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Age 4 of 6 500 CE – 1500 CE

The Middle Ages, 500–1500 CE

1,000 years · 2,410 records · 297 dated moments

A thousand years, and the busiest stretch of the canvas.

Open the canvas here The atlas at 1000 CE

Successor kingdoms, caliphates, steppe empires, the Mali and Songhai of West Africa, Song and Ming China, the Khmer and Srivijaya. This is the widest part of the atlas, so it is the densest part of the timeline: lanes stack two rows deep and the quota per record kind is doing real work to keep landmarks and figures visible between the empires.

The states the atlas drew most often

The polities the canvas draws first in this age, when it has room for only a few.

All 1,780 polities

South Asia

Tibet

Attested 1000 CE – 1960 CE

Europe

Ottoman Empire

1299 CE – 1922 CE

Europe

Holy Roman Empire

962 CE – 1806 CE

South Asia

Hindu kingdoms

Attested 500 BCE – 1715 CE

Middle East

Egypt

Attested 3000 BCE – 2026 CE

Europe

Sweden

Founded 900 CE · attested to 2026 CE

South Asia

Simhala

Attested 500 BCE – 700 CE

Middle East

Persia

Attested 400 CE – 1914 CE

Best-evidenced conflicts

Ranked the way the war lane ranks them: the ones the canvas draws first.

All 118 conflicts

East Asia

Sengoku Period (Japanese Warring States)

1467 CE – 1615 CE

Nearly 150 years of civil war as feudal warlords fought for supremacy across Japan. Three great unifiers — Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu — progressively reunified the country, culminating in the Tokugawa Shogunate that would rule for 250 years.

East Asia

Goguryeo–Sui Wars

598 CE – 614 CE

The Sui Dynasty launched four massive invasions of the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo, mobilising over a million troops. The catastrophic defeats — especially the annihilation of 300,000 soldiers at the Salsu River — triggered rebellions that toppled the Sui Dynasty itself.

Europe

Byzantine–Arab Wars

629 CE – 1180 CE

Centuries of warfare between Byzantium and successive Arab caliphates. The Arabs besieged Constantinople twice (674–678, 717–718) but failed both times, with Greek fire proving decisive. The frontier stabilized along the Taurus Mountains for centuries.

East Asia

An Lushan Rebellion

755 CE – 763 CE

A devastating civil war within the Tang Dynasty that killed an estimated 13–36 million people — possibly one-sixth of the world's population — permanently weakening China's greatest medieval dynasty.

Europe

Viking Invasions

793 CE – 1066 CE

Nearly three centuries of Norse raids, conquests, and settlements that reshaped northern Europe — from the sack of Lindisfarne to the Norman conquest of England.

Europe

Wars of the Kievan Rus'

860 CE – 1240 CE

The Rus' state expanded from Viking origins into a major European power, warring with Byzantium and steppe nomads before fracturing into rival principalities conquered by the Mongols.

Middle East

The Crusades

1096 CE – 1291 CE

Two centuries of religious warfare for control of the Holy Land — nine major crusades that transformed trade, culture, and the balance of power between Christendom and Islam.

Europe

The Anarchy

1135 CE – 1153 CE

A civil war over the English throne between Stephen and Matilda, Henry I's daughter. England descended into chaos as rival barons built unlicensed castles and ravaged the countryside. It ended with the Treaty of Wallingford, securing the throne for Matilda's son Henry II.

Still standing, and who was alive

Landmarks standing during this age, and people who lived in it.

All 458 landmarks All 31 figures

Landmark · Americas

Grand Canyon

3000 BCE – still standing

Immense gorge carved by the Colorado River over millions of years

Landmark · Oceania

Great Barrier Reef

3000 BCE – still standing

World's largest coral reef system, visible from space

Landmark · Europe

Plitvice Lakes

3000 BCE – still standing

Cascading chain of sixteen turquoise lakes connected by waterfalls in the Croatian highlands

Landmark · Europe

Giant's Causeway

3000 BCE – still standing

40,000 interlocking basalt columns formed by ancient volcanic eruptions on the Northern Irish coast

Figure · Arabian Peninsula

Muhammad

570 CE – 632 CE

From an orphaned merchant in Mecca to the founder of a civilization — the life of Muhammad ibn Abdullah, told in his own words: the first revelation, the Hijra, the battles of Badr and Uhud, the conquest of Mecca, and the Farewell Sermon that completed a faith for 1.8 billion people.

Figure · Frankish Empire

Charlemagne

742 CE – 814 CE

The Frankish king who conquered half of Europe, was crowned Emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day 800, and launched a cultural renaissance that preserved learning through the Dark Ages — the man historians call the Father of Europe.

Figure · Baghdad

Al-Khwarizmi

780 CE – 850 CE

The Baghdad scholar who gave the world algebra and the word algorithm — how a ninth-century polymath at the House of Wisdom synthesised Greek, Indian, and Persian mathematics into a system that would power every equation ever written.

Figure · India (Kerala to the Himalayas)

Shankara

788 CE – 820 CE

In thirty-two years, Adi Shankaracharya walked the length of India barefoot, defeated every rival philosophical school in open debate, founded four monasteries that still stand today, and delivered one message that reshaped a civilization: you are Brahman. You always were.

Dated moments

16 of 297, spread evenly across the age.

All 297 dated moments
500 CE Ile-Ife Africa 600 CE Ellora Caves South Asia 636 CE Battle of Yarmouk Middle East 700 CE Shore Temple South Asia 772 CE Charlemagne's Saxon Wars Europe 850 CE Prambanan Oceania 942 CE St. Bavo's Cathedral Europe 1001 CE Ghaznavid Conquests of India South Asia 1096 CE The Crusades Middle East 1163 CE Notre-Dame de Paris Europe 1200 CE Hamburg Europe 1250 CE Lelu Ruins 1325 CE Tenochtitlán Market Americas 1381 CE English Peasants' Revolt Europe 1420 CE Temple of Heaven East Asia 1495 CE Tomb of the Askia Africa
Image credits19 pictures from Wikimedia Commons