Although intelligence services were consecrated above all in the Cold War, they had already had more or less important roles throughout History. In that sense, it is possible to consider among the best agents that have ever existed, one that operated during the Second World War, providing a thousand and a half reports to the […]
Jorge Álvarez
Degree in History and Diploma in Archival and Library Science. Founder and director of Apuntes magazine (2002-2005). Creator of the blog El Viajero Incidental. Travel and tourism blogger since 2009 in Viajeros. Editor of LBV Magazine.
Posted inAncient Egypt
Ibn Wahshiyya, the Nabataean who could have translated Egyptian hieroglyphs before Champollion
Today we are going to discover an almost unknown individual, a good representative from other times, who may have been the first to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs almost nine centuries earlier than is believed. We are referring to the Arab scholar Ibn Wahshiyya. In mid-September 1822, Jean-François Champollion managed to finish off the work […]
Posted inModern Era
The sinking of the San Diego, the Spanish galleon that carried Japanese mercenaries to stop a Dutch invasion
Maybe you’ve heard of Franck Goddio. He is a submarine archaeologist, born in Morocco but of French nationality, who a couple of decades ago discovered the location of the Egyptian city of Heracleion under sea and has also directed some important excavations around Alexandria. But, above all, he has become famous for his work on […]
Posted inAntiquity
The prank that caused the losing of the throne and the end of his dynasty to the Chinese king You
Within the enigmatic and unknown that, in most cases, the history of China is already for us, there are some weird episodes in which it is difficult to establish where reality ends and where the myth begins, just as it also happens with some Roman emperors, whose strange behaviour is now being called into doubt. […]
Posted inAntiquity
Kurkh Monolith, the first documentary reference to Israel and the Arabs
One of the most curious, interesting and controversial archaeological pieces preserved in the British Museum is the so-called Kurkh Monolith. It is a fairly large Assyrian stele with inscribed descriptions of King Shalmaneser III. The information provided is essential to know the military campaigns of the sovereign but is also important because it contains the […]
Posted inArt, Modern Era
How Galileo Galilei made calculations for the Statue of Philip IV in Madrid
Does a sculptor have to resort to mathematics to make a statue? Moreover, would he need a wise man like Galileo Galilei? Well, as incredible as it may seem, that happened in Madrid in the middle of the 17th century. Between 1634 and 1640 the Italian artist Pietro Tacca had to ask the famous sage […]
Posted inCulture
Albinoni’s Adagio was composed by the Italian musicologist Remo Giazotto in 1945.
Surely this is surprising because, after all, the famous Adagio in G minor is not only one of the best-known pieces of classical music but also one of the most popular among music lovers with a closely linked name of title and author: “Albinoni’s Adagio”. It is ironic, therefore, that in reality the work is […]
Posted inCulture
The controversial right of the prisoner to escape, which is not a crime in countries such as Germany or Belgium
Recently, reviewing the cinematographic subgenre of prison escapes, a handful of interesting titles came out. Some are set in civil prisons, such as Escape from Alcatraz or the television series Prison Break; others take place in the context of world wars, case of The Great Escape, The Mckenzie Break or La Grande Illusion. In all […]
Posted inHistory, Modern Era
Charles Joseph Bonaparte, who founded the FBI, was Napoleon’s great-nephew
We find relatives of Napoleon everywhere and many of them with interesting lives. For instance, Louis Napoleon was in the French Resistance during the Second World War or Eugenio Luis, son of Napoleon III and the Spanish Eugenia de Montijo, fighting against the Zulus. Today we are going to review the story of another descendant, […]
Posted inAncient Egypt
The solar alignment that occurs twice a year in the temple of Abu Simbel
Three millennia ago Egypt was at the height of its Empire. After the war campaigns of Senusret III and a period of splendour and Egyptian pax during the government of Amenhotep III, and having saved a phase of weakness and decadence led by pharaohs like Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, the times of splendour returned with the […]
