NY Regents 9.2: Belief Systems

The Indus-Gangetic Plain, stretching across northern India, is where the oldest hymns of Hinduism were composed and passed down by oral tradition around 1500 BCE. The Rigveda and companion texts were…

Around 550 BCE the philosopher Laozi (Lao-Tzu), traditionally described as a keeper of archives at the Zhou royal court, is said to have composed the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) — the foundational text…

Around 528 BCE Siddhartha Gautama, a wandering ascetic from a noble family, is said to have attained enlightenment while meditating under a pipal (fig) tree at Bodh Gaya, in what is now the Gaya…

Around 500 BCE Confucius (Kong Qiu) was active as a teacher and adviser in the state of Lu, centred on the city of Qufu in what is now Shandong Province, eastern China. Qufu sits on the south China…

Around 261 BCE the Mauryan emperor Ashoka fought the Kalinga War on the plains near the Daya River (a Mahanadi tributary) in what is now Odisha, eastern India, causing estimated casualties of over…

This event took place in Jerusalem, a city set on the Judean highlands between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Jordan River valley and Dead Sea to the east — the geographic crossroads the…

In 67 CE the Han emperor Mingdi established the White Horse Temple (Baimasi) about 13 km east of the Han capital Luoyang, in what is now Henan Province, central China. According to tradition, two…

This is Jerusalem, in what is today the country of Israel, sitting on a limestone ridge in the Judean Hills — exactly between the Mediterranean coast to the west and the deep rift of the Jordan River…

This event unfolded in Milan, in what is now northern Italy — a city sitting at the heart of the Po Plain, sheltered to the north by the Alps and open to the south toward the rest of the Italian…

This event took place in Nicaea, a city in present-day Turkey, sitting on the Asian side of the strait that separates Europe from Asia — the very crossing point between the Black Sea and the Sea of…

This event took place in Reims, France — a city sitting on the broad plain of the Marne river basin in the heart of northwestern Europe, roughly midway between the Rhine to the east and the Seine to…

This migration ended in Medina, Saudi Arabia — an oasis city sitting in the Hejaz region of the Arabian Peninsula, roughly 400 kilometres north of Mecca across the rocky Hejaz plateau. In 622 CE, the…

This event took place in Mecca, in modern-day Saudi Arabia — a city nestled in a narrow valley of the Hejaz mountain range, along the western edge of the Arabian Peninsula beside the Red Sea coastal…

The Battle of the Yarmuk was fought in 636 CE along the Yarmuk River, a tributary of the Jordan River just east of the Sea of Galilee, in what is now the border region of modern Jordan, Syria, and…

Amasya, a city in northern Turkey, sits on the Yeşilırmak River in the highlands of Anatolia — the broad peninsula between the Black Sea to the north and the Mediterranean to the south, forming the…