Truth, beauty and Pancho Villa
The first casualty of war is truth, they say, and nowhere was that sage old aphorism more true than in Mexico during the revolutionary period between 1910 and 1920. In all the blood and chaos that...
View ArticleThe mysterious Mr. Zedzed, the wickedest man in the world
Late in November 1927, an elderly Greek man sat in his mansion in Paris and tended a fire. Every time it flickered and threatened to die, he reached to one side and tossed another bundle of papers or a...
View ArticleA visit to the underworld: the unsolved mystery of the tunnels at Baiae
In 1958, the entrance to a hitherto unknown tunnel was discovered in the ruins of the old Roman resort of Baiae, on the Bay of Naples. Packed with rubble, wreathed in choking gases, and heated to more...
View ArticleErotic secrets of Lord Byron’s tomb
It was hot and dusty in the crypt, and it had been hard work breaking into it. Now the vicar had gone, along with his invited guests, to take his supper. The churchwarden and two workmen armed with...
View ArticleThe Fayum mummy portraits
Some Fayum portraits, dating collectively to the period AD 70-250. The numbers refer to discussions in the text. She is very beautiful. Her face is flawless: long and olive skinned, the nose long too,...
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