This is the oldest skull of a Barbary lion found in the UK. The lion was part of the royal zoo in the Tower of London 700 years ago. Workmen digging in the old moat around the Tower of London in 1937 ...

Atlas Lions, known also as Barbary lions, roamed the Atlas Mountains in Morocco where they lived for centuries. But these wild species were also part of London’s very first zoo.

Barbary lions were widely revered for their impressive size and dark-haired manes. They were kept by royal families in northern Africa, but the Romans also loved them just as much.