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Omkareshwar Mahadev is a Hindu temple dedicated to the God Shiva. It is one of the 12 revered Jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva. The <i>jyothirlinga</i> shrines are places where Shiva appeared as a fiery column of light. Originally there were believed to be 64 <i>jyothirlinga</i>s while 12 of them are considered to be very auspicious and holy. Each of the twelve <i>jyothirlinga</i> sites take the name of the presiding deity - each considered a different manifestation of Shiva. At all these sites, the primary image is the <i>lingam</i> symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva.
In former centuries, the priests of Dattatreya Temple resided in the Pujari Math, a few metres to the east of the temple. The exact date of the original construction is unknown. It is assumed that the Pujari Math was completed a few years after the Dattatreya Temple, so as to provide its priests with a suitable residence. The tradition of adding Maths to temples had been established by the Adi Shankaracharya (a spiritual teacher) in 8th century in India.<br/><br/> The Pujari Math in Bhaktapur was financed by a wealthy 16th century merchant, Gosain Gurubaksha Giri, a follower of the teachings of the Adi Shankaracharya. Having amassed a large fortune in trade with Tibet, Gosain Gurubaksha Giri donated a considerable portion of his wealth for the construction of the Math.<br/><br/> Due to Gosain's excellent relations with Tibet, even the rulers of Nepal’s northern neighbour began to make donations to the establishment. Every year, they would send one tola (11,664 grams) of gold, one tola of silver, a horse, a woollen carpet, 365 walnuts and 216 Rupees (twice the sacred number 108). These donations went on for four centuries and were only discontinued in 1904. Furthermore, prosperous local citizens would present the Pujari Math with grants of land— the Math became probably the most financially secure priests’ residence in the whole country.
In former centuries, the priests of Dattatreya Temple resided in the Pujari Math, a few metres to the east of the temple. The exact date of the original construction is unknown. It is assumed that the Pujari Math was completed a few years after the Dattatreya Temple, so as to provide its priests with a suitable residence. The tradition of adding Maths to temples had been established by the Adi Shankaracharya (a spiritual teacher) in 8th century in India.<br/><br/> The Pujari Math in Bhaktapur was financed by a wealthy 16th century merchant, Gosain Gurubaksha Giri, a follower of the teachings of the Adi Shankaracharya. Having amassed a large fortune in trade with Tibet, Gosain Gurubaksha Giri donated a considerable portion of his wealth for the construction of the Math.<br/><br/> Due to Gosain's excellent relations with Tibet, even the rulers of Nepal’s northern neighbour began to make donations to the establishment. Every year, they would send one tola (11,664 grams) of gold, one tola of silver, a horse, a woollen carpet, 365 walnuts and 216 Rupees (twice the sacred number 108). These donations went on for four centuries and were only discontinued in 1904. Furthermore, prosperous local citizens would present the Pujari Math with grants of land— the Math became probably the most financially secure priests’ residence in the whole country.
In former centuries, the priests of Dattatreya Temple resided in the Pujari Math, a few metres to the east of the temple. The exact date of the original construction is unknown. It is assumed that the Pujari Math was completed a few years after the Dattatreya Temple, so as to provide its priests with a suitable residence. The tradition of adding Maths to temples had been established by the Adi Shankaracharya (a spiritual teacher) in 8th century in India.<br/><br/> The Pujari Math in Bhaktapur was financed by a wealthy 16th century merchant, Gosain Gurubaksha Giri, a follower of the teachings of the Adi Shankaracharya. Having amassed a large fortune in trade with Tibet, Gosain Gurubaksha Giri donated a considerable portion of his wealth for the construction of the Math.<br/><br/> Due to Gosain's excellent relations with Tibet, even the rulers of Nepal’s northern neighbour began to make donations to the establishment. Every year, they would send one tola (11,664 grams) of gold, one tola of silver, a horse, a woollen carpet, 365 walnuts and 216 Rupees (twice the sacred number 108). These donations went on for four centuries and were only discontinued in 1904. Furthermore, prosperous local citizens would present the Pujari Math with grants of land— the Math became probably the most financially secure priests’ residence in the whole country.
In former centuries, the priests of Dattatreya Temple resided in the Pujari Math, a few metres to the east of the temple. The exact date of the original construction is unknown. It is assumed that the Pujari Math was completed a few years after the Dattatreya Temple, so as to provide its priests with a suitable residence. The tradition of adding Maths to temples had been established by the Adi Shankaracharya (a spiritual teacher) in 8th century in India.<br/><br/> The Pujari Math in Bhaktapur was financed by a wealthy 16th century merchant, Gosain Gurubaksha Giri, a follower of the teachings of the Adi Shankaracharya. Having amassed a large fortune in trade with Tibet, Gosain Gurubaksha Giri donated a considerable portion of his wealth for the construction of the Math.<br/><br/> Due to Gosain's excellent relations with Tibet, even the rulers of Nepal’s northern neighbour began to make donations to the establishment. Every year, they would send one tola (11,664 grams) of gold, one tola of silver, a horse, a woollen carpet, 365 walnuts and 216 Rupees (twice the sacred number 108). These donations went on for four centuries and were only discontinued in 1904. Furthermore, prosperous local citizens would present the Pujari Math with grants of land— the Math became probably the most financially secure priests’ residence in the whole country.
Maxim P. Dmitriev (1858-1948) was a Russian photographer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a founder of the photojournalist genre and a member of the Russian Photographic Society.
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent farmers in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union. The word kulak originally referred to independent farmers in the Russian Empire who emerged from the peasantry and became wealthy following the Stolypin reform, which began in 1906. The label of kulak was broadened in 1918 to include any peasant who resisted handing over their grain to detachments from Moscow.<br/><br/> According to the political theory of Marxism–Leninism of the early 20th century, the kulaks were class enemies of the poorer peasants. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin described them as 'bloodsuckers, vampires, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten on famine'. Marxism–Leninism had intended a revolution to liberate poor peasants and farm laborers alongside the proletariat. In addition, the planned economy of Soviet Bolshevism required the collectivisation of farms and land to allow industrialisation or conversion to large-scale agricultural production. In practice, government officials violently seized kulak farms and murdered resisters; others were deported to labor camps.
From 1861 to 1890 the Munich publishing firm of Braun and Schneider published plates of historic and contemporary costume in their magazine Munchener Bilderbogen.<br/><br/> These plates were eventually collected in book form and published at the turn of the century in Germany and England.
The Holy See of the Cao Dai is in the Vietnamese province of Tay Ninh, close to the Cambodian frontier, and this syncretic religion – which counts Victor Hugo, Laozi and Jesus among its saints – has also made some Khmer converts.<br/><br/>Vietnam has two indigenous religious sects, both of which were established in the 20th century, and both of which are based firmly in the south of the country. Cao Dai or ‘Supreme Altar’ is a syncretic faith combining aspects of the tam giao with Catholicism and is the larger of the two, with an estimated 2 million followers. Cao Dai is an eclectic amalgam of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Catholicism. The second sect, called Hoa Hao or ‘Peace and Happiness’, is centred on Chau Doc in the Mekong Delta. Its followers practise an ascetic and austere form of Buddhism.<br/><br/>The Cao Dai religion was founded in 1919 by a Vietnamese civil servant, Ngo Van Chieu and by the mid-1920s Tay Ninh had developed as the ‘Holy See’ of the new religion, with a hierarchy organised under a Cao Dai pope. Initially persecuted by the communists, Cao Dai is now tolerated, and has an estimated two million followers, mainly in the south.
Dalongdong Baoan Temple (Chinese: 大龍峒保安宮; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tōa-lông-pōng pó-an kiong) also known as the Taipei Baoan Temple (Chinese: 臺北保安宮) is a Taiwanese folk religion temple built in the Datong district of Taipei, Taiwan.<br/><br/>The present temple was originally built by clan members in the Tong'an District (同安) who immigrated to Taipei in the early 19th century and gave the temple the name Bao'an (保安) in order to 'protect those of tong'an' (保佑同安).<br/><br/>The temple construction commenced in 1804 and replaced a previously existing wooden shrine from 1742 in Dalongdong.
Dalongdong Baoan Temple (Chinese: 大龍峒保安宮; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tōa-lông-pōng pó-an kiong) also known as the Taipei Baoan Temple (Chinese: 臺北保安宮) is a Taiwanese folk religion temple built in the Datong district of Taipei, Taiwan.<br/><br/>The present temple was originally built by clan members in the Tong'an District (同安) who immigrated to Taipei in the early 19th century and gave the temple the name Bao'an (保安) in order to 'protect those of tong'an' (保佑同安).<br/><br/>The temple construction commenced in 1804 and replaced a previously existing wooden shrine from 1742 in Dalongdong.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis.<br/><br/> Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.<br/><br/> The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.<br/><br/> The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it died out in Europe in the 19th century.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis.<br/><br/> Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.<br/><br/> The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.<br/><br/> The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it died out in Europe in the 19th century.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis.<br/><br/> Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.<br/><br/> The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.<br/><br/> The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it died out in Europe in the 19th century.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis.<br/><br/> Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.<br/><br/> The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.<br/><br/> The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it died out in Europe in the 19th century.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis.<br/><br/> Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.<br/><br/> The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.<br/><br/> The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it died out in Europe in the 19th century.
The Triumph of Death is an oil painting on panel, painted c. 1562 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.<br/><br/> The painting is a panoramic landscape: the sky in the distance is blackened by smoke from burning cities and the sea is littered with shipwrecks. Armies of skeletons advance on the living, who either flee in terror or try vainly to fight back. In the foreground, skeletons haul a wagon full of skulls, and ring the bell that signifies the death knell of the world. A fool plays the lute while a skeleton behind him plays along; a starving dog nibbles at the face of a child; a cross sits in the center of the painting. People are herded into a trap decorated with crosses, while a skeleton on horseback kills people with a scythe. The painting depicts people of different social backgrounds – from peasants and soldiers to nobles as well as a king and a cardinal – being taken by death indiscriminately.<br/><br/> The painting shows aspects of everyday life in the mid-sixteenth century. Clothes are clearly depicted, as are pastimes such as playing cards and backgammon. It shows objects such as musical instruments, an early mechanical clock, scenes including a funeral service, and a common method of execution: being lashed to a cartwheel mounted on a vertical pole.<br/><br/> Pieter Bruegel's The Triumph of Death is considered to reflect the social upheaval and terror that followed the plague which devastated medieval Europe
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis.<br/><br/> Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.<br/><br/> The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.<br/><br/> The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it died out in Europe in the 19th century.
Manichaeism was one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia. Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani (c. 216–276 AD) have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived.<br/><br/> Manichaeism taught an elaborate cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light from which it came. Its beliefs can be seen as a synthesis of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.<br/><br/> Manichaeism thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire. Manichaeism survived longer in the east, and appears to have finally faded away after the 14th century in southern China.
Manichaeism was one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia. Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani (c. 216–276 AD) have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived.<br/><br/> Manichaeism taught an elaborate cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light from which it came. Its beliefs can be seen as a synthesis of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.<br/><br/> Manichaeism thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire. Manichaeism survived longer in the east, and appears to have finally faded away after the 14th century in southern China.
Manichaeism was the most important Gnostic religion. Central in the Manichaean teaching was dualism, that the world itself, and all creatures, were part of a battle between the good, represented by God, and the bad, the darkness, represented by a power driven by envy and lust.<br/><br/> Manichaeism spread over most of the known world of the 1st millennium CE, from Spain to China. But the religion disappeared from the West in 10th century, and from China in the 14th century. Today it is extinct.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shrines and Temples of Nikkō, encompasses 103 buildings or structures and the natural setting around them. It is located in Nikkō, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The buildings belong to two Shinto shrines (Futarasan Shrine and Tōshō-gū) and one Buddhist temple (Rinnō-ji). Nine of the structures are designated National Treasures of Japan while the remaining 94 are Important Cultural Properties. UNESCO listed the site as a World Heritage Site in 1999.<br/><br/> Shinto is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past.
The Great Ottoman Empire or Turkish Empire or Sublime Ottoman State was a Turkish empire which lasted from 27 July 1299 to 1 November 1922 (623 years), when the Sultanate was abolished.<br/><br/> The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in history; such that the Ottoman State, its politics, conflicts, and cultural heritage in a vast geography provide one of the longest continuous narratives. During the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the empire was one of the most powerful states in the world – a multinational, multilingual empire that stretched from the southern borders of the Holy Roman Empire to the outskirts of Vienna, Royal Hungary (modern Slovakia) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the north to Yemen and Eritrea in the south; from Algeria in the west to Azerbaijan in the east; controlling much of southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa.<br/><br/> With Constantinople as its capital and vast control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, the empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for over six centuries.
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a n ame given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a n ame given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
Manichaeism was one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia. Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani (c. 216–276 CE) have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived.<br/><br/> Manichaeism taught an elaborate cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light from which it came. Its beliefs can be seen as a synthesis of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.<br/><br/> Manichaeism thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire. Manichaeism survived longer in the east, and appears to have finally faded away after the 14th century in southern China.<br/><br/>
The Sogdians established a trading network across the 2400 kilometres (1500 miles) from Sogdiana to China. In fact, the Sogdians turned their energies to trade so thoroughly that the Saka (Scythians) of the Kingdom of Khotan called all merchants suli, 'Sogdian', whatever their culture or ethnicity.<br/><br/> An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary. The greatly reduced space taken up by an ossuary means that it is possible to store the remains of many more people in a single tomb than if the original coffins were left as is.
The Sogdians established a trading network across the 2400 kilometres (1500 miles) from Sogdiana to China. In fact, the Sogdians turned their energies to trade so thoroughly that the Saka (Scythians) of the Kingdom of Khotan called all merchants suli, 'Sogdian', whatever their culture or ethnicity.<br/><br/> An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary. The greatly reduced space taken up by an ossuary means that it is possible to store the remains of many more people in a single tomb than if the original coffins were left as is.
Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. Nestorius and his teachings were eventually condemned as heretical at the First Council of Ephesus in 431 and the Council of Chalcedon in 451, leading to the Nestorian Schism in which churches supporting Nestorius broke with the rest of the Christian Church. Afterward many of Nestorius' supporters relocated to Sassanid Persia, where they affiliated with the local Christian community, known as the Church of the East. Subsequently the Church of the East became increasingly Nestorian in doctrine, leading it to be known alternately as the Nestorian Church.
The disease represented is generally believed to be the plague. The location of bumps or blisters, however, is more consistent with smallpox (as the bubonic plague normally causes them only in the groin and in the armpits). This image is generally interpreted as a depiction of the Black Death.<br/><br/> The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis.<br/><br/> Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.<br/><br/> The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.<br/><br/> The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it died out in Europe in the 19th century.