The Ottoman Empire
An empire that lasted over 600 years — long enough to span from the age of medieval knights all the way to the aftermath of World War I.
The Roman Empire
Rome's roads and aqueducts were built so well that some kept working for over a thousand years afterward.
The Byzantine Empire
The Byzantines never called themselves Byzantine; they were simply Romans, for nearly a thousand years after Rome fell.
The Mongol Empire
Genghis Khan united squabbling nomadic tribes and ended up with the largest contiguous land empire in history.
The Persian Empire
Cyrus the Great conquered a huge swath of the ancient world, then mostly let his new subjects keep their own customs and religions.
The Qing Dynasty
China's last dynasty was founded by outsiders who conquered the country, then governed it in a distinctly Chinese way for nearly 270 years.
The Inca Empire
The Inca ran an empire of millions across some of the world's steepest mountains, without writing, money, or wheeled transport.
The Aztec Empire
Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, sat on an island in a lake and was bigger than most European cities of its day.
The British Empire
At its peak the British Empire covered roughly a quarter of the planet's land and people, so the sun really never set on it.