Rome City

Gone in an instant. Pompeii was one of the most advanced cities of its time; it had a complex water system, gymnasium, and amphitheater. Despite its advancements, there was one thing it wasn't ready for: Mount Vesuvius - the volcano that led to its ultimate doom. The 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius was one of the worst disasters in all of European history. In a near instant, over 15,000 people were dead and a city was completely destroyed. This audiobook looks at the rise, fall, and rediscovery of the great city of Pompeii.

The Rise of Constantinople looks at the events that brought about the transformation of Byzantium, and how Constantinople became one of the most important cities in the world.

When the European armies of the Third Crusade were defeated at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 CE, the region of what is today southern Jordan was overrun by Saladin's armies, and over the following five centuries knowledge of Petra's existence was lost to the people of Europe. The ancient city and center of civilization hidden in the desert became a myth, drawn largely upon Biblical accounts of the people and places in the Holy Land.

In the year 570 CE, a child by the name of Muhammad is born in the Arabian city of Mecca. Sixty-two years later, he dies, and upon his death, the faith that he founded, Islam ("obedience to the one God"), dominates the western half of the Arabian Peninsula. By the end of the first millennium CE, four centuries after the death of Muhammad, Islam has grown to dominate western Asia, north and east Africa, the Levant, and the Iberian Peninsula.