Top Ten Enigmas of the Ancient World - Ancient World Exposed

do [Music] reality falls [Music] [Music] welcome to a world full of mystery folklore and legend [Music] from supposed stargates to powerful deities from fantastic giants to steampunk style science fiction this is not an alien planet or a fantasyland this is planet earth of the past [Music] and yet it was a world of wonder and great physical and mental achievements [Music] now even with our modern day science there are a great many remnants of the ancient world that remain an enigma [Music] from the great civilizations of antiquity we will discover the amazing works of architecture and art huge monuments erected for gods and kings mysterious artifacts rediscovered after remaining hidden for thousands of years [Music] from the great pyramid of giza to the statue of zeus at olympia from the temple of artemis at ephesus to the strange antikythera mechanism and as we move around the planet we will unlock the secrets of stonehenge and through that the movement of the planets [Music] these cultures discoveries and monuments of ancient times are key to understanding who we are and how we got here welcome to the top 10 enigmas of the ancient world [Music] the great pyramid of giza is also known as the pyramid of khufu or the pyramid of chiops and is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in giza pyramid complex bordering what is now giza in egypt it is the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the only one to remain largely intact the title is based solely on a simple mark discovered in one of the interior chambers it was named after the work gang and the dynasty of the pharaoh khufu most egyptologists believe the pyramid to be a tomb built over a 10 to 20 year period around 2500 bc it was the tallest building in the world for over 3 800 years until the construction of lincoln cathedral in england in 1300 a.d [Music] when first constructed it was covered entirely by casing stones making a smooth outer surface unlike the rough zigzag style we see today [Music] the stones were dragged from a nearby quarry and lifted into place inside there are three main chambers although recent discoveries have revealed further enigmatic chambers yet to be explored the lower chamber was cut into the bedrock that the pyramid is built upon it was never quite finished above this are the queen and king chambers and lie within the structure of the pyramid close to the pyramid are two mortuary temples in honor of khufu and three smaller pyramids dedicated to khufu's wives there are various other mastaba tombs and other outer buildings [Music] originally the pyramid was 480 feet tall but erosion over time has reduced this to 455 feet the mass of the pyramid is estimated at nearly 6 million tons [Music] over the 20-year construction period the workers had to install 800 tons of stone every day and 12 huge stones placed perfectly every hour day and night [Music] the precision of the construction and placing is incredibly accurate with the four sides of the square base being aligned to the cardinal compass points and based on true north not magnetic north [Music] there have been literally hundreds of theories about the construction and use of the great pyramid of khufu from ancient aliens to earth energy alignments and even magical stargates to other worlds but the fact remains that this is one of the greatest human feats of construction ever and even today with our modern technology we would struggle to equal it it is testament to the ingenuity hard labor and organization of the ancient egyptians and yet it is one of many great wonders from that remarkable civilization we move now to another amazing ancient civilization and a wonder that has been lost to us the hanging gardens of babylon the hanging gardens of babylon were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world they were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of trees shrubs and vines the gardens were said to have looked like a large green mountain constructed of mud bricks amazingly nobody is actually sure of the exact location of the gardens tradition states that they were located in babylon which is today in modern iraq in 290 bc a babylonian priest stated that the gardens had been built by king nebuchadnezzar the second between 605 and 562 bc no babylonian texts or archaeological evidence of their existence has been found because of the lack of actual evidence it has been suggested they were purely mythical and were created as romantic ideals by later greek and roman writers [Music] another theory suggests that the garden was actually nineveh for which there is some evidence and not babylon legend however states that nebuchadnezzar ii built the gardens for his median wife who missed green hills and valleys of her homeland descriptions of the gardens come to us from greek and roman writers it was said to have high walkways supported by stone pillars lush greenery all manner of trees and to have a mountain of green it was square and teared with thick walls and watered from the nearby euphrates with a strange screw-shaped contraption whether the gardens existed or not we cannot yet discover maybe one day an archaeologist will stumble upon the remains of the screw contraption or the remains of the surrounding walls maybe some ancient babylonian text really does hold the secret and we have simply missed it whatever the case the greek and roman writers were describing its existence for some reason [Music] we move now to greece and the statue of zeus at olympia the statue of zeus at olympia was commissioned by the custodians of the olympic games in the latter half of the 5th century bc for their recently constructed temple of zeus the olympians simply wanted to outdo their athenian rivals who had just finished work on the enormous statue of athena for the parthenon temple on top of the acropolis [Music] to do so they employed the skills of the very sculptor who had just completed this massive statue his name was phi deus interestingly fideis may have been somewhat of a tricky character the roman historian plutarch tells us that fides was actually accused by the athenians of keeping some of the gold intended for the statue of athena to make himself rich there are even rumors that he later died in prison soon after building the statue of zeus although we can only speculate as to the reason for his imprisonment the statue of zeus took up half of the width of the temple in which it was situated and it had a height of around 13 meters it was made with ivory and gold panels on a wooden structure normally there would have been smaller copies made and this may have been the case but alas none have survived we do have coins and engraved gems with the image of the statue we can thank the second century a.d traveler porcegnus for giving us a good description of the statue it was crowned with a wreath of olive sprays and wore a golden robe made from glass with carved animals and lilies in his right hand zeus held a smaller statue of the goddess of victory nike in his left he held a scepter supporting an eagle he sat upon a magnificent throne with painted figures decorated with gold and precious gems ebony and ivory the statue was constantly coated with sacred olive oil to protect the ivory the floor was of black tiles making a stark contrast and surrounded by a rim of marble containing the olive oil the reflective power of this oil reservoir on black tiles would have been amazing [Music] porcelain said when the image was quite finished fideus prayed the god to show by a sign whether the work was to his liking immediately runs the legend a thunderbolt fell on that part of the floor where down to the present day the bronze jar stood to cover the place [Music] after the statue's construction faideis was asked how he had created such an impressive and lifelike depiction of zeus people wondered whether he had climbed up mount olympus to see zeus for himself fader simply replied that he was inspired by the descriptions of zeus seen in the numeric iliad this epic tale told of the great war between the heroes of greece and the trojans and of how the gods meddled on both sides of the conflict interestingly instead of supporting the greeks zeus acted as a mediator deciding when and how the gods could interfere [Music] zeus was especially revered by the greeks as the king of the gods and the ruler of the universe in the distant past he had led the gods in a war against the great titans who contested the olympian gods right to rule the world by defeating the titans he gained control of the earth and earned the respect of both mortals and immortals everywhere [Music] he ruled atop his great throne on mount olympus in greece along with the other gods keeping watch to ensure that those who paid him proper respect were rewarded and those who defied him were punished he surely looked kindly upon those worshipping at his temple at olympia however in the 4th century a.d the christian roman emperor theodosius banned pagan cults and closed all the temples nobody used the temple at olympia anymore and tradition states that the statue of zeus was even carried off to constantinople where it was finally destroyed in the great fire of 475 a.d [Music] in these times the old gods were becoming forgotten and mocked zeus or as the romans called him jupiter was unseated from his great throne at olympus by the all-powerful christian god romans and greeks alike turned to the teachings of christ rather than the epics of homer and essiot for their moral guidance nevertheless we cannot be entirely sure how the statue was finally destroyed but it must have once been an amazing sight for the worshipers the greatest of gods we now turn to another greek temple the temple of artemis at ephesus as part of our investigation into the statue of zeus to understand a little more the temple of artemis was a greek temple dedicated to the goddess artemis in ephesus turkey it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and was rebuilt three times before its final destruction in 401 a.d [Music] the earliest temple built at this site dates to the bronze age and legend states it was built by the amazons the greeks believed that the amazons were a fierce warrior tribe consisting only of women in myth they were the daughters of ares the god of war and lived only for battle more than a match for the men of greece however this early temple was destroyed in the 7th century bc by flood and had to be built again in the 6th century bc it took 10 years to build but this second temple was destroyed in the 4th century by arson the most impressive reconstruction and the one we consider as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was built soon after the fire however only the foundations and some sculptural fragments from this incarnation of the temple remain antipa of siddha compiled the list of the seven wonders and he described this finnish temple i have set eyes on the wall of lofty babylon on which is a road for chariots and the statue of zeus by the alphaeus and the hanging gardens and the colossus of the sun and the huge labor of the high pyramids and the vast tomb of mausolus but when i saw the house of artemis that mounted to the clouds those other marvels lost their brilliancy and i said lo apart from olympus the sun never looked on ought so grand however the site of the temple had been considered sacred long before a temple was constructed it is clear that the location had previously been a place of worship for the great goddess but little is known about its original cult deity the wealth and power of the new temple was evident in part of the power of artemis and ephesus itself and would have attracted huge numbers of pilgrims between march and may to attend the great processions of artemis [Music] artemis was the daughter of zeus and the brother of apollo she was the goddess of the hunt wild animals the wilderness and the protector of women and young girls artemis was said to have hunted alongside her companion and lover orion it was said that when orion died zeus placed him among the stars as the constellation shrines and temples to artemis can be found across the ancient greek world but none stood out as much as the one at ephesus [Music] and now we turn to a tomb of a real person in ancient greece which is now in present-day turkey the mausoleum of halicarnassus it was a tomb built between 353 and 350 bc at halicarnassus for mausolus a sat trap in the persian empire and his sister wife artemisia ii of career the structure was designed by the greek architects satiros and pythius of praein [Music] the finnish structure was considered to be of such an aesthetic triumph that antipate of siddha identified it as one of the seven wonders of the world in the fourth century bc halicarnassus was the capital of a small regional kingdom on the western coast of asia minor although the rulers of halicarnassus were largely independent and free they owed their loyalty unpaid tribute to the persian king of kings ruling from what is modern day iran centuries earlier the persians had defeated the lydians carrions and greeks of anatolia to dominate the entire region of what is now turkey the persian empire controlled a vast territory controlling lands from the ionian sea and egypt in the west to as far as india and afghanistan in the east anatolian cities such as alicornassus would remain under persian control until alexander the great began his great campaign in 334 bc subduing the entire persian empire and burning its capital to the ground within the following 10 years however in 377 bc the nominal ruler of the region died and left control of the kingdom to his son mausolus mausolus ruled from halicarnassus over the surrounding territory on behalf of the persian king for 24 years he spoke greek admired the greek way of life and government founded many cities of greek design along the coast and encouraged greek democratic traditions the persian empire was a multicultural state accepting of greek culture and traditions within its borders the reality of the persian empire differed drastically from its portrayals in modern films such as three hundred in 353 bc mauslus died but has planned for himself an elaborate when he died the project was continued by his siblings the tomb became so famous that mausolus's name is now an eponine for all stately tombs in the word mausoleum [Music] no expense was spared in building the tomb and the most talented greek artists of the period were drafted in these included the man who supervised the building of the temple of artemis at ephesus it was approximately 140 feet in height and the four sides were adorned with sculptural reliefs each created by one of four greek sculptures it was erected upon a hill overlooking the city and sat within its own courtyard a huge stairway flanked by statues of lions led upwards to the top platform there were warriors mounted on horseback at each corner guarding the tomb along the outer walls there were many statues of the gods and goddesses at the center stood a huge marble tomb covered with base reliefs of action scenes and the warrior women of the amazons on top of the tomb stood 36 columns and the roof the tomb like the temple to artemis and the statue of zeus was built in the classical period a time when greek culture art architecture and science was flourishing greek sculptors through intense practice and a study of mathematical ratios had achieved the skill of anatomical perfection in their works creating statues of such realism that their abilities could not be matched until the renaissance period almost 2 000 years later greek philosophers such as socrates plato and aristocr were at the cutting edge of thought and their theories are still relevant today the mausoleum stood as a monument to the artistic and architectural achievements of this period a product of a unique time in human history nobody knows when or how the mausoleum was destroyed but texts from the 12th century a.d state that it was still a wonder even then it is possible that an earthquake destroyed it in the 14th century because the knights of saint john in 1402 recorded that it was nothing but ruins these same knights used the ruins to construct their castle at bodrum [Music] although now lost to the world we have seen how this ancient enigma earned its place among the seven wonders of the world due to its impressive size and the beauty of its design and construction we turn now to something that was truly big the colossus of rhodes [Music] the colossus of rhodes was a statue to the titan god helios worshipped by the greeks as the personification of the sun helius was believed to have driven the chariot of the sun across the sky every day pulled along by four furious deeds the cult of helios was in fact especially linked to roads they even celebrated a rather strange religious right to commemorate helios each year the rodians would tie four horses to a chariot and drive them off the edge of the cliff thus symbolizing helios's return to the eastern ocean every night when the sun goes down [Music] built around 292 bc the colossus was named as one of the seven wonders of the world the statue itself was constructed to celebrate the island of rhodes victory over the cypriots in the war in the late 4th century the ruler of cyprus antigonus the first was at war with both the egyptians and the rhodiums who had formed an alliance against him therefore antigonus gathered a large naval force and set sail to besiege the island however when the egyptian navy arrived the cypriot fleet fled rather than face them at this time egypt boasted the largest and most advanced fleet in the eastern mediterranean only the roman navy of the emperor augustus was able to defeat it nearly 200 years later [Music] the statue itself stood at around 108 feet high or roughly the size of the modern statue of liberty it was the tallest statue in the ancient world until it was eventually destroyed by earthquake in 226 bc it was never rebuilt although there have been some recent plans to rebuild the colossus today although there are some minor disagreements regarding its actual construction it is believed that it was built with iron tie bars with brass plates fixed to them forming a skin as the construction grew the insides were filled with stone blocks the iron and bronze was itself reforged from the weapons used by the cypriots in the siege which the statue commemorates the scaffolding used in the statues construction was even constructed using the remains of the siege towers which the cypriots had left behind the very upper segments of the statue were built via access from an earthen ramp or piles of earth when complete the earth mounds were removed leaving the statue standing alone it is said the base pedestal was 59 feet in diameter the feet carved from stone and covered in thin bronze with riveted plates there were eight iron bars forming the ankles and brass plates covering them in filled with stone in total it took 12 years to construct this massive structure this in itself was a massive achievement especially when we consider the fact that the statue of liberty took around nine years to construct using 19th century techniques in technology [Music] contemporary greek poetry commemorating the statute has been preserved to you oh son the people of dorian rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to olympus when they had pacified the waves of war and crowned their city with the spoils taken from the enemy not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of freedom and independence for to the descendants of heracles belongs dominion over sea and land [Music] it stood for only 54 years before it and much of the local area was destroyed by earthquake it snapped at the knees and fell onto the land the king of egypt at the time ptolemy ii offered to pay for the colossus's reconstruction however when the rhodians consulted the delphic oracle as to whether it should be rebuilt the oracle stated that the rhodians had offended helios and that to rebuild it would only anger him more the delphic oracle was the most respected heracular sanctuary of antukiti the high priestess of delphi known as the pythia was supposed to have channeled the god apollo himself in her prophecies therefore to ignore the delphic oracles was to ignore apollo the god of prophecies and the son of zeus [Music] with the rhodians having refused to rebuild the colossus it remained laid on the ground for 800 years until the new muslim caliph had it melted down and sold to a jewish merchant in odessa it took 900 camels to carry the bronze turn now to another of the ancient wonders of the world the lighthouse of alexandria the lighthouse of alexandria often called the pharos of alexandria due to its position on the island of pharos was a lighthouse built in the egyptian administrative capital of alexandria by the tamaelik kings in the 3rd century bc egypt had originally been part of the persian empire however in 332 bc alexander the great took control of egypt during his conquest of persia when alexander died one of his generals ptolemy the first took overall of the nation and founded the ptolemaic dynasty this brought an influx of greek culture to egypt especially in the city of alexandria where the great laotas was built [Music] the ptolemaic dynasty ruled egypt for nearly 300 years the last ruler of an independent ptolemaic kingdom was the famous cleopatra who committed suicide as the roman legions under augustus invaded egypt in 30 bc however in 299 bc ptolemaic kingdom was in its golden age it was in this year that the king ptolemy the first commissioned the construction of the great lighthouse at alexandria and it was completed in around 279 bc during the reign of his son ptolemy ii [Music] the construction was extremely expensive costing around 800 talents of gold the equivalent to almost 1 billion us dollars today it quickly became a prototype for lighthouses across the world the light itself was said to have been produced by a great furnace at the top and the tower built from solid limestone various sources refer to a large and impressive statue being placed at the top of the lighthouse some sources state that it was of zeus the savior or possibly poseidon other sources claim that the statue was either alexander the great or ptolemy the first represented in the form of helios all of these are fitting suggestions zeus the savior would protect the ships and guide them to the harbour poseidon as the sea god could equally protect ships traveling to and from alexandria the statues being either alexander or ptolemy would also make sense alexander founded the city itself whilst ptolemy the first was the founder of the ptolemaic dynasty the lighthouse has been estimated to have been over 100 meters tall and was the tallest man-made structure in the world for hundreds of years until a.d 956 the lighthouse was badly damaged by an earthquake and again in the 14th century when it finally became an abandoned ruin in 1994 french archaeologists discovered some remains of the lighthouse on the floor of alexandria's eastern harbour the stones of the lighthouse itself were locked together and sealed by molten lead the structure was built to last and had to be able to guide ships whatever the weather it therefore needed to be strong enough to withstand harsh storms and pounding seas the lighthouse survived long enough for it to appear in the ancient accounts of later arab rulers of egypt who gave us good descriptions of the remains they state that the tower was made from tapering tears with a lower square section lower central core a middle octagonal section and at the very top a circular section in their day the lighthouse was apparently fitted with a large mirror reflecting sunlight during the day and a furnace fire at night gave light and warning to the sailors [Music] although accounts about how the building looked vary it is clear that the lighthouse of pharos was a truly powerful architectural construction that not only saved lives and owed all who beheld it but it also served as an example to subsequent generations across the world today there are thousands of lighthouses that all owe their origin to this remarkable human achievement now we must turn to another great human achievement a true ancient enigma the strange metal artifact known as the antikythera mechanism it has been called the first known analog computer its exact uses and where it exactly originated from have been the topics of much debate in academia [Music] the object itself was found inside a wooden box in a shipwreck off the coast of the greek island of antikythera hence the name when the mechanism was discovered in 1900 it was ignored due to the fact that it appeared to just be a lump of corroded bronze it eventually took two years before scholars realized that there were gears embedded within this lump and that this was no discarded hunk of metal but one of the greatest discoveries in archaeology the world's first computer because the object is so well made and so sophisticated it is clear that there must have been many other prototypical preceding models as well as likely contemporary versions this raises a new problem where are they and why have we not discovered them in fact the truth to this may be right before our eyes with such ancient structures the stonehenge constructions created to aid navigation and reading the movements of the planets the antikythera mechanism's very construction relies heavily upon a knowledge of astronomy and mathematics it was a clockwork construction consisting of around 37 bronze gears these gears allowed the mechanism to track the movements of the moon and the sun through the zodiac predict eclipses and even model the irregular orbit of the moon the exact date in which the mechanism was made is contested some scholars state that it was made in around 87 bc and lost only a few years after the wreck in which it was discovered did indeed have coins dating from 76 and 67 bc other scholars have stated that the mechanism was likely built in the second century bc this theory was based upon the starting date of the lunar cycle on the mechanism which placed it at 205 bc researchers have discovered that it may have been developed in the greek city of corinth this is because the metonic spiral calendar originated there in fact syracuse was a colony of corinth and it is here that it was the home of the mathematician archimedes so there was something of a mathematical tradition in these cities in fact it was previously believed that the mechanism was developed by the school of archimedes but recent research has shown this to be unlikely another theory suggests that the device is from an earlier period and came from the greek city of pergamon which itself was the home of the great library of learning in fact it was second only in importance to the library of alexandria the wreck also contained vases in styles frequently found on the island of rhodes and so there is also a theory that it was made by the stoic philosopher posidonius from rhodes indeed rhodes was a very busy trading port and a center of learning for astronomy and mechanical engineering it was also home to hipparchus and the mechanism seems to be use of its theory and emotion of the moon if he didn't make the mechanism then it is possible he worked upon it technically speaking research has shown that the mechanism worked best on the latitudes between 33 and 37 degrees and roads is roughly 36 degrees latitude so if the mechanism was especially calibrated to work in the vicinity of roads is it not also likely that the mechanism was constructed there it could of course be that there are many devices and that each one was made to order for a particular customer base whose shipping was based in a particular area however according to some theories the mechanism fits best with the babylonian mathematical style than that of the greeks could the mechanism have been developed in the east and then shipped to the west [Music] answers to these problems may only come to light when and if we discover other devices or evidence we move now to a structure most of us know from images from films the colosseum of rome the coliseum also known as the flavian amphitheater is an oval amphitheater in the center of the city of rome italy this remarkable vestige of an ancient empire is built of travertine tough and brick faced concrete the amazing geology of rome and its surrounding area gave them a tough form of concrete and this has helped structures to survive it is the largest ancient amphitheater ever built anywhere and is a little east of the roman forum its construction was started under the emperor vespasian in 72 a.d and took eight years to complete when it was finished under his son titus [Music] some changes to the structure were later made under domitian these three emperors were of the flavian dynasty and the colosseum was named after them in fact the name coliseum is not an entirely accurate name for the building and instead refers to the colossus statue of nero which stood nearby this giant bronze statue was named after the colossus of rhodes and stood as a symbol of the emperor's power this giant statue no longer survive however all we are left with are a statue base and a name it is estimated that the coliseum itself could take between 50 and 80 000 spectators with an average audience of 65 000 in the main it was used for gladiator contests mock sea battles animal hunts executions battle reenactments and plays the gladiators of ancient rome were highly trained professionals and often became famous celebrities however they were also legally slaves and their lives no longer belonged to them unlike what the movies would have us believe many gladiatorial matches ended with no deaths whatsoever sometimes an owner of a gladiator could even be compensated if his gladiator died unexpectedly deaths were not uncommon though the defeated gladiator was at the mercy of the crowd and the game's sponsor if the verdict of the sponsor and crowd was that the defeated gladiator should die then he was expected to comply with his own execution with honor however if the defeated gladiator had fought well or was particularly popular he was usually spared the dream of every gladiator was to fight so well that he would be granted the rudes a symbolic wooden sword granting the gladiator his freedom from a life of slavery and constant battle [Music] gladiator combats were a popular form of entertainment in rome even before it ruled a vast empire however as a city of over one million people by the reign of vespasian the romans required a larger venue for their grotesque spectacles as a result the coliseum was constructed as a distraction for these often unruly mobs of rome an emperor's power and life depended on keeping the senate the army and the people happy [Music] as such the emperors of the flavian dynasty attempted to gain new levels of popularity by building what was essentially the largest entertainment complex in history if the emperor had the backing of the plebs his reign was likely to be longer and more secure it was not until the medieval period that the building ceased to be used for entertainment in fact it became a place for housing workshops a fortress a quarry and even a christian shrine it still stands to this day having survived earthquakes and robbers and is a massive tourist attraction for rome today we know of this wonderful building from films such as gladiator and it has been an iconic element of literally thousands of movies over the years the site of the coliseum was chosen well a flat floor in a low valley the area was densely populated but in 64 a.d a devastating fire broke out and nero seized the area for his own personal palace complex this decision was unpopular among the elite of rome who eventually turned against nero nevertheless nero was a popular emperor among the common people and vespasian as nero's successor realized the power of populism schools for gladiators and other supporting buildings were constructed as vespasian in his mighty statement chose the area of nero's palace complex for the colosseum and was therefore giving back the city area to the people it was placed in the heart of rome and therefore the heart of the empire itself a powerful and popular decision it was funded by the spoils of war namely the treasure taken from the temple of jerusalem after the jewish revolt in judea was brutally crushed by vespasian according to a reconstructed inscription found on the site the emperor vespasian ordered this new amphitheater to be erected from his general share of the booty this share was paraded through the streets in triumph even the holy manner from the now destroyed temple of jerusalem was carried through the streets in a blatant display of imperial power [Music] if this was not insult enough to the conquered a hundred thousand of the newly enslaved jews from jerusalem were brought to rome and forced to help in the construction of the coliseum they carried the heavy stones 20 miles from the tivoli quarries [Music] this was not an unusual sight in ancient times the great classical civilizations of greece and rome were built and maintained by slave labor and there is another amazing construction from ancient times that also took a lot of manpower and involved the movement of massive stones over a great distance stonehenge it is an iconic structure set up on a lonely area in wiltshire england it is a massive complicated and enigmatic stone circle it is a ring of standing stones approximately 13 feet high and 7 feet wide and weighing around 25 tons they are set inside an earthwork or built up area of earth and form part of a massive neolithic or new stone age and bronze age area there are also several hundred burial mounds of what we assume to be very important people in fact it has changed and altered over the years its construction began around 3000 bc and carried on until around 2000 bc the earliest phase of development is the earthwork surrounding it made up of a bank and ditch and dating from around 3100 bc the large bluestones dates from around 2400 to 2000 bc but they could have been on the site in some time from 3000 bc in truth it is very difficult to be more precise and every year new secrets are uncovered the british government had to officially protect the area in 1882 and it is owned by the crown and managed by english heritage its purpose has been the subject of much debate everything from ancient aliens to witches have been thrown into the pot it does appear that the area was in use as a burial ground before its construction which means it was a special area to the ancestors the people who built stonehenge have left behind no written records there are no hieroglyphs to help us decipher the secrets of stonehenge we have no real idea how it was built or its real use it may very well be that it had multiple uses as a christian cathedrals do today people are baptized married and buried on holy grounds to this day and this may be true of stonehenge it is a fact that the stars sun and moon align with stonehenge and this could be for various reasons the heavens were holy it was where many of the gods resided aligning a monument to the heavens aligns us to them and to our ancestors spirits it is also excellent for calendrical purposes what time of year is it time of day where are we going in the processional year and all of this is useful for any civilization planting crops following herds and for navigation and trading saying anything further than this is speculation indeed much of that is speculation we simply do not know for sure even more complex is just how ancient man managed to transport and erect such huge stones no wonder that over time legends have emerged of supernatural explanations and tales of there being giants in the land but archaeologists have managed to move stones using techniques that may have been available to people that did not have the wheel these involve tracks of rolling logs sleighs and winches the evidence does relate some very interesting facts some of the burials revealed that people traveled to stonehenge from far and wide there were people from the mediterranean germany wales and france it appears it may very well have been an international location for whatever purpose it had and it was not alone stone circles and ancient monuments scatter europe and most of them have some alignment with the heavens and of course there are our modern theories from the more extreme elements the aliens came down and built it all the fairies it has however been proven that the blue stones do have unusual acoustic properties these properties could explain why the blue stones were chosen and dragged 200 miles whatever the case there is still a lot to learn from the amazing ancient place that never made it into the seven wonders of the world list we will briefly move now to a location that modern man has designated one of the seven wonders machu picchu [Music] this wonderful place is a 15th century inca citadel located 8 000 feet above sea level in the cusco region of peru it is truly awe-inspiring and it is believed to have been an estate for the emperor of the inca people it has been called the lost city of the incas and is iconic it was built in 1450 and yet abandoned after only a century at the time of the spanish conquest the spanish had no idea about its location and it was only brought to international attention in 1911 polished dry stone walls make up the three primary structures and outlying buildings some have been reconstructed to give modern tourists a better idea of the original layout [Music] this has been a brief but enlightening journey through ten of the ancient world's most iconic and enigmatic constructions but there is a world full of equally perplexing places and artifacts [Music] many of these ancient marvels were a mystery to their discoveries but the persistent and resilient work of countless historians archaeologists and scientists help us to slowly unlock the doors to the ancient past and as each year passes more and more is revealed from the earliest of times mankind has placed his faith in the gods and these ancient enigmas reveal this they also reveal the ingenuity of mankind over the millennia we may think that we work hard that we are clever with our mobile phones and technology but our ancestors were no less ingenious there is no need for aliens fairies or giants in the land mankind has been the one true enigma behind all of these fascinating finds and what we leave behind us today will be spoken of by our successors in the distant future thus far we have discovered what we believe to be the top 10 most enigmatic constructions of antiquity however there are many others across the world and our investigation would not be truly complete without a discussion of some of the most impressive examples [Music] heading eastward in space and backwards in time we come to one of the largest ancient constructions ever built the great wall of china the great wall was built in a series of stages beginning in around 210 bc it was at this time that the emperor quinchi huang commissioned the start of the building of a great wall to protect the chinese empire from the marauding barbarians much of the original wall however has not stood the test of time in the 1300s a.d the famous ming dynasty started a new phase of the walls construction which resulted in the vast defensive structure which we see today made up of a number of sections along china's northern and western borders the great wall covers a staggering twenty one thousand 196 kilometers thus making it the longest defensive wall ever built to scholars the construction of this great winding stone serpent was a mystery however it has become clear that the great wall was completed using the labor of millions of people these labourers were predominantly soldiers but a large number of common people assisted in the construction one section alone was constructed by around 1.8 million people criminals were even used they were required to serve four years of hard labor on the wall acting as builders but also forced to patrol it [Music] at one time during the weijing dynasty the entire nation was called upon to build the wall even children took part the situation became so bad for the common people that barely anyone had time to engage in farming and women were afraid of having a boy which would also have to build the wall the great wall like many of the great constructions we have discussed was constructed using the forced labor of the unlucky few nevertheless it stands as one of the most enduring and impressive examples of human achievement having taken our investigation far to the east and far to the west we return now to europe to discuss one of the most impressive ancient buildings which can still be visited today the parthenon of athens in 480 bc the persians invaded greece and destroyed athens the temples which had previously stored on top of the acropolis were looted of their treasures and burned to the ground the athenians unable to fight such a large force alone fled to the nearby island of salamis from where they could see the smoke and flames of their city as it was ransacked when the persians were finally defeated by the greek coalition led by sparta and athens the burned ruins of the acropolis temple were left untouched for many decades as a reminder to the greeks persian sacrilege however in 447 bc the athenians have become rich from the spoils of a newly acquired maritime empire to demonstrate to the world their newfound strength the athenians began the construction of one of the most beautiful and impressive structures of antiquity [Music] completed in 432 bc the parthenon of athens was one of the most advanced pieces of greek architecture of its day it is in fact still considered to be the prime example of an architecturally perfect greek temple the construction even considered optical illusions for instance the columns are made to swell slightly at the center by 1 8 of an inch this is because from a distance slightly curved columns appear to be straight whereas a straight one does not the parthenon was decorated and adorned by the greatest artists of its age for example a giant ivory and gold statue of athena was designed constructed and placed inside the temple by the great artist fides the structure remained intact until the 17th century when it was largely destroyed by an explosion at this time ottoman turks had occupied athens and were using the site as of both a mosque and unfortunately an ammunition dump when this ammunition was struck by a cannonball the effects are self-evident despite extensive reconstruction the parthenon is still only partially complete although it has lost most of its former glory today the parthenon still stands in athens as the oldest and most powerful symbol of democracy and western civilization an example of ancient genius [Music] we now turn to the greeks cultural and geographical neighbours the romans to discuss another impressive example of human ingenuity built in 126 a.d by the roman emperor hadrian the pantheon in rome stands as one of the best preserved ancient buildings this structure is currently serving as a church in the center of rome but during the roman empire the structure was a temple to the entire pantheon of roman gods the building itself is circular with a colonnaded portico its most impressive feature is the dome built from concrete in fact the dome is still today the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome at its center is the oculus a hole placed directly in the middle of the dome's highest point the dome directs sunlight into the temple this is a convenient source of natural light but there may be more enigmatic reasons for this construction research has shown that the pantheon was strongly connected with the solar cycle during the winter months the sun only illuminates the dome of the pantheon however on midday april the 21st the supposed date of rome's founding the oculus direct sunlight directly towards the entrance some scholars believe that this was planned to coincide with the emperor's entrance to the temple during a great ceremony the sunlight would have bathed the emperor as he entered the pantheon raising him to the status of god emperors were worshiped across the empire as divine figures in the imperial cult and this ingenious construction will have reinforced this connection in our great journey through the ancient world we have discovered some of the most impressive feats of human ingenuity our top 10 list describes some of the most enigmatic structures and inventions from the beginning of recorded history but we have also seen other examples from east to west bc to a.d of humanity's most awe-inspiring achievements the history of the human race is far from over perhaps the people of the far future will look back at our time and wonder at our achievements also they may see traces of our cities of glass our flying machines our ingenious devices and ask the same questions we ask of the ancients one day all we did today and who we are may be just another enigma [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Janson Media

Views: 830,675

Keywords: top 10, top ten, mysteries, secrets, ancient secrets, mysteries of the world, mysteries solved, mysteries of the universe, ancient secrets discovery, ancient secrets of egypt, ancient secrets documentary, mysteries of the bible documentary, anunnaki, mysteries of the pyramids, ancient mysteries show, anunnaki documentary, ancient mysteries explained, ancient mysteries bbc, mysteries of the great pyramids, history ancient mysteries, ancient civilizations, secrets of the world

Id: Ml7lgPw-X3E

Length: 66min 28sec (3988 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 02 2021