(RNS) — The black, gold-embroidered cloth that shrouds Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia is a revered artifact that ...

Ziggurats were mudbrick temples designed to bridge heaven and earth, anchoring religion, power, and architecture in the ancient Near East for thousands of years.

The Egyptians believed that hieroglyphs offered magical protection to people in this life and the afterlife, and inscribed the signs on monuments, statues, funerary objects, and papyri.