From a city built on a coral reef to ruins
that may tell us the secrets of humanity, here are 8 of the most mysterious ancient
structures in the world. 8. Nan Madol Off the coast of the island of Pohnpei in
Micronesia stand the ruins of the ancient city of Nan Madol. The only ancient city ever built entirely
on a coral reef, the city is made up of almost 100 artificial islands made of coral fill
and stone, separated by narrow canals and protected by an outer seawall. Like Easter Island, this place is an engineering
marvel!! The name Nan Madol means “the space between”
and refers to the canals that cut through the ruins. The megalithic structures are estimated to
have been built in between the 12th and 13th century, about the same time as the Cathedral
of Notre Dame in Paris. The entire city covers an area of about 75
hectares (185 acres) and features walls built of columnar basalt. The walls are up to 15 meters (49 feet) tall
and 5 meters (16 feet) thick. The average weight of each individual stone
is almost 5 tons, but some weigh as much as 50 tons. Amazingly, the total weight of the stone used
to build the city is estimated to be about 750,000 metric tons. The building of such structures must have
taken a herculean effort, but nobody really knows when it was built, how the massive rocks
that were used in the construction were transported to the city, or where those rocks came from
in the first place! Why it was built on the reef, separated from
the actual land of the island, is also a mystery. 7. Teotihuacan Before Europeans came to North America, an
unknown culture arose in central Mexico and built a grand city that we have come to know
as Teotihuacan. In its heyday, it was a city that covered
20 square kilometers (13 square miles) and was home to 200,000 people, all of them in
carefully constructed and delineated neighborhoods where people were grouped according to the
crafts that they constructed. The Teotihuacanos, as the mysterious residents
have been called, left no written records, and their city predated the Aztecs by as much
as 1000 years. The city was marked with pyramids, one of
which, the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, was found to contain the bodies of over 100
human sacrifices. The city collapsed and was abandoned, and
nobody knows why. We don’t even know who built the city, or
what it was actually called. The name Teotihuacan (“the place where the
gods were created”) was given to the city by the Aztecs, who found the city already
in ruins when they entered the area. In its day, Teotihuacan was the largest city
in the western hemisphere, but by 550 AD it was a ghost town. Where did everybody go? And now for number 6, but first be sure to
subscribe and click the notification bell if you are new here! 6. Puma Punku The massive ancient city of Tiwanaku in Bolivia
is dominated by a temple complex called Puma Punku that has puzzled archaeologists for
decades. The city was already standing when the Inca
moved into the region in 1470, although it was completely abandoned. The stone buildings of Puma Punku (an Incan
name, since we have no idea what the original inhabitants called it) are built with massive
stone blocks that were so exquisitely shaped and fitted that even today you can’t fit
a knife blade between the blocks. Even more curious, none of these obviously
man-made blocks show any sort of chisel marks or other signs indicating how they were constructed. Like with Teotihuacan, nobody really knows
who built Puma Punku, and even its age is a matter of debate. Some scholars say that the buildings date
back to about 500BC, but others believe that the city is much, much older. What is known is that the buildings were built
as ancient observatories. On the equinoxes, the sun rises directly above
the center of the temple, visible through and perfectly framed by stone archways. On the summer and winter solstices, the researchers
thought the sun would rise over the cornerstones, but the sunrise is actually over a different
point. It’s odd that a culture capable of such
feats of accuracy would have failed to mark two of the most important dates on the ancient
calendar, but if you take into account where the sunrise would have been 17,000 years ago,
the cornerstones are in perfect alignment. This seems to indicate a much more ancient
origin for the city. Who built it? And how? Your guess is as good as mine!! 5. Ggantija, Malta On the Mediterranean island of Gozo, one of
the islands of Malta, stands a megalithic temple complex that predates the pyramids
of Egypt. The two towers were built during the Neolithic
Age, between 3600 and 2500 BC. They are the second-oldest manmade religious
structures in the world. Number one is coming up so stay tuned!! The temples appear to have been built to honor
fertility deities. There have been many figurines and other artifacts
found on the site that are associated with fertility cults. According to local folklore, they were built
by a giantess, but the true builders are unknown. The Ggantija complex includes two complete
temples and a third that was never finished. They face the equinox sunrise and are enclosed
inside a boundary wall, setting them apart from the daily lives of the people who worshipped
there. The temples were built in a clover-leaf shape,
with semi-circular apses connected with a long central passage. The walls were covered with plaster, some
of which can still be seen. The largest temple is the one furthest to
the south, and it’s also the most complete. It stands 6 meters (19 feet) tall and includes
multiple altars and huge stone block with a carved recess, which might have been used
as a place of ritual ablution, or purifying baths. Based upon the sheer volume of animal bone
that has been found on the site, it’s conjectured that the temple was used as a site of animal
sacrifice. These temples were built at a time when the
wheel had not yet been introduced to Malta, and when there were no metal tools available
to the islanders. Researchers have found many small, spherical
stones, which they think were used like ball bearings to help transport the huge stones. 4. Stonehenge The Salisbury Plain in England is home to
possibly the most famous mysterious megalithic structure in the world, so of course, I had
to mention it! Stonehenge was built from 3000 BC to 2000
BC, constructed in a series of stages. The site currently consists of a ring of standing
stones, each stone at least 4 meters (13 feet) tall, 2.1 meters (7 feet) wide, and weighing
around 25 tons. These stones are set inside a circular earthen
bank and ditch, which might date back to 3100 BC. The standing stones were made of bluestone
taken from the Preseli Hills, which lie about 250 kilometers (150 miles) away in Wales. How were the stones brought? How were they erected? That’s only part of the mystery. Like many other Neolithic monuments, Stonehenge
is a kind of ancient observatory, with the great trilithons aligning with the sunrise
on the summer solstice and with the sunset at the winter solstice. Apart from its astronomical uses, the site
was also probably used as a burial ground and a religious gathering area of sorts. Deposits of human remains have been found
dating back to the very earliest stages of the monument’s construction, and it has
been determined that burials continued at the site for nearly 500 years. It was long believed that Stonehenge was built
by the Celtic Druids, and certainly modern-day Druids have laid claim to the place. It’s now thought that the monument was built
by three different groups of ancient people, each one using a different construction style
and process, all of whom pre-date the arrival of the Celts in Britain. 3. Newgrange Another Neolithic site, with important astrological
alignment, can be found at Newgrange in Ireland’s Boyne Valley. Older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids
of Giza, Newgrange was originally believed to be a tomb, but it’s actually a temple
complex that was built by Stone Age farmers more than 5,200 years ago in 3200 BC. Newgrange is a large mound that is 85 meters
(279 feet) in diameter and 13.5 meters (12 feet) high, covering about one acre of land. It is ringed and held in place by a retaining
wall of some 97 kerbstones. Some of these stones are highly decorated
with carvings, often with spirals or whorls. There is one doorway into the mound, which
leads to a passageway that extends more than 19 meters (62 feet) into the man-made hill. The passage leads to a room with three alcoves,
and the chamber and the passage are aligned with sunrise on the Winter Solstice. Newgrange is just one of a series of structures
built along the River Boyne, making up a complex known collectively as Brú na Bóinne. The other two monuments are called Knowth
and Dowth, but there are as many as 35 other, smaller mounds in the complex, as well. 2. Skara Brae Located on the windy Orkney Islands of northern
Scotland stands the Neolithic settlement known as Skara Brae. The most complete Neolithic village in Europe,
Skara Brae was probably occupied between 3180 BC and 2500 BC. The site consists of eight clustered houses,
which were sunk into the mounds called middens, which were made up of domestic waste. The middens provided stability for the walls
and shelter from the brutal winds that scour the islands. Each house is about 40 square meters (430
square feet), with a large square room holding a stone hearth that was used for heating and
cooking. Seven of the eight buildings have stone-built
furnishings, including cupboards, dressers, seats, beds and storage boxes. It's like the real life flintstones!!The beds
and dressers are in the same place in every house. Each house had a stone slab door that could
be closed with a sliding bar, and there was a sophisticated drainage system, and each
house had its own toilet! The eighth building was not a house and was
not sunk into a midden. Instead, it seems to have been a sort of workshop,
with the space divided into small cubicles where fragments of stone, bone and antler
were found. These fragments were probably the result of
the manufacture of tools and hunting implements, which could indicate that this building was
actually a very, very early version of a factory. The people who lived at Skara Brae were not,
as some wild-eyed folk have fantasized, an enclave of philosophers and spiritual teachers
who studied the stars and other esoterica. Instead, they were pastoralists, meaning that
they were settled herders who lived and died according to the welfare of their flocks. When the climate changed in 2500 BC, the residents
abandoned their cold and rocky settlement and moved south, where the grazing was better. The village was gradually covered over by
sand and lost until it was revealed by a blistering storm in 1850. 1. Göbekli Tepe Its name is Turkish for “potbelly hill,”
and it’s the most recently found ancient structure on this list. Found on the plains of Anatolia, Göbekli
Tepe is a man made hill, standing about 15 meters (49 feet) tall, and about 300 meters
(980 feet) in diameter. Who cares?? Well It’s about 11,000 years old, making
it the oldest temple structure in the world. The temple was built in two phases. During the first phase, more than 200 pillars
in about 20 circles were erected. Each pillar is about 6 meters (20 feet) tall
and weighs up to 10 tons. They are fitted into sockets that were dug
into the bedrock. The second phase saw smaller pillars that
were set up in rectangular rooms that had floors polished with lime. The site was abandoned in the Neolithic era
for reasons that remain a mystery. The site was excavated by a German archaeological
team directed by Klaus Schmidt from 1996 until he passed away in 2014. Schmidt compared the site to a cathedral,
believing that it was a place where people intermittently gathered for religious reasons. The site was a place of pilgrimage for people
coming from as far away as 150 kilometers (90 miles). The remnants of butchered and cooked animal
waste have been found, indicating food that was prepared for large numbers of people. Although there have been no graves yet found
at the site, Schmidt was convinced that Göbekli Tepe was a central location for a cult of
the dead. The 2017 discovery of human skulls with deliberate
incisions might support that theory. There are more questions than answers about
Göbekli Tepe, because only 5% of the site has been excavated. What is certain is that, since it is so old,
the site may be a window into the way that mankind first developed its concept of religion,
making Göbekli Tepe one of the most important early human monuments ever found. What did you think of these sites? Have you been to any of them, and do you have
any theories about these unanswered questions? Please share your thoughts in the comments,
and be sure to subscribe before you leave!! See you next time!
