Australian Birds

The Bourke's parrot (Neopsephotus bourkii, formerly known as Neophema bourkii), also known as theBourke's parakeet, Bourke or "Bourkie", is a small parrotoriginating in Australia and the only species in its genusNeopsephotus. This species is sometimes placed in the genus Neophema and there is an ongoing discussion about the proper taxonomic placement of this species. It is a grass parrot approximately 19 cm long and weighing around 45 grams.^[3] It is named after General Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales from 1831 to 1837.

Wildtype (natural coloured) Bourke's parakeet display a basically brown overall colouration with pink abdomen, pinkish breast & a blue rump. The legs are dark-brown, with zygodactyltoes. The bill is yellowish-brown. The adult male has a blue forehead while the adult female has a little or no blue on the forehead. The Bourke's parrot's feathers help the species blend in with the reddish soil of its home.

The budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus)/ˈbʌdʒərɨɡɑr/, also known as common pet parakeet or shell parakeet and informally nicknamed the budgie, is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot. Budgerigars are the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus, and are found wild throughout the drier parts ofAustralia where the species has survived harsh inland conditions for the last five million years.^[2] Budgerigars are naturally green and yellow with black, scalloped markings on the nape, back, and wings, but have been bred in captivity with colouring in blues, whites, yellows, greys, and even with small crests. Budgerigars are popular pets around the world due to their small size, low cost, and ability to mimic human speech. The origin of the budgerigar's name is unclear. The species was first recorded in 1805, and today is the third most popular pet in the world, after the domesticated dog and cat.^[3]

The budgerigar is closely related to the loriesand the fig parrots. They are one of theparakeet species, a non-taxonomical term that refers to any of a number of small parrots with long, flat and tapered tails. In both captivity and the wild, budgerigars breed opportunisticallyand in pairs.

Wild budgerigars are usually found to be mostly green in colour. Selective breeding, by breeders, over the years has caused changes in colour. Cage bred budgerigars are also larger in size than wild budgerigars.

The cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus), also known as the quarrion and the weiro, is a member of the cockatoo family endemic to Australia. They are prized as householdpets and companion parrots throughout the world and are relatively easy to breed. As a caged bird, cockatiels are second in popularity only to the budgerigar.^[2]

The cockatiel is the only member of the genusNymphicus. It was previously considered a crested parrot or small cockatoo; however, more recent molecular studies have assigned it to its own subfamily, Nymphicinae. It is, therefore, now classified as the smallest of the Cacatuidae(cockatoo family). Cockatiels are native to Australia, and favour the Australian wetlands, scrublands, and bush lands.

The Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae), also known as the Lady Gouldian finch, Gould's finch or the rainbow finch, is a colourful passerine bird endemic to Australia. There is strong evidence of a continuing decline, even at the best-known site near Katherine in the Northern Territory. Large numbers are bred in captivity, particularly in Australia. In the state of South Australia, National Parks & Wildlife Department permit returns in the late 1990s showed that over 13,000 Gouldian finches were being kept byaviculturists. If extrapolated to an Australia-wide figure this would result in a total of over 100,000 birds. In 1992, it was classified as "endangered in the wild" under IUCN's criteria C2ai. This was because the viable population size was estimated to be less than 2,500 mature individuals, no permanent subpopulation was known to contain more than 250 mature individuals, and that a continuing decline was observed in the number of mature individuals. It is currently subject to a conservation program.

The Australian king parrot (Alisterus scapularis) is endemic to eastern Australia. It is found in humid and heavily forested upland regions of the eastern portion of the continent, including eucalyptus wooded areas in and directly adjacent to subtropical and temperate rainforest. They feed on fruits and seeds gathered from trees or on the ground.

The bluebonnet (Northiella haematogaster) is an Australian parrot, the only member of the genus Northiella.^[2] It was originally included in the Psephotus genus but due to distinctive physical and behavioural differences was reclassified into its own genus in 1994 by ornithologists and taxonomists Christidis and Boles. The bluebonnet is a medium sized inland parrot commonly found in the interior of southeastern and central-southern Australia. It is adapted to life in semi-arid regions but can also flourish in regions of medium rainfall towards the eastern and southern extremities of its range.

 Fig parrots is a small tribe (Cyclopsittini) with two small genera of parrots (Cyclopsitta andPsittaculirostris) of the Psittaculidae family found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and tropicalAustralia. The double-eyed fig parrot is 13–16 cm in length and is the smallest Australian parrot.

The orange-breasted fig parrot (Cyclopsitta gulielmitertii) is a species of parrot in the Psittaculidaefamily. It is found in West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.                                                                                                                                   female

The collared kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) is a medium-sized kingfisher belonging to the family Halcyonidae, the tree kingfishers. It is also known as thewhite-collared kingfisher or mangrove kingfisher. It has a wide range extending from the Red Sea across southern Asia and Australasia to Polynesia. It is a very variable species with about 50 subspecies.

The common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), is a bird in the pheasant family (Phasianidae). It is native toAsia and has been widely introduced elsewhere as agame bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe (where it is naturalized), it is simply known as the "pheasant". Ring-necked pheasant is both the name used for the species as a whole in North America and also the collective name for a number of subspeciesand their intergrades which have white neck rings.

The word pheasant is derived from the ancient town ofPhasis, the predecessor of the modern port city of Potiin Western Georgia.

It is a well-known gamebird, among those of more than regional importance perhaps the most widespread and ancient one in the whole world. The common pheasant is one of the world's most hunted birds; it has been introduced for that purpose to many regions, and is also common on game farms where it is commercially bred. Ring-necked pheasants in particular are commonly bred and were introduced to many parts of the world; the game farm stock, though no distinctbreeds have been developed yet, can be considered semi-domesticated. The ring-necked pheasant is thestate bird of South Dakota, one of only three U.S. state birds that is not a species native to the United States.

The green pheasant (P. versicolor) of Japan is sometimes considered a subspecies of the common pheasant. Though the species produce fertile hybridswherever they coexist, this is simply a typical feature among fowl (Galloanseres), in which postzygoticisolating mechanisms are slight compared to most other birds. The species apparently have somewhat different ecological requirements and at least in its typical habitat, the green pheasant outcompetes the common pheasant. The introduction of the latter to Japan has therefore largely failed.

Birds of Canada

male                female

The lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) is a medium-sized American sparrow native to central and western North America.
Lark buntings are small songbirds, with a short, thick, bluishbill. There is a large patch of white on the wings and they have a relatively short tail with white tips at the end of the feathers. Breeding males have an all black body with a large white patch on the upper part of the wing. Nonbreeding males and females look similar and are grayish brown with white stripes.

The Franklin's gull (Leucophaeus pipixcan) is a small gull.

It breeds in central provinces of Canada and adjacent states of the northern United States. It is a migratory bird, wintering in Argentina, the Caribbean, Chile and Peru.

The summer adult's body is white and its back and wings are much darker grey than all other gulls of similar size except the larger laughing gull. The wings have black tips with an adjacent white band. The bill and legs are red. The black hood of the breeding adult is mostly lost in winter.

Young birds are similar to the adult but have less developed hoods and lack the white wing band. They take three years to reach maturity.

Although the bird is uncommon on the coasts of North America, it occurs as a rare vagrant to northwest Europe, south and west Africa, Australiaand Japan, with a single record from Eilat, Israel, in 2002 (Smith 2002).

The dickcissel (Spiza americana) is a small Americanseed-eating bird in the family Cardinalidae. It is the only member of the genus Spiza, though some sources list another supposedly extinct species (see below). In older works, it is often placed with the American sparrows in theEmberizidae; females especially resemble American sparrows in plumage.

Dickcissels have a large pale bill, a yellow line over the eye, brownish upperparts with black streaks on the back, dark wings, a rust patch on the shoulder and light underparts. Adult males have a black throat patch, a yellow breast and grey cheeks and crown. This head and breast pattern is especially brilliant in the breeding plumage, making it resemble an eastern meadowlark. Females and juveniles are brownish on the cheeks and crown and are somewhat similar in appearance to house sparrows; they have streaked flanks.

In flight they make a low, "electric", buzzing fpppt. From an open perch in a field, this bird's song is a sharp dick dickfollowed by a buzzed cissel, also transcribed as skee-dlees chis chis chis or dick dick ciss ciss ciss.

The marbled godwit (Limosa fedoa) is a large shorebird. On average, it is the largest of the 4 species of godwit. The total length is 40–50 cm (16–20 in), including a large bill of 8–13 cm (3.1–5.1 in), and wingspan is 70–88 cm (28–35 in).^[2] Body mass can vary from 240 to 510 g (8.5 to 18.0 oz).^[3]

Adults have long blue-grey hairy legs and a very long pink bill with a slight upward curve and dark at the tip. The long neck, breast and belly are pale brown with dark bars on the breast and flanks. The back is mottled and dark. They show cinnamon wing linings in flight.

Their breeding habitat is the northern prairies of westernCanada-(Canadian Prairies), and the north central Great Plains, United States near marshes or ponds. They nest on the ground, usually in short grass.

In autumn, they migrate in flocks to the coasts of California, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico and South America.

These birds forage by probing on mudflats, in marshes, or at the beach (see picture below). In short grass, they may pick up insects by sight. They mainly eat insects andcrustaceans, but also eat parts of aquatic plants.

Their numbers were reduced by hunting at the end of the 19th century. Although they had recovered somewhat since that time, their population has declined in recent times as suitable habitat is used for farming.

The sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) (previously: Tetrao phasianellus), is a medium-sized prairie grouse. It is also known as the sharptail, and is known as "fire grouse" or "fire bird" by Native American Indians due to their reliance on brush fires to keep their habitat open. 

The chestnut-collared longspur (Calcarius ornatus) is a small ground-feeding bird from the family Calcariidae which also contains the longspurs.

These birds have a short conical bill, a streaked back and a white tail with a dark tip. In breeding plumage, the male has black underparts, a chestnut nape, a yellow throat and a black crown. Other birds have light brown underparts, a dark crown, brown wings and may have some chestnut on the nape.

This bird breeds in short and mixed grass prairies in centralCanada and the north central United States. The female lays 4 or 5 eggs in a grass cup nest in a shallow scrape on the ground. The male sings and flies up to defend his territory. Both parents feed the young birds.

In winter, they migrate in flocks to prairies and open fields in the southern United States and Mexico.

These birds forage on the ground, gathering in flocks in winter. They mainly eat seeds, also eating insects in summer. Young birds are mainly fed insects.

The call is a two-syllabled chee dee.

The black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia), also known as the American magpie, is a bird in the crow family that inhabits the western half of North America, from southern coastal Alaska down the Rocky mountains to northern California, northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, central Kansas, and Nebraska. It is black and white, with black areas on the wings and tail showing iridescent hints of blue or blue-green. It is one of only four North American songbirds whose tail makes up half or more of the total body length (the others being the yellow-billed magpie, the scissor-tailed flycatcher, and the fork-tailed flycatcher).

This species prefers generally open habitats with clumps of trees. It can therefore be found in farmlands and suburban areas, where it comes into regular contact with people. Where persecuted it becomes very wary, but otherwise it is fairly tolerant of human presence. Historically associated with bison herds, it now lands on the back of cattle to glean ticks and insects from them. Large predators such as wolves are commonly followed by black-billed magpies, who scavenge from their kills. The species also walks on the ground, where it obtains such food items as beetles, grasshoppers, worms, and small rodents.

The black-billed magpie is one of the few North American birds that build a domed nest. This nest is made up of twigs and sits near the top of trees. Usually 6-7 eggs are laid. Incubation, by the female only, starts when the clutch is complete, and lasts 16-21 days. The nestling period is 3-4 weeks.

The purple martin (Progne subis) is the largest North American swallow. These aerial acrobats have speed and agility in flight, and when approaching their housing, will dive from the sky at great speeds with their wings tucked.

Purple martins are a kind of swallow, of the genus Progne. Like other members of this genus, they are larger than most of the other swallows. The average length from bill to tail is 20 cm (7.9 in). Adults have a slightly forked tail. Adult males are entirely black with glossy steel blue sheen, the only swallow in North America with such coloration.

Adult females are dark on top with some steel blue sheen, and lighter underparts. Subadult females look similar to adult females minus the steel blue sheen and browner on the back. Subadult males look very much like females, but solid black feathers emerge on their chest in a blotchy, random pattern as they molt to their adult plumage.

This species was first described by Linnaeus in hisSystema naturae in 1758 as Hirundo subis. The species of this genus are very closely related, and some view the purple martin, gray-breasted martin, snowy-bellied martin, and southern martin, as a superspecies.

The western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) is a medium-sized icterid bird, about 8.5 in (22 cm) long. It nests on the ground in open country in western and central North America grassland. It feeds mostly on insects, but also seeds and berries. It has distinctive calls described as watery or flute-like, which distinguish it from the closely related eastern meadowlark.

African animals

The African lion is not a jungle animal. In fact, of the 20,000 lions that still live in the wild, only 250-300 highly endangered Asiatic lions live in the Gir jungle of India. These lions are smaller than the familiar African lion which lives ion the savanna grasslands. A number of other big cats call the jungle their home though. Bengal tigers, leopards and jaguars all live in the jungles of three different continents and are the apex predators in those environments. The most notorious jungle animals of all these cats, the leopard, is serenely at home in the trees, and although it too calls some dusty environments home, the jungle is where the leopard really shines. Stealthy, quiet, incredibly powerful, the leopard can hunt in the trees and is agile enough to persue monkeys and other arboreal creatures high above the jungle floor. The leopard is also adept at lying in wait on a tree branch and then dropping silently down on unsuspecting jungle inhabitants such as goats and antelope.   The leopard is most well known though, for its somewhat gruesome habit of hanging its prey from the limbs of trees. It does this to protect it and will return to large kills several times to eat on the same tree branch, safe and comfortable beneath its green jungle canopy.. Uneasy is the jungle visitor who comes upon the carcass of a wild boar hanging in a tree. It only serves as evidence that the true "King of the Jungle" lurks nearby....Jungle Animals Facts.

All of the non-human great apes are native to African jungles except the orangutan which is native to Borneo and Sumatra. The chimpanzee and the Eastern lowland gorilla live in the least heavily forested areas, and chimps can be found ranging into savanna regions as well. Eastern mountain, and Western gorillas all live in the jungles of central Africa. The orangutan lives in jungles and rainforests in Borneo and Sumatra and is the largest arboreal animal in the world. The trees are vital to their existence. They are all harshly impacted by farming and deforestation and, tragically, all the great apes are endangered species except human beings. The non-human great apes are some of the few animals, along with whales and elephants, that display an understanding of self similar to our own,(see Animal Intelligence) and they are our closest living relatives. 

Only recently, in the year 2010, was the forest elephant recognized as a separate species of African elephant. The more common African bush elephant roams the dusty savanna. The forest elephant lives in remarkably dense brush of the African jungle. About 30% smaller than the typical African elephant, forest elephants rarely reach 8 feet at the shoulder but still must squeeze tight through thick underbrush on the jungle borders of the savanna. They live in smaller groups than their larger brush elephant cousins and have a different, more varied diet due to the richness of their jungle environment. The forest elephant is vital to the development of the shrubs and trees in the jungle as they spend most of their days, distributing seeds while they forage for fruits. It is believed that they are the main distributor of seeds for several fruit species, and that without an active and healthy forest elephant population, conservationists believe there would be a huge impact on the environments they live in. In the typical circle of life, their dung also serves as healthy fertilizer for the jungle they call home. Forest elephants are elusive and have not been studied or photographed to anywhere near the extent that the bush elephants of the African plains have been. Much of their lives remains a mystery - Jungle Animals  -

Although some say there are no jungles in Australia, this may be a case of semantics with the word "bush" substituted for jungle, no matter, the edges of Australian rainforests, particularly along waterways would be considered a jungle environment in most cultures

All the great apes except human beings are all native jungle animals

The majority of lions, also known as the "King of the Jungle" actually live in the savanna

The jungle is a forest environment that has undergrowth so dense that it is hard to penetrate without cutting through it

The word "jungle" is often used as a metaphor for any place that is unruly.- Jungle Animals

reference :animalfactsencyclopedia.com

LOST CIVILISATIONS

Indo-Greeks

There’s a reason you can’t talk about the ancient world without bringing up the Greeks—those Hellenes were everywhere. As mentioned before, external pressures doomed the Greco-Bactrians, but the Indo-Greek kingdom carried the torch for Hellenistic culture for another two centuries in northwest India.
The most famous of the Indo-Greek kings, Menander, supposedly converted to Buddhism after a lengthy debate with the philosopher Nagasena, who recorded the conversation in “The Questions of King Menander.” Greek influence can be seen clearly in the fusion of artistic styles. While surviving statuary is scarce, some finds show Buddhist monks and devotees sculpted in a definitively Greek style, complete with Greek tunics.
Based on some Indo-Greek coinage made using a metallurgic process unique to China, it is believed there existed extensive trade between the two states. The accounts of the Chinese explorer, Zhang Qian, attest to this trade as early as the end of the second century B.C. The Indo-Greek kingdom’s downfall seems to have been the combination of Yuezhi encroachment from the north and native Indian expansion from the south.

Aksum

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The kingdom Aksum (or Axum) has been the subject of countless legends. Whether as the home of the mythical Prester John, the lost kingdom of the Queen of Sheba, or the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, Aksum has long been at the forefront of Western imaginations.
The Ethiopian kingdom of reality, not myth, was an international trading power. Thanks to access to both the Nile and Red Sea trading routes, Aksumite commerce thrived, and by the beginning of the common era, most Ethiopian peoples were under Aksumite rule. Aksum’s power and prosperity allowed it to expand into Arabia. In the third century A.D., a Persian philosopher wrote that Aksum was one of the world’s four greatest kingdoms, alongside Rome, China, and Persia.
Aksum adopted Christianity not long after the Roman Empire did and continued to thrive through the early Middle Ages. If not for the rise and expansion of Islam, Aksum might have continued to dominate East Africa. After the Arab conquest of the Red Sea coastline, Aksum lost its primary trade advantage over its neighbors. Of course, Aksum had only itself to blame. Just a few decades earlier, an Aksumite king had given asylum to early followers of Muhammad, thus ensuring the expansion of the religion which was to unmake the Aksumite empire.

Kush

Known in ancient Egyptian sources for its abundance of gold and other valuable natural resources, Kush was conquered and exploited by its northern neighbor for nearly half a millennium (circa 1500–1000 B.C.). But Kush’s origins extend far deeper into the past—ceramic artifacts dated to 8000 B.C. have been discovered in the region of its capital city, Kerma, and as early as 2400 B.C., Kush boasted a highly stratified and complex urban society supported by large-scale agriculture.
In the ninth century B.C., instability in Egypt allowed the Kushites to regain their independence. And, in one of history’s greatest reversals of fortune, Kush conquered Egypt in 750 B.C. For the next century, a series of Kushite pharaohs ruled a territory that far outstripped their Egyptian predecessors. It was the Kushite rulers who revived the building of pyramids and promoted their construction across the Sudan. They were eventually ousted from Egypt by an Assyrian invasion, ending centuries of Egyptian and Kushite cultural exchange.
The Kushites fled south and reestablished themselves at Meroe on the southeast bank of the Nile. At Meroe, the Kushites broke away from Egyptian influence and developed their own form of writing, now called Meroitic. The script remains a mystery and still has not been deciphered, obscuring much of Kush’s history. The last king of Kush died in A.D. 300, though his kingdom’s decline and the exact reasons for its demise remain a mystery.

Yam

The Kingdom of Yam certainly existed as a trading partner and possible rival of Old Kingdom Egypt, yet its precise location has proven nearly as elusive as that of the mythical Atlantis. Based on the funerary inscriptions of the Egyptian explorer Harkhuf, it seems Yam was a land of “incense, ebony, leopard skins, elephant tusks, and boomerangs.”
Despite Harkhuf’s claims of journeys overland exceeding seven months, Egyptologists have long placed the land of boomerangs just a few hundred miles from the Nile. The conventional wisdom was that there was no way ancient Egyptians could have crossed the inhospitable expanse of Saharan Desert. There was also some question of just what they would have found on the other side of the Sahara. But it seems we underestimated ancient Egyptian traders, because hieroglyphs recently discovered over 700 kilometers (430 miles) southwest of the Nile confirm the existence of trade between Yam and Egypt and point to Yam’s location in the northern highlands of Chad.
Exactly how the Egyptians crossed hundreds of miles of desert prior to the introduction of the wheel and with only donkeys for pack animals remains perplexing. But, at the very least, their destination is no longer shrouded in doubt.

The Xiongnu Empire

The Xiongnu Empire was a confederacy of nomadic peoples which dominated the north of China from the third century B.C. until the first century B.C. Imagine Genghis Khan’s Mongol army, but a millennium earlier . . . and with chariots. A number of theories exist to explain the Xiongnu’s origins, and at one time some scholars argued that the Xiongnu may have been the ancestors of the Huns. Unfortunately, the Xiongnu left few records of their own behind.
What we do know is that Xiongnu raids on China were so devastating that the Qin emperor ordered the earliest construction work on the Great Wall. Nearly half a century later, the Xiongnu’s persistent raiding and demands for tribute forced the Chinese, this time under the Han dynasty, to refortify and expand the Great Wall even further. In 166 B.C., over 100,000 Xiongnu horsemen made it to within 160 kilometers (100 mi) of the Chinese capital before finally being repulsed. It took a combination of internal discord, succession disputes, and conflict with other nomadic groups to weaken the Xiongnu enough for the Chinese to finally assert some semblance of control over their northern neighbors. Still, the Xiongnu were the first, and the longest lasting, of the nomadic Asian steppe empires.

Greco-Bactria

Too often, in recounting the life and conquests of Alexander the Great, we fail to remember the men who followed him into battle. Alexander’s fate is well documented, but what of the men who bled for the young general’s conquests?
When Alexander died unexpectedly, the Macedonians didn’t just head home. Instead, their generals fought one another for supremacy before carving up the empire among those left standing. Seleucus I Nicator made out pretty well, taking for himself pretty much everything from the Mediterrraean in the west to what is now Pakistan in the east. However even the Seleucid empire is fairly well known compared to the splinter state of Greco-Bactria.
In the third century B.C., the province of Bactria (in what is now Afghanistan and Tajikistan) became so powerful that it declared independence. Sources describe a wealthy land “of a thousand cities,” and the large amount of surviving coinage attests to an unbroken succession of Greek kings spanning centuries. Greco-Bactria’s location made it a center of fusion for a litany of cultures: Persians, Indians, Scythians and a number of nomadic groups all contributed to the development of a wholly unique kingdom. Of course, Greco-Bactria’s location and wealth also attracted unwanted attention and, by the early second century B.C., pressure from nomads to their north had forced the Greeks south into India.
At Alexandria on the Oxus, or Ai Khanoum as it is known now, fascinating evidence for this radical combination of Greek and Eastern culture was unearthed, before fighting during the Soviet-Afghan War destroyed the site in 1978. During the period of excavation, Indian coins, Iranian altars, and Buddhist statuary were found among the ruins of this decidedly Greek city, which was complete with Corinthian columns, a gymnasium, an amphitheater, and a temple combining Greek and Zoroastrian elements.

Yuezhi

The Yuezhi are notable for having seemingly fought everybody. Just imagine the Yuezhi as the Forrest Gump of ancient history, because for several centuries they appeared in the background of an improbable number of significant events across Eurasia.
The Yuezhi originated as a confederation of several nomadic tribes on the steppes north of China. Yuezhi traders ranged over great distances to exchange jade, silk, and horses. Their flourishing trade brought them into direct conflict with the Xiongnu, who eventually forced them out of the Chinese trading game.
The Yuezhi then headed west, where they encountered and defeated the Greco-Bactrians—forcing them to regroup in India. The Yuezhi’s migration to Bactria also displaced a people called the Saka, who responded by overrunning portions of the Parthian Empire. Tribes of Scythians and Saka eventually established themselves all over Afghanistan. By the first and second centuries A.D., the Yuezhi were fighting those same Scythians in addition to the occasional war in Pakistan and Han China. During this period, the Yuezhi tribes consolidated and established a sedentary, agricultural economy. This “Kushan” empire survived for three centuries, until forces from Persia, Pakistan, and India all reconquered their old territories.

The Mitanni Kingdom

The Mitanni state existed from about 1500 B.C. until the 1200s B.C. and consisted of what is now Syria and northern Iraq. Chances are you’ve heard of at least one Mitannian, as there is evidence to suggest that Egypt’s famous queen Nefertiti was born a princess in the Mesopotamian state. Nefertiti was likely married to the Pharaoh as part of an effort to improve relations between the two kingdoms.
The Mitannians are believed to have been Indo-Aryan in origin and their culture demonstrates the extent to which ancient Indian influence penetrated early Middle Eastern civilization. Mitannians espoused Hindu beliefs like karma, reincarnation, and cremation, beliefs that make the link between Mittani and Egypt all the more intriguing. Nefertiti and her husband, Amenhotep IV, were at the center of a short-lived religious revolution in Egypt, although we can only guess how much of that might be related to her foreign background. But Nefertiti is known to have been highly influential and was often depicted in situations, like smiting an enemy, that were typically reserved for the Pharaoh.
While much of the above remains speculative, scholars are hopeful that upcoming excavations will uncover the Mitannian capital of Washukanni and reveal more about the ancient kingdom.

Tuwana

Kingdoms don’t come much more lost or forgotten than Tuwana. When the Hittite Empire (the alpha dog of Bronze Age Anatolia) fell, Tuwana was one of a handful of city-states which helped fill the power vacuum in what is now Turkey.
During the ninth and eighth centuries B.C., Tuwana rose to prominence under a series of kings, of which only a few are known from inscriptions. Tuwana leveraged its position between the Phrygian and Assyrian empires to facilitate trade throughout Anatolia. As a result it amassed significant wealth.
In addition to its strong trading economy, Tuwana seems to have possessed great cultural riches. The kingdom used a hieroglyphic language called Luwian, but later adopted the alphabetical Phoenician script. It turns out this could have been pretty important, since Tuwana’s position as a link between east and west put the forgotten kingdom into contact with elements of ancient Greek culture. It’s possible that one result of all the linguistic interaction in Tuwana may been the origin of the Greek alphabet. Not too bad for a kingdom you’ve never heard of.
It seems Tuwana’s central location and the disunity of the Anatolian city-states made the kingdom ripe for the taking in the early 700s B.C. As the Assyrian Empire expanded westward, it rolled up each of the post-Hittite city-states along its way until to controlling most of the Middle East.
If that all sounds rather speculative, it’s because up until 2012, all that was known about Tuwana was based on a handful of inscriptions and a few mentions in some Assyrian documents. The recent discovery of a massive city believed to be the base of Tuwana’s power is changing all that.
With such a large and well-preserved find, archaeologists have begun piecing together the story of a powerful and wealthy kingdom, which controlled trade through the Cilician Gates for several centuries. And considering that the Cilician pass was like a highly compressed Silk Road, Tuwana’s archaeological potential is tremendous.

Mauryan Empire

Chandragupta Maurya was essentially India’s Alexander the Great. So it’s only fitting that the two men supposedly met. Chandragupta sought Macedonian aid in his bid for control of the subcontinent, but Alexander’s troops were too busy with a mutiny.
Undaunted, Chandragupta united the bulk of India under his rule and defeated all comers on the subcontinent. He did all this by age 20. After Alexander’s death, it was the Mauryan Empire which prevented his successors from expanding any farther into India. Chandragupta personally defeated several Macedonian generals in battle, after which the Macedonians preferred accord rather than risk another open war.
Unlike Alexander, Chandragupta left behind a carefully planned bureaucracy and government to ensure the duration of his legacy. And it might have survived longer if not for a coup in 185 B.C. that left India divided, weak, and open to invasion from the Greeks just to its north.