The 'sphinx' is a mythological animal with the body of a lion and the head of man. Each Sphinx was carved out of a single solid stone.

The Egyptian scripts is known as Hieroglyphic which means 'sacred writing' . It consisted of 24 signs, each of which stood for a single consonant. Vowels were not written. Later the Egyptian started using symbols for ideas and the total number of signs rose to about 500. The writers, who constituted an important section of society , wrote with reed pens on the leaves of a plant called 'Papyrus' from which we get the word 'paper'.

In the middle of the 6th centuryB.C, a powerful empire was established in Iran this empire which lasted over two centuries is known as the Achaemenid Empire. The founder of this Empire was Cyrus with his capital at pasargadae. In 539 B.C, cyrus defeated the Babylonians and extended his empire over a vast territory up to Asia Miner. His successor was Darius I (522-486 B.C).

Two poems, credited to a poet named Homer, provide a great deal of information about the life and institutions of the early Greeks. The Iliad is the story of siege and destruction of the city of Troy, on the western coast of Asia miner. The Odyssey describes the adventures and return home, from troy , of a Greek hero, Odysseus.

The struggle for Italian independence and unification was organised by the two famous revolutionaries of Italy Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. The movement led by them is known as the 'Young Italy' movement. It aimed at the independence and unification of Italy and the establishment of republic there.

The wide gap between the aims of the French Revolution(equality in economic, social and political life) and the actual conditions in France after revolution created serious discontent among the people. It led to an attempt to overthrow the existing government in France with a view to building a society based on socialist ideas. This attempt, known as Babeuf's conspiracy, is an important event in the history of socialism.

      The conspiracy,as the name indicates, was the work of Noel Babeuf. He was born in 1760 and has participated in the French Revolution . He organised a secret society called the 'Society of the Equals'.