dev-
BEGINNINGS no stranger to Harriet Tubman. astating blow to the Confederacy. In one night,
Tidal wetlands Called the Moses of Her People, she led a mission that freed hundreds.
were the backdrop
to Tubman‘s early Tubman famously escaped slavery
life in Dorchester herself in 1849 and then returned Growing Up
County, Maryland. to guide family and friends to freedom along the The middle child of nine siblings, Tubman was
Today the wetlands Underground Railroad. She freed dozens of peo- born in Dorchester County, on Maryland’s East-
are part of Black- ple through her work in the 1850s. Perhaps her ern Shore, around 1822. Her parents, Harriet
water National
Wildlife Refuge. most significant, but less celebrated, contribu- “Rit”Green and Ben Ross, named their daughter
DRNADIG/GETTY tions came during the Civil War, when she Araminta. Both Rit and Ben were enslaved, as
worked for the Union as a nurse, soldier, and spy. were all their children. Tubman later recalled
Tubman’s skills and abilities, honed in the how Rit often told her children Bible stories,
backwoods of Maryland as she spirited people which led to Tubman’s deep, lifelong Chris-
north, were crucial to penetrating slave-holding tian faith.
ca 1822 1849 1850-1860

The infant Tubman likely
used a cradle like this In Dorchester Tubman As a conductor on
replica. Harriet Tubman
Museum, Maryland
SLAVERY County, Maryland,
Harriet Tubman is
escapes from
slavery and
the Underground
Railroad, Tubman
ALAMY
AND born to enslaved travels north rescues more
FREEDOM parents who name
her Araminta
to freedom in
Philadelphia,
than 70 people
from slavery in
“Minty” Ross. Pennsylvania. Maryland.
As early as age five, Araminta began being

“hired out” for work in other households. In PORTRAIT
her own telling, it was a brutal experience, full
of violence and physical abuse at the hands of OF A LADY
her enslavers. She later remembered how one
mistress would whip her almost every morn-
TOUGHNESS, DETERMINATION, AND RESILIENCE —all of these factors
ing before work. Another incident, in which
she was hit in the head with a lead weight, left contributed to Harriet Tubman’s many successes on the Under-
ground Railroad and her work during the Civil War. They are all
her with a serious injury; she would be plagued
plainly visible in a photograph of her, recently discovered in 2019.
for the rest of her life by painful headaches and
Taken around 1868 when Tubman was in her 40s, it was found
debilitating seizures.
inside a photo album that belonged to abolitionist Emily Howland,
As a child, Araminta often worked in domes-
a colleague of Tubman’s from New York. Fashionably dressed in
tic settings, caring for children, cooking, and a ruffled shirt and checkered skirt, Tubman looks directly at the
cleaning. After she turned 12, Araminta moved camera—her expression serious and her gaze piercing. Her posture
is both composed and relaxed. From the photograph, it is hard
to tell that Tubman only stood around five feet tall, because she
1861 1863 radiates strength and vitality. Prior to the discovery, confirmed
photographs of Tubman were taken when she was older and often
After the Civil After establishing appeared diminutive and frail. These later images left her youthful
War breaks out, a spy network in appearance to the imagination, but this photograph reveals how
Tubman joins South Carolina,
she looked during her courageous exploits in her prime.
Union forces Tubman leads a
stationed at raid on plantations
Fort Monroe in along the Comb- Harriet Tubman photographed around 1868 by Benjamin F. Powelson in Auburn, New
Virginia. ahee River. York. National Museum of African American History and Culture
ALBUM/HERITAGE ART
outside to work in the fields. She was not tall,
but she was very strong, able to lift heavy bar-
rels, chop wood, and till the soil.
When Araminta was in her early 20s, she
married John Tubman, a free Black man, and
changed her name to Harriet. Even though her
husband was free, Harriet Tubman was not. Like
most enslaved people, she and her family were
in constant risk of being split up if their owners
decided to sell.
Spreading Freedom
Harriet Tubman’s successful escape in 1849
was fueled by such fears; her enslaver, Edward
Brodess, died suddenly, and there were rumors
that his widow was going to sell Tubman and
her siblings. Rather than let the widow decide
her fate, Tubman struck out on her own and
found her way north to Philadelphia.
For the next 11 years, Tubman did her best
known work in the causes of freedom and hu-
man rights. She became an important figure
in abolitionist
This PDF was uploade To Telegram channel_https://t.me/Magzines_latest_Newspaper(send Me Message circles
telegram ya WhatsApp (although
This she was not
number 8890050582)
fond of public speaking) and became allies with

prominent antislavery figures, including noted
speaker Frederick Douglass and the radical John
FINDING FREEDOM Brown (who so admired her bravery and tactics

that he called her General Tubman).
AT THE FORTRESS Through her leadership on the Underground

Railroad, Tubman returned south to Maryland
many times and rescued more than 70 enslaved
people, including members of her own fam-
FORT MONROE sits on a jutting piece of land known as Point Comfort. ily. She helped them relocate to free states like
In 1619 it was where the first enslaved Africans landed in Virginia— Pennsylvania and New York and even farther
the starting point for the history of slavery in the United States. More north to Canada.
than 200 years later, this place would be instrumental in its ending. Known as Moses, Tubman relied on careful
In May 1861 three men—Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James
planning and information networks. Tubman
Townsend—escaped slavery and arrived at Fort Monroe, which
was familiar with the Maryland landscape, riv-
was under Union control despite being in Virginia. Maj. Gen. Ben-
ers, and night sky, which helped her navigate
jamin Butler, the fort’s commander, met with the men and learned
north. She shrewdly began journeys on Satur-
that their enslaver, Col. Charles Mallory, was forcing them to build
Confederate fortifications. The colonel demanded the men’s return day nights, since runaway notices could not
under the Fugitive Slave Act, but Butler refused. He pointed out that appear in local newspapers until Monday. She
since Virginia claimed to have seceded, the act did not apply. Baker, carried a pistol, both for protection from slave
Mallory, and Townsend were free to stay at Fort Monroe. Word of catchers and to urge her passengers forward if
Butler’s actions quickly spread to other enslaved people in Virginia, they decided to turn back.“You’ll be free or die,”
and by the end of the Civil War, more than 10,000 Black Americans she said. Later in her life, Tubman proudly re-
gained their freedom through the fort. called,“I was the conductor of the Underground
Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most
Map of Fort Monroe, 1862. This colorful map shows how Fort Monroe and the conductors can’t say: I never ran my train off
surrounding area looked during Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler’s command. the track and I never lost a passenger.”
THE PROTECTED ART ARCHIVE/ALAMY
WHERE THE HEART IS
Drawn to Auburn, New York, as
a hub of abolitionism, Tubman
purchased a home there in 1859.
The original wood-frame house
later burned down and was
replaced by this brick structure.
NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE
War Efforts In late 1861 Tubman returned to New England MODERN MOSES
After the Civil War broke out in April 1861, and Auburn, New York, to spend the winter Tubman worked with
Tubman volunteered her services to the Union. and visit with her parents. (They had escaped biographer and friend
Sarah H. Bradford to
As a volunteer, she initially joined Maj. Gen. Maryland in the 1850s and settled in New York
tell her life story in
Benjamin Butler and his Massachusetts troops, with Tubman and other family members.) She Harriet: The Moses of
who were stationed at Fort Monroe, Virginia. looked forward to returning to the work at Fort Her People. The 1897
Tubman’s duties there were largely domestic. Monroe and helping build the free Black com- edition is shown
She worked as a nurse, cook, and laundress. munity there in the spring, but Massachusetts below.
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
That May, a group of Black Americans fled Governor John Andrew had different plans.
their Virginia enslavers and took refuge at Fort The Union had captured Port Royal, South
Monroe. Early in the war, there was no universal Carolina, in early November 1861. The barrier
approach about what to do with refugees like island was an important strategic gain, giving
them, but General Butler took an aggressive the Union naval control of Port Royal Sound
stance. The Union was at war with the Con- and the Sea Islands. Like Fort Monroe, Port
federacy, which meant that he could seize the Royal and the surrounding Beaufort area had
property, including enslaved people, of enemies become a haven for enslaved people fleeing the
of the state. coastal plantations of South Carolina, Georgia,
Butler referred to the escapees as “contra- and Florida.
band of war” and refused to turn over anybody Governor Andrew asked Tubman to travel
who had fled from slavery and come to Fort to Port Royal to aid the growing refugee com-
Monroe. The contrabands, as they became munity there in the Sea Islands. Tubman wel-
known, would stay at the garrison. Four months comed the new assignment, and, after getting
into the war, there were more than a thousand her affairs in order at home, she departed in
of them living and working alongside Tubman. May 1862.

Above: An unidentified soldier (possibly from a Maryland regiment) poses for a family portrait with his wife and daughters. Upper right: An unidentified Union corporal sits for a the
camera. Lower right: Two Union soldiers, possibly identified as brothers Baldy Guy (at left) and George Guy, sit together.
ALL PORTRAITS: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
ENLISTING Freedom Fighters

When the war began in April 1861, free Black
IN THE WAR people had limited opportunities to contribute

to the war effort, especially on the battlefield.
Despite having fought for independence in 1776
and in the War of 1812, Black Americans were
BLACK AMERICANS had been clamoring to fight for the Union excluded from fighting for the Union. This per-
since the beginning of the Civil War. The first officially recog- plexing stand was largely because of politics.
nized soldiers served in the First Regiment South Carolina Vol- Many Republican leaders wanted abolition, but
unteer Infantry. Because the Union had gained such a strong President Lincoln feared that the so-called bor-
foothold in the Port Royal area, people were flocking there in
der states, where slavery remained legal, would
droves to flee slavery. In August 1862 Gen. Rufus R. Saxton,
secede if the issue took center stage.
the military governor of the region, saw a valuable opportunity
Critics, including Tubman, loudly pointed out
in this growing population and began recruiting men after re-
the obvious contradiction with this position.
ceiving the secretary of war’s authorization. By January 1863,
when the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, the First Frederick Douglass noted in May 1861, just a
South Carolina was nearly a thousand soldiers strong. Recruit- month into the war:“There is but one easy, short
ing efforts continued, and the Second South Carolina, the unit and effectual way to suppress and put down the
that served with Harriet Tubman, was organized that month. desolating war … Fire must be met with water,
In May 1863, the Bureau of United States Colored Troops was darkness with light, and war for the destruction
established, expanding recruitment across the nation. Fighting of liberty must be met with war for the destruc-
from Missouri to Tennessee to Virginia, nearly 180,000 Black tion of slavery.”
Americans had enlisted to fight, making up about 10 percent of Following the precedent set by General Butler
the Union Army. Sixteen of them would be awarded the Medal at Fort Monroe, Congress took a step forward
of Honor for their service. by passing the First Confiscation Act in August
Abraham Lincoln presides
over the first reading of the
Emancipation Proclamation with
his cabinet on July 22, 1862. This
engraving by A.H. Ritchie is based
on a painting by F.B. Carpenter.
INCAMERASTOCK/ALAMY
1861. The act made it the Union’s policy to seize until abolition was the law of the land. She told a MAKE WAY!
property, including enslaved people, supporting friend,“God won’t let Mr. Lincoln beat the South This 1863 card
the Confederate military. A few short months till he does the right thing.” (below), designed
by Henry Louis
later, Secretary of War Simon Cameron was Union casualties mounted, and the U.S. gov-
Stephens, was part
publicly advocating that all contrabands should ernment’s attitude began to shift in 1862, when of a campaign to
be unconditionally freed and allowed to enlist Republican senators observed that it was time recruit Black soldiers
in the armed forces. for the military “to use all the physical force into the Union army.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Lincoln still resisted this position, despite of this country to put down the rebel-
critics loudly proclaiming the practicality and lion.” Two acts passed in July 1862 loos-
necessity of allowing Black people to fight. Dou- ened regulations. “Persons of African
glass knew that this investment would be key to descent” could now be employed “for
future citizenship battles:“Once let the [B]lack any war service for which they may be
man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S., found competent,” although permission
let him get an eagle on his button, and a mus- had to be secured for combat. The legis-
ket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, lation also declared the enslaved people
and there is no power on earth which can deny of anyone serving in the Confederacy
that he has earned the right to citizenship in “forever free.”
the United States.” Both acts laid the groundwork for the
As the war dragged on, abolitionist voices Emancipation Proclamation. It would
grew louder and louder. Tubman’s was among be issued on September 22, 1862, and go
them. Her support of Lincoln had been luke- into effect on January 1, 1863. All enslaved
warm at best because of his cautious approach to people in the Confederate states“are, and
slavery. Tubman wanted a quick, complete end henceforward shall be free.” The procla-
to slavery and felt that the war was unwinnable mation also settled the question of who
COMBAHEE
RIVER
LOCATED SOME 20 MILES south of Charleston,
South Carolina, is a rich ecosystem created
by the Ashepoo, Combahee (shown here),
and Edisto Rivers. Known as the ACE Basin,
this coastal river system consists of 1.1 million
acres of wetlands and coastal islands where rice
once flourished. Abandoned after the Civil War,
the former plantations have become havens
for wildlife, including white-tailed deer, foxes,
and American alligators. Tidal creeks serve as
habitat for fish and coastal birds like herons,
egrets, and ducks.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION
RAID AT COMBAHEE FERRY
The success of the raid on Confederate
supplies and homes along the Combahee
River (seen in this wood engraving from
Harper’s Weekly) in June 1863 owed much
to Tubman’s advice and planning and her
leadership of one of the raid parties.
EVERETT COLLECTION/BRIDGEMAN
ABOLITIONIST could fight for the Union. Black American men Railroad, the officers asked Tubman to form
A portrait from could enlist in the Army and Navy. and lead a spy network in the region.
Col. James Tubman was willing, and her experience
Montgomery's
visiting card. He Joining the Fight made her the perfect person to launch the net-
led the Combahee When the U.S. Army decided to let Black Ameri- work. Her biographer Catherine Clinton wrote,
Raid alongside cans fight, volunteer Black regiments arose in “Tubman had established such clandestine
Tubman. Tennessee, Massachusetts, Kansas, and South networks in the upper South during her Un-
NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Carolina. Two Union colonels, Thomas Went- derground Railroad days and felt confident she
worth Higginson and James Montgomery, would might make similar headway in wartime Caro-
command two of these regiments. They arrived lina.” Tubman built a team of spies with many
in South Carolina, where Tubman was sta- recruits from the local area around Beaufort. Her
tioned. Both men were staunch abolitionists crew included Solomon Gregory, Mott Blake,
before the war and familiar with Tubman’s Peter Burns, Gabriel Cahern, George Chisholm,
work. Higginson knew her well, for he had Isaac Hayward, Walter Plowden, Charles Sim-
met her in Massachusetts, and Mont- mons, and Sandy Suffus.
gomery knew her by reputation through This group collected intelligence from not
their colleague John Brown. Both men only South Carolina but also farther south in
quickly saw what an asset they had in her Georgia and Florida. These spies would gather
as a teammate. information from local enslaved people about
During her first 10 months in South Confederate plans, like where Confederate
Carolina, Tubman had been mostly nurs- troops placed gunpowder-filled barrels in
ing the sick. Now the colonels wanted her waterways to damage Union crafts. Informa-
to be more actively involved. Because of her tion gained from these spies became known as
experience guiding people on the Underground Black dispatches.
70 JANUARY/FEBRUARY2024
COMBAHEE
Harriet Tubman is well-known for leading enslaved people north on the
BRITISH Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she led a crew that
included 300 Black Union soldiers in a raid up the Combahee River. Informed
RIVER RAID
NORTH AMERICA
MINN. by intelligence from a network of regional spies, she helped liberate over
700 people and delivered a massive blow to the rice plantation economy.
VT. ME.
WIS.
MICH.
N.Y.
N.H. Charleston
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oy June 1–2, 1863
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led to western territories,
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A ME RI C A North America (Canada). GEORGIA 5 km
BOUNDARIES SHOWN AS OF JUNE 1863. MODERN DRAINAGE SHOWN. KATIE ARMSTRONG, NGM STAFF. SOURCES: MAPPING ANTEBELLUM RICE FIELDS, LAND, 2021, HANKS AND OTHERS;©OPENSTREETMAP
Raiding the Rebels

This early work led to Tubman’s most daring RICE ALONG
mission. Working with her commander, Colonel
Montgomery, the two planned an operation to THE RIVERS
raid Confederate supplies and homes along the
Combahee River. Three ships and 300 Union
soldiers left late in the evening of June 1, 1863, to RICE WAS SOUTH CAROLINA’S MOST ICONIC cash crop and had been
sail up the river under the cover of darkness into since the colonial era. Plantations in the Low Country, especially
the Low Country. Tubman’s careful planning the ones on the Combahee, were especially productive, largely
and intelligence gathering allowed the boats to because of the river’s unique geography and the knowledge of
the enslaved Africans who worked along the river. Rice planta-
avoid Confederate mines and slip by undetected.
tions in this region relied on ocean tides for their irrigation. When
In the early morning hours of June 2, the
the tides were high, fresh water in the rivers was pushed inland,
Union forces attacked, wreaking havoc on the
which would raise water levels in the fields. When tides went out,
rice plantations along the river. Tubman led her
water levels would drop. The Combahee had a higher volume of
own raiding party of eight men, helping to liber- fresh water compared to other rivers in the area, which protected
ate enslaved people and seize whatever resources its crops from damaging brackish water that could come in with
they could. Tubman later recalled how people the tide. In addition to the Combahee waters, the people who
seemed to drop what they were doing when they farmed this land brought knowledge from their homelands in
realized the Yankees were there: Africa. Many of the Black Americans who lived in South Carolina’s
Low Country descended from people who lived along the “Rice
I nebber see such a sight … Here you’d see a Coast” of Africa, which stretches from modern-day Senegal to
woman wid a pail on her head, rice a smokin’ Sierra Leone to Liberia. People had been farming rice there for
in it jus’ as she’d taken it from de fire … One thousands of years, and the techniques used in South Carolina
woman brought two pigs, a white one an’ a are the same as those from Africa.
black one; we took ‘em all on board; named
de white pig Beauregard, and de black pig
Jeff Davis.
The raid was an unqualified success, striking a

strong blow to one of the South’s most impor-
tant economic engines. Tubman estimated
that she recruited around 100 soldiers from
the refugees. Newspapers buzzed with ac-
counts of the raid and its leaders, including
Tubman. A Boston newspaper, the Com-
monwealth, trumpeted:
Col. Montgomery and his gallant band of

300 [B]lack soldiers, under the guidance
of a Black woman, dashed into the en-
emy’s country, struck a bold and effective
blow, destroying millions of dollars worth
of commissary stores, cotton and lordly
dwellings, and striking terror into the
heart of rebeldom, brought off near 800
slaves and thousands of dollars worth
of property,
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receiving a scratch.
Tubman also described her triumph in a
FIGHTING FOR letter she dictated to a friend:
A SOLDIER’S PAY We weakened the Rebels somewhat on the

Combahee River by taking and bringing away
some 756 head of their most valuable live-
HARRIET TUBMAN’S WORK earned her great fame, but it didn’t bring
stock, known up in your region as “contra-
her much money. Despite serving the Union in several capacities bands,” and this too without a single loss of
during the war, Tubman was only paid $200. At Fort Monroe and in life on our part, though we had good reasons
Port Royal she nursed, housed, and assisted hundreds of Black refu- to believe that a number of Rebels bit the dust.
gees who were fleeing slavery. Gathering intelligence and leading
the Combahee River Raid were operations well within the theater of It was a moment of triumph for Tubman, who
war. During Reconstruction Tubman began actively crusading for a many historians believe is the first American
pension. Part of the challenge was that much of the documentation woman to lead troops in an armed attack. She
of Tubman’s work was fragmented. To help Tubman, an Auburn would spend the summer helping the newly
banker named Charles P. Wood assembled a dossier on her mili- freed Americans begin their lives in Port Royal.
tary service, pulling together letters, military correspondence, and By the fall, Tubman’s health had begun to
testimonials from Union officers who worked with her during the wane, and she was granted leave to return to
war. Wood submitted everything to the U.S. government to help Auburn in spring 1864. She went back in March
Tubman obtain a proper pension for her service. The fight would 1865, treating the wounded and sick in Virginia
take decades of relentless advocacy. Tubman’s tenacity paid off hospitals near Fort Monroe. Even after General
in 1899, when the nation finally recognized the veteran’s service Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House
and granted her a pension for her work as a nurse. on April 9, Tubman continued her work in the
General Affidavit bearing Harriet Tubman's signature as part of the fight for her military region, treating the sick and wounded through
pension, circa 1898. Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, National Archives July before going back to New York for good.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Harriet Tubman (far left) stands next
to her daughter Gertie and her husband
Nelson Davis, together with other
members of her family and household.
Auburn, New York, 1880s.
ALPHA HISTORICA/ALAMY
Life After the War be a slow process, taking tremendous determi- POSTHUMOUS
Tubman’s devotion to civil rights and hu- nation, before the government granted one in HONOR
manitarian issues continued for decades after 1899. It was both a sign of the times and of the Two U.S. postage
stamps have
the war. On the national front, she worked for long struggle that would follow Reconstruction honored the life
woman suffrage, while in Auburn she opened into the 20th century, as the nation backslid into and work of Harriet
her home to those in need, especially formerly another era of racial discrimination. Tubman: in 1995
enslaved people. Tubman continued to fight for equality and (top) and 1978
(bottom).
Tubman's first husband died in 1851, leaving fairness until her death in 1913. Hundreds at- ALAMY/ACI
her free to remarry in 1869. Her second husband tended her funeral in Auburn. She was buried
was a war veteran, 25-year-old Nelson Davis. with military honors in Fort Hill Cemetery,
In 1874 they adopted a daughter named Gertie. where her husband, brother, and father also
Tubman and her husband ran a seven-acre farm rested. On the back of her headstone read a sim-
and a brickmaking business together until his ple list of her accomplishments:“Heroine of the
death in 1888. Underground Railroad,”“Nurse and Scout in the
Despite her generosity, Tubman often lacked Civil War,” and “Servant of God, Well Done.”
money. Her community in Auburn rallied
around her. A white friend, Sarah H. Bradford,
AMY E. BRIGGS IS THE EDITOR IN CHIEF
worked with Tubman on her biography in 1869, OF NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY.
which earned roughly $1,200. In the 1880s, Tub-
Learn more
man and Bradford published a new edition en-
titled Harriet: The Moses of Her People. Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and
Black Freedom during the Civil Warm
During Reconstruction, Tubman began a Edda L. Fields-Black, Oxford University Press, 2024
decades-long battle to obtain a military pension Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom
for her service during the Civil War. It would Catherine Clinton, Back Bay Books, 2005
PENETRATING
STARE
Photographed in the
year of his death,
Grigory Rasputin
was famous for the
intensity behind his
piercing blue eyes,
revealed in this
colorized image.
MARY EVANS/AGE FOTOSTOCK
THE DEATH OF
RASPUTIN
A mystic peasant with mysterious healing powers,
Rasputin rose to become an adviser to Tsar Nicholas II
and his wife Alexandra, drawing the ire of Russia’s
nobility. Considered a danger to the throne, Rasputin
was murdered by those who feared his influence.
HELEN RAPPAPORT
Princess Zinaida Yusupova
(at left) and Grand Duchess
Elizabeth Fyodorovna were both
concerned about the tsarina’s
ONE OF THE n the night of December 16-17, relationship with Rasputin.
(ROYAL) FAMILY 1916, a murder took place atMe Message telegram yaFINEWhatsApp
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In a photograph
one of Russia’s grandest pal-
taken around 1909,
Rasputin poses with aces. The crime marked the
Tsarina Alexandra, culmination of an ugly, con-
her four daughters, certed campaign against both the victim and reclusive Romanovs alarmed the imperial in-
her son, Alexei,
and Alexei’s nanny, his imperial Russian patrons. It would rock the ner circle, who demonized Rasputin and those
Maria Vishnyakova tsarist elite at a time when World War I was who followed him.
(at bottom right). ravaging Europe and Russia was inexorably
ALAMY/ACI
sliding toward revolution. From Country to Court
More than a hundred years later, the sensa- Born in 1869 to peasant farmers, Grigory Yefi-
tionalist reporting of the murder of Grigory movich Rasputin grew up in Pokrovskoye—an
Rasputin—for so long erroneously portrayed obscure village in western Siberia some 1,600
as a mad monk—has persisted in distorting the miles from St. Petersburg. Little is known for
NOTE: THE DATES
CORRESPOND TO THE truth about his close relationship with Rus- sure about his upbringing, as records are scarce.
JULIAN CALENDAR THAT
WAS IN USE IN RUSSIA AT sia’s last tsar and tsarina, Nicholas and Al- At age 19, he married Praskovya Fyodorovna
THE TIME. THERE IS A 13-
DAY LAG WITH RESPECT exandra. How this lowly peasant and former Dubrovina, who later bore him four children.
TO THE GREGORIAN
CALENDAR USED NOW. horse dealer achieved such unique access to the When he left home in 1892, his family stayed
1905 1912
Nicholas II and The rulers’ son, Alexei, who
ROYAL Alexandra, the rulers has hemophilia, suffers a near-
FAVORITE of Russia, establish
a relationship with
fatal hemorrhage at Spała, a
town now in Poland. Alexandra
Rasputin, a Siberian and Nicholas believe that
peasant with an aura of Rasputin has the power to
mysticism and healing. relieve his symptoms.
Jewelry box with the portraits of Nicholas II and Alexandra,
76 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 produced for the 1913 tercentenary of the Romanovs
D.BAYES/BRIDGEMAN/ACI
CRISIS IN THE IMPERIAL FAMILY
FAMILY
CONCERNS
B
y 1916 the imperial family believed
that Rasputin’s influence over Tsarina
Alexandra and Tsar Nicholas could be
disastrous for Russia. On December
3, Alexandra’s sister Grand Duchess Elizabeth
Fyodorovna (known as Ella) visited the tsar
and his wife to warn them that Rasputin was
leading the dynasty to disaster. The couple
countered Ella’s claims by saying Rasputin
was a great and holy man; they advised her
to drop the subject. Ella told her friend, Prin-
cess Zinaida Yusupov: “She drove me away
like a dog.” Zinaida could well understand the
situation. When the princess had criticized
Rasputin, Alexandra snapped at her:“I hope I
never see you again!” Both women were keen
to be rid of Rasputin, whatever it took. “Peace-
ful means won’t change anything,” Zinaida
wrote in a letter to her son Felix Yusupov, the
architect of Rasputin’s death.
behind. Rasputin is said to have experienced a him as a man of God. But soon rumors began to MONUMENT
religious epiphany and spent three months at circulate about Rasputin’s libidinous behavior TO THE MONK
A statue of
a monastery, though he never became an or- as a heavy drinker and sexual predator.
Rasputin (below)
dained priest. Instead, he wandered Russia for He led a strange and contradictory double stands in Tyumen,
several years seeking personal spiritual enlight- life. In the presence of his admirers, he culti- the Siberian city
enment—very much in the tradition of the itin- vated a persona that was sober, wise, and ad- where, in 1914, he
recovered from a
erant Russian holy man. vocated purity of body and mind. While away murder attempt.
By 1905 Rasputin had established himself from them, Rasputin would sometimes run riot SHUTTERSTOCK
in St. Petersburg as a spiritual guru and healer as a drunken, sexual degenerate. Projecting a
at a time when interest in alternative medicine perpetual pious image was hard work; Rasputin
and the occult were fashionable among Russia’s was a deeply conflicted man, torn between his
elite. There, he gathered around himself a clique profound religious beliefs and a deep, rebellious
of adoring, mainly female, acolytes who revered compulsion to sin.
1915 1916 1917

After Nicholas leaves for Rasputin is assassinated After the February
the front line of World on the night of December revolution, Rasputin’s
War I, Rasputin’s influence 16-17, in a plot hatched by hastily dug grave is
over Alexandra increases. Prince Felix Yusupov with discovered. His corpse
Rumors spread that the participation of Grand will be dug up and then
Rasputin is controlling her Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, the cremated at the Petrograd
and the government. tsar’s cousin. Polytechnic Institute.
In 1792 Catherine the Great
commissioned the Alexander
Palace in Tsarskoye Selo,
Nicholas II’s favorite imperial
residence.
AGE FOTOSTOCK
after rasputin’s death and Nicholas’s

PUPPET The Russian public was already deeply sus- abdication, satirical cartoons mocked the
MASTER picious of Rasputin when he was introduced to tsar and tsarina by linking them to Rasputin’s
licentious influence. This one shows Rasputin
Depicting him the tsar and tsarina in 1905. His reputation as as a drunken devil with the tsarina at his side.
as the trueThis
ruler a healer
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ya WhatsApp This number 8890050582)
of Russia, a
caricature (below) because of the poor health of their son and heir,
shows Rasputin Tsarevitch Alexei, who suffered from hemophil-
manipulating ia. In 1908 Rasputin allegedly used his abilities to
Nicholas and ease Alexei’s suffering during a severe episode. Rasputin now had his own personal chauffeur
Alexandra.
FINE ART/ALBUM Alexandra saw Rasputin as a healer and relied to take him out to Tsarskoye Selo for private
on him to help in Alexei’s care. prayer meetings with the tsarina.
Rasputin, however, could not limit his role Gossip about their relationship took an ugly
to health and spirituality. He also began of- turn. Concern grew within the Romanovs that
fering political advice to both Nicholas and Alexandra was leading the family into disre-
Alexandra. In doing so, he began making ene- pute. Lurid rumors flew that her relationship
mies for himself in the Russian aristocracy and with Rasputin had become sexual, as por-
government. Other members of the Romanov nographic images of them were circulated in
family despised Rasputin as a quack and con St. Petersburg. Rasputin and Alexandra were
man. Alexandra became estranged from her talked of as dark forces who would bring Rus-
own sister, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fy- sia to ruin.
odorovna, after she warned the tsarina
about Rasputin. The situation grew so Danger to Russia
dire that even Alexandra could not Rasputin had long been the target of death
protect her beloved “Father Grigory” threats, and soon there were open and wide-
from the hatred of her own family spread calls for his removal—by whatever
and friends. means necessary. After a knife attack by a
In 1915 World War I was raging, woman in June 1914 left him with a near-fatal
and Nicholas left Russia to spend stomach wound, he was accompanied every-
time on the eastern front. Lonely and where by a police agent. No one could get close
distraught, Alexandra began spending enough to kill him because Rasputin was always
more and more time in Rasputin’s company. carefully guarded.
“the ruling house of russia” was on the cover rasputin lasciviously cups the tsarina’s breast on a
of Novyi Satirikon in April 1917. Rasputin appears 1917 postcard. Below them is the word samoderzhavie,
as the center of power, worshipped by Nicholas which means “autocracy” in Russian but serves as a
(lower right), Alexandra (left), lady-in-waiting Anna pun here to show Rasputin as a master manipulator
Vyrubova (lower left), and several cabinet officials. of Alexandra and the imperial throne.
LADY OF INFLUENCE
ANNA AND
ALEXANDRA
A
nna Vyrubova was another lightning
rod for controversy for Empress Al-
exandra. Twelve years her junior,
Anna was summoned to court in 1905 as
a lady-in-waiting and soon became one of
the empress’s closest confidants. Utterly
devoted to the empress, Anna was part of
the imperial family’s inner circle. Like many
other upper-class women in Russia, Anna
was a devotee of Rasputin, who had proph-
esized the end of her marriage in 1907.
Awed by his abilities, Anna passionately
believed the holy man could help Alexan-
dra and her hemophiliac son. She helped Tsarina Alexandra (left)
facilitate a link between the empress and sits alongside Anna
Vyrubova in an undated
Rasputin, for which she would draw the ire photograph.
of Russia’s elite. GETTY IMAGES

PLOTTER AND
POLITICIAN
Vladimir
Purishkevich
(left) was a
monarchist and
anti-Semite who
saw Rasputin as a
danger to Russia.
FINE ART/ALBUM
FAMILY
PORTRAIT
Marrying into the
royal family, Prince
Felix Yusupov (right)
wed Nicholas’s niece
Irina (far right). Their
only child, also called
Irina, was born in
March 1915.
AKG/ALBUM
THE POLISH Rasputin’s alleged influence over the tsarina

DOCTOR generated serious concerns among several se-
Stanislav Lazovert nior members of the Romanov family. They
(below) allegedly
tacitly
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served to Rasputin. young, impetuous, and inexperienced 29-year-

A Polish doctor, old: Prince Felix Yusupov.
Lazovert had Born into one of Russia’s wealthiest fami-
met Vladimir
Purishkevich lies and married to Nicholas II’s niece Irina, Murder of the Monk
during World Yusupov considered it his patriotic duty The best known account of the events of De-
War I and was to rid Russia of Rasputin. With Rasputin cember 16-17, 1916, comes from Yusupov’s own
recruited into out of the picture, Yusupov hoped to writings published some 10 years after Raspu-
the plot.
restore the reputation of the tsar, as tin’s death. In La Fin de Raspoutine (and later in
ROGER-VIOLLET/
AURIMAGES
well as help Nicholas rely more on his memoirs, Lost Splendor, that followed in
his extended family, the nobility, the 1950s) Yusupov lays out the assassination
and the Duma. plans from start to finish. To begin, Yusupov
In October 1916 Yusupov had already made Rasputin’s acquaintance in
inveigled his friend (and Tsar the preceding weeks by consulting him a few
Nicholas’s cousin), 25-year-old times about health problems.
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, into The Yusupov family owned a palace on St. Pe-
planning the murder with him. At the tersburg’s Moika Canal, which was chosen as the
end of November, they had recruited location for the murder. Yusupov would invite
Vladimir Purishkevich, a member of Rasputin to the Moika to meet his wife, the
the Russian State Duma who had already beautiful Princess Irina. To conceal the visit
openly lambasted Rasputin. Two others and elude his security detail, Rasputin would
were taken on to assist in the final plan: a arrive very late on December 16.
Life Guards officer, Lieutenant Sergei Suk- Yusupov had prepared a small basement
hotin, and a Polish doctor, Stanislav Lazo- room to receive Rasputin. Dimly lit with col-
vert, who was to help with administering the ored lanterns and a blazing open fire, the room
poison—potassium cyanide crystals—which was richly arranged with works of art and cu-
Yusupov had obtained. rios, carved oak chairs, cabinets of ebony, a
RUSSIA’S RICHEST MAN?
FROM PLAYBOY
TO ASSASSIN
R
aised in the lap of luxury, Prince Felix
Yusupov enjoyed throwing wild parties,
smoking and drinking, and having love
affairs with men and women. After his older
brother’s death in 1908, Felix became the heir
to the family fortune: palaces, estates, jewels,
oil fields, coal and iron mines, factories, and
mills. In terms of wealth, the Yusupovs were
said to be second only to the Romanovs in
Russia. But after Rasputin’s murder in 1916 and
the revolution that followed, Felix lost his for-
tune. Felix and his wife, Irina, were forced into
exile, eventually settling in Paris, France, where
they lived off their remaining assets. When
those ran out, they turned to other means. In
1927 Felix used Rasputin’s death for income
when he published La Fin de Raspoutine, his
account of the assassination plot. Nearly two
decades later, Felix profited from his past again
with his scandalous memoirs, Lost Splendor,
that covered not only the infamous murder
but also his decadent youth.
Persian carpet, and a white bearskin rug. The appear as if a party were going on upstairs. As ROYAL
table was set with a samovar for tea, biscuits, Rasputin, Lazovert, and Yusupov entered the ASSASSIN
and fancy cakes—the kind that Yusupov said palace through a side entrance, they heard mu- Nicholas was
extremely fond of
Rasputin liked. Before Rasputin’s arrival, Suk- sic playing on the phonograph upstairs. Two his cousin Dmitri
hotin had ground the poison into a powder that young women had also arrived. At some point, Pavlovich (below),
Lazovert was said to have sprinkled inside the Rasputin believed, the lovely Irina would come whose involvement
cakes. Yusupov had also given Pavlovich and down to meet him in the basement. (Irina had in Rasputin’s murder
was a heavy blow to
Purishkevich a potassium cyanide solution to actually refused to be involved in the night’s the sovereign.
lace Rasputin’s wine. events and remained far away on the family ALBUM
Just after midnight, Lazovert, disguised as a estate in Crimea.)

chauffeur, drove Yusupov to Rasputin’s home Yusupov offered Rasputin the
at 64 Gorokhovaya Street. Rasputin’s daugh- cakes. At first he refused, then re-
ters recalled that he appeared in good spirits luctantly took one, then a second.
that night but also seemed highly nervous, Nothing happened. Yusupov could
as though he sensed something was amiss. not understand why the poison had
Rasputin had dressed up for the occasion; he not worked. He then persuaded his
wore a silk shirt embroidered with cornflowers guest to sample Madeira wine from
(specially made for him by the tsarina), velvet his own Crimean vineyards, having
breeches, and polished boots. He had washed managed surreptitiously to slip some
and combed his hair and, as Yusupov recalled, poison into the glass. Rasputin drank
smelled of cheap soap. the wine “like a connoisseur,” then
Meanwhile Pavlovich and Purishkevich, took some more, but still, mystify-
who remained at the Moika Palace, made it ingly, the poison had no effect.

IN THE
CHAMBER
OF DEATH
A
s soon as Rasputin entered the room, he
took off his coat and began inspecting
the furniture ... I offered him wine and
tea; to my disappointment, he refused both. Had
something made him suspicious? I was deter-
mined, whatever happened, that he would not
leave the house alive. We sat down at the table,
and he began to talk ... “It is clear my plain speak-
ing annoys a lot of people. The aristocrats can’t
get used to the idea that a humble peasant should
be welcome at the Imperial Palace ... They are
eaten up with envy and fury ... but I’m not scared
of them. They can’t touch me. I’m protected
against ill fortune. There have been attempts on
my life but the Lord has always frustrated these
plots.ThisDisaster will To
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against me.” Rasputin’s words echoed ominous-

ly through the room in which he was to die. But
nothing could deter me now. While he talked, my
one idea was to make him drink some wine and
eat the cakes.
—Felix Yusupov’s account of the night of Raspu-

tin’s death in his memoirs, Lost Splendor.
SCENE OF THE CRIME

The Yusupov Palace sits along the Moika River in
St. Petersburg. Today it is a museum with rooms
dedicated to Rasputin’s murder.
AGE FOTOSTOCK
SETTING THE STAGE
FOR MURDER
Waxwork figures of
Yusupov (at left) and
Rasputin in the basement
room of the Yusupov
Palace (now a museum)
depict the murder plot.
In his memoirs, Yusupov
described how he carefully
prepared the room and the
cakes to avoid arousing
Rasputin’s suspicions.
DAVID SOUTH/ALAMY
Rasputin fled through
this courtyard of the
Yusupov Palace on that
December 1916 night.
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
TWO GUNS, Things continued in this way for some time.

TWO KILLERS Rasputin prevailed on Yusupov to entertain
According to the him with a guitar. He drank more tea, his head
assassins’ accounts,
drooped,
Yusupov shot and his eyes closed. He was tired—butMe Message telegram ya WhatsApp This number 8890050582)
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Rasputin with a yet, more than two hours later, the poison had
Browning pistol not done its work.
and Purishkevich All this time Yusupov’s co-conspirators
shot him with a
semiautomatic were waiting upstairs. Eventually, an increas- eyes of a viper staring at me with an expression
Savage pistol, like ingly frantic Yusupov went to consult with of diabolical hatred,” he recalled.
the one shown them. Purishkevich recalled Yusupov franti- Suddenly, with a superhuman effort, Ras-
below.
ALAMY/ACI
cally telling them that “the only effect that I putin lunged to his feet and rushed at Yusu-
can see of the poison is that he is constantly pov with an animalistic roar, trying to grab his
belching and that he dribbles a bit.” throat. Despite the poison and the bullet in
The trio resolved they had no option but to his chest, Rasputin seemed to find enormous
shoot Rasputin. Yusupov removed a Brown- strength but then crashed onto his back. Yusu-
ing pistol from his writing desk and pov’s account at this point strains credibility,
returned to the basement, where he ascribing demonic powers to the injured man.
found Rasputin breathing heavily Utterly terrified, Yusupov rushed upstairs
and complaining of a heavy head and for help, retching with fear. Purishkevich now
a burning sensation in his stomach. As assumed control. Cocking his Savage pistol, he
Rasputin stood up, Yusupov raised his went down to find that Rasputin had managed
pistol and fired at him, hitting him to get out through the side door into the snow-
in the side of the chest. Pavlovich covered courtyard, staggering left in his agony.
and Purishkevich rushed down to see Purishkevich fired once and missed; then a
Rasputin lying on the bearskin rug. Lazo- second time—at a run—and again managed to
vert declared that Rasputin was dead, and the miss. Despite his wound, Rasputin, crawling
conspirators disappeared upstairs. on his knees, reached the gate of the courtyard
Yusupov was uneasy and went back down to when Purishkevich fired a third time and hit
double-check the body. As he drew close, Ras- him in the back. He then fired a fourth and fatal
putin’s eyes suddenly opened wide: “the green shot directly into Rasputin’s forehead.
CRIME AND
ELEGANCE
On December
16, 1916, Yusupov
carefully prepared
this basement
room in his palace,
arranging it to
showcase his wealth
and good taste to
help distract his
victim.
AKG/ALBUM
CHILDREN OF THE ‘MAD MONK’
RASPUTIN’S
CHILDREN
R
asputin’s two teenage daughters,
Maria and Varvara, lived with him in
St. Petersburg. In December 1916, ru-
mors of death threats against their father had
reached them. When they saw him getting
ready to go out on the 16th, they hid his ga-
loshes to try to keep him safe at home, but
he found them and met his fate that night.
After his murder, Maria and Varvara lived
with their mother, but the girls’ ties to the
Romanovs endangered them. Maria fled
Photographed in 1911,
Russia for continental Europe, while Varvara Rasputin’s eldest daughter
remained behind and died in 1924. Touring Maria (far right) sits next
across Europe, Maria worked as a dancer and to her father and one of his
followers. Maria escaped
circus performer before immigrating to the Russia after her father’s death,
United States in 1937. She lived there until eventually settling in the
United States in 1937.
her death in September 1977. GETTY IMAGES

Two Russian soldiers
sit by Rasputin’s grave
after it was found in
March 1917.
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
LEAVE Pavlovich, Sukhotin, and Lazovert then dis-

NO TRACE posed of Rasputin’s body. They wrapped it in a
After the February heavy cloth and tied it with rope. They dragged it
revolution, the
into
provisional Pavlovich’s
Telegram car and drove to the Large Petro-Me Message telegram ya WhatsApp This number 8890050582)
channel_https://t.me/Magzines_latest_Newspaper(send
government ordered vsky Bridge by the Neva, where they threw the
Rasputin’s body body through the broken ice. They drove home
to be burned. The just as dawn was breaking.
order appears in this
document dated Rumors of Rasputin’s disappearance and back, and the fatal shot—fired at point-blank
March 11, 1917, a probable murder began to circulate rapidly in range, possibly from a .455 Webley revolver—in
few days after the St. Petersburg. At the Alexander Palace at Tsar- the head. There were no traces of poison found
discovery of his grave. skoye Selo, the tsarina waited anxiously for news in the body, only alcohol.
GETTY IMAGES
while the police initiated a search. On For more than 100 years Yusupov’s account
December 19 Rasputin’s body—his has been the accepted source on Rasputin’s mur-
arms frozen over his head in an eerie der, though many have expressed reservations
gesture—was found by the river po- about its accuracy. One of the biggest points of
lice near Krestovsky Island. When the contention is whether the cakes had indeed been
news got out, the public rejoiced on the poisoned. Not long before his death, Lazovert
streets, said prayers of thanks in church, said that he had second thoughts about poison-
and lit candles in front of the icons. Yu- ing Rasputin and had substituted something
supov and Pavlovich were feted as na- harmless for the cyanide. Yusupov’s dramatic
tional heroes. telling of the night’s events, accurate or not, has
Rasputin’s remains were taken in a become stuck in the public imagination.
Red Cross van to a home for army vet-
erans. On Nicholas II’s specific instruc- Aftermath
tions, an autopsy was conducted on the It is said that Tsarina Alexandra retrieved the
still frozen body that evening. A doctor embroidered shirt that Rasputin had been
named Dmitry Kosorotov ascertained wearing and treasured it as a religious talisman.
that Rasputin had been shot three times After the autopsy, Rasputin’s body was pre-
by different caliber revolvers: once in pared for burial and laid out with an icon from
the left side of the chest, another in the the imperial family on his breast. At midnight on
December 21, Rasputin’s zinc coffin was taken centuries of Romanov rule. Nicholas, Alexandra, RECOVERED
to Alexander Park at Tsarskoye Selo, where it and their children were imprisoned by Rus- FROM THE NEVA
Rasputin’s battered
was secretly buried in the presence of Nicho- sia’s provisional government and exiled, first to
body was pulled
las, Alexandra, and a few others, on the site of Siberia and then to Yekaterinburg. The entire from the Neva River
a new chapel that was being built there. family would be murdered there in July 1918. a few days after his
Authorities quickly caught the conspirators In early March 1917, Rasputin’s resting place murder. According
to the autopsy,
and placed them under house arrest. As pun- was discovered at Tsarskoye Selo. The provi- he was shot three
ishment, the tsar exiled Yusupov to a family sional government feared his grave could serve times: in the chest,
estate in Belgorod Oblast. Grand Duke Dmitry as a potential pilgrimage site and ordered it de- in the back, and in
was banished from court and sent to fight on stroyed. The coffin was dug up in secret, and the head.
GETTY IMAGES
the Persian front. Dmitry’s punishment drew Rasputin’s remains were burned. For the Russian
heated opposition from the Romanov family, public, fueled by their irrational and deep-seated
but the decision probably saved his life. When hatred of him, it was a fitting end.
the tsarist autocracy collapsed after the Feb-
ruary 1917 revolution, Dmitry was a long way DR. HELEN RAPPAPORT IS A NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR AND
HISTORIAN SPECIALIZING IN LATE IMPERIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA.
from danger.
The conspirators claimed to have killed Ras-
putin to save the Russian throne, but it seems
Learn more
their actions did little to help the monarchy
in the long term. Tensions caused by World Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs
Douglas Smith, Picador, 2017
War I and domestic turmoil boiled over a few
months after Rasputin’s death. After the revolu- Caught in the Revolution:
Petrograd, Russia, 1917—A World on the Edge
tion of 1917, Nicholas II abdicated, ending three Helen Rappaport, St. Martin’s Press, 2017

RUSSIA’S
GREATEST
LOVE
MACHINE?
Pop culture embraced Rasputin’s scandalous
reputation, turning him into a supervillain.
I
t is safe to say that Grigory Raspu- 1916, thanks to his
tin had a bad reputation when he murderers—most
was alive. Tales of his licentious notably Felix Yusupov. His books
RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS,
behavior spread far and wide through- describe Rasputin as almost superhu- 1932
out Russia. His favor with Tsarina man in the face of death. Poison failed Bedeviled by controversy, Richard
Alexandra sparked stories that she to kill him. A bullet stopped his heart Boleslawski’s take on Rasputin’s
was his lover, a theory that lingered for a moment before he sprang back to life triggered costly legal action by
Prince Yusupov. UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/GETTY
despite never being confirmed. While life and attacked Yusupov:“This devil
he lived, gossip thrived about his who was dying of poison, who had a
powersThis of
PDFhealing, mind
was uploade control,
To Telegram and bullet in his heart, must have
channel_https://t.me/Magzines_latest_Newspaper(send been
Me Message stars
telegram LionelThis
ya WhatsApp Barrymore as the Rus-
number 8890050582)
seduction. After he died, immortal- raised from the dead by the powers sian mystic, Ethel Barrymore as the
ity was added to that list, turning him of evil. There was something appall- tsarina, and John Barrymore as Prince
into a legend. ing and monstrous in his diabolical Chegodieff, a stand-in for Yusupov
Rasputin’s reputation grew big- refusal to die.” determined to kill the monk to save
ger and badder after his death in Yusupov’s memoirs paint a pic- Russia (and his wife, Princess Nata-
ture of an impervious supervillain sha, who was modeled on Yusupov’s
with sorcery and strength wife, Irina) from succumbing to his
at his command. It is this hypnotic powers. Using his powers
caricature of Rasputin of fascination and magic, Rasputin
that has taken on a life puts the tsarina’s son under a spell
of its own—on stage and pulls her under his influence.
and screen, as well as The film is remembered more to-
in music. One day for being the reason the disclaim-
of the earliest er “any similarity to any person living
depictions of or dead is purely coincidental” exists.
Rasputin in The Yusupovs successfully sued MGM
film is 1932’s for libel and invasion of privacy based
Rasputin and on the film’s implication that Raspu-
the Empress. It tin sexually assaults the Irina-based
PRINCESS NATASHA & RASPUTIN

Rasputin and the Empress depicted fictional Princess Natasha
(played by Diana Wynyard and based on Yusupov’s wife,
Irina) in thrall to Lionel Barrymore’s Rasputin.
ALAMY
THE MAD MONK, 1966
The poster for Don Sharp’s Hammer horror
classic sets the tone. HAMMER FILMS/RGR COLLECTION/ALAMY
NIGHTS OF RASPUTIN, 1962

Pierre Chenal’s French-Italian offering ramped up
the mystic’s seductive appeal. PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY
‘RASPUTIN,’
BONEY M., 1978
Ra-Ra-Rasputin
met disco and
This PDF was uploade To Telegram channel_https://t.me/Magzines_latest_Newspaper(send Me Message dance
conquered telegram ya WhatsApp This number 8890050582)
floors everywhere.
ALAMY
character. The case was settled out of Sought His Embraces as He Taught funk and disco group Boney M. re-
court for about $250,000 (nearly six Them Salvation Through Sin!”British leased “Rasputin.” In an earworm of a
million dollars today), which the Yu- actor Christopher Lee starred in 1966’s chorus, he’s called “lover of the Rus-
supovs lived on for quite some time. Rasputin: The Mad Monk, whose post- sian queen”and“Russia’s greatest love
In the 1960s Rasputin’s seductive ers asked:“What mystic power did this machine.” Each verse details another
powers had become a defining trait in man possess that turned men into kill- chapter in Rasputin’s life, starting with
his pop culture depictions. Promo- ers—and women into animals!” his faith healing and ending with his
tional posters for Nights of Rasputin In 1978 Rasputin’s reputation as a gruesome murder, all set to a very
boldly promised: “Women Hungrily lady’s man took a musical turn when danceable beat.
DISCOVERIES
The Lost Capital of

Ancient Assyria
Once overlooked by archaeologists, Assur has emerged as a city
of great spiritual and political importance in the Assyrian Empire.
T
he key to understand- Arabic as Qalat Sherqat, was
ing the ancient city of neglected by 19th-century
Assur (also known as archaeologists.
Ashur) to Assyrian Despite its pivotal role
civilization lies in its name. As- economically and politically,
sur was the most revered god Assur was less known than
in Assyria, whose name means cities of equal importance
“land of Assur.” In the early in ancient Greece, Rome, or
days of the Assyrian Empire, Egypt, and it was not one
NG MAPS
Assur was its first capital and of the more familiar cities
the origin of its ruling dynasty. In the seventh century b.c., named in the Bible, such as
Sited on a crag on the west- the Assyrian kingdom was Babylon or Nineveh. Two
ern shore of the Tigris River in conquered by the Medes and pioneers of Mesopotamian
what is now Iraq, Assur acted Babylonians. Assur endured archaeology, Austen Henry
as a vital link for trade between for another millennium, oc- Layard and Hormuzd Ras- THE RUINS of Assur,
photographed in
Assyria and Anatolia, today’s cupied in turn by the Persian sam, did briefly investigate
the 1930s, are still
eastern Turkey. At its peak, Empire and later the Parthi- the site, but they preferred to dominated today by
around 900 to 600 b.c., As- ans. After being sacked by the focus on the more biblically the city’s great ziggurat.
syria attained the greatest level Sassanian Persians around a.d. prominent sites of Nineveh MATSON PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION/
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
of military power and bureau- 240, Assur was left in ruins. and Nimrud.
cratic organization the world It was not until the begin-
had yet seen. Overlooked ning of the 20th century that
Later, in the Neo-Assyrian In recent centuries, local peo- the first systematic excavation
Empire (911-609 b.c.), Assur’s ple knew the ruins of Assur, of the site was undertaken. Babylon in 1899, led by Rob-
political influence was declin- dominated by a once impos- The German Orient Society, ert Koldewey. He would bring
ing. It was replaced in 879 b.c. ing ziggurat, had been a great an archaeological association, to light such famous monu-
by a new capital, Kalhu, known city. The site, which today took a strong interest in Mes- ments as Babylon’s regal
today as Nimrud. lies in Iraq and is known in opotamia. It sent a mission to Ishtar Gate. Shortly afterward,
1850 1903-1914 1928 2022

THE Scholars Austen Walter Andrae Assur artifacts, After decades of
Henry Layard and directs major digs impounded in political turmoil, a
LOST CITY Hormuzd Rassam at Assur until Portugal since the new campaign of
REVEALED investigate the the outbreak of war, are brought by excavations begins
Assur site. World War I. Andrae to Berlin. at Assur.
ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

WALTER ANDRAE’S exceptional artistic skills
made him invaluable on Robert Koldewey’s
excavations of Babylon in the early 1900s.
King Wilhelm II of Prussia, in Babylon, where he put his
While learning the meticulous archaeolog-
an archaeology enthusiast, draftsman skills to use. As
ical methods that would later serve him in
reached an agreement with Koldeway’s disciple, he learned
Assur, Andrae made drawings and paintings
Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, leader that the purpose of archaeolo-
of the site almost daily. Methodical
of the Ottoman Empire, who gy was not only to collect ob-
and scientific, Andrae also had a
controlled the site at the time. jects for display in museums.
visionary side: In his memoirs,
German archaeologists would Above all, it was to understand
he wrote how, over many
be permitted to excavate As- how past societies functioned,
years, he formed in his mind
sur. Koldewey entrusted the which meant that every object
an “inner vision ... a spiritu-
mission to Walter Andrae. and structure exhumed had to
al picture” of what life was
be accurately documented.
like in those ancient cities.
Meticulous Methods Koldewey’s meticulous Self-portrait of the
Born near Leipzig in 1875, An- methods of planning stood archaeologist Walter Andrae
AGE FOTOSTOCK
drae trained as an architect.
He joined Koldeway’s team Continued on page 94
DISCOVERIES
1
4
5
The Temple of
Anu and Adad
Walter Andrae’s detailed drawings of Assur, including this
1909 sketch (colorized here) of the ancient temple dedi-
cated to the Assyrian gods Anu and Adad, showed how it
might have looked in its prime. Although the building dates
back to the 12th to 11th centuries b.c., Andrae depicted it
during the reign of King Shalmaneser III (858-824 b.c.). The
1 monumental entrance leads to 2 a large courtyard and
double ziggurat, 3 one dedicated to Anu and 4 the other to
Adad. Between each were 5 symmetrical chambers devot-
ed to worshipping both gods. Outside the temple enclosure
stood 6 the New Palace, while 7 the Tigris
River flowed alongside the complex.
MARY EVANS/AGE FOTOSTOCK (COLORIZED BY SANTI PÉREZ)
NA
DISCOVERIES
Treasures of Assur Necklace of gold

GERMANY’S MUSEUM OF THE NEAR EAST (Vorderasiatisches and semiprecious
stones, 14th-13th
Museum) in Berlin holds numerous objects collected centuries b.c.
during Andrae’s digs in Assur.
ALL IMAGES: BPK/SCALA, FLORENCE
Glazed pottery
fragment found in
1908, eighth-seventh
centuries b.c.
Four-wheeled Altar from the

chariot model, temple of Ishtar
second millen- depicting King
nium b.c. Tukulti-Ninurta I,
circa 1220 b.c.
Andrae in good stead when The city’s temple to the Esarhaddon, the walls were New Palace, built in the 13th
he began his work at Assur in god Assur stood high on a once covered with gold. century b.c. by Tukulti-Nin-
1903. In the nine years that fol- rocky spur to the northeast. Written in cuneiform on urta I. A third palace excavat-
lowed, he and his team of 180 The lavishly decorated mud- clay tablets, texts found at ed by Andrae was built much
workers managed to dig down brick building was completed the site documented several later by the Parthians in the
to the oldest settlement stra- around 1800 b.c. It had three royal palaces in Assur. An- second century a.d.
ta, the power center of the As- courtyards, plus rooms and drae and his team identified In 1912 Andrae and his team
syrian state. They uncovered chapels dedicated to other and excavated the two prin- made an exceptional discov-
a complex of temples, palaces, divinities. In one hard-to- cipal Assyrian-era palaces: ery inside the Old Palace: large
and fortifications. access chamber, archaeologists the Old Palace, with ancient hypogea, underground cham-
found the god’s room with his foundations embellished by bers accessed from the palace
statue. According to an in- Assur’s kings as the city be- by a staircase. These were the
scription by later sovereign came a regional power; and the royal tombs of Assur, where
Assyria’s ancient kings were
laid to rest.
The Assyrians and their capital were The tombs consisted of a
large underground chamber
named for Assur, father of the gods where a huge sarcophagus
and protector of the king. was placed, sealed with a slab.
Much of the hypogea, like the
The god Assur. A relief from the Temple of Assur, circa 2000-1500 B.C. city as a whole, had been looted
AKG/ALBUM
DISCOVERIES
RETURN TO
MESOPOTAMIA
ANDRAE WAS DRAFTED into the
German armed forces to serve
in World War I. In 1914 he first
saw action in the trenches of the
western front. He was reassigned
to more familiar territory, where
he had worked as an archaeolo-
gist at Syrian and Mesopotamian
sites. During his time in Bagh-
dad, he sailed up the Euphrates
and visited Nineveh and Assur.
The war gave him the chance to
create his most highly regarded
works of art: Andrae made land-
scapes of Iraq that captured the
essence and light of the lands.
After Baghdad, he took part in a
campaign in Persia, and in 1918,
finally, he was stationed in the
Holy Land.
Ruins of Assur in 1914, as seen by a German

archaeologist, possibly Andrae
DAGLI ORTI/AURIMAGES
by the Medes in 614 b.c. when War I, the ship’s cargo was In early 2022, a team from Today, a new threat to the
the Neo-Assyrian kingdom seized and held until 1926, Ludwig Maximilian Universi- site looms in the form of a
fell. Any gold or valuable grave when Andrae brought the ty in Munich, Germany, arrived public works project. Situated
goods were long gone. items to Berlin and began this at Assur to begin an ambitious 25 miles from Assur, the pro-
important work. program of restoration and in- posed Makhoul Dam could
Modern Threats Assur remained unexplored vestigation. Headed by LMU’s drown Assyria’s ancient cap-
The outbreak of World War I for decades. In 1978 new inqui- Karen Radner and Janoscha ital. While Assur’s future lies
in 1914 brought Andrae’s work ries were begun, but political Kreppner of Münster Univer- in the balance, the team is still
in Assur to a halt. In the 1920s, upheavals in Iraq, the state that sity, the group has carried out at work.
as director of the Museum of controlled the site, stymied a magnetometric survey to re- “We’re gathering a lot of
the Near East in Berlin, Andrae many efforts after 1989. cord Assur’s features. samples: charcoal, human
was tasked with recovering and The following years would The excavations will focus teeth, animal bones, and pa-
cataloging artifacts from As- see a series of ups and downs on Assur’s New Town, built leobotanical specimens. They
sur. These had been assigned for the site. In 2003 the ancient in the ninth century b.c. “Part are currently being analyzed.
to Germany in an agreement city became a UNESCO World of what makes New Town so The results will help develop a
with the Ottomans. In 1914 the Heritage site. In 2015, ISIS de- interesting is that the most more exact picture of the lives
Germany-bound ship carrying liberately destroyed Assur’s recent results show that it ex- of people in Assur from the
the items stopped in Portugal. remains, including severely isted in the mid-second mil- mid-second millennium b.c.
Although the Portuguese damaging the arches of a his- lennium b.c. before Assur was to the 7th century a.d. than has
government was officially toric symbol of the city, the the capital of a major regional ever been possible.”
neutral at the start of World monumental Tabira Gate. power,” Radner explained. —Alejandro Gallego
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