Qin Shi Huangdi, who ruled as the only emperor during the short-lived but immensely important Qin Dynasty, ordered the construction of the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army. The Great Wall of China was built to prevent barbarian invasions into Chinese territory. The Terracotta Army was built for the slightly less practical purpose of furnishing the emperor with an army for the afterlife. The Grand Canal was built during the rule of the Sui Dynasty to connect northern and southern China. The Forbidden City was built during the rule of the Ming Dynasty and served as the seat of the imperial government until the Chinese revolution in the early twentieth century.

Aristophanes' 11 surviving comedies are the only example of Old Comedy style of Ancient Athenian theatre that we have. Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles were playwrights who wrote during the same era, but only their tragic dramas survive. This period of 5th century BC Greek life is known as the Golden Era of Athens. Seneca was a Stoic statements and writer in 1st century AD Rome.

The Athenian historian Thucydides and his History of the Peloponnesian War tells the bitter civil war and decline of the Golden Age of Athens. Thucydides starts chronologically where Herodotus's Histories leaves off. Xenophon's Hellenica in turn picks up the historical narrative where Thucydides ends. The Athenian Aristophanes wrote comedy plays around the same era. Cicero was a Roman philosopher and statesmen who lived in the 1st century BC.

The Chinese city of Chang’an was the capital of Qin and Han China. It notably featured urban planning and had an efficient grid system.

The ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus is most famous for his works of drama. Most notable he wrote the Oresteia trilogy.

The Greek Herodotus and his book The Histories is consider the first historian and one of the earliest works of surviving Greek prose. He was the first to truly investigate the past by gathering various sources. The epic poems of Homer were composed and passed down orally before the advent of the Greek alphabet in the 8th century BCE. Herodotus gives us an intimate portrait of the known world in the 5th century BCE.

Pyramids are closely associated with Mayan civilization. Monuments like Chichen Itza, in modern-day Mexico, serve to highlight the architectural accomplishment of the Mayans and their famous stone, stepped pyramids.

The City of God was written by Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century CE. Ostensibly it was written in defense of Christianity (which many claimed had caused the downfall of the Roman Empire), but in practical terms it is one of the most influential works of Christian theology in history. It explores theological issues like the origin of original sin, the battle between good and evil, and the role of free will in a Christian society.

The Great Library of Alexandria was built in Egypt during the reign of the Ptolemaic dynasty (circa 300 BCE) For a few centuries it was a renowned center of learning and innovation in the classical world.

The writings of Aristotle provided much of the foundation for European scientific understanding throughout the Middle Ages. Medieval scientists were so impressed by Aristotle that they were reluctant to overturn any of his findings, even when the evidence suggested he was wrong. An example of this hidebound thinking is the spider. Aristotle, apparently, wrote that spiders have six legs. This was accepted as scientific fact, even though spiders inarguably have eight legs. This sort of intransigence contributed to the general lack of scientific advancement in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, a situation that would only be remedied with the rise of empiricism during the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution.