The Stele of the Vultures, the large Winged Genii of Khorsabad, the Code of Hammurabi, the Frieze of Archers from Susa, the renowned Baptistery of Saint Louis and the Shroud of Saint Josse are only a few of the resplendent masterpieces collected at the Louvre as a result of the visionary archaeology of the last century and the scientific excavations of the present one. Sculpture,painting, weaving, ceramics, calligraphy,jewellery -- all the arts are represented, in many cases by the most sophisticated or the most spectacular examples.

From writing to religion, from science to philosophy, the West owes so much to the East : the civilization of the East is at the heart of our civilization, Eastern thought is at the source of our very humanity. The Department of Near Eastern and Islamic Antiquities of the Louvre bears witness to this. Its collections, which are among the richest in the world in this field, enable the visitor to discover the art and the history of the civilizations which succeeded one another, from North Africa to India, between the 8th millennium BC and the height of the Islamic period in the 18th century AD.

The Stele of the Vultures, the large Winged Genii of Khorsabad, the Code of Hammurabi, the Frieze of Archers from Susa, the renowned Baptistery of Saint Louis and the Shroud of Saint Josse are only a few of the resplendent masterpieces collected at the Louvre as a result of the visionary archaeology of the last century and the scientific excavations of the present one. Sculpture,painting, weaving, ceramics, calligraphy,jewellery -- all the arts are represented, in many cases by the most sophisticated or the most spectacular examples.

Introductions by specialist curators at the Louvre and numerous illustrations reveal the lands of legend -- Babylon, Susa, Palmyra,Carthage, Cyprus -- and the people who invented the gods.