Sources & context.

Edition: When the Atlantic Flooded the Mediterranean | Who Came After — ManyPasts YouTube release supplied by the publisher on 2 October 2026 (zn6ENqzI7Sg). Developed as The Mediterranean: A Sea of Many Worlds (script v11, picture edition v6).

Research sources

• Land-to-sea indicators of the Zanclean megaflood ↗

  Communications Earth & Environment, 2024, Abstract; onshore/offshore Sicily evidence

• Chlorine isotopes constrain a major drawdown of the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis ↗

  Aloisi et al., Nature Communications 15, 9671 (2024), Abstract; two-phase halite accumulation model

• The Strait of Gibraltar in 3D ↗

  NASA Earth Observatory, 2003, Modern gateway geography

• Currents and Temperature, fish2206 ↗

  NOAA Photo Library, Caption describing Atlantic inflow and net evaporation

• High-resolution seismic record of Quaternary palaeoenvironments along a Dalmatian-type coast (Losinj Channel, Adriatic Sea) ↗

  Marine Geology, 2024, Abstract and indexed discussion: last-glacial northern Adriatic alluvial plain

• Obsidian in the Aegean ↗

  Annual of the British School at Athens, Obsidian source characterisation and distribution

• First wave of cultivators spread to Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago ↗

  Vigne et al., PNAS 2012, Abstract; Klimonas settlement, cereals, cats and dogs

• Choirokoitia ↗

  UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Description; Outstanding Universal Value

• Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008, Curatorial account of Bronze Age exchange and Uluburun

• Uluburun Late Bronze Age Shipwreck Excavation ↗

  Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Project description and bibliography

• Hull Construction of the Late Bronze Age Shipwreck at Uluburun ↗

  Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly 26.4 (1999), Hull construction study

• The provenance of some glass ingots from the Uluburun shipwreck ↗

  Jackson and Nicholson, Journal of Archaeological Science 37 (2010), 295–301, Abstract and chemical comparison

• From peaks to ports: Insights into tin provenance, production, and distribution ↗

  Journal of Archaeological Science, 2021, Copper and tin provenance discussion

• Su Nuraxi di Barumini ↗

  UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Description; Bronze Age nuraghi

• Etruscan Art ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Etruscan geography and artistic contacts

• Severe multi-year drought coincident with Hittite collapse around 1198–1196 BC ↗

  Manning et al., Nature, 2023, Abstract and discussion of variable regional outcomes

• Crisis in Context: The End of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean ↗

  Knapp and Manning, AJA 120.1 (2016), 99–149, Abstract; multi-causal, non-synchronous regional change

• Crisis in Context — eastern Mediterranean site histories ↗

  Knapp and Manning, AJA 2016, Ugarit and regional disruption discussion

• The Phoenicians (1500–300 B.C.) ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, City kingdoms and Mediterranean networks

• Alphabet Origins: From Kipling to Sinai ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014, Phoenician, Greek, Etruscan and Latin adaptations

• Ancient Greek Colonization and Trade and their Influence on Greek Art ↗

  Colette and Sean Hemingway, Metropolitan Museum, 2007, Colonial settlements, artists and imported techniques

• Histories, Book I ↗

  Polybius, primary narrative in public-domain translation, I.10–12 Messana; I.20–25 fleets; I.60–63 final war and settlement

• The Roman Republic ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Expansion context

• Roman Egypt ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, 30 BCE annexation and cultural continuity

• Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica ↗

  UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Description and architectural layers

• Imperial Harbours of Claudius and Trajan ↗

  Ostia Antica Archaeological Park, Harbour chronology and food supply

• Portus Project ↗

  British School at Rome, Research programme: Portus, Ostia, Rome and Mediterranean

• Bayesian analysis and free market trade within the Roman Empire ↗

  Antiquity, 2017, Monte Testaccio and Dressel 20 amphora stamps

• Roman Art: A Resource for Educators ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daily life; freedmen; funerary relief 09.221.2

• Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012, Exhibition overview; commerce; coins and clothing

• Africa & Byzantium ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023–24, Africa in imperial trade and cultural exchange

• Post-Roman economies ↗

  The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, Chapter 16 summary

• Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seventh–ninth-century southern imperial provinces

• The Princeton Geniza Project ↗

  Princeton University, Project description and documentary categories

• Discarded history: Cairo Genizah treasures ↗

  Cambridge University Library, Storage context, everyday documents and communities

• Letter T-S 12.114 ↗

  Princeton Geniza Project; Gil transcription; Goitein translation, Description and translated recto; ca. mid-eleventh century

• Letter ENA 2805.16 ↗

  Princeton Geniza Project, Description of flax shipments in partnership with Nahray

• Pirates of the Genizaaaar! ↗

  Cambridge University Library Genizah Research Unit, 2021, Captivity and communal response; cited manuscript shelfmarks

• Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalu and Monreale ↗

  UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Description; kingdom 1130–1194; artistic traditions

• Al-Idrisi world map and Book of Roger ↗

  University of Oxford, Cabinet/Bodleian, MS Pococke 375; surviving sixteenth-century copy

• Designing Norman Sicily ↗

  Cambridge University Press, Palatine Chapel and gradual Norman conquest

• Venice and the Islamic World, 828–1797 ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, Trade, luxury materials and artistic consequences

• Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean ↗

  Kate Fleet, Cambridge History of Turkey, chapter 5, Summary; sea power and contested islands

• The Battle of Lepanto, 7 October 1571 ↗

  Royal Museums Greenwich, object BHC0261, Catalogue description; later imaginative painting

• Historical chronology: Tunisia 1500–1700 ↗

  Museum With No Frontiers, Discover Islamic Art, 1574 entry

• Canal History ↗

  Suez Canal Authority, 1854 concession through 1869 opening

• British Policy Towards the Construction of the Suez Canal ↗

  Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Forced-labour controversy, diplomatic records and 1864 arrangements

• Canal maritime de Suez: excavation in the dry ↗

  Technisches Museum Wien, BPA-011326-18, Construction photograph and museum labour/machinery context

• Egypt and Sudan ↗

  National Army Museum, 1875 canal shares; 1882 occupation

• The Suez Crisis, 1956 ↗

  US Department of State, Office of the Historian, Nationalisation, invasion and international pressure

• Suez and the economy ↗

  UK National Archives, PREM 11/1135, Macmillan to Eden, 29 August 1956

• AR6 WGII Cross-Chapter Paper 4: Mediterranean Region ↗

  IPCC, 2022, Water stress, warming, ecosystems and differing vulnerabilities

• Decoding the spread of non-indigenous fishes in the Mediterranean Sea ↗

  Scientific Reports, 2024, Suez pathway and non-indigenous fishes

• State of the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean ↗

  UNEP/MAP Plan Bleu, 2020, Marine/coastal ecosystem pressure and development

• Europe Sea Arrivals ↗

  UNHCR operational data portal, Mixed movements and dangerous sea routes

• Physiological and molecular evidence of differential short-term heat tolerance in Mediterranean seagrasses ↗

  Marin-Guirao et al., Scientific Reports 6, 28615 (2016), Abstract and introduction; ecological role and locally differentiated heat response

• The Palatine Chapel ↗

  Visit Sicily, official regional tourism portal, Description of wooden muqarnas and artistic traditions

• Geography, Book XIV ↗

  Strabo, trans. H. L. Jones (Loeb, public domain), LacusCurtius, 14.5.2 Delos 'could both admit and send away ten thousand slaves on the same day'; demand after the destruction of Carthage and Corinth

• Lucera ↗

  Wikipedia summary; underlying study J. A. Taylor, Muslims in Medieval Italy: The Colony at Lucera (Lexington, 2003), History: from 1224 Frederick II transferred Sicily's Muslims to Lucera over two decades

• Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) ↗

  Wikipedia summary of standard accounts, Invasion June 1570; Famagusta fell 1 August 1571 (before Lepanto, 7 October); treaty March 1573 cedes Cyprus; Tunis retaken 1574 after Don John's 1573 capture

• Missing Migrants Project: Mediterranean ↗

  International Organization for Migration, 35,629 dead and missing recorded since 2014 (latest incident 17 September 2026); counts acknowledged as undercounts

• Catastrophic flood of the Mediterranean after the Messinian salinity crisis ↗

  Garcia-Castellanos et al., Nature 462 (2009), 778–781, Abstract: peak discharge of about 10^8 m3/s, three orders of magnitude above the present Amazon; most water transferred within months to two years

• Letter of the king of Ugarit to the king of Alashiya ↗

  Translation after M. C. Astour, "New Evidence on the Last Days of Ugarit", American Journal of Archaeology 69 (1965). The tablet's excavation number is cited inconsistently in public sources and is not stated here.

• Tiryns – The Settlement and its History in LH III C ↗

  J. Maran, in Deger-Jalkotzy and Bächle (eds), LH III C Chronology and Synchronisms III (Vienna 2009), 313–326, Post-palatial expansion of the lower town after the palace destruction

• The landscape of the naval battle at the Egadi Islands (241 B.C.) ↗

  S. Tusa and J. Royal, Journal of Roman Archaeology 25 (2012); RPM Nautical Foundation and Soprintendenza del Mare, Battle-site survey and recovered bronze rams

• The Amarna Letters ↗

  W. L. Moran (trans.), Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, EA 33–40 (Alashiya), letters between great kings

• The canal from the Nile to the Red Sea after the Arab conquest of Egypt ↗

  Arabic historical tradition as summarised in J. P. Cooper, The Medieval Nile (2014); encyclopaedic summary "Canal of the Pharaohs", Reopening c. 641–642 under Amr ibn al-As for grain to Arabia; closed 767

• Gibraltar: name ↗

  Encyclopaedia Britannica, Etymology from Jabal Tariq; landing of Tariq ibn Ziyad, 711

• Sack of Lipari, 1544 ↗

  Encyclopaedic summary with references to Braudel and local histories, Barbarossa's attack and enslavement of the inhabitants

• The Painted Ceilings of the Cappella Palatina ↗

  E. J. Grube and J. Johns, Islamic Art Supplementum I (2005), Attribution of the painters to the Fatimid tradition

• Tin from Uluburun shipwreck shows small-scale commodity exchange fueled continental tin supply across Late Bronze Age Eurasia ↗

  Powell et al., Science Advances 8 (2022); critiques by Berger et al. (Frontiers in Earth Science, 2023), Anatolian and Central Asian sources proposed; critics argue for sources including south-west Britain

• Kouros (youth) and Egyptian sculptural conventions ↗

  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline and object 32.11.1, Stance with one foot forward and arms at the sides, derived from Egyptian statuary

• Muslim revolt in western Sicily and the settlement at Lucera ↗

  A. Metcalfe, The Muslims of Medieval Italy (2009); encyclopaedic summary "Muslim settlement of Lucera", Attacks after William II's death (1189); mountain revolt; Frederick II's campaigns and deportations from 1224

• The Fourth Crusade and the loot of 1204 at San Marco ↗

  Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Fourth Crusade"; Procuratoria di San Marco on the horses and the Tetrarchs, Venetian fleet, diversion to Constantinople, sack of 1204; the bronze horses (traditionally from the Hippodrome) and the porphyry Tetrarchs

• Veneto-Saracenic metalwork ↗

  Victoria and Albert Museum; S. Auld, Renaissance Venice, Islam and Mahmud the Kurd (2004), Inlaid brass in the Mamluk style prized in Venice; debate over place of manufacture

• Napoleon III's arbitration between Egypt and the Suez Company, July 1864 ↗

  1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Suez Canal"; napoleon.org timeline, Arbitral award ending the corvée with compensation to the company

• 1.9-million- and 2.4-million-year-old artifacts and stone tool-cutmarked bones from Ain Boucherit, Algeria ↗

  M. Sahnouni et al., Science 362 (2018), 1297-1301, Oldowan tools and cutmarked bones near Setif, Algeria

• 'Ubeidiya re-dated to at least 1.9 million years ↗

  Quaternary Science Reviews (February 2026), as reported by EurekAlert! and Archaeology magazine, Combined dating places the Acheulean site at no less than 1.9 Ma (earlier estimates 1.2-1.6 Ma)

• Neanderthal exploitation of marine mammals in Gibraltar ↗

  C. Stringer et al., PNAS 105 (2008), 14319-14324, Gorham's and Vanguard Caves: mussels, fish, monk seals, dolphins; ibex and red deer

• A rock engraving made by Neanderthals in Gibraltar ↗

  J. Rodriguez-Vidal et al., PNAS 111 (2014), 13301-13306, Cross-hatched engraving in the bedrock, older than 39,000 calibrated years

• New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens ↗

  J.-J. Hublin et al., Nature 546 (2017), 289-292, Homo sapiens in north-west Africa from c. 300,000 years ago; later Aterian sites

• Africa and Iberia in the Pleistocene ↗

  L. G. Straus, Quaternary International 75 (2001), 91-102, Review finding no firm evidence of Pleistocene crossings of the Strait of Gibraltar

• Stone Age seafaring in the Mediterranean: evidence from the Plakias region for Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic habitation of Crete ↗

  T. F. Strasser et al., Hesperia 79 (2010), 145-190, Handaxes and other tools in deposits dated to at least 130,000 years; dating contested

• The timing and spatiotemporal patterning of Neanderthal disappearance ↗

  T. Higham et al., Nature 512 (2014), 306-309; J.-J. Hublin et al., Nature 581 (2020) (Bacho Kiro), Modern humans widespread in Europe from c. 45,000 years ago; Neanderthals disappear by c. 41,000-39,000 years ago

Reconstruction & interpretation

These notes preserve the research and asset register behind the documentary, published on YouTube as "When the Atlantic Flooded the Mediterranean | Who Came After" after development as The Mediterranean: A Sea of Many Worlds. Scientific studies, archaeology, surviving texts and modern reconstructions provide different kinds of evidence.

Maps show modern relief, coastlines and sea floor for orientation, not reconstructed ancient shorelines. Routes, territories and flows are schematic; dates and extents are approximate.

The salinity-crisis and flood sequences lower the modern sea floor as a stand-in. A fall of about 1.5–2 km is shown and estimates vary; the deepest basins are shown holding brine, not dry. The flood's peak flow of about 1,000 times the Amazon comes from one widely cited model (Garcia-Castellanos et al. 2009), and how long the refilling took is still debated. Plate-motion arrows and the closing gateway are schematic.

Early-human dates follow the cited studies. The age of the Cretan stone tools is disputed and presented as such, and no Pleistocene crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar is claimed.

3D animations of the Uluburun wreck site, hull joinery, bronze alloying, the alphabet's letter shapes and the strait's two-layer exchange are explanatory models built for the film, not recovered scenes. Museum reconstructions, such as the Uluburun ship at Bodrum, are identified as reconstructions.

The three voiced quotations follow published translations: the Ugarit letter after Astour (1965), Strabo after Jones (1929) and the Geniza letter after Goitein. Later paintings, manuscript copies, modern places and modern footage are identified on screen; they are not records of the events described.

Production & asset credits

• Production, script, maps, animation and editing: ManyPasts. Developed under the working title The Mediterranean: A Sea of Many Worlds.
• Music selections were supplied for the production.
• Pictures and footage are cropped/reframed, animated and sometimes graded; some carry explanatory overlays. CC BY-SA adaptations retain their source licences. No creator or institutional endorsement is implied.
• Relief, sea floor and coastlines — ManyPasts from AWS Terrain Tiles (SRTM, ETOPO, GEBCO) ↗ — See source attribution; derived shading and colour

  Modern relief and bathymetry for orientation. Lowered sea levels in the salinity-crisis sequence are a schematic stand-in.

• Land outlines and opening-globe colour — Natural Earth (10m land, Natural Earth II) ↗ — Public domain

  Modern land, not ancient coastlines. The opening globe is a ManyPasts Blender render.

• Historical boundaries — historical-basemaps, A. Ourednik ↗ — GPL-3.0

  Simplified territorial outlines; boundaries and dates approximate.

• iss-tyrrhenian-01 — ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility, NASA Johnson Space Center ↗ — Public domain (NASA)

  Footage.

• Coupe de Nestor - musée Archéologique de Pithecusae - photo 3 — Shonagon ↗ — CC0

  "Nestor's Cup" with early Greek inscription, Pithekoussai, 8th century BCE · Archaeological Museum of Pithecusae.

• Irakischer Maler um 1230 002 — Iraqi painter, c. 1230 ↗ — Public domain

  Ship with passengers and crew, Maqamat illustration by an Iraqi painter, c. 1225–1235.

• Labit - Funeral boat - Middle kingdom of Egypt - Carved and painted wood Labit Inv. 82.1.1 — Didier Descouens ↗ — Public domain

  Painted wooden funerary boat model, Middle Kingdom Egypt · Musée Georges-Labit, Toulouse.

• Malta - Birzebbuga - Triq Kalafrana - Freeport (Freeport centre) 06 (1) ies — Frank Vincentz ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Footage.

• ISS-44 Strait of Gibraltar — NASA/Scott Kelly ↗ — Public domain

  Strait of Gibraltar, Iberia and Morocco from the ISS · NASA / Scott Kelly, 2015.

• Riserva naturale orientata Saline di Trapani e Paceco - Trapani, Italia - 1 Maggio 2023 02 — GiorgioGaleotti ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Salt pans of the Trapani and Paceco nature reserve, Sicily · photographed 2023.

• Vagues à Badesi - Gallura - 2016 — Benoît Prieur ↗ — CC0

  Footage.

• The Strait of Gibraltar (iss071e414110) — NASA Johnson Space Center ↗ — Public domain

  Strait of Gibraltar from the International Space Station · NASA, 30 July 2024.

• Sardegna's Costa Smeralda Drone Views — Electric Life ↗ — CC BY 3.0

  Footage.

• Rif-mountains-from-tarifa — Łukasz Ciesielski - Guma89 ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  The Rif mountains of Morocco seen across the Strait from Tarifa · photographed 2009.

• Gorham's Cave Complex — Visit Gibraltar ↗ — CC BY 2.0

  The Gorham's Cave complex, Gibraltar, from the sea.

• Gorham's Cave — Gibmetal77 ↗ — CC BY 3.0

  Gorham's Cave at the foot of the Rock of Gibraltar.

• Neanderthal Engraving (Gorham's Cave Gibraltar) — AquilaGib (Stewart Finlayson, Gibraltar Museum) ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Crossed lines cut into the bedrock of Gorham's Cave, more than 39,000 years ago.

• Jebel Irhoud 1. Homo Sapiens — Ryan Somma ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0

  Jebel Irhoud 1, among the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens, Morocco · cast.

• Plakias Bay 01 — Uoaei1 ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Plakias Bay, southern Crete, where the disputed early stone tools were found.

• Skull of Neanderthal from Gibraltar, Welcome to the Neandertals, Brno,187896 — Zde ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  The Neanderthal skull found at Forbes’ Quarry, Gibraltar, in 1848 · cast.

• Tropea in Calabria Italy — Swedrone ↗ — CC BY 3.0

  Footage.

• Podvodna 22ruj0006 — Quahadi Añtó ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Footage.

• Despotikó Antíparos Páros Náxos aerial — kallerna ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Despotiko, Antiparos, Paros and Naxos from the air at sunset, Cyclades · photographed 2025.

• Rare Storm over Mediterranean Sea (MODIS 2019-10-26) — MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC ↗ — Public domain

  Medicane storm system over the eastern Mediterranean · NASA MODIS, 25 October 2019.

• Barchetta nuragica, 900-790 ac ca., dal santuario di capocolonna a crotone 02 — Sailko ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Nuragic bronze boat model, c. 900–790 BCE, from the sanctuary at Capo Colonna · Museo archeologico nazionale di Crotone.

• Obsidian on the way from Adamas to the Nychia hill, Milos, 153212 — Zde ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Obsidian nodules on the path to Nychia hill, Milos · photographed 2015.

• Sarakiniko Beach on Milos Island, Greece with a view of the Aegean Sea — dronepicr ↗ — CC BY 2.0

  Volcanic tuff coast of Sarakiniko, Milos · photographed 2020.

• NAMA06-20-25 to 27, Three stone and one clay lid, obsidian blades and cores, blades and elongated flakes of flint from Phylakopi, Melos — Carl Ha ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Obsidian blades and cores from Phylakopi, Melos · National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

• Cycladic tools obsidian, Melos, 3200–2100 BC, AshmoleanM, AN1880.125, 142331 — Zde ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0
• Malta - Zurrieq - Filfla (Promenade ta' Wied Babu) 02 (0) ies — Frank Vincentz ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Footage.

• Cyprus Paphos Castle — Medullaoblongata Projekt ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Footage. Cyprus, Paphos coast.

• Khirokitia1 — Ophelia2 ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Reconstructed Neolithic round houses, Choirokoitia, Cyprus.

• Triticum dicoccum var atratum RF — Robert Flogaus-Faust ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Ripe ears of emmer wheat, one of the first domesticated cereals · modern crop photographed in Germany, 2018.

• Obsidian blades and flint blade, Tsoungiza, 6500-5800 BC, AM of Nemea, 201870 — Zde ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Obsidian blades and a flint sickle blade from Tsoungiza, 6500–5800 BCE · Archaeological Museum of Nemea.

• Cícladas 1 — LBM1948 ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Aerial view of a Cycladic island shore, Greece · photographed 2013.

• Malta - Qrendi - Wied iz-Zurrieq - bay+harbour (Triq ta' Hagar Qim) 01 (0) ies — Frank Vincentz ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Footage.

• Obsidian blades Khirokitia Cyprus Museum Nicosia — Alehladutska ↗ — CC0

  Imported obsidian blades from Khirokitia, Pre-Pottery Neolithic · Cyprus Museum, Nicosia.

• Chirokitia BW 2023-09-21 08-39-40 stitch — Berthold Werner ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Excavated round-house foundations at Choirokoitia, Cyprus · photographed 2023.

• Chirokitia BW 2023-09-21 08-13-32 — Berthold Werner ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Reconstructed round houses at Choirokoitia, Cyprus · Neolithic village, c. 7000–5200 BCE.

• Stone vessel Khirokitia Cyprus Museum Nicosia — Alehladutska ↗ — CC0

  Carved stone vessel from Khirokitia, Pre-Pottery Neolithic · Cyprus Museum, Nicosia.

• Stone figurine Khirokitia Cyprus Museum Nicosia — Alehladutska ↗ — CC0

  Stone figurines from Khirokitia, Neolithic · Cyprus Museum, Nicosia.

• Podmorje kod grebena 0010 — Quahadi Añtó ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Footage.

• Uluburun copper ingot oxhide two handled shaped — Zunkir ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Two-handled oxhide copper ingot · Uluburun shipwreck, c. 1300 BCE · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Récifs artificiels dans le port de La Ciotat (Ifremer 00814-92635) — Olivier Dugornay (Ifremer) ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Footage.

• Castello di bodrum, ricostruzione di nave antica 03 — Sailko ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Reconstructed wreck site with scattered cargo · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Girne Kyrenia Castle Shipwreck Museum 02 — Ad Meskens ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Hull of the Kyrenia ship, a 4th-century BCE Greek merchantman · Kyrenia Castle Shipwreck Museum.

• Kyrenia Schiffswrack 6 — Wolfgang Sauber ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Planking and frames of the Kyrenia ship hull (shell-first construction) · Kyrenia Castle Shipwreck Museum.

• Bodrum Museum Uluburun shipwreck reconstruction in 2015 3703 — Dosseman ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Full-scale reconstruction of the Uluburun ship and cargo · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Bodrum Museum Uluburun shipwreck reconstruction in 2015 3711 — Dosseman ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Stacked oxhide ingots in the Uluburun hold reconstruction · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Uluburun copper ingot oxhide shaped — Zunkir ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Oxhide copper ingot · Uluburun shipwreck, c. 1300 BCE · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Uluburun tin ingot partial slab shaped — Zunkir ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0
• Bodrum Museum Uluburun find Probably scrap metal to make bronze in 2015 3728 — Dosseman ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Bronze swords · Uluburun shipwreck, c. 1300 BCE · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Uluburun glass ingots 2 — Zunkir ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Cobalt and turquoise glass ingots · Uluburun shipwreck, c. 1300 BCE · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Uluburun hippopotamus canine — Zunkir ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Hippopotamus tusk carried as raw ivory · Uluburun shipwreck, c. 1300 BCE · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Canaanite jar Bodrum Underwater Museum — Zunkir ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Canaanite jar, 14th century BCE · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Uluburun amber beads — Zunkir ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0
• Bodrum Museum Uluburun find Gold pendant with nude goddess holding gazelles in 2015 3735 — Dosseman ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Gold pendant with a goddess holding gazelles · Uluburun shipwreck · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Uluburun zoomorphic weights — Zunkir ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Bronze balance weights shaped as a lioness, a bull and a sphinx · Uluburun shipwreck, c. 1300 BCE · Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.

• Cretans Bringing Gifts, Tomb of Rekhmire MET DT10883 — Nina M. Davies ↗ — CC0

  Cretan envoys carrying vessels, Tomb of Rekhmire, c. 1479–1425 BCE · facsimile by Nina de Garis Davies · Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Amarna letter- Royal Letter from Abi-milku of Tyre to the king of Egypt MET 24.2.12 EGDP021809 — Unknown ↗ — CC0

  Amarna letter from Abi-milku of Tyre to the king of Egypt, c. 1353–1336 BCE · Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• The Sphinx Gate standing above the Yerkapi Rampart, Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age, Boğazkale, Turkey (26407947852) — Carole Raddato ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0

  Sphinx Gate above the Yerkapı rampart, Hattusa · photographed 2016.

• Ugarit (أُوغَارِيت), Syria - Royal gate - PHBZ024 2016 2354 - Dumbarton Oaks — Frank Kidner ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Royal gate (postern) of Ugarit, Ras Shamra, Syria · photographed 1995.

• Palace of Nestor ruins (9) — Peulle ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Ruins of the Palace of Nestor, Pylos · photographed 2017.

• Linear B tablet, AM of Mycenae, 201726 — Zde ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Linear B tablet listing women's names, 1300–1250 BCE, with drawing · Archaeological Museum of Mycenae.

• Lion Gate, Mycenae, 201507 — Zde ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Lion Gate, Mycenae, c. 1250 BCE · photographed 2020.

• 5.2.1 Ugarit — Gerhard Haubold ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0
• Tablet-private letter-AO 19940-P5280339-black — Rama ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0 fr

  A private letter on a clay tablet from Ugarit, 13th century BCE · Louvre.

• Gordion Tumulus MM Tumulus P — Archaeologist1950 ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Tumuli MM and P at Gordion, Turkey; the juniper-log chamber inside MM anchors the Anatolian tree-ring chronology.

• Inside of the Tomb of Midas in Gordion — Raicem ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Juniper timbers of the Midas Mound tomb, Gordion, felled c. 740 BCE · their rings reach back into the second millennium BCE.

• Lion Gate, Hattusa 01 — Bernard Gagnon ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0
• Yerkapi, Hattusa 02 — Bernard Gagnon ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Yerkapı rampart and postern tunnel, Hattusa · photographed.

• Theban region, Medinet Habu, Funerary temple of Ramesses III, photo 28 of 36 - Archivio fotografico Museo Egizio, Turin C01176 — Unknown ↗ — CC0

  Detail of the naval battle with the Sea Peoples, north wall of Medinet Habu · archival photograph.

• Palace of Nestor throne base (1) — Peulle ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Central hearth of the megaron, Palace of Nestor, Pylos.

• West Walls of Tiryns, 202040 — Zde ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Cyclopean west walls of Tiryns · photographed 2020.

• Dji fly 20251122 131405 0 1763806445976 video low quality 1 1 1 — Abd Alsattar Ardati ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Footage.

• Byblos - 55341103820 — xiquinhosilva ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Excavated remains at Byblos, Lebanon · photographed 2025.

• Drawing of galleys and ships from the Ninevah expedition Wellcome M0004429 — Wellcome Collection ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Phoenician biremes and galleys fleeing Tyre, from Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh · drawing after the relief (A. H. Layard).

• Sidon, Sea Castle - Dec 23, 2011 — Huti Jay ↗ — CC BY 3.0

  Footage.

• TributeOfShipsOfTyreAndSidonToShalmaneserII GatesOfBalawat.nypl.digitalcollections — Theophilus G. Pinches / New York Public Library ↗ — Public domain

  Boats bringing tribute from Tyre, from the bronze bands of the Balawat Gates (9th century BCE) · drawing published by T. G. Pinches, 1880.

• VIDEO Nuraghe Izzana — Benoît Prieur ↗ — CC0

  Footage. Sardinia, Nuraghe Izzana.

• Nuraghe Losa 01 — CV1958 ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Nuraghe Losa, Abbasanta, Sardinia · Bronze Age tower complex.

• 020231208 Bronze figurine depicting an archer, Nuragic culture, early Iron Age — Silar ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Nuragic bronze figurine of an archer, early Iron Age.

• Minas de Riotinto 21 rio Tinto by-dpc — David Perez ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  The acid-red Río Tinto in the mining district of Minas de Riotinto, Huelva · photographed 2016.

• National Museum of Beirut – Ahiram sarcophagus inscription 1 — Onceinawhile ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Sarcophagus of Ahiram with its Phoenician inscription, c. 1000 BCE · National Museum of Beirut.

• Ahiram sarcophagus closeup, doctored — Onceinawhile ↗ — Public domain

  Phoenician inscription on the lid of the Ahiram sarcophagus (contrast-enhanced) · National Museum of Beirut.

• Danel epic AO17323 img 0160 — Rama ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0 fr

  Ugaritic alphabetic cuneiform tablet of the Epic of Danel (Aqhat), 14th century BCE · Louvre.

• Dipylon Inscription — Durutomo ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Dipylon oinochoe with one of the earliest Greek alphabetic inscriptions, c. 740 BCE · National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

• Part of the Duenos inscription — Graearms ↗ — CC0

  The Duenos vessel, one of the earliest Old Latin inscriptions, 7th–6th century BCE.

• The Royal Acquaintances Memi and Sabu MET DT8836 — Unknown ↗ — CC0

  Memi and Sabu, a pair statue from Giza, Egypt, c. 2500 BC · Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Marble statue of a kouros (youth) MET DT263 — Unknown author ↗ — CC0

  Marble kouros from Attica, c. 590–580 BC · Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Turner - Dido — J. M. W. Turner ↗ — Public domain

  Dido Building Carthage · painting by J. M. W. Turner, 1815 · National Gallery, London.

• PortsPuniquesSalamboTunis — Citizen59 ↗ — CC BY 3.0

  The Punic ports of Carthage (circular naval harbour) from the air, Salammbô, Tunis.

• Scala dei Turchi panorama — Carnby ↗ — CC BY 3.0
• iss-sicily-day-01 — ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility, NASA Johnson Space Center ↗ — Public domain (NASA)

  Footage.

• ORTIGIA 1 — PAOLA SOLE ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Ortigia, the island core of ancient Syracuse, from the air · photographed 2019.

• Selinunte Temple C aerial view — Jorre (Jochen Reinhard) ↗ — CC BY 3.0

  Temple C and the acropolis of Selinunte, Sicily, from the air.

• Strait of Messina 14 — Ad Meskens ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Strait of Messina and the city of Messina, Sicily · photographed 2019.

• Relief aus Kleitor — German Archaeological Institute at Athens ↗ — Public domain

  Relief from Kleitor in Arcadia thought to show the historian Polybius, 2nd century BCE · plate from the 1881 publication.

• Marsala Punisch oorlogsschip — RoBes81 ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Surviving hull of the Punic warship of Marsala, 3rd century BCE · Baglio Anselmi Archaeological Museum, Marsala.

• Carthago exhibition - Aegadi Rams (49340681036) — Jamie Heath ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0

  Bronze warship rams recovered off the Egadi Islands, from the battle of 241 BCE · exhibition display.

• Site de Carthage, 20 mars 2021, 20210320 152326 — Habib M'henni ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  The Punic quarter on Byrsa hill, Carthage · early 2nd century BCE, destroyed 146 BCE.

• Ruins in Carthage — Safa Heraghi ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Ruins at Carthage, Tunisia.

• 55 Piazzale delle Corporazioni Ostia Antica 2006-09-08 — Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow) ↗ — CC BY 2.5

  Ship mosaic of statio 55, Piazzale delle Corporazioni, Ostia Antica.

• Emperor Trajan, Dendera — Aidan McRae Thomson ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0

  Trajan in pharaonic dress presenting an offering, Roman mammisi · Dendera, 98–117 CE.

• Fresco Isis Giminiana Musei Vaticani (inv, 79638) — Joel Bellviure ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  The Isis Giminiana being loaded with grain, fresco from Ostia, 200–250 CE · Vatican Museums.

• Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae- Port of Rome MET DP870571 — Ambrogio Brambilla / Claude Duchet / Étienne Dupérac ↗ — CC0

  Reconstruction of the Port of Rome (Portus) with its hexagonal basin · engraving, Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, 1581 · Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Grandi Horrea Ostia Antica 2006-09-08 — Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow) ↗ — CC BY 2.5

  The Grandi Horrea (great grain warehouse), Ostia Antica.

• Relief with Portus August Torlonia Collection MT430 n01 — Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart ↗ — Public domain

  The Portus relief: a merchant ship entering Rome's harbour, c. 200 CE · Torlonia Collection (MT 430).

• Monte Testaccio Particolare — Flazaza ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Layers of broken amphora sherds, Monte Testaccio, Rome · photographed 2015.

• Tituli picti dressel — H. Dressel (1845—1920) ↗ — Public domain
• A fragment of a Roman ceramic Dressel 20 amphora from the Spanish province of Baetica dating 1st - 3rd century AD. (FindID 587422) — Museum of London / Kate Sumnall ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0

  Fragment of a Baetican Dressel 20 olive-oil amphora with stamp, 1st–3rd century CE · Portable Antiquities Scheme.

• Olive Press in Pompeji — Heinz-Josef Lücking ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0 de

  Roman olive mill (trapetum), Pompeii · photographed 2008.

• Bronze strigils and glass aryballos (Detroit DIA 1998.59, 1991.133) — Mark Landon ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Bronze strigils and a glass oil flask for the baths, Roman, 1st-2nd century CE · Detroit Institute of Arts.

• Testaccio monte dei cocci 051204-10 — Lalupa ↗ — Public domain

  Slope of Monte Testaccio above Via di Monte Testaccio, Rome · photographed 2005.

• Inscribed bronze slave collar (Rome MNR 65043; CIL XV 7194) — Mark Landon ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Inscribed bronze slave collar (CIL XV 7194), Roman · Museo Nazionale Romano.

• Roman collared slaves - Ashmolean Museum — Jun ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0

  Relief of chained, collared enslaved men, from Smyrna, c. 200 CE · Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

• Bardo(js)010(js) - Neptune et les pirates — Jerzystrzelecki ↗ — CC BY 3.0
• Agora Italians Delos 130054 — Zde ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  The Agora of the Italians on Delos, 2nd century BCE · photographed 2013.

• Bardo Mosaic Ulysses — Dennis G. Jarvis ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0
• Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, Istanbul (1991) — Peter Christian Riemann ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Towers of the Theodosian Land Walls, Constantinople (Istanbul), 5th century CE · photographed 1991.

• View of the Historic Peninsula from Karaköy Pier 20250527 — Kurmanbek ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Footage.

• Mosaic of Theodora - Basilica San Vitale (Ravenna, Italy) — Petar Milošević ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Empress Theodora and her court, mosaic, San Vitale, Ravenna, c. 547 CE.

• Emperor Justinian and his retinue. San Vitale. Ravena, Italy 2 — Ввласенко ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Emperor Justinian and his retinue, mosaic, San Vitale, Ravenna, c. 547 CE.

• Hagia Sophia Mars 2013 — Arild Vågen ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, 537 CE, with later minarets · Commons featured picture, 2013.

• Aya Sofya, May 2016 — Miklos Kiss ↗ — CC BY 3.0

  Footage.

• Birmingham Quran manuscript full — Unknown scribe ↗ — Public domain

  Leaves of the Birmingham Qur'an in Hijazi script, parchment dated 568-645 CE · University of Birmingham.

• Mosque of Amr ibn al-As Center water well — Kaliper1 ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Courtyard of the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As, Fustat (Old Cairo) · photographed 2025.

• Tapestry fragment from tunic, Coptic, c. 6th-7th century, Honolulu Museum of Art 4786 — Hiart ↗ — CC0

  Tapestry fragment from a tunic, Egypt, 6th–7th century CE · Honolulu Museum of Art.

• The Minaret of the Great Mosque Okba of Kairouan, Tunisia — Monaam Ben Fredj ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan (Uqba), Tunisia · photographed 2018.

• Khalili Collection Islamic Art ae 58 — Khalili Collections ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0 igo

  Copper coin of the 'standing caliph' type, struck at Damascus c. 693-697 before the coinage reform · Khalili Collection.

• Gold dinar of Abd al-Malik 697-98 — Not credited ↗ — Public domain

  Gold dinar of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, Damascus, 697–698 CE: the first purely epigraphic Islamic coin.

• Maqamat 5847, f.119v- maqama 39 Abu Zayd and al-Harith sailing — 13th century artist ↗ — Public domain

  Abu Zayd and al-Harith sailing, from the Maqamat of al-Hariri, 13th century · BnF Arabe 5847 (Schefer Hariri), f.119v.

• Gibraltar - Levante cloud over The Rock - Aerial View 5 (Feb 2021) — Cabeza2000 ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  The Rock of Gibraltar under its levanter cloud, from the air · photographed 2021.

• Letter of chushiel — Dfass (English Wikipedia) ↗ — Public domain
• Cairo - Coptic area - Ben Ezra Synagogue — herr müller ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Ben Ezra Synagogue, Fustat (Old Cairo), home of the Cairo Geniza · photographed 2008.

• Education (T-S K5.13) — Unknown author ↗ — Public domain

  Child's Hebrew alphabet primer with menorah, Cairo Geniza, T-S K5.13.

• Halper 462 Genealogy of the Exilarchs to David and Adam, Cairo Geniza — Avraham ben Tamim, al-Raḥbi (12th c.) ↗ — Public domain

  Genealogy of the Exilarchs, a 12th-century Cairo Geniza manuscript · University of Pennsylvania, Halper 462.

• Solomon Schechter studying the fragments of the Cairo Genizah, c. 1898 — unknown ↗ — Public domain

  Solomon Schechter studying Cairo Geniza fragments at Cambridge, c. 1898.

• Ms. Heb. e. 39.78b — Bodleian Library, Oxford ↗ — Public domain

  Page of liturgical poetry from the Cairo Geniza · Bodleian Library, MS. Heb. e. 39, fol. 78b.

• Letter (T-S 8J18.5) — Judah ha-Levi ↗ — Public domain

  Judeo-Arabic letter in the hand of Judah ha-Levi, on ransoming a captive woman, 12th century · Cairo Geniza, T-S 8J18.5.

• Kiev Letter T-S 12.122 — Jacob b. Ḥanukka ↗ — Public domain
• CairoFustatArchaeologicalSite4 — Roland Unger ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Excavated remains of medieval Fustat, Cairo · photographed.

• Malta - Grand Harbour (Lower Barrakka Gardens) 01 (1) ies — Frank Vincentz ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Footage.

• Sea waves in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat — Matti Schneider ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Footage.

• Hamam Inal (11) — Jorge Láscar ↗ — CC BY 2.0

  Domed hall of the Hammam of Sultan Inal, al-Muizz Street · Cairo, mid-15th century · photographed 2012.

• Palazzo dei normanni 1 — Gmihail (sr.wikipedia) ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0 rs

  Norman wing of the Palazzo dei Normanni (Royal Palace), Palermo.

• San giovanni degli eremiti — Matthias Süßen ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.5

  San Giovanni degli Eremiti with its red domes, Palermo.

• Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio 2015-03-28v — Rabe! ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Roger II crowned by Christ, mosaic in the Martorana (Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio), Palermo, c. 1150.

• La Zisa^15 - Flickr - Rino Porrovecchio — Rino Porrovecchio ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0

  Epitaph of Anna, mother of the priest Grisandus, in Hebrew-script Judaeo-Arabic, Latin, Greek and Arabic, Palermo, 1149 · Zisa, Palermo.

• Cappella Palatina 2014 — Liilia Moroz ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Nave and apse of the Cappella Palatina, Palermo, 1130s–1140s · photographed 2014.

• Palermo - Cappella Palatina - 1 — Benjamin Smith ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Nave arcade and mosaics of the Cappella Palatina, Palermo.

• Arabischer Maler der Palastkapelle in Palermo 002 — Painter of the Cappella Palatina ceiling ↗ — Public domain

  Seated figure painted by Arab artists on the Cappella Palatina ceiling, c. 1150.

• Cappella Palatina (Palermo) 16 07 2019 31 — Effems ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  The muqarnas ceiling running the length of the nave, Cappella Palatina.

• Muqarnas della Cappella Palatina 01 — Codas ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0
• Cappella Palatina - sostre-2010-08-11 — CarlesVA; derivative work: Memorato ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0
• Cappella Palatina (Palermo) 16 07 2019 29 — Effems ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Painted muqarnas of the wooden nave ceiling, Cappella Palatina, Palermo.

• Theodore muqarna Parlermo — Unknown author ↗ — Public domain
• Lusterware from Fustat, Egypt, 10th cent., Pergamon Museum, Berlin (1) (39515285244) — Richard Mortel ↗ — CC BY 2.0

  Fatimid lustreware bowl fragment from Fustat, 1080–1150 · Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

• Cappella Palatina (Palermo) 16 07 2019 78 — Effems ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Christ Pantocrator in the dome of the Cappella Palatina, Palermo · photographed 2019.

• Cappella palatina palermo 2012 — Vaido Otsar ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0
• Roger II of Sicily — Nero Reising ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Detail: Roger II receives the crown, Martorana mosaic, Palermo.

• Tabula Rogeriana - Map of Sicily — Al Idrissi ↗ — Public domain
• Al-idrisi world map — Unknown ↗ — Public domain

  Al-Idrisi's circular world map, from a copy of his Book of Roger · Bodleian Library, MS. Pococke 375.

• Tabula Rogeriana 1929 copy by Konrad Miller — Konrad Miller ↗ — Public domain
• Palermo Chiesa di San Giovanni degli Eremiti BW 2025-04-29 09-34-11 — Berthold Werner ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Red domes and bell tower of San Giovanni degli Eremiti, Palermo, from the cloister · photographed 2025.

• Gold augustalis of Frederick II, Brindisi — American Numismatic Society ↗ — Public domain

  Gold augustalis of Frederick II, struck at Brindisi, 1231-1250 · American Numismatic Society.

• Venice Lagoon during COVID19 Emergency — Giacomo Cosua Studio ↗ — CC BY 3.0

  Footage. Venice, Islands in a lagoon at the head of the Adriatic.

• Peregrinatio in terram sanctam MET MM4640 — Erhard Reuwich ↗ — Public domain

  Ships and boats off St Mark's, woodcut by Erhard Reuwich in Breydenbach's Peregrinatio in Terram Sanctam, 1486 · Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Baptistère de Saint Louis - Musée du Louvre Arts de l'Islam LP 16 — Shonagon ↗ — CC0

  'Baptistère de Saint Louis', brass basin inlaid with silver and gold · Mamluk Egypt or Syria, c. 1320–1340 · Musée du Louvre.

• Dish with the Sagredo family coat of arms, probably Venice, c. 1530-1550 AD, cast brass, chased, inlaid with silver, and engraved - Courtauld Institute of Art, London - DSC00860 — Daderot ↗ — CC0

  Brass dish inlaid with silver in Islamic style, bearing the Sagredo arms, probably Venice, c. 1530-1550 · Courtauld Gallery, London.

• Venice, Castello, Arsenale, main gate 02 — Armin Kleiner ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Main gate and towers of the Arsenale, Venice.

• Venezia Basilica di San Marco Innen Quadriga 2 — Zairon ↗ — Public domain

  The bronze horses brought from Constantinople in 1204, now inside Saint Mark’s, Venice.

• Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs, a porphyry sculpture sacked from the Byzantine Philadelphion palace in 1204, Treasury of St. Marks, Venice (19896369591) — Carole Raddato ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0

  Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs, porphyry · eastern Mediterranean, c. 300 CE · St Mark's Basilica, Venice.

• Bellini, Gentile - Portrait of Mehmed II - National Gallery, London — Gentile Bellini ↗ — Public domain

  Sultan Mehmed II · portrait attributed to Gentile Bellini, 1480 · National Gallery, London.

• Istanbul Military Museum Chain of Golden Horn in 2006 04 1844 — Dosseman ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Iron links of the chain said to have closed the Golden Horn · Byzantine, before 1453 · Istanbul Military Museum.

• Kusatma Zonaro — Fausto Zonaro ↗ — Public domain

  Mehmed II watching his ships hauled overland to the Golden Horn in 1453 · later painting by Fausto Zonaro, c. 1903-1908.

• Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, Istanbul (37905276401) — Carole Raddato ↗ — CC BY-SA 2.0

  Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, Istanbul.

• Historical peninsula and modern skyline of Istanbul — Hunanuk ↗ — CC0

  Istanbul's historic peninsula: Topkapı Palace point, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

• Verovering van de vesting Goleta Serie 1 Tocht van Karel V naar Tunis, 1535 (serietitel) Kurtze erzeichniss wie Keyser Carolus der V. in Africa Dem Konig von Thunis, so von dem Barbarossen vertrieben, mit kriegsrustung, RP-P-OB-78.784-4 — Rijksmuseum ↗ — CC0

  Capture of La Goletta during Charles V's Tunis campaign, 1535 · engraving after Vermeyen, 1574–1578 · Rijksmuseum.

• IstanbulNavalMuseum23 — CeeGee ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Historic Ottoman oared vessel with gilded stern pavilion, Istanbul Naval Museum.

• Hayreddin Barbarossa 1530-60 — Anonymous, Italian, 16th century ↗ — CC0

  Hayreddin Barbarossa, "Soltan Charadi ditto Barba Rossa re d'Algeri" · Italian woodcut, 16th century.

• Famagosta - btv1b8592874g — Anonymous Venetian engraver ↗ — Public domain

  The Ottoman siege of Famagusta, 1571 · contemporary Venetian engraving · Bibliothèque nationale de France.

• Battle of Lepanto 1571 — Unidentified painter ↗ — Public domain

  The Battle of Lepanto, 7 October 1571 · unidentified painter, late 16th century · National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

• (Venice) Allegoria della battaglia di Lepanto - Gallerie Accademia — Didier Descouens ↗ — Public domain

  Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto · Paolo Veronese, c. 1572 · Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.

• Istanbul Naval Museum Tarihi Kadırga in 2014 10 8308 — Dosseman ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Rowing benches and oars of the Tarihi Kadırga, Istanbul Naval Museum.

• La Vera descrittione del sito della citta di Tunisi et della Goleta sua fortezza, con il novo forte fatto dalli Turchi nell'assedio di essa nel mese d'Agosto 1574 — Horace De Landau ↗ — Public domain

  "La vera descrittione" of Tunis and La Goletta, showing the Ottoman capture of 1574.

• (Venice) Veduta del Canal Grande dalla Punta della Dogana - Bernardo Bellotto — Didier Descouens ↗ — Public domain
• iss-nile-delta-day-01 — ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility, NASA Johnson Space Center ↗ — Public domain (NASA)

  Footage.

• Le Canal Maritime de Suez 1869 (148057846) — Marius Fontane ↗ — Public domain

  Railway and works along the canal, engraving after Édouard Riou, 1869.

• Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805–1894) MET 168674 — Unknown ↗ — CC0

  Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805–1894) · photograph · Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Le Canal Maritime de Suez 1869 (148057565) — Marius Fontane ↗ — Public domain

  Workers cutting the El-Guisr ridge by hand, basket by basket · engraving in "Le Canal maritime de Suez illustré", 1869.

• Le Canal Maritime de Suez 1869 (148057512) — Marius Fontane ↗ — Public domain

  Camel caravan and workers' camp on the isthmus, engravings after Édouard Riou in "Le Canal maritime de Suez illustré", 1869.

• The Khedive LCCN92500741 — Unknown photographer ↗ — Public domain

  Khedive Isma'il Pasha of Egypt · albumen photograph, c. 1870 · Library of Congress.

• Inauguration du canal de Suez. Dragues a long couloir, a Suez (instantanee), RP-F-F08483 — Rijksmuseum ↗ — CC0

  Long-chute dredgers at Suez, stereograph from the canal inauguration series, 1869 · Ferrier père et fils · Rijksmuseum.

• Canal maritime de Suez - btv1b8447019f (21 of 41) — Justin Kozlowski ↗ — Public domain

  Dredging equipment on the Suez Canal, from Justin Kozlowski's album "Canal maritime de Suez", 1869 · BnF.

• Inauguration du Canal de Suez - 17 novembre 1869 - btv1b10061779f (2 of 5) — Unknown ↗ — Public domain
• Открытие Суэцкого канала, 1869 — Scan: Vladimir Vasilyev ↗ — Public domain

  The ceremonial opening of the Suez Canal, 1869 · engraving published 1901.

• Empress Eugénie in Court Dress (Winterhalter) — After Franz Xaver Winterhalter ↗ — Public domain

  Empress Eugénie in court dress · copy after Franz Xaver Winterhalter's 1853 portrait · Château de Compiègne.

• Canal de Suez Egypte, 1928 — Frédéric Gadmer / Archives de la Planète, Musée Albert-Kahn ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Footage.

• KITLV A691 - Stoomschepen op het Suez-kanaal in Egypte, KITLV 76716 — Hippolyte Arnoux ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Steamships on the Suez Canal · photograph by Hippolyte Arnoux · KITLV / Leiden University.

• Canal maritime de Suez - Arnoux photogr. - btv1b532464246 — Hippolyte Arnoux ↗ — Public domain

  Commemorative plate of the Suez Canal with map and portraits of de Lesseps, the khedives and engineers · Hippolyte Arnoux, 1870s–1880s · BnF.

• Ahmed Orabi 1882 — Unknown engraver ↗ — Public domain

  Colonel Ahmed Urabi · wood engraving published in Světozor, July 1882.

• Alexandria bombardment of 1882, French consulate — Luigi Fiorillo ↗ — Public domain

  Ruins of the French consulate after the bombardment of Alexandria, 1882 · photograph by Luigi Fiorillo.

• suez-newsreel-1956-01 — Universal-International News (Universal Newsreel) ↗ — Public domain (Universal Newsreel, U.S. National Archives)

  Footage.

• suez-newsreel-1956-02 — Universal-International News (Universal Newsreel) ↗ — Public domain (Universal Newsreel, U.S. National Archives)

  Footage.

• Operation Musketeer — Official photographer ↗ — Public domain

  British paratroopers at El Gamil airfield, Port Said, during the Suez intervention, November 1956 · IWM HU 4181.

• suez-newsreel-1956-04 — Universal-International News (Universal Newsreel) ↗ — Public domain (Universal Newsreel, U.S. National Archives)

  Footage.

• Container Ship 'Ever Given' stuck in the Suez Canal, Egypt - March 24th, 2021 cropped — Pierre Markuse (modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2021) ↗ — CC BY 2.0

  The container ship Ever Given blocking the Suez Canal, 24 March 2021 · modified Copernicus Sentinel-2 data.

• Traffic Jam on the Suez Canal as seen by Landsat 8 — NASA Earth Observatory (Lauren Dauphin, Joshua Stevens) ↗ — Public domain
• Το βλέμμα της φώκιας — Vasilis drosakis ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Mediterranean monk seal looking out of the water, Greece.

• Pterois miles 2 — Vasilis Andreou ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0
• Rotfeuerfisch.Pterois miles. Рыба-зебра, рыба-лев.DSCF1394 — Kora27 ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Footage.

• Evia Wildfire, Greece (Copernicus) — contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2021 ↗ — Copernicus Sentinel data licence (attribution required)

  Smoke from the Evia wildfire, Greece, August 2021 · Copernicus Sentinel-2.

• Drought - Spain (P-058734-00-29) — European Commission Audiovisual Service / Jorge Guerrero ↗ — CC BY 4.0

  Cracked bed of the La Viñuela reservoir, Andalusia, August 2022 · European Commission.

• ISS035-E-007148 Nile - Sinai - Dead Sea - Wide Angle View — NASA Johnson Space Center (Expedition 35 crew) ↗ — Public domain

  Nile valley and delta, Sinai and the Red Sea from the ISS · NASA, 2013.

• 2018-09-25 Lagune von Venedig 00 — Triplec85 ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Footage. The Venetian lagoon, Low coast at the head of the Adriatic.

• Posidonia oceanica praderia — CofreDeSofre ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Posidonia oceanica, Mediterranean seagrass.

• Syngnathus typhle posidonia — Anne.menini ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0

  Footage. Posidonia oceanica, Mediterranean seagrass.

• Fleurs de Posidonia oceanica 26 sept 2015 — Gérard Giraud ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Footage.

• Posidonia oceanica (L) — Frédéric Ducarme ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0
• Schnorchler über Seegraswiese — Wusel007 ↗ — CC BY-SA 3.0
• Saupes à la La Ciotat, plage de Fontsainte sur Posidonies — Gérard Giraud ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  Footage.

• Posidonia oceanica meadow - Underwater observation and exploration - Calanque de Sormiou - 2022 — Karim saari ↗ — CC BY 4.0
• 160729-N-ZE250-283 (28645628075) — Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet ↗ — Public domain

  Rescue ship Aquarius (SOS Méditerranée) and small boats at sea, central Mediterranean, 29 July 2016 · US Navy photo.

• From Tarifa to Morocco-3415 — Isiwal ↗ — CC BY-SA 4.0

  From Tarifa across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco · photographed 2016.

• VOA footage of seized Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 in Gibraltar — Voice of America ↗ — Public domain

  Footage.

• Sunset Strait of Gibraltar 2 — Wikipek ↗ — CC0

  Sunset over the Strait of Gibraltar from the Ceuta–Algeciras ferry: Africa left, Europe right · photographed 2024.

For source questions or corrections, contact support@manypasts.com.

How we treat the evidence

We distinguish surviving evidence from interpretation and visual reconstruction. Maps can represent approximate routes or relationships without claiming to trace a surveyed ancient road. Modern landscapes and illustrative models are identified as such.

Map explorations include their own sources and model limitations. These remain separate from the final film’s research and production approvals.