From its earliest beginnings thousands of years ago, the course of man’s progress has been measured by his empires. Large, dynamic flows of power, people, and culture that merge, thrive, then break apart – the pieces only to merge again in a new configuration, the process to be repeated. Through pictures and words, “Empires: Their Rise and Fall” brings the reader face to face with many of the world’s greatest empires. Full-color photographs are combined with an absorbing narrative in a lively historical account of each empire and an examination of the period’s most enduring cultural achievements. This volume in the series focuses on Ancient Egypt, and Alexander and the World of Hellenism. In light of the barbarism that has existed over the history of civilized man, it is remarkable how much of ancient societies remains. For the earliest civilizations, our knowledge begins with scanty, often mythological, lists of kings. In the temples of ancient Egypt, the prowess of the king is dramatized in battle, in receiving tributes of the vanquished, and in other ennobling pursuits that glorify his reign. The greater part of the scenes and texts represented in the temples, however, illustrates and describes the rituals performed by the king for the gods. Although the Egyptian kings are identified by name, their personalities rarely rise above their activities. Yet beneath the impression of cold anonymity, glimpses of individuals do, on occasion, emerge. In contrast, the literature and documents of Hellenistic society reveal a more complex society. The polyglot atmosphere of the cosmopolis not only gave rise to many tensions, but also fostered an environment that must have been both lively and stimulating. So it was that the new Macedonian dynasties in Greece, Syria, and Mesopotamia by slow degrees transformed the Western world, creating the new order of Hellenism. The legacies of Greece, Palestine and the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Egypt were incorporated into this new order.

“Supernatural: ​of or relating to things that cannot be explained according to natural laws.” Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as “the greatest riddle in human history”, all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers. In “Supernatural”, Graham Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious “before-and-after moment” and to discover the truth about the influences that gave birth to the modern human mind. His quest takes him on a journey of adventure and detection from the stunningly beautiful painted caves of prehistoric France, Spain and Italy to remote rock shelters in the mountains of South Africa where he finds a treasure trove of extraordinary Stone Age art. He uncovers clues that lead him to travel to the depths of the Amazon rainforest to drink the powerful plant hallucinogen Ayahuasca with Indian shamans, whose paintings contain images of “supernatural beings” identical to the animal-human hybrids depicted in prehistoric caves and rock shelters. And hallucinogens such as mescaline, also produce visionary encounters with exactly the same beings. Scientists at the cutting edge of consciousness research have begun to consider the possibility that such hallucinations may be real perceptions of other “dimensions”. Could the “supernaturals” first depicted in the painted caves and rock shelters be the ancient teachers of mankind? Could it be that human evolution is not just the “blind”, “meaningless” process that Darwin identified, but something else, more purposive and intelligent, that we have barely even begun to understand?

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, Richard Feynman was one of the world’s greatest theoretical physicists, but he was also a man who fell, often jumped, into adventure. An artist, safecracker, practical joker and storyteller, Feynman’s life was a series of combustoble combinations made possible by his unique mixture of high intelligence, unquenchable curiosity and eternal scepticism. Over a period of years, Feynman’s conversations with his friend Ralph Leighton were first taped and then set down as they appear here, little changed from their spoken form, giving a wise, funny, passionate and totally honest self-portrait of one of the greatest men of our age.