<i>male narrator: This week
on "Ancient Top 10,"</i> <i>evidence of manned flight
in the ancient world.</i> <i>- Of all the mysterious
ancient artifacts in the world,</i> <i>these are the ones
that really make you stop</i> <i>and pause to wonder,</i> "Did these ancient people
know about aircraft?" <i>narrator: Could there
have been electricity</i> <i>thousands of years ago?</i> <i>- It is really difficult
to imagine</i> <i>what it could have been</i> <i>if it wasn't
some sort of device</i> for making electricity. <i>narrator: Was there
a power drill more advanced</i> <i>than anything today?</i> <i>- This core seems to have been
drilled out of solid granite</i> using a rapidly rotating drill. [water splashes] <i>narrator: And the world's
first computer</i> <i>from 200 B.C.</i> - One of the greatest treasures
of the ancient world. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: Where will
they be ranked</i> <i>on the only top ten list</i> <i>thousands of years
in the making?</i> <i>[whooshing]</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: The mysteries
of the ancients are boundless.</i> <i>So much from ancient times
will remain a secret forever.</i> <i>On this show, we have evidence</i> <i>of technology
more advanced than today's.</i> <i>How can this be?</i> - Some suggest
that this is evidence for extraterrestrial
communication in ancient times. <i>narrator: Fact or fiction?</i> <i>You decide.</i> <i>This week on "Ancient Top 10,"</i> <i>it's ancient mysteries...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>The most bewildering
ancient mysteries</i> <i>ranked according
to how much they tell us</i> <i>about the secrets
of the ancient world.</i> <i>And we start where else
but in ancient Egypt?</i> <i>Astonishing evidence
of ancient flight.</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>Soaring in at number ten,</i> <i>the Saqqara Bird.</i> <i>- It's a wooden carving
of a bird, and at first glance,</i> <i>this Saqqara Bird doesn't
appear to be anything special.</i> It's only when we examine
it more closely that the real mystery
is revealed. <i>narrator: Ancient Egypt,</i> <i>the greatest civilization
of the ancient world.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>The oldest known pyramid
in Egypt here at Saqqara,</i> <i>20 miles south of Cairo.</i> <i>Over 100 years ago
an intriguing object</i> <i>was recovered from this site.</i> <i>It's a small carving
made of sycamore wood</i> <i>and over 2,000 years old.</i> <i>Clearly, it's designed
to look like a bird.</i> <i>Some experts believe
that this bird</i> <i>is evidence
the ancient Egyptians</i> <i>had knowledge of the principles
behind gliding.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Modern gliders date
from the 19th century,</i> <i>but the idea of a glider
is nothing new.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Over 1,000 years ago,
in ninth century Córdoba,</i> <i>southern Spain,
one brave inventor,</i> <i>Abbas ibn Firnas,</i> <i>threw himself off of a tower</i> <i>in his own self-built
gliding machine.</i> ♪ ♪ [spectators gasp and scream] - [laughs] <i>narrator: Accounts say he
glided a considerable distance,</i> <i>and he's gone down in history
as the first man to fly.</i> [wind whipping] [spectators screaming] <i>But could the Saqqara Bird
really be evidence</i> <i>of an ancient gliding machine?</i> <i>- It's just a bird,
a carving of a bird.</i> So what makes it so mysterious? Well, first we have to ask,
"Why is it there?" ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: The reason for items
being placed in tombs</i> <i>is very practical.</i> <i>They're scale models
of objects from real life</i> <i>either to help the dead person
in the afterlife</i> <i>or to help them get there,
a means of transport.</i> <i>- A model of a giant bird?</i> <i>What use would that be?</i> <i>And there weren't any giant
birds in Egypt anyways.</i> <i>All of the other
models were of real,</i> <i>practical things,</i> <i>but an aircraft, now,
that would be useful.</i> <i>narrator: The Egyptians
believed the dead</i> <i>lived on in the skies.</i> <i>To get there, an aircraft
would be ideal.</i> <i>Could the Saqqara Bird</i> <i>be a scale model
of an actual aircraft?</i> <i>- The ancient Egyptians
had throwing sticks</i> <i>similar to boomerangs
for hunting birds.</i> <i>It was a royal pastime.</i> So given that they understood some basic principles
of aerodynamics, could it be that
the Saqqara Bird, with its vertical tail fin
to act as a stabilizer, was a kind of glider? ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: A vertical tail fin
like this</i> <i>doesn't occur in nature,</i> <i>but if this bird
was going to fly,</i> <i>it would also need
a horizontal fin</i> <i>in the back
such as modern gliders have.</i> <i>Without this it would
plummet to the ground.</i> <i>It's because ibn Firnas</i> <i>didn't have
a horizontal tail fin</i> <i>that he couldn't
control his descent.</i> - [screams] [spectators screaming] [all clamor] <i>narrator: There are, in fact,
marks on the Saqqara Bird</i> <i>where exactly such a fin
might have been.</i> <i>This would make it more stable
than ibn Firnas' machine,</i> <i>which was 1,000 years later.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Thanks to modern technology,
it's possible to test</i> <i>how aerodynamic
the model of the bird would be</i> <i>with a horizontal fin added.</i> <i>- This is an amazing
experiment.</i> <i>It will prove whether or not
the ancient people</i> <i>had knowledge of flight,</i> and if they did, the
implications are staggering. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: All the data
can be fed into a computer</i> <i>and a flight simulator.</i> <i>Then the bird can be
tested in the air.</i> <i>- The million-dollar question
is if a scaled-up version</i> of this carved bird
would actually fly. <i>narrator: This high-tech
analysis</i> <i>provides an unbelievable
result.</i> <i>- Amazingly, modern scientific
analysis shows</i> <i>that the Saqqara Bird conforms</i> to our understanding
of aerodynamics. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: It glides perfectly.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>- Modern plans for gliders,</i> <i>the technological know-how
for gliders</i> <i>didn't appear
until the 19th century.</i> And those ancient plans
actually work better than some of
the earlier versions of modern gliders. <i>narrator: Could the ancient
Egyptians really have flown?</i> <i>It can't be proved.</i> <i>It's still up in the air.</i> - But why have that capability
and not use it? <i>narrator: If they could have,</i> <i>then they would be
more advanced</i> <i>than we ever imagined.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>As amazing as an ancient
glider would be,</i> <i>our next ancient mystery
is even more illuminating--</i> <i>possible evidence
of ancient electricity.</i> <i>At number nine...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>The Dendera Light.</i> <i>- It's the classic
out-of-place artifact</i> which does look
bizarrely similar to a big electric lightbulb. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: The Dendera Temple
Complex near Luxor,</i> <i>one of the best
preserved in Egypt,</i> <i>and it's here
at the Temple of Hathor</i> <i>that we find a set
of mysterious carvings.</i> <i>They are 4 1/2
thousand years old.</i> <i>Could some bright spark
back then</i> <i>really have invented
electricity?</i> <i>Amazingly, this image
is evidence</i> <i>for some that they may have.</i> <i>_ There's a wire connected
to a socket at the bottom.</i> ♪ ♪ There's a filament inside what looks like
a giant electric bulb, and there's even a pillar
with features resembling modern pylons. <i>narrator: The ancient Egyptians
did have primitive glass</i> <i>which could have been used
to make the casing of a bulb.</i> <i>- Of course
the ancient Egyptians</i> didn't have electric lighting, but it can't be denied
that the Dendera Light does resemble
a large lightbulb. <i>narrator: Some experts believe</i> <i>that Dendera was
not actually a temple,</i> <i>but that it served
another purpose,</i> <i>possibly as a scientific
research lab of some kind</i> <i>or even an ancient
power station.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>It's generally thought
that the ancient Egyptians</i> <i>lit their temples
by burning torches.</i> <i>Surprisingly, there is
little evidence of this.</i> <i>- Supporting this theory that
the Dendera Light is electrical</i> <i>is how there's supposedly
very little smoke damage</i> <i>in ancient Egyptian tombs.</i> <i>So if they weren't using
torches</i> to light their tombs, what were they using? <i>narrator: Electricity
in ancient Egypt:</i> <i>this may be a truly
illuminating mystery.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>But there's more,
even greater evidence</i> <i>of modern technology
in the ancient world.</i> <i>We're back to flight,</i> <i>But this time, powered flight.</i> <i>It could even be
evidence of spacecraft.</i> [rockets thundering] <i>At number eight...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>The mysterious
golden planes of South America.</i> - It looks like we have
another airplane on our hands, only this time not a glider
like the Saqqara Bird. No, this is ultra-modern. This looks like
a supercharged aircraft. <i>narrator: These remarkable
golden objects</i> <i>were found in an ancient tomb</i> <i>deep within
the Colombian rainforest</i> <i>at the end of the 19th century.</i> <i>They were made by
the Quimbaya people</i> <i>over 1,000 years ago.</i> <i>They look like small
pieces of jewelry</i> <i>made to commemorate
a particular aircraft,</i> <i>but these golden planes
are ancient.</i> <i>- This must be an accurate
representation of something,</i> but the question
is of what? <i>The shape of the wings,</i> <i>to me, that says
modern aircraft,</i> but not just aircraft. It sort of screams
space shuttle. [wheels screeching] <i>narrator: They do
look like aircraft.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Could they actually
be models of something</i> <i>from the natural world?</i> <i>But like the Saqqara Bird,
it has a vertical tail fin.</i> <i>- No flying insect,
or bird even,</i> <i>has vertical fins</i> or wings attached
to the bottom. This simply doesn't
happen in nature. These are characteristics
of an aircraft. <i>narrator: So did these
ancient people in South America</i> <i>truly have the knowledge
of powered flight?</i> <i>Groundbreaking scientific
testing of a recreation</i> <i>may prove that
these golden planes</i> <i>could actually fly.</i> <i>It's coming up a
We've reached number eight...</i> <i>And we're in the jungles
of South America,</i> <i>where these remarkable
golden objects were found.</i> <i>They look like miniature
space shuttles,</i> <i>but they were made
over 1,000 years ago.</i> <i>Could they be models
of alien spacecraft?</i> <i>- There are many people
who believe</i> that aliens visited Earth
a long time ago. And when you think about it, it's just as likely that they would have
visited South America, say, 1,000 years ago, as it would be for them
to visit us today. <i>narrator: We'll never
know for sure</i> <i>if these models were influenced
by something other-worldly.</i> <i>It will remain a mystery.</i> <i>But there is one practical test
that can be made,</i> <i>one that will determine
once and for all</i> <i>whether these planes
could actually fly.</i> <i>In 1997,</i> <i>German aviation experts
made a 16-to-1 scale model,</i> <i>painstakingly constructing it</i> <i>to mirror exactly
a golden plane,</i> [engine purring] <i>[exciting music]</i> ♪ ♪ <i>And it flies just like
a modern plane.</i> [engine purring] ♪ ♪ <i>The aerodynamics are perfect.</i> <i>- Of all the mysterious
ancient artifacts in the world,</i> <i>these golden planes
are the ones</i> <i>that really make you stop
and be forced to wonder</i> <i>"Did these ancient
people know about aircraft?"</i> And you can't escape the feeling
that in three dimensions, they look like modern aircraft. <i>narrator: But the mysteries
of ancient aircraft</i> <i>don't end there.</i> <i>Coming in at number seven,</i> <i>an ancient mystery
that may show</i> <i>even more compelling evidence</i> <i>for high-tech ancient
flying machines...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>The extraordinary
Abydos hieroglyphs.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>These mysterious hieroglyphs</i> <i>are on a temple wall
in central Egypt.</i> <i>They're from
the 13th century B.C.,</i> <i>and some experts believe</i> <i>that they reveal more
about the ancients</i> <i>than any other carving.</i> <i>- The Abydos hieroglyphs
are probably</i> <i>the most famous Egyptian
hieroglyphs in the world.</i> There's one that
looks like a helicopter. ♪ ♪ [helicopter rotors thrumming] There's one right next to it
that looks like a tank. ♪ ♪ [tank chugging] And there's yet another one
that looks like a modern fighter jet
meets a flying saucer. ♪ ♪ [UFO whirring] - Helicopters, tanks,
flying saucers. <i>Now, what's really amazing
about this</i> is that these things aren't
just in the same tomb. They're all next to each other, <i>which is an incredible
coincidence.</i> <i>- Now, one could be
coincidence,</i> but three? ♪ ♪ - These hieroglyphs are over
3,000 years old. That's just ridiculous. How can that be? ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: The temple complex
is dedicated to Osiris,</i> <i>the Egyptian god
of the afterlife.</i> <i>Could these be craft
designed to transport the dead</i> <i>to their place in the heavens?</i> <i>Some have even theorized that
perhaps these are the craft</i> <i>of visiting aliens
commemorated in stone.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>The stuff of science fiction
maybe,</i> <i>or were these futuristic craft</i> <i>imagined by some brilliant
engineer ahead of his time...</i> ♪ ♪ <i>An ancient da Vinci?</i> ♪ ♪ <i>- It took another 3,000 years</i> <i>before someone thought
of the idea of a helicopter,</i> and that was Leonardo da Vinci, and we consider him a genius. And of course, it was many
hundreds of years later when we actually
invented the helicopter, so where does this leave us? Were the artists
at Abydos time travelers? ♪ ♪ <i>- It all sounds
rather far-fetched,</i> and yet
there the hieroglyphs are for all to see. <i>narrator: The notion of flight
in the ancient world</i> <i>is truly astonishing,</i> <i>but even more shocking</i> <i>is evidence
of ancient electricity.</i> <i>And this time,
it's not a carving.</i> <i>It's an actual artifact.</i> [electricity sizzling] <i>At number six...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>The Baghdad Battery.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>- Looking at this object, it is
really difficult to imagine</i> <i>what it could have been</i> if it wasn't
some sort of device for making electricity. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: This is a photograph
of the Baghdad Battery.</i> <i>It's now lost.</i> <i>But back in the 1930s,</i> <i>it was in the National Museum
of Iraq,</i> <i>and it's been the cause
of huge controversy ever since.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>It was a terra-cotta pot</i> <i>dating from around
2,000 years ago.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>And inside was a cylinder
made of a rolled copper sheet</i> <i>with an iron rod
precisely held in place</i> <i>in the middle of it.</i> <i>Tests on the interior
of the jar</i> <i>have provided a clue</i> <i>as to what it
may have been used for.</i> <i>- Looking inside
the Baghdad Battery,</i> <i>we can see that it contained</i> <i>some sort of acidic solution,</i> perhaps lemon juice,
wine, or vinegar. Now, this easily
could have been used to pass an electrical current
from the iron to the copper. <i>narrator: If it wasn't
an ancient object,</i> <i>it would be obvious
what it is,</i> <i>a battery.</i> <i>- I mean, just look at it.</i> <i>All its components fit</i> <i>so precisely together.</i> <i>So if this is true, I mean,</i> once again the implications
are astounding. <i>narrator: Would a model
of the battery actually work?</i> <i>How would ancient people
put this power to use?</i> <i>It's coming up next
We're at number six,</i> <i>and it's the Baghdad Battery
found in the desert of Iraq.</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>This is a replica
of the battery.</i> <i>With a copper tube,
a steel or iron rod,</i> <i>and vinegar as
an electrolyte solution,</i> <i>we can put the mystery
surrounding this object</i> <i>to the test.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Incredibly,
electricity is produced,</i> <i>about one volt.</i> <i>This is astonishing.</i> <i>But if it was a battery,</i> <i>the mystery is what it
would have been used for.</i> - Now, even though
the Baghdad Batteries weren't powerful enough
to produce electric lighting, experiments with
replicas of them connected up have found that they could
produce enough current to electroplate
small objects. <i>narrator: Electroplating
is when an electric current</i> <i>is passed through
a liquid solution</i> <i>like this gold solution,</i> <i>making its metal atoms
deposit themselves</i> <i>on something acting
as an electrode.</i> <i>By electroplating,
a piece of jewelry or a coin</i> <i>could be coated
with gold or silver.</i> <i>- Imagine that.</i> How incredible would it be for someone in ancient times to be able to
electroplate metals? ♪ ♪ <i>If this is a battery,</i> <i>then the biggest question
of all</i> <i>is where did
that knowledge come from?</i> <i>You know, this is evidence</i> <i>for many
that there was</i> a great ancient civilization,
perhaps many of them, whose knowledge
we have now forgotten. <i>- Electricity
in the ancient world,</i> even the concept
sounds ridiculous. You would have thought
we'd have had some sort of a written record of it. Yet the Baghdad Battery
exists. <i>narrator: Technology
thousands of years</i> <i>ahead of its time.</i> <i>If true, the implications
are beyond belief.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>But for our next mystery,</i> <i>the evidence is rock-solid.</i> <i>It's there for us all to see.</i> <i>Coming in at number five,</i> <i>impossible engineering</i> <i>from the ancient
Roman Empire...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>The Baalbek Blocks.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Baalbek, Lebanon,</i> <i>the Temple of Jupiter here
was the largest temple</i> <i>in the whole
of the Roman Empire,</i> <i>standing at 300 feet high</i> <i>and completed about 60 A.D.</i> <i>It covers the same area
as nearly nine football fields.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>It's intimidating and imposing,</i> <i>and that's just how it
was meant to be.</i> <i>- Baalbek is a massive temple,</i> and the Romans
built places like this in part to show the locals
what they could do. <i>Not only did they
want to prove that</i> <i>they had mastery
over the natural world,</i> <i>they also wanted to
intimidate their enemies.</i> <i>It's a demonstration
of absolute power.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: But the most
incredible thing</i> <i>about this temple
isn't its overall size.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>It's these three
massive blocks of stone</i> <i>at the base of the temple.</i> <i>Each one is 12 feet high
and 65 feet long.</i> <i>That's bigger than
the biggest Egyptian obelisk.</i> <i>Amazingly,
these three stone blocks</i> <i>are the largest
building blocks</i> <i>ever used by any human beings
anywhere in the world,</i> <i>weighing in at around
800 tons each.</i> <i>- And they're lined up
absolutely perfectly.</i> <i>Now, we know that the Romans
had technology</i> which allowed them
to raise 100 tons or so, so how on earth did
these things get up there? They're one of those
ancient mysteries that at the moment
are just leaving us with a great big
question mark. <i>narrator: There are
no marks on the stone</i> <i>to give us any clue
as to how they were moved,</i> <i>but we do know that they came
from a quarry nearby,</i> <i>hacked out of the hillside
in single giant pieces,</i> <i>because there is
one left in place.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Today, to lift
anything so heavy</i> <i>we would use
a mega crane like this.</i> <i>It's the Liebherr 11200,
one of the most advanced,</i> <i>most powerful cranes around.</i> <i>But the Romans
had nothing like this.</i> <i>Their cranes relied
on muscle power.</i> <i>They were super advanced
for their time,</i> <i>and this example,
called polyspastos,</i> <i>could lift 6 tons.</i> - This crane allowed
each person using it to shift 60 times as much as they would
otherwise. <i>narrator: With these cranes,</i> <i>the Romans could build
enormous structures</i> <i>such as six-story
apartment buildings,</i> <i>huge temples,</i> <i>and the Colosseum,</i> <i>but they were built
using small blocks.</i> <i>These blocks at Baalbek
were 800 tons,</i> <i>and even once lifted,</i> <i>somehow they would
need transporting.</i> - We know that
the ancients used barges to float huge stones <i>down to certain
building sites...</i> ♪ ♪ <i>But Baalbek is nowhere
near a river.</i> So we might have
some good guesses, but to be honest,
we don't really know how they moved
those huge stones. It is and will probably
forever remain a mystery. <i>narrator: Why use such big
blocks in the first place?</i> <i>Nobody knows.</i> <i>The answer is lost to history.</i> ♪ ♪ of the ancient world. <i>Flying high at number ten</i> <i>was the intriguing
Saqqara Bird.</i> <i>Number nine
was the lightbulb carving</i> <i>at the Dendera Temple.</i> <i>Number eight:</i> <i>the enigmatic
golden planes of South America.</i> <i>At number seven, the mysterious
hieroglyphs at Abydos.</i> <i>Number six: the shocking
Baghdad Battery.</i> <i>And number five
was the mystery</i> <i>of the massive stones
at Baalbek.</i> <i>Next in our countdown
is, for some,</i> <i>the most convincing evidence
yet of extraterrestrials.</i> <i>At number four...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>The Nazca Lines.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>- The Nazca Lines are a mystery</i> that make the complete works
of Agatha Christie look like the puzzle
on the back of a cereal box. <i>narrator: These mysterious
lines and shapes</i> <i>are in the desert
in southern Peru:</i> <i>a giant hummingbird,</i> <i>a spider,</i> <i>mysterious diagrams,</i> <i>shapes,</i> <i>and straight lines.</i> - The Nazca Lines
are astonishing, intricate geometrical designs
and mathematical figures. I mean, the longest
one is 1,000 feet. <i>That's over
three football fields.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: These mysterious
lines</i> <i>are between 4
and 12 inches deep.</i> <i>They're made just
by pushing away</i> <i>the surface stones and earth</i> <i>and exposing the lighter
ground underneath,</i> <i>and because the area
is so dry and windless,</i> <i>they've lasted.</i> <i>Some of these lines
date back to 500 B.C.</i> <i>- There are over
800 straight lines,</i> <i>300 geometric patterns,</i> and over 70
animal/plant figures over an incredible
200 square miles. ♪ ♪ <i>- From the ground,
they're pretty much invisible,</i> <i>but looking down from the sky,</i> the Nazca Lines come to life. <i>[exciting music]</i> It's absolutely incredible
to imagine these ancient people laying out these patterns that they can't even see
from the ground. How they did it is a mystery. <i>narrator: But as big a mystery
as how they did it</i> <i>is why they did it.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>- There are a lot of theories
about the Nazca Lines.</i> <i>One of the central groups
of theories</i> has to do with the possibility that they can be
studied using astronomy so that these things
might be calendars, or they might
represent constellations or be mapping
the movement of the Sun. ♪ ♪ <i>Another theory that
I happen to agree with</i> <i>is that these animals
represented by the Nazca Lines</i> <i>were actually parts
of ritual circuits</i> <i>that you could actually walk,</i> <i>like in a procession,</i> <i>through the actual body
and being of these creatures</i> <i>as if you were experiencing
the divine essence viscerally.</i> I think that overall
we have to conclude that the Nazca Lines
are still a great mystery. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: And then
there's this.</i> <i>He's known as the space man.</i> <i>Is he a depiction of an
extraterrestrial waving to us?</i> <i>Or is he a human
waving hello</i> <i>or good-bye to something
in the heavens?</i> <i>- There are many who believe
that the lines</i> are commemorative,
that is, they represent a past visit
of extraterrestrials, and it's a message
to them to say, <i>"Hey, we're still here.</i> <i>Come back."</i> ♪ ♪ <i>- The Nazca Lines
have become world-famous</i> with a whole host of mysteries
to explain what they mean, <i>from rituals
to produce more rain</i> <i>in the desert to messages</i> <i>for alien visitors
coming down from outer space.</i> One thing is certain, though. This is a mystery
that will remain. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: But next
in our countdown,</i> <i>evidence of something
seemingly impossible,</i> <i>ancient technology
way more advanced</i> <i>than even our own.</i> <i>At number three...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> ♪ ♪ <i>It's Core 7.</i> ♪ ♪ - It's a bit of rubble,
but it might just be the most mysterious bit
of rubble in all of history. <i>narrator: This strange,
4,500-year-old piece of rock</i> <i>known as Core 7
is ancient Egyptian.</i> <i>It was found near
the Great Pyramids</i> <i>at the end of the 19th century
by this man,</i> <i>the British archaeologist
Flinders Petrie.</i> <i>It's kept here in London
in the Petrie Museum.</i> [traffic whooshes] <i>It's an exact cylinder</i> <i>and has strange lines
scored into it</i> <i>which are perfectly spaced.</i> <i>In fact,
it's one continuous line</i> <i>like the grooves of a record.</i> <i>What is it?</i> <i>It's the core that
would be thrown away</i> <i>when a hole is drilled,</i> <i>in this case the hole
of a door pivot,</i> <i>but this rock is granite.</i> <i>How could the ancient Egyptians
drill into solid granite?</i> - The strongest metal tools
the Egyptians had were copper, and copper is quite soft. <i>So it's mind-boggling
to think that that</i> <i>is what they used
to penetrate granite.</i> <i>The only material
really strong enough</i> <i>to penetrate granite,</i> well, that's diamond. And if the ancient Egyptians had diamond cutting technology, well, then history
would have to be rewritten. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: The shape of
the groove is further evidence</i> <i>of impossibly
advanced technology.</i> <i>- It's the grooves
in Petrie's Core 7</i> <i>that are the real mystery.</i> <i>As far as we know,
the ancient Egyptians</i> only had bow drills, which move back and forth. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: This is
a reconstruction</i> <i>of an ancient
Egyptian bow drill.</i> <i>It makes a very distinctive
back-and-forth line</i> <i>as it drills.</i> <i>One continuous line
such as that of Core 7</i> <i>is the mark
of a modern power drill.</i> <i>- This core seems to have been
drilled out of solid granite</i> using a rapidly rotating drill. <i>narrator: Can
We've reached number three,</i> <i>and it's a remarkable
piece of granite</i> <i>from ancient Egypt
known as Core 7.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Incredibly, the perfect line
around the cylinder</i> <i>appears to be the line</i> <i>made by a super-advanced
power drill.</i> ♪ ♪ [button beeps] <i>A modern diamond-tipped machine
like this</i> <i>powered by electricity
makes a core</i> <i>just like
the ancient Egyptian one.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>This machine turns at
1,600 revolutions per minute.</i> <i>How on Earth could
the Egyptians drill like this?</i> <i>Nobody knows.</i> <i>It's clearly impossible,</i> <i>and yet they did it.</i> <i>The evidence
is carved in stone,</i> <i>but even this isn't
the end of our mystery.</i> <i>From looking at the space
between each revolution,</i> <i>it's possible to work out
the force of the drill.</i> <i>The wider the space
between the groove,</i> <i>the greater the force.</i> - Amazingly, research shows
that the core was made by a drilling process <i>with greater strength</i> <i>than our modern
power drill.</i> <i>What does this tell us?</i> There are no tools of that
caliber that we know of. Is this evidence for a even
far greater civilization that had those tools that we
have no historical record of? <i>narrator: It remains
an unexplained mystery,</i> <i>and it's one of the greatest.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>But next in our countdown</i> <i>of incredible ancient mysteries
is one of the most immense,</i> <i>extraordinary discoveries
of all time.</i> <i>At number two,
it's an entire army...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> ♪ ♪ <i>The Terra-cotta Army.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>- This was one of
the most amazing</i> archaeological finds ever. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: In the 1970s,</i> <i>Chinese farmers
were digging a well,</i> <i>and they stumbled
across these giant pits.</i> <i>The biggest was 750 feet long</i> <i>and filled with these
amazing figures.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>They became known
as the Terra-cotta Army,</i> <i>and more just kept coming.</i> - Terra-cotta figures
2,000 years old, and not a few;
thousands of them, <i>and 520 horses,</i> <i>130 chariots,</i> musicians, acrobats. ♪ ♪ <i>Each one is unique.</i> <i>Every single one is different.</i> <i>It's as if they were sculpted
from real people.</i> It's as if you were there
2,000 years ago. It's absolutely eerie. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: 8,000
individually sculpted pieces.</i> <i>What were they,</i> <i>and why were they created?</i> ♪ ♪ <i>A clue is in the location.</i> <i>It was inside
the huge mausoleum complex</i> <i>built for the Emperor Qin,</i> <i>the first emperor of China.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Spread over 56 square miles,</i> <i>it took more than
720,000 people</i> <i>37 years to construct it.</i> [workers shouting indistinctly] <i>The tomb itself lies within</i> <i>one of the largest
burial mounds in the world.</i> <i>It remains unexcavated.</i> <i>It is thought to be
booby-trapped</i> <i>to stop anyone breaking in.</i> ♪ ♪ [arrows thwacking loudly] <i>And it is said to be surrounded
by a lake of mercury.</i> <i>But why was
this army of clay</i> <i>buried with this great emperor?</i> <i>For the answer, we have
to look to his lifetime.</i> <i>Qin was responsible
for the deaths of thousands.</i> [men shouting indistinctly] - The one problem
with being a violent tyrant who comes to power
by slaying everybody who stands in your way
is you make a few enemies. <i>When you're alive,
it's not a problem.</i> <i>You've got bodyguards.</i> <i>You can keep them
out of the way.</i> <i>But when you're dead,</i> <i>they're waiting for you
in the afterlife,</i> <i>and they carry
a serious grudge.</i> [men grunting] <i>- 8,000 soldiers, chariots,
and horses</i> all there for one purpose: to protect him
in the afterlife. <i>narrator: As well
as being protected,</i> <i>Emperor Qin wanted
to hold on to power.</i> <i>He meant to rule forever.</i> <i>But the mystery
doesn't stop there.</i> <i>- After his death, Qin's entire
court was buried with him:</i> <i>hundreds of slaves, servants,</i> concubines, wives, musicians, even his favorite horse
and chariot, buried alive. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: So wouldn't
the obvious thing be</i> <i>to bury his elite troops alive?</i> <i>In a way, the mystery is why
they are made of clay</i> <i>rather than being the skeletons
of real troops.</i> <i>Perhaps forcing
the living troops into the pit</i> <i>was a step too far
even for the mighty Qin.</i> <i>And it gives us one of
the greatest archaeological</i> <i>finds of all time.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>At number ten was
the high-flying Saqqara Bird.</i> <i>At number nine,
shining a light on the secrets</i> <i>of ancient Egypt,
the Dendera Light.</i> <i>Number eight was
the mysterious golden planes</i> <i>of South America.</i> <i>And at number seven,</i> <i>the intriguing hieroglyphs
at Abydos.</i> <i>At number six,
the Baghdad Battery,</i> <i>and at number five
was the mystery</i> <i>of the massive
stones at Baalbek.</i> <i>In at number four,</i> <i>the famous
Nazca Lines of Peru.</i> <i>Number three was the mysterious
piece of granite</i> <i>known as Core 7.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Our number two, the unique,</i> <i>enigmatic Terra-cotta Army.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>Clearly there was
more to the ancients</i> <i>than is found
in recorded history.</i> <i>But now we've reached
the top of our countdown,</i> <i>and prepare to be astounded.</i> <i>At number one...</i> <i>[exciting music]</i> <i>The Antikythera mechanism,</i> <i>an ancient computer.</i> <i>- The most incredible
and mysterious device,</i> one of the greatest treasures
of the ancient world. <i>narrator: The story begins
just over 100 years ago</i> <i>near the Greek island
of Antikythera.</i> - A group of Greek
sponge divers were underwater looking for sponges <i>when actually
what they stumbled across</i> <i>was a shipwreck
full of treasures.</i> <i>narrator: There were
beautiful statues</i> <i>and all kinds
of precious artifacts.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>And then there was this,</i> <i>a corroded lump of bronze.</i> <i>What could it be?</i> <i>- It was taken back</i> <i>to the National Archaeological
Museum in Athens,</i> <i>and there
one of the bronzes broke open</i> <i>to show gear wheels
and inscriptions.</i> Now, gear wheels were not known
from the classical era, so this was something
quite extraordinary. <i>narrator: What was
this mysterious,</i> <i>seemingly out-of-time artifact?</i> <i>Debate has raged
in the scientific community</i> <i>since its discovery,</i> <i>but it was only when it was
radiographed in the 1970s</i> <i>that the total number of gears
could be seen</i> <i>and its complexity
was revealed.</i> <i>- When it was built,
it undoubtedly had more,</i> <i>maybe 45 gear wheels,</i> <i>and then it wasn't
until 2005, 2006,</i> <i>the application of 3-D
X-ray-computed tomography,</i> <i>a sort of body scanner</i> <i>to look at
the structure of the thing,</i> <i>allowed us to work out</i> <i>what mechanism
was really inside</i> and just how
technologically sophisticated that was. [gears clicking] <i>narrator: This is
a reconstruction of what</i> <i>the highly-advanced mechanism
may have looked like,</i> <i>but what was it for?</i> <i>- On the front of
the Antikythera mechanism</i> was a representation
of the universe, solar system,
with the Earth in the center, <i>and around it went
the Moon, the Sun,</i> <i>and the planets that they
knew about at that time.</i> ♪ ♪ <i>On the back of the mechanism
there was a spiral at the top</i> <i>that was the cycle of the Moon,</i> <i>235 months over 19 years,</i> <i>and at the bottom,</i> <i>a dial which allowed you
to predict</i> <i>whether it was likely there
would be an eclipse</i> <i>of the Sun
or the Moon,</i> a sort of
wonderful encapsulation of what they knew
about astronomy at that time. ♪ ♪ <i>- The Antikythera mechanism
predicted</i> <i>and modeled aspects
of the known sky.</i> In a very real sense,
it was a handheld model of the Greek universe. ♪ ♪ <i>- The Antikythera mechanism
allowed you</i> to input data and get a result. <i>So you'd find a date,
and then it would show you</i> <i>where the Sun, the Moon,</i> and the stars would be
in the sky on that date. <i>- So what we've got here</i> <i>is a computing calendar.</i> Genius. ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: Input data,
get a result:</i> <i>a computer.</i> <i>In fact, the technology
is remarkably similar</i> <i>to what is traditionally
thought of</i> <i>as the first computer,</i> <i>invented by Charles Babbage
in the 19th century.</i> ♪ ♪ [file scraping] <i>Imagine the knowledge
and skill needed</i> <i>to create such a thing
thousands of years ago.</i> <i>Where did that
knowledge come from?</i> <i>That is the biggest
mystery of all.</i> <i>- This mind-blowing mechanism
represents not just</i> a phenomenal
technical achievement but the culmination
of research reaching back who knows how many centuries? [gears ticking] <i>- The mechanical sophistication</i> <i>of the Antikythera mechanism</i> <i>reminds us that the Greeks</i> <i>were just as intelligent
as we are.</i> <i>The difference
is the much greater</i> <i>knowledge base
we have these days.</i> What's changing is
our view of their world. <i>narrator: The Antikythera
mechanism is our number one,</i> <i>as it reveals the ancients
were far more advanced</i> <i>than we ever
previously thought.</i> <i>We still don't know
who made it or why.</i> <i>It's our ultimate mystery.</i> <i>- Without the Antikythera
mechanism,</i> <i>it would be difficult
to realize</i> <i>how sophisticated the design
technology had become,</i> and it makes you wonder
what else we're missing or misinterpreting
in the ancient world. <i>narrator: This remarkable
object tells us more</i> <i>than any other discovery</i> <i>that there is so much
about the ancients</i> <i>that we don't know.</i> [triumphant music] ♪ ♪ <i>There are mysteries so deep
that it seems</i> <i>they'll never be solved,</i> <i>super-advanced technology
thousands of years ago.</i> <i>One thing we can be sure of,</i> <i>the ancient world will continue
to surprise and astonish us.</i> <i>It will always be a world</i> <i>of the most
extraordinary secrets</i> <i>and mysteries.</i>