What Archaeological Sites Used To Actually Look Like

Our planet has existed for a whopping 4.5 billion years, in that enormous span of time dinosaurs have existed and disappeared, the geography of the Earth has completely changed and countless civilizations have risen and fallen; However, evidence of these lost civilizations remains in ruins in all countries of the world, but

what

were they like before they were ruined? Well, grab your trowel and get ready to dig as we discover

what

the

archaeological

sites

were like that

actually

look

ed like a towering citadel, at nearly 8,000 feet on the top of a mountain in Peru's Urabamba River Valley lie the remains of one .

One of the most famous ruins in the world, the legendary Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, but when it was first discovered in 1911 by American explorer Haram Bingham, it was barely recognizable as a citadel. It is believed that the Incas built this settlement high up so it would be really difficult to attack, however this also meant that after they fled the city in the late 16th century due to a possible smallpox epidemic, it remained untouched. be discovered for years during this time, it grew larger and larger and, because the Incas did not use cement or mortar, the roots of the trees penetrated.

Straight through the ruins, making it incredibly difficult to get rid of the foliage without causing damage. However, Bingham and his team were painstakingly careful and, over the course of four months, worked for hours a day clearing away unwanted plant life when the equipment was finally finished. They were amazed by the enormous sight they had discovered and today, after further excavations, the impressive ruins are even clearer. Of course, despite the spectacular improvement, it is still far from its 15th century glory days, in At that time it was believed that the numerous stone houses were all pointed. -upper form with thatched roofs of dry grass, as well as residential houses, had an agricultural area, a sacred area and a royal district where historians believe that the Inca ruler Pachikuri Inca Yapankui reigned from his palace.

It is truly a testament to the construction prowess of the Incas that any of it is still standing today, considering how exposed the mountain citadel is to the elements and knowing how flimsy some new buildings can be, perhaps the Modern men should take some ink and advise the bronze giant a long time ago, back in the 3rd century BC, there was a Great bronze statue in the port of the Greek city of Rhodes, the gigantic monument represented the sun god Helios and It was said to be 105 feet tall, so 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 destroyed it. C. toppled it and broke it into pieces, yet the destroyed remains remained a popular tourist attraction for centuries until 654 AD. C. when Arab forces assaulted the roads. and they took the fragmented pieces of the colossus to melt them down and sell them, how did they do this? Why with an army of 900 camels, of course, sadly today there is a lot of nothing where the great statue once stood, but if you are familiar with The Colossus of Rhodes, you will be surprised to know that, despite the famous images of the colossus on both sides of the port, this never happened; that iconic image

actually

emerged centuries later and was promoted by historians of the Middle Ages who had never seen the monument in the port itself.

It is almost the same width as an American football field, so to be proportionally accurate the statue would have to be a stupendous height of 1640 feet, this was absolutely impossible at the time, even now the Statue of Unity of India , which is the tallest statue in the world, measures only feet. tall, almost three times shorter, so it was much more likely that the colossus

look

ed like this, not that impressive, but sorry, you can't become omniscient without shattering a few dreams along the way and you will never become omniscient if Don't hit the like buttons and subscribe that way you won't miss another one of my amazing fact based videos anyway where were we the madness in italy of all the natural disasters recorded in history? the eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. has captured the people's imagination like no other, the resulting ash cloud crashed into the volcano and completely covered the nearby city of Pompeii, eradicating an entire community in one fell swoop.

It wasn't until approximately 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, most of the city is still recognizable. Walls, buildings, paved streets, even some works of art remain remarkably untouched by time and just look at this street food stall. Man, some things don't really change. That said, it still looks nothing like the bustling city of 12,000 that existed for many years before the fateful eruption. The vibrant township had an amphitheater, a gymnasium, a port and even a complex water system.

There were also many temples. Several Roman gods were dedicated to them, including the temple of Jupiter, unfortunately the temple of Jupiter was destroyed by an earthquake in 62 AD. C. and today only remains remain, regardless Pompeii is still an amazing place to visit if you can be brave to be so close to Mount Vesuvius, the real wall. If you've ever watched Game of Thrones, you'll be familiar with the wall the giant icy megastructure made to keep out the threats of northern Westeros, but did you know it's based on a real-life wall in northern England? Yes, if you were to go there right now, you would find the ruins of Hadrian's Wall, a massive 73-mile-long structure that stretches from one coast to the other and dates back to 122 AD, when the Roman emperor Hadrian ordered it to be removed. would build separating the roman empire in britain from the barbarians to the north sounds familiar, although the real wall was made of stone, not ice, and was not as high as george r.r martin's fictional barrier, yet it was much larger than the few remains that remain.

Today, standing almost 20 feet tall, in some places the towering barricade was an intimidating sight to behold and was not just a wall. By the end of the 4th century, 40 forts called mile castles had also been built along it, as well as The sprawling structure also ho

used

17 larger forts and numerous observation towers to ensure that nothing was missed when the Romans abandoned Great Britain. Britain in the early 5th century. However, the wall quickly deteriorated and people began to loot it by removing large chunks of stone and using it. to build other things like churches, farms and houses and although this practice ended in the 19th century, by that time the damage was already done where towering castles for miles once stood guard, now only waist-high fragments of stone remain, it is a good job the white the walkers are not real, so Nero to zero, obviously the emperors of ancient Rome were not the most humble group of people compared to Emperor Nero, although the others seem like saints, that is because Nero , who became emperor in 54 AD, commissioned a colossal palace complex for himself in the heart of Rome that covered almost half a square mile of space that is approximately three times the size of the entire Vatican City built of stone and marble between 64 and 68 AD.

The extravagant palace had 150 rooms both above ground and underground, as well as a swimming pool and a massive 100 foot statue of the emperor himself, if that wasn't enough, all the rooms were covered from floor to ceiling in gold precious stones. , shells and pearls, then it was named domus orea or golden house for those of us who are not very enthusiastic. the ancient Latin hall of all its rooms, although the octagonal hall was by far the grandest, this incredible chamber served as a banquet hall and had five branching dining rooms with waterfalls cascading down the back walls, petals of Flowers and perfumes were prepared to fall from the richly decorated ceiling as well, but what was really surprising about the octagonal room was that it rotated, that's right, day and night, the extravagant food hall rotated around its axis as petals fell from above and waterfalls cascaded around it and, wildly, archaeologists estimate that the majestic mechanism was fully functional.

By water, all this narcissistic extravagance did not make Nero popular and that is why his successors wanted to distance themselves from him as much as possible, so they savagely stripped the entire palace of its materials and riches and even filled most of the underground rooms to being able to build on top of them, this means that unfortunately, although the main structure survives, the palace is far from the grand complex it once was, said the octagonal hall was excavated and is still immediately recognizable today despite the lack of decoration. I wonder if it could be increased. the mechanism and turn it into a kind of crazy historical carousel the looted barthenon the ancient Romans were not the only civilization in favor of a little opulence at the height of the ancient Greek empire between 447 and 432 BC. one of the most iconic temples in history was built Atop the religious citadel of Athens, the acropolis known simply as the Parthenon, the 23,000-square-foot temple was supported by 65 marble columns, on top of which were some Exquisitely vividly painted freezes, most impressively, a 39-foot-tall statue of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, stood guard.

Inside the temple was made of gold and ivory and would have been spectacular to behold, but in the 5th century AD. It was no longer there, we cannot be sure what happened, although it could have been looted by the Byzantine Christians, i.e. the Eastern Roman Empire, who later conquered Greece in the 6th century AD, after taking Athens, they converted the Parthenon in a Catholic church and destroyed many of the frost carvings. It remained so until 1458 AD, when the structure changed hands once again, this time the Muslim Ottoman Empire took control of the Greek capital and made the sacred building a mosque just a couple of hundred years later, however, forces The Christians returned and launched another attack, bombarding the Parthenon with cannonballs.

This would have been bad enough, but the Ottomans had been using the temple to store volatile munitions inside. -Oh, the cannonballs crashed into the ammunition creating a powerful explosion that tore through the building and ca

used

massive structural damage. Later in the 19th century, the British Earl Thomas Bruce visited the Parthenon and stole some of the remains of marble and sculptures to bring back. Over to London, where they still are today, because of all this, it's safe to say that poor old Parthenon doesn't look as glamorous as it did in its heyday, but still, it had killed looking so good at the age of 2454. in chichen Itzá, If you are ever in the specific mood to soak up the sun while marveling at some of the best preserved ancient pyramids in the world, I suggest you take a trip to Chichén Itzá in the state of Yucatán in Mexico, this Mayan city has more than 1,500 years old and although no one lives there now at its peak, it was home to 35,000 people because of this, the entire site covers four square miles and has a host of 26 ruins to explore, the most famous of which is called the castle, this tremendous temple stands almost 80 feet above the main plaza and has 91 steps on each of its four sides for a total of 365 including the upper platform, it is no coincidence that this number is the same number of days as a solar year and is probably related to rituals. which were held at the top because those ancient Mayans had some strange rituals.

The pyramid was built directly above the cenote, which is essentially a sinkhole filled with water. At the top of the pyramid there is a deep well that leads to this cenote in In times of drought it is believed that the Mayans believed that by taking a very unfortunate person and throwing him into the well to his doom, the sacrifice would bring rain and pain, but cannot have worked so well, the city was completely abandoned in the 15th century and, ironically, it was probably due to a drought that was left to its fate, the jungle ran rampant on the temple and when it was finally decided to evacuate the site in the early 1900s, you could barely see a full decade of piracy and The Reduction later, although the pyramid was eventually revealed in all its glory to become the popular tourist attraction it is now hmm, reminds me a bit of the bull run versus the post-lockdown, a really old serum, let's imagine that you and I are taking a nice walk in this south.

English countryside when we hope we find this, guesswhat is it? I don't blame you for not knowing because very little remains of the ancient serum, an Iron Age fort dating back to BC, originally built and inhabited by British tribes. people, the fort changed hands around 43 AD. when it was occupied by the Romans after their conquest of Britain and then after the Romans left Britain, around 400 AD, the site was occupied by the Anglo-Saxons who lived there for hundreds of years until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Still with me, it was the Normans who made the biggest changes to the old fort.

They are responsible for throwing down the mot which is the raised mound in the center on which the castle stood in its heyday around the year 1100. The site had become a bustling warren notable for the literate employees who resided in the cathedral; However, poor relations between the troops at the castle and the clergy led to the cathedral being removed and rebuilt a couple of miles south in Salisbury, where it still resides. The disagreement was so intense that an entire cathedral was moved because of this after this royal interest in the site rapidly declined and with it the population until finally in 1832 it lost its city status and became deserted and because many of the buildings were made of wood, they fell into disrepair. and they were lost to time now only a few clues remain that the once important settlement was once there who would have fought against it, uh, the great giza, the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the great pyramid of giza It remains an impressive testament to the ancient Egyptian civilization built as a tomb for Pharaoh Khufu some 4,500 years ago, it now serves as one of the most popular tourist destinations on the planet, but it was not always the case when it was first built, the great pyramid had no The rough features The irregular appearance it has today was rather smooth and shiny from top to bottom.

This is because the Egyptians built a layer of limestone over the initial step-shaped structure and polished it so that it shone white in the sunlight. They even decorated the top of the pyramid. in gold, making the original structure much more striking than it appears today, but considering that the gigantic monument is made of almost 9,000 tons of granite, more than 550,000 tons of mortar and more than 6 million of tons of limestone, how the hell did they build it in the early days? On site, 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, they would then soak the stone in water, the wedges would absorb this water, expand and in doing so they would crack. the rock into blocks, these blocks were taken from the quarries and transported across the Nile before being dragged on sleds to the pyramid site, once there the painstaking work did not end, oh no, using a complex ramp system and pulleys, the heavy blocks had to be dragged to the top of the pyramid, where they were finally smoothed into shape and the real tragedy after all this backbreaking work, today there is barely any evidence of it left, for thousands of years. years, several towns stripped the white limestone and gold tip for use in other buildings bet pharaoh khufu is rolling in his tomb talk attack northeast 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 ancient ruin protrudes from the ground I believe.

Whether you like it or not, this battered arch is all that remains of what was once the largest and richest city in its history. time. Chesaphone, founded in the 2nd century BC. C. by King Mithridates I, the sprawling city was the crown jewel of the Persian Empire for most of the year 800. For years, although surprisingly little is known about Chestafon, we do know that it boasted an extravagant palace decorated with marble glass mosaics and jeweled carpets the arch known as tak khasra was once a part of, and even today remains the largest single-span arch in the world.

So what the hell happened? Well, the great wealth of this city made it a pretty important target. The Romans attacked and successfully invaded three times between 1616 and 198 AD, but although the city was sacked, it did not fall and continued as the epicenter of Persian culture. for another 400 years in 637 AD, however, everything changed. Muslim Arab forces gathered forces outside the city and fought a major battle against Persia. They won after their victory, riding towards Cesaphon and plundering everything they could. Fortunately, the city's inhabitants had no longer fled from anything. everything else was safe, however, not even the buildings themselves, which were destroyed and taken to build what would become Baghdad, the only thing they did not take was to talk about kasra because no one accepts the talk of the colossal coliseum, at almost everything The world loves to go to the theater to see a night of live entertainment, this was equally true in ancient Rome, only their entertainment included brutal fights to the death and the most anticipated ones took place in the largest and most recognizable amphitheater ever. existed, the Roman coliseum commissioned around the year 70 AD. by Emperor Vespasian as a gift to the people, it was inaugurated a decade later in 80 AD. by his son Tito and with walls 157 feet high, 80 entrances and a capacity of up to 87,000 people, the gigantic building proved to be a resounding success for spectators from all social classes.

You could attend the various events, although they did not have the same experience, the seats closest to 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 the women holding the Far back, partly because of this inclusion, the Colosseum flourished for four centuries, but changing tastes in the decline of the Western Roman Empire led to its neglect and abandonment after the 6th century AD, gradually, parts of this structure were stripped to be used elsewhere and violent earthquakes further shook the amphitheater and damaged it further.

Now only a third of the original coliseum remains and the stage that once hosted so many amazing events remains only rubble, but even though it is far from what it once was, its architectural appeal is as strong as ever with those moves who needs gladiators Anyway time to call Located deep in the Guatemalan rainforest there is a mysterious variety of structures that contrast with the nature that surrounds them. They constitute the ruins of the city of Takal that was once one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Mayan civilization. civilization covering almost 17,000 square feet of land, although the imaginatively named Temple 2 is the most impressive of these structures, the temple was built as a mausoleum for Lady Kalajin Une Mo, who was the wife of a Mayan king who reigned between 682 and 734 AD At 125 feet high, it cuts through the trees, but in the 8th century it would have been even taller at around 138 feet and, although remarkably well preserved for its age, it used to look much more vibrant, like this one, yes.

If you hadn't guessed, the Mayans loved red, they even colored their cocoa with it. The striking color scheme is not the only thing that has faded over time, although the temples to be called were also covered in intricately carved designs, some have survived as well. mask, but sadly many have long since worn away, it is still worth visiting the site today if you fancy it, it is a mysterious mound in the north of Ireland, there is a mystical piece of land so steeped in history, myths and legends that Containing a staggering 240

archaeological

sites

in its two and a half mile square expanse, this is the land of Rathkragon, where the first Halloween festivals took place in the 9th century, along with a host of other ancient sites, including a Creepy cave that supposedly leads to hell.

Okay, so I know it doesn't look as interesting as a literal cave of hell, but that innocent-looking mound holds more secrets than you can imagine, measures 300 feet wide and 20 feet high, and sits prominently in the center of the landscape, which means It was quite important, so any guess as to what might have been here is a clue about 1500 years ago. It looked less like a mound and more like a huge fort, but if you remember, the old hill forts look a lot more like this today, which is completely different. so you can dismiss that idea, no this is not a fort, the Rathgregan mound was actually a gigantic ceremonial temple.

By scanning the land using special equipment, archaeologists have found evidence suggesting wooden ramp arts and ceremonial henges used to sit atop the mound we have. We don't know exactly what rituals took place inside the sacred hall, but we do know that those who practiced them were ancient Celtic pagans, so the temple was probably the site of all kinds of seers who could have remained inside while they prophesied to future multitudes. of people who might have gathered to offer their precious possessions to the gods and on very rare occasions humans might even have been sacrificed as a grizzly bear, but you would never have thought all that just by looking at it now, so it just goes to show that you never judge a mound for his uh.

It's uh, you know what I mean, okay, so this almost ends our historical tour. Which place would you like to visit the most? Do you have any favorites that I didn't mention? Let me know in the comments below and thanks for watching. you