When did the last ice age end?

The most recent glacial period — popularly called “the Ice Age” — peaked around 20,000 years ago, when massive ice sheets covered much of North America, northern Europe, and Asia, and sea levels were about 120 meters lower than today. As Earth’s orbit shifted and the climate warmed, the ice retreated, and by about 11,700 years ago the world entered the current warm interval known as the Holocene. This stable, milder climate allowed humans to develop farming, settlements, and eventually cities. Technically we are still in an ice age — a period with permanent polar ice — just in a warm phase between glacial advances.