Time paradoxes

Surprising distances in time: what is closer, what is older and who lived at the same time. Every paradox is computed from Panchronia’s dates. Every paradox has its own page with a picture — send the link to a friend.

Closer than it seems

• The last mammoths lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the paintings of Chauvet Cave.
• The last mammoths lived closer in time to the invention of the telephone than to the paintings of Chauvet Cave.
• Peter the Great lived closer in time to Gagarin's spaceflight than to the Christianization of Rus.
• Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid.
• Julius Caesar lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid.
• Isaac Newton lived closer in time to the theory of relativity than to the Battle of Hastings.
• The fall of Constantinople is closer in time to Gagarin's spaceflight than to the founding of Constantinople.
• Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first iPhone than to the building of the Great Pyramid.
• Ivan the Terrible lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the Christianization of Rus.
• Shakespeare lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the Battle of Hastings.
• The Aztec Empire is closer in time to the Moon landing than to the end of the Olmec civilization.
• The Inca Empire is closer in time to the Moon landing than to the Nazca Lines.
• Tutankhamun lived closer in time to Alexander the Great than to the building of the Great Pyramid.
• The Eiffel Tower is closer in time to the first aeroplane flight than to the first manned balloon flight.

Older than it seems

• The University of Bologna is older than Genghis Khan.
• Hagia Sophia is older than the Prophet Muhammad.
• St Petersburg is older than the United States.
• The al-Qarawiyyin mosque-university in Fez is older than Angkor Wat.
• The University of Bologna is older than Tenochtitlan.
• The al-Qarawiyyin mosque-university in Fez is older than Genghis Khan.
• Moscow is older than Tenochtitlan.
• Harvard University is older than Peter the Great.
• Moscow is older than the Inca Empire.
• The red-brick walls of the Moscow Kremlin are older than the Taj Mahal.
• The University of Oxford is older than the Inca Empire.
• The University of Oxford is older than the Aztec Empire.
• The red-brick walls of the Moscow Kremlin are older than the United States.
• The Leaning Tower of Pisa is older than Machu Picchu.

Still around

• When the Great Pyramid of Giza was being built, woolly mammoths still lived on Wrangel Island.
• When writing appeared in Sumer, woolly mammoths still lived on Wrangel Island.
• When Darwin published On the Origin of Species, Japan was still ruled by the Tokugawa shoguns.
• When Edison made his light bulb, Korea was still ruled by the Joseon dynasty.
• When Jenner gave the first smallpox vaccination, Japan was still ruled by the Tokugawa shoguns.
• When Darwin published On the Origin of Species, Russia still had serfdom.
• When Columbus reached America, the Aztec Empire still existed.
• When Morse sent his first telegram, Russia still had serfdom.
• When the Wright brothers made the first aeroplane flight, Leo Tolstoy was still alive.
• When Edison made his light bulb, Charles Darwin was still alive.
• When Moscow was first mentioned in the chronicles, the Byzantine Empire still existed.
• When Harvard was founded, China was still ruled by the Ming dynasty.
• When Constantinople fell, Russia still paid tribute to the Golden Horde.
• When teaching began at Oxford, the Byzantine Empire still existed.
• When the Gregorian calendar was introduced, China was still ruled by the Ming dynasty.
• When the telephone was invented, Fyodor Dostoevsky was still alive.
• When the Eiffel Tower was built, Tchaikovsky was still alive.
• When the Lumière brothers held the first film screening, Queen Victoria was still alive.
• When people first flew in a hot-air balloon, Benjamin Franklin was still alive.
• When the first public railway opened, Goethe was still alive.
• When the first public railway opened, Beethoven was still alive.
• When the Gregorian calendar was introduced, Ivan the Terrible was still alive.
• When Harvard was founded, Galileo was still alive.
• When Luther published his 95 Theses, Leonardo da Vinci was still alive.
• When Ivan the Terrible was crowned tsar, Michelangelo was still alive.
• When St Petersburg was founded, Isaac Newton was still alive.
• When the United States declared independence, Catherine the Great was still alive.

Contemporaries

• Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born in the same year.
• Benjamin Franklin and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe were contemporaries.
• Johann Sebastian Bach and Benjamin Franklin were contemporaries.
• Queen Victoria and Charlie Chaplin were contemporaries.
• Christopher Columbus and Michelangelo were contemporaries.
• Voltaire and George Washington were contemporaries.
• Leo Tolstoy and Nikola Tesla were contemporaries.
• Dmitri Mendeleev and Charlie Chaplin were contemporaries.
• Christopher Columbus and Nicolaus Copernicus were contemporaries.
• James Cook and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe were contemporaries.
• George Washington and Ludwig van Beethoven were contemporaries.
• Kangxi Emperor and Voltaire were contemporaries.
• Michelangelo and Tokugawa Ieyasu were contemporaries.
• Tokugawa Ieyasu and Miguel de Cervantes died in the same year.
• Akbar the Great and Galileo Galilei were contemporaries.
• Johann Sebastian Bach and James Cook were contemporaries.
• Kublai Khan and Dante Alighieri were contemporaries.
• Leo Tolstoy and Mao Zedong were contemporaries.
• Rembrandt and Kangxi Emperor were contemporaries.
• Catherine the Great and Simón Bolívar were contemporaries.
• Pythagoras and Confucius were contemporaries.
• Muhammad and Pakal the Great were contemporaries.
• Aristotle and Mencius were contemporaries.
• Alexander Pushkin and Abraham Lincoln were contemporaries.
• Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and Genghis Khan were contemporaries.
• Zheng He and Johannes Gutenberg were contemporaries.
• Archimedes and Qin Shi Huang were contemporaries.
• Ashoka and Archimedes were contemporaries.
• Pythagoras and Gautama Buddha were contemporaries.
• Leif Erikson and Yaroslav the Wise were contemporaries.
• Akbar the Great and Miguel de Cervantes were contemporaries.
• Simón Bolívar and Alexander Pushkin were contemporaries.
• Epicurus and Ashoka were contemporaries.
• Timur and Andrei Rublev were contemporaries.
• Galileo Galilei and William Shakespeare were born in the same year.
• Ivan the Terrible and William Shakespeare were contemporaries.