- [Narrator] Our planet's been around for a whopping 4,5 billion years. In that huge expanse of time, dinosaurs have been and gone, the Earth's geography
has completely changed, and countless civilizations
have risen and fallen. Evidence of these lost
civilizations remain however, in ruins across every
country across the globe. But what were they like
before they were ruins? Well, grab your trowel
and get ready to dig in as we find out what archaeological sites used to actually look like. Sky-High Citadel. Almost 8,000 feet atop a mountain in Peru's Urabamba River Valley, stands the remains of one of
the world's most famous ruins, the legendary Incan
citadel of Machu Picchu. But when it was first
discovered back in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham, it was barely recognizable
as a citadel at all. It's believed the Incans
built this settlement high up so it would be really tough to attack. However, this also meant
that after they fled the city in the late 16th century following a possible smallpox epidemic, it lay undiscovered for years. During this time, it became
more and more overgrown. And because Incans didn't
use cement or mortar, tree roots penetrated
straight through the ruins, making the foliage incredibly
difficult to get rid of without causing damage. Bingham and his crew were
painstakingly careful though, and over the course of four
months they toiled away for hours a day clearing
the unwanted plant life. When they were finally done, the team were amazed at the
sprawling site they'd uncovered. And nowadays, after further excavation, the awe-inspiring ruin is even clearer. Of course, despite the dramatic
improvement it's still far from its 15th century glory days. Back then it's believed
the many stone houses were all in tip-top shape, with thatched roofs of dried grass. As well as residential
houses it had a farming zone, a sacred area, and a royal district where historians reckon Incan ruler, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui
reigned from his palace. Really, it's a testament to
the Incans' building prowess that any of it still stands today, considering how exposed
the mountain citadel is to the elements. And knowing how flimsy
some new builds can be, maybe modern men should be
taking a little Incan advice. The Bronze Giant. A long time ago, back
in the third century BC, there stood a great bronze statue in the harbor of the Greek city of Rhodes. The gargantuan monument
depicted the sun god Helios, and was said to stand an
almighty 105 feet tall. As such, it was named
the Colossus of Rhodes, and became one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world. Sadly however, the colossus
only stood for 54 years before a savage earthquake in 226 BC toppled it to the ground, breaking it into pieces. Even so, the destroyed remains still proved a popular tourist attraction for centuries after. Until, that is, in 654 AD, when Arabian forces raided Rhodes and carried the fragmented
pieces of the Colossus away to be melted down and sold. How did they do this? Why, with an army of 900 camels of course. Sadly, today there's a
whole load of nothing where the great statue once stood. But if you're familiar with
the Colossus of Rhodes, you might be surprised to hear that despite the famous imagery of it straddling the
harbor, this never happened. That iconic image actually
came about centuries later and was touted by historians
in the middle ages who'd never seen the monument. The harbor itself is almost the same width as an American football field, so to be proportionately accurate, the statue would have had to stand a stupendous 1,640 feet tall. This was firmly impossible at the time. Even now, India's Statue of Unity, which is the tallest statue in the world, is only 597 feet tall,
almost three times shorter. So, the colossus was far more likely to have looked something like this. Not quite as impressive, but sorry, you can't become all-knowing
without shattering a few dreams along the way. And you'll never become all-knowing if you don't hit those
like and subscribe buttons. That way you won't miss
another of my amazing, fact-based videos ever again. Anyway, where were we? Insanity in Italy. Of all the natural disasters
in recorded history, the eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 AD has
captured people's imagination like no other. The ensuing ash cloud
crashed down the volcano and completely covered the
nearby city of Pompeii, eradicating an entire
community in one fell swoop. It wasn't until about 1,700 years later that archaeologists finally unearthed the ancient Roman city, and
boy were they surprised. Despite all that time, the thick layer of ash
had preserved everything. So well in fact, that the majority of the
city is still recognizable. Walls, buildings, paved streets, even some art remains
remarkably untouched by age. And just look at this street food stall. Man, some things really don't change. Having said that, it's still nothing like the
bustling city of 12,000 people that existed for many years before the fateful eruption. The vibrant municipality
had an amphitheatre, gymnasium, port and even
a complex water system. There were many temples too, devoted to the various Roman gods, including The Temple of Jupiter. Unfortunately, Jupiter's temple
got toppled by an earthquake in 62 AD. And today only scraps remain. Regardless, Pompeii is still
an astonishing place to visit, if you can brave being so
close to Mount Vesuvius. The Real Wall. If you've ever seen "Game of Thrones," you'll be familiar with the wall, the giant icy megastructure
made to keep out threats from the north of Westeros. But did you know it's
based on a real-life wall in the north of England? Yup, if you were to go there right now, you'd find the ruins of Hadrian's Wall, a huge 73-mile-long structure
stretching all the way from one coast to the other. It dates far back to the year 122 AD, when the Roman Emperor
Hadrian ordered it built to separate the Roman Empire in Britain from the barbarians up North. Sound familiar? The real wall though was
made of stone, not ice, and it wasn't quite as tall as George R. R. Martin's
fictional barrier. However, it was a lot grander
than the meager remnants that are leftover today. Standing almost 20 feet
tall in some places, the towering barricade was an intimidating sight to behold. And it wasn't just a wall, by the end of the 4th
century, a whopping 40 forts, called milecastles, had
been built along it too. As well as these, the extensive structure
also hosted 17 larger forts and numerous observation towers
to ensure nothing got past. When the Romans left Britain at the start of the 5th century however, the wall quickly fell into disrepair. People began plundering it by
removing great chunks of stone and using it to build
other things like churches, farms and houses. And although this practice
was ended by the 19th century, by that time the damage
had already been done. Where imposing milecastles
once stood guard, now only waist-high
fragments of stone remain. It's a good job white
walkers aren't real then. Nero to Zero. Obviously, ancient Rome's emperors weren't the humblest bunch of people. In comparison to Emperor Nero though, the others look like saints. That's because Nero, who
became emperor in 54 AD, commissioned a colossal palace complex for himself in the heart of Rome that covered nearly half
a square mile of space. That's about three times the size of the entire Vatican City. Built with stone and marble
between 64 and 68 AD, the extravagant palace had
150 rooms both above ground and underground, as well as a pool and an
enormous 100-foot statue of the emperor himself. If that wasn't enough, all of
the rooms were covered floor to ceiling with gold, precious
stones, shells and pearls. Aptly then, it was named the Domus Aurea, or Golden House for those of us not too hot on the old Latin. Of all its rooms though, the Octagonal Hall was
by far the grandest. This incredible chamber
served as a banquet hall and had five dining rooms branching off it with waterfalls cascading
down the back walls. Flower petals and perfume
were rigged to fall from the richly decorated ceiling too, but the really amazing thing
about the Octagonal Hall, was that it revolved. That's right. Day and night, the flamboyant food hall
rotated around its axis as petals fell from above and waterfalls cascaded all around it. And, crazily, archaeologists
reckon the majestic mechanism was powered entirely by water. All this narcissistic extravagance did not make Nero popular though, and so his successors wanted
to distance themselves from him as much as possible. Therefore, they savagely
stripped the whole palace of its materials and riches, and even filled in most
of its underground rooms in order to build on top of them. This means that sadly, although the main structure survives, the palace is far from the
grand complex it once was. That said, the Octagonal
Hall was excavated and is still immediately
recognizable today, despite the lack of decoration. Hmm, I wonder if you could
ramp up the mechanism and turn it into some kind
of crazy historical carousel. The Plundered Parthenon. The ancient Romans weren't
the only civilization partial to a little opulence. At the height of the ancient Greek Empire, between 447 and 432 BC, one of history's most iconic temples was built atop Athens' religious
citadel, the Acropolis. Known simply as The Parthenon,
the 23,000 square foot temple was held up by 65 marble columns, above which were exquisite,
vividly painted friezes. Most impressively, a
39-foot-tall statue of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, stood guard inside the temple. It was made from gold and ivory, and would've been spectacular to behold but by the 5th century AD, it was gone. We can't be sure what happened, though it could've been looted
by Christian Byzantines, that is the East Roman Empire, who later conquered Greece
in the 6th century AD. After they took Athens, they converted the Parthenon
into a Catholic church and destroyed many of the carved friezes. It remained like this until 1458 AD, when the structure
changed hands once again. This time, the Muslim
Ottoman Empire seized control of the Greek capital and made
the holy building a mosque. Only a couple of hundred
years later however, Christian forces returned
and launched another attack, bombarding the Parthenon with cannonballs. This would've been bad enough, but the Ottomans had been using the temple to store volatile ammunition inside. Uh oh. The cannonballs smashed into the ammo, creating a powerful explosion which tore through the building and caused massive structural damage. And there's more. Later, in the 19th century, British Earl Thomas Bruce,
visited the Parthenon and stole some of the
remaining marble friezes and sculptures to bring back to London, where they still are today. Because of all this it's safe to say, the poor old Parthenon doesn't
look quite as glamorous as it did back in its heyday. But even so, I'd kill to look
that good at the age of 2,454. Chillin' In Chichen Itza. If you're ever in the rather specific mood to soak up some rays while marveling at some of the best-preserved
ancient pyramids on Earth, then I suggest taking
a trip to Chichen Itza, in Mexico's Yucatan State. This Mayan city is well
over 1,500 years old, and though nobody lives there now, at its peak it was home to 35,000 people. Because of this, the whole
site covers four square miles and has a slew of 26 ruins to be explored. The most famous of which
is called El Castillo. This tremendous temple
looms nearly 80 feet above the Main Plaza, and has 91 steps up
each of its four sides, for a total of 365 including
the upper platform. It's no coincidence that this number is the same number of days as a solar year. And it's probably related to the rituals that were carried out at the top, because those ancient Mayans
had some weird rituals. The pyramid was built
directly on top of a cenote, which is essentially a
water-filled sinkhole. At the top of the pyramid
there's a deep pit which leads down into this cenote. In times of drought, it's thought that the
Mayan people believed that by taking one very unlucky person and throwing them down
the pit to their doom, the sacrifice would bring rain. Rain, and pain. But it
can't have worked that well. the city was completely
abandoned in the 15th century, and ironically, it was
probably because of a drought. Left to its own devices, the jungle ran rampant on the temple, and when it was finally
decided to excavate the site in the early 1900s, you
could hardly see it at all. A full decade of hacking
and slashing later though, and the pyramid was eventually
revealed in all its glory to become the popular
tourist attraction it is now. Hmm, reminds me a bit of me,
lockdown versus post-lockdown. Really Old Sarum. Let's imagine that you and
I are taking a nice stroll through the Southern
English countryside when, wait, we come across this. Any guesses what it is? I wouldn't blame you for not knowing, because there's very
little left of Old Sarum. An iron age hill-fort that
dates all the way back to 400 BC. Originally built and inhabited
by British tribespeople, the fort changed hands around 43 AD when it was occupied by Romans after their conquest of Britain. Then after the Romans abandoned
Britain around 400 AD, the site was took up by the Anglo-Saxons, who lived there for hundreds of years until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Still with me? Right, well it was the Normans that made the biggest
changes to the old fort. They're responsible for
throwing up the motte, that is the elevated mound in the center which the castle stood on. At its peak, around the year 1100, the site had become a
buzzing borough notable for the literate clerks that
resided in the cathedral. However, bad relations
between troops in the castle and the clergy, led to the
cathedral being removed and rebuilt a couple of
miles south in Salisbury, where it still resides. Man, imagine having a disagreement so intense you moved an entire
cathedral because of it. After this, royal interest
in the site declined rapidly, and with it the population, until finally in 1832 it
lost its borough status and was deserted. And because so many of the
buildings were made from timber, they decayed and were lost to time. Now, only a few clues remain that the once important
settlement was ever there. Who'd have fort it, huh? Great Giza. The oldest of all seven
wonders of the ancient world, The Great Pyramid of Giza, is still an awe-inspiring testament to ancient Egyptian civilization. Built as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu around 4,500 years ago, it now serves as one of the most popular
tourist destinations on the planet. But it wasn't always this way. When it was first built, The Great Pyramid didn't have the rough, jagged appearance it has today, rather, it was smooth and
shiny from top to bottom. This is because the Egyptians
built a layer of limestone over the initial, step-like structure, and polished it so it gleamed
white in the sunlight. They even decorated the
point of the pyramid in gold, making the original structure far flashier than it looks nowadays. But considering the gargantuan monument is made from almost 9,000 tons of granite, over 550,000 tons of mortar, and more than 6 million tons of limestone, how on earth, did they
construct it in the first place? Well, the workers would
travel southeast of Giza to the Tura quarries on
the other side of the Nile, and hammer lines of wooden
wedges into the stone. Then, they'd soak the stone in water. The wedges would absorb this water, expand and in doing so crack
the rock into blocks. These blocks were taken from the quarries and ferried across the Nile before being dragged on
sleds all the way to the site of the pyramid. Once there, the painstaking
work wasn't over, oh no, using a complex ramp and pulley system, the heavy blocks had to be hauled all the way up the pyramid, where they were finally
smoothed down into shape. Phew! And the real tragedy? After all this backbreaking work, hardly any evidence of it remains today. Over thousands of years, various people stripped
the white limestone and gold tip off to
use in other buildings. I bet Pharaoh Khufu's rolling in his tomb. Taq Attack. Northeast of Egypt lies Iraq, a country that was once part
of a vast land known as Persia. And 22 miles southeast of
Iraq's capital, Baghdad, a strange old ruin
protrudes from the ground. Believe it or not, this battered
archway is all that's left of what was once the grandest,
richest city of its time, Ctesiphon. Founded in the 2nd century
BC by King Mithridates I, the sprawling city was the jewel of the Persian Empire's crown for the best part of 800 years. Though surprisingly little
is known about Ctesiphon, we do know that it boasted an
extravagant palace decorated with marble, glass mosaics
and jewel-adorned carpets, which the arch, known as Taq
Kasra, was once a part of. Even today, it's still the
largest single-span arch in the world. So, what the heck happened? Well, the sheer wealth of the city made it a pretty big target. The Romans attacked and
successfully invaded three times between 116 and 198 AD, but though the city was
sacked, it didn't fall, continuing on as the
epicenter of Persian culture for another 400 years. In 637 AD however, everything changed. Muslim Arab forces gathered
strength outside the city and fought a great battle against Persia. They won. After their victory,
they rode into Ctesiphon and looted everything they could. Luckily, the inhabitants of
the city had already fled. Nothing else was safe however, not even the buildings themselves, which were torn apart and carried away to build what would become Baghdad. The only thing they
didn't take was Taq Kasra. Because nobody takes the Taq. Colossal Colosseum. Just about everybody
loves going to the theatre for an evening of live entertainment. This was just as true
back in ancient Rome, only their entertainment
happened to include brutal fights to the death. And the most anticipated ones
all took place in the biggest, most recognizable
amphitheatre to ever exist, the Roman Colosseum. Commissioned around 70 AD
by the Emperor Vespasian as a gift to the people, it was opened a decade later
in 80 AD by his son, Titus. And with 157-foot-tall walls, 80 entrances and a capacity of up to 87,000 people, the behemoth building
proved a resounding success. Spectators of all social classes could attend the various events, though they didn't get
quite the same experience. The seats nearest the front at the bottom were reserved for the
most important people, and the lower your social
class the further back you sat, with the poor, slaves and
women holding up the very rear. Partly because of this inclusivity, the Colosseum flourished
for four centuries. But changing tastes and the decline of the
Western Roman Empire led to its neglect and abandonment
after the 6th century AD. Little by little, parts of the
structure were stripped off to be used elsewhere, and violent earthquakes
shook the amphitheatre too, further damaging it. Now, only one third of the
original Colosseum remains, and the stage that once held
so many astounding events only holds rubble. But even though it's far
from its former self, its architectural allure
is as strong as ever. Ha! with those moves, who
needs the gladiators anyway? Time-Touched Tikal. Nestled deep within the
Guatemalan rainforest is a mysterious assortment of structures, standing in stark contrast
with the nature around them. They make up the ruins
of the city of Tikal, once one of the most powerful kingdoms in ancient Mayan civilization. Covering nearly 17,000
square feet of land though, it's the imaginatively
named Tikal Temple Two that's the most impressive
of these structures. The temple was built as a mausoleum for Lady Kalajuun Unen' Mo', who was the wife of a Mayan
king that reigned between 682 and 734 AD. At 125 feet high, it
pierces through the trees, but back in the 8th century
it would've been even taller, at around 138 feet. And though it's remarkably
well preserved for its age, it used to look a whole lot more vibrant, kinda like this. Yeah, if you hadn't guessed
it, the Mayans loved red, they even coloured their cocoa with it. The striking colour scheme
isn't the only thing that's faded over time though. The temples at Tikal were also covered with intricately carved designs. Some have survived, like this mask, but sadly many are long worn away. Even so, the site is still
well worth visiting today, if it tikals your fancy, that is. Mysterious Mound. In the north of Ireland, there's a mystical patch of
land so drenched with history, myth and legend that it holds a staggering
240 archaeological sites across its 2 1/2 square-mile expanse. This is the land of Rathcroghan, where the very first Halloween festivals were held back in the 9th century. Alongside the myriad
of other ancient sites, including a creepy cave that
supposedly leads to hell, there's, well, there's this. Okay, so I know it doesn't
look as interesting as a literal hell cave, but that innocent-looking
mound holds more secrets than you can imagine. Measuring 300 feet
across and 20 feet tall, it stands prominently in
the center of the landscape, which means it was pretty darn important. So, any guesses what it might've been? Here's a clue, about 1,500 years ago it
looked less like a mound and more like a huge fort. But if you remember Old Sarum, hill forts look a lot
more like this nowadays, which is entirely different, so you can throw out that idea. No, this isn't a fort. The Rathcroghan mound was actually a gigantic ceremonial temple. By scanning the earth
using special equipment, archaeologists have found evidence to suggest wooden ramparts and ceremonial henges used
to sit atop the hillock. We don't know exactly
what rituals took place within the hallowed hall, but we do know that those practicing them were ancient Celtic pagans. As such, the temple was
probably the site of all sorts. Seers might've stood inside as
they prophesised the future, crowds of people could've gathered to offer up their precious
possessions to the gods and on very rare occasions, humans could've even been sacrificed. Grizzly. But you'd have never thought all that just from looking at it now. So, it just goes to show, never judge a mound by its, uh, its ah- You know what I mean. Okay then. That just about brings our
historical tour to an end. Which site would you most like to visit? And do you have any
favorites I didn't mention? Let me know down in the comments below, and thanks for watching.
