- 30 minutes ago
- #history
- #archaeology
- #mystery
- #ancient
- #desert
Get ready for a wild ride as we uncover mysterious royal tombs, ancient cities found from space, perfectly preserved mummies, and lost armies swallowed by the sands! This video dives into 7 mind-blowing desert discoveries that challenge everything you thought you knew. Don't miss out—subscribe for more epic history and comment your favorite discovery! #history #archaeology #mystery #ancient #desert
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@noelpolotv
0:00 - Introduction: Egypt's Hidden Wonders
2:00 - Discovery of the Royal Tomb at Tanis
5:21 - Taklamakan Desert and Ancient Populations
9:14 - The Ancient Garamantes and Their Engineering
13:01 - Finding Lost Cities by Satellite and Ubar
17:34 - Prehistoric Mustatils in Saudi Arabia
21:39 - The Mystery of Cambyses' Lost Army
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@noelpolotv
0:00 - Introduction: Egypt's Hidden Wonders
2:00 - Discovery of the Royal Tomb at Tanis
5:21 - Taklamakan Desert and Ancient Populations
9:14 - The Ancient Garamantes and Their Engineering
13:01 - Finding Lost Cities by Satellite and Ubar
17:34 - Prehistoric Mustatils in Saudi Arabia
21:39 - The Mystery of Cambyses' Lost Army
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00In 1939, under the sands of the Nile Delta, an intact and undisturbed royal tomb was discovered.
00:07Inside, it was a coffin made of pure silver.
00:11Surrounding it were vessels, jewelry, and weapons that had remained untouched for 3,000 years.
00:18Because of this, the discovery was seriously compared to the tomb of Tutankhamun.
00:23Almost everyone knows his name, but hardly anyone knows the name of the person in this tomb.
00:30You will see a city that was searched for over 3,000 years, and in the end, it wasn't found
00:36with a shovel but from space.
00:39You will also see people who were dried out by the sand before they could completely decompose.
00:45Their eyelashes were preserved, and even the stitches on their bodies were preserved.
00:52You will see an army of 50,000 people who entered the desert and never came out again.
00:58And finally, you will see a 29 million year old rock that is just placed in a display case at
01:05the museum.
01:06Thousands of people pass by here every day, but no one really knows where it actually came from.
01:13All of these are hidden under the sand, and most of the time, they're not even that deep literally, just
01:19about a meter from the surface.
01:23We're used to thinking that the desert destroys everything, that it erases traces of the past, eats away at stones,
01:30and leaves nothing behind.
01:34But that's not true, and each of the seven discoveries in this video proves the opposite.
01:40Remember this idea because it will follow us throughout the story.
01:44Sand doesn't destroy things, it only covers them.
01:49But before we start, if you're new to our channel, please click the subscribe button and also hit the notification
01:55bell, so you'll always be updated with our new videos.
01:59The place where we will start is in the eastern part of the Nile Delta and is called Tannis.
02:05At present, it is a vast area with low hills covered with sand and broken stones.
02:13Animals graze between them, but 3,000 years ago, this was the capital of Egypt.
02:20Here ruled the pharaohs of the 21st dynasty, a Frenchman named Pierre Montaigne excavated this hill for 10 consecutive years.
02:29Pieces of columns, broken pots, and almost nothing else.
02:34In February 1939, his workers once again removed a layer of sand until they found a flat stone slab.
02:44Behind the slab was a narrow corridor.
02:48At the end of the corridor was a sealed door that had never been opened.
02:53Imagine that you have been digging through sand for 10 years, and you know that almost certainly, ancient thieves have
03:00already taken all the valuable things from here.
03:03Almost all the tombs in Egypt were robbed in the past, so there was almost no hope that anything would
03:09be left untouched.
03:12Montaigne opened the door, raised his lamp, and saw something that no one had seen since the discovery of Tutankhamun's
03:19tomb.
03:21Inside the room was a rough yet molded coffin made of silver with the head of a hawk instead of
03:27a human face.
03:28This was more valuable than it seemed at first glance, because silver was extremely rare in ancient Egypt.
03:35It was not naturally found there, and had to be brought from distant places.
03:40At that time, it could even be more valuable than gold, so a coffin made of silver was an extremely
03:46precious thing.
03:48In the same tomb, there were also several chambers for the nobles, and some of these remained untouched.
03:54In total, thousands upon thousands of items were excavated from here, and almost all of them were in the exact
04:01place where they were left.
04:03Thousands of years ago, Montaigne announced his discovery in the spring, and it was featured in newspapers across Europe for
04:10several weeks.
04:12But in September of the same year, the Second World War began, and the Nile Delta was completely forgotten.
04:19However, the most important thing he found was on the very next day of excavation, at a time when the
04:25situation was starting to worsen because of the war.
04:28It was a sarcophagus made entirely of silver, and inside it was a mummy with a golden mask on its
04:34face.
04:35A discovery of this magnitude might only happen once in a century, but very little has been written about it.
04:44More has been written about his friend.
04:46During the actual excavation, very few things were recorded and preserved.
04:52Only a few photographs remain, so almost everything you'll see from here are reconstructions.
04:58The tomb was hidden under the sand for 3,000 years, and it was opened during one of the most
05:04chaotic periods in the history of archaeology.
05:07It wasn't robbed.
05:08Maybe someone was guarding it, or it was simply hidden from thieves.
05:13But it's also possible that it just wasn't found because it was buried by sand.
05:18The sand didn't destroy anything, it just covered everything.
05:21And this same effect can also be seen 5,000 kilometers to the east,
05:26where the results are even more surprising.
05:28In the western part of China, you can find the Taklamakan Desert.
05:33It hardly ever rains here.
05:36It's one of the driest places in the world.
05:38In 1934, Swedish archaeologist Folk Bergman discovered a small burial site beneath the sand.
05:48After that, its location was lost for several decades, and it was only rediscovered many years later.
05:56The discoveries there did not resemble anything commonly found in that area, or even in the surrounding regions.
06:05There were people buried inside boats, right in the middle of the desert,
06:10a place with no river large enough for those boats to sail on.
06:15The boats were turned upside down and covered with bull hides.
06:21Then they were covered with sand to make them look like burial mounds.
06:26And instead of an ordinary tombstone, a wooden paddle was placed beside each grave,
06:32stuck into the ground and protruding from the earth.
06:36If you're interested in studies that can change long-held beliefs about history, subscribe to the channel.
06:44Because as this video continues, you'll see more discoveries that could change the way we look at the past.
06:51When the bull's hide dried, it shrank and wrapped even tighter around the boat.
06:57Because of this, almost no air could get inside, and it wasn't just the bodies that were preserved.
07:04Even the objects placed around them were also preserved.
07:09The dry sand with high salinity quickly dried out the bodies, so they didn't have enough time to decompose.
07:17Their eyelashes were preserved.
07:20The stitches on their clothes were also preserved.
07:24Even the color of the wool in their garments remained.
07:27The images you see now are actual photographs of the bodies found there.
07:33They wore felt hats with feathers stuck into them.
07:37Their bodies were wrapped in woolen cloth with a checkered pattern,
07:41and these burial sites are estimated to be around 4,000 years old.
07:46These people lived during the time of Egypt's Middle Kingdom,
07:50a period that followed the construction of the Great Pyramids.
07:53For many decades, one question has been debated by archaeologists.
07:58Who were these people, and where did they come from?
08:01Because their facial features were different from the local population,
08:05researchers searched for their origins in Europe or the distant steppes of Eurasia.
08:10A clearer answer came in 2021, when their genomes were analyzed,
08:15and the long-standing debate was settled.
08:18The result turned out to be even more unusual than most previous theories.
08:22It turns out, they didn't come from somewhere else.
08:26They had been living there for a long time,
08:28and according to genetic evidence,
08:30their population has a direct connection to a very ancient Eurasian population,
08:35and has long been separated from neighboring groups.
08:39Nevertheless, they adopted various cultural practices and technologies from their neighbors.
08:46This includes wheat from the west, millet from the east,
08:50animal husbandry for milk,
08:52and weaving technologies from different places.
08:56They were not just recent foreigners who happened to end up in the desert.
09:00They are one of the oldest known populations who have long lived in that region.
09:06These first two discoveries simply lay buried under the sand,
09:10patiently waiting until people took notice of them.
09:14But the next discoveries did not just wait.
09:17They tried to conquer and make the desert their home,
09:20and they managed to do so for several centuries.
09:23Right in the heart of the Sahara,
09:25in an area that is now part of Libya,
09:28there is a vast region called Faizan.
09:31Today, it is one of the driest places in the world.
09:35For hundreds of kilometers,
09:37you will hardly see any naturally flowing water.
09:40But 2,500 years ago,
09:43there was a state that existed here.
09:45The Romans called them the Garamantis.
09:48They had cities, forts, farms, and markets.
09:52All of this was in the middle of vast sand and rocky desert.
09:57So it's natural to ask,
09:59where did they get water in a place that almost has none?
10:02The answer is underground,
10:04and perhaps this is one of the most underrated feats of engineering in ancient times.
10:10The Garamantes dug underground tunnels
10:13that sloped slightly downward and stretched for many kilometers.
10:18The tunnels start from the deep part of the aquifer,
10:23or underground water reservoir,
10:25and bring water to the fields using only gravity.
10:29No pumps.
10:31No machines.
10:32Only gravity is at work,
10:35along with very careful control of the slope or incline of the tunnels.
10:40According to researchers,
10:42the total length of these tunnels reaches approximately 750 kilometers.
10:49Roman writers wrote that the Garamantes were like people
10:52who emerged from the desert and then returned to it.
10:56But later on,
10:58it turned out they didn't need to go far.
11:00They actually settled permanently right here in the desert.
11:04They manually dug these tunnels in complete darkness underground.
11:09Using dry sandstone that easily crumbles,
11:12the excavated soil and rocks were taken out using baskets.
11:16At equal intervals,
11:18they made vertical shafts that reached the surface.
11:22This is where air comes in.
11:24And this is also where the rocks dug up from below are taken out.
11:28Some of these shafts can still be seen today.
11:31From the air,
11:33they look like evenly spaced and orderly rows of dots in the middle of the vast desert.
11:38Just imagine for a moment the scale of the work they did.
11:44750 kilometers of underground tunnels,
11:47all dug by hand.
11:49But here is the most important part of the story.
11:52The water they draw is not being replenished.
11:54It is called fossil water.
11:58Water that accumulated underground when the climate of the Sahara was very different
12:03and it was still a green savannah.
12:05For centuries, the Garamantes continued to use it.
12:08Gradually, but continuously,
12:11the water level in the aquifer was dropping.
12:14As the water got deeper,
12:16they had to dig deeper and longer for each new tunnel.
12:20Over time,
12:21it reached the point where the cost and effort of digging
12:24was greater than the value of the entire harvest that the water could provide.
12:28They were not conquered by another kingdom.
12:31They were also not simply burned or destroyed by an army.
12:35They gradually dried up from within
12:37until their community eventually weakened and collapsed.
12:40And their cities were buried by the very sand
12:43they had successfully kept at bay for eight centuries.
12:46They were not defeated by an army.
12:49They were not directly defeated by drought either.
12:52Sand does not destroy things.
12:55It only covers them?
12:56At this point, there was a major shift in how archaeologists searched.
13:01The discoveries we've discussed so far
13:04were found in almost the same way.
13:07Someone would go to a place,
13:09dig at a particular spot,
13:10and if they're lucky,
13:11they'd find something.
13:13This is how Tanis was discovered.
13:15This is also how the tomb in the sands of Taklamakan was found.
13:19But there's a big problem with this method.
13:21The desert is too vast for random digging to work.
13:24The Sahara alone is almost as big as the United States.
13:28So just digging randomly in such a vast area is almost pointless.
13:33Archaeologists know this very well.
13:35So they stopped looking at the sand from below
13:38and started looking at it from above.
13:40Many times, ancient texts mentioned a wealthy city
13:44said to be in the sands of southern Arabia.
13:46It was known by different names.
13:50It was often called Ubar or Irum
13:53and was described as a city with tall pillars.
13:56According to stories,
13:57it was the center of the incense trade,
14:00extremely wealthy,
14:01and eventually seemed to be swallowed by the earth.
14:03For many historians,
14:05it was just a legend.
14:06Because there are many stories from ancient times
14:09about cities that were said to have been swallowed by the earth.
14:12In the early 1990s,
14:15documentary filmmaker Nicholas Clapp
14:18suggested searching for the city
14:20not by digging in the sand,
14:22but by using satellites.
14:24This idea was unusual.
14:27It was based on a simple observation
14:30about ancient caravan routes.
14:32For thousands of years,
14:35camels traveled along the same route.
14:37Because the ground was repeatedly trampled,
14:40the soil beneath the paths became more compacted.
14:43From the surface,
14:44it's not easy to see
14:46because it's covered by new sand that keeps moving,
14:49but radar has the ability
14:51to penetrate several meters below the ground.
14:54And the more compacted soil
14:56reflects radar differently
14:58than the surrounding soil.
15:01This is where a new way
15:02to find lost places in the desert began.
15:05Not from the ground,
15:06but from space.
15:08In ancient times,
15:10incense was more valuable
15:12and more expensive than gold by weight.
15:15And this entire route
15:16revolved around that trade.
15:19So a city that stood along this route
15:22could really become very wealthy,
15:24just as described in ancient records.
15:28The images are processed in a laboratory
15:31that usually works on pictures of planets,
15:34not deserts on Earth.
15:36And in the final result,
15:38a dense network of ancient caravan routes appeared.
15:42All of these routes
15:43seemed to converge at one point.
15:46At that point is the town of Shisar
15:49in the south of Oman.
15:50When they conducted an excavation there,
15:53they found a fortress with eight towers.
15:57And here it became clear
15:59why this discovery is so important in history.
16:01The fortress was built
16:03right on top of a limestone cave
16:05filled with underground water.
16:08As long as the water is there,
16:10it serves as support beneath the cave.
16:13Because of this,
16:15the cave ceiling
16:16and the buildings above it
16:17remain stable.
16:18But as water is gradually drawn
16:20from the wells,
16:22the support underneath is reduced.
16:24The support for the cave ceiling is lost
16:27and it can no longer bear
16:29the weight of the buildings above.
16:31At one point,
16:32a large part of the city collapsed
16:34and fell right into the dry well beneath it.
16:38According to legend,
16:40the ground opened up
16:41and swallowed the entire city
16:43along with its residents
16:44and tall towers.
16:46And in a strange way,
16:48the legend was almost right.
16:50But the real reason
16:52is more ordinary than the story.
16:54Until now,
16:56there is still debate
16:56whether this place
16:57is really the same U-bar
16:59mentioned in ancient texts.
17:01There is still no definite answer.
17:03But the fortress that collapsed
17:05into the cave truly exists.
17:07You can visit it,
17:09climb it,
17:10and see it for yourself.
17:12So now,
17:13the question is up to you.
17:15Is this really the U-bar
17:16mentioned in ancient stories?
17:18Or is it just a similar fortress
17:20that happens to match the old legend?
17:23Write in the comments
17:24what you think
17:25and also consider this
17:26how many more places like this
17:28are quietly lying beneath the sand
17:30because we haven't yet focused
17:32our radar on the right spot.
17:33The answer to that question
17:36came from another part
17:37of the Arabian Peninsula
17:39and the results would be enormous.
17:42In the northwest of Saudi Arabia,
17:45airplanes have been taking photos
17:46for a long time
17:48while satellites continue
17:49to capture images
17:51every year.
17:52More of these images are added.
17:55Researchers already have
17:57a lot of information,
17:58but for a long time,
17:59no one noticed
18:00an important detail.
18:02When they finally noticed it,
18:05something surprising emerged.
18:07The vast desert was actually filled
18:09with uniform rectangular stone structures.
18:12Not just two or ten,
18:14more than 1,500 have been identified.
18:18These structures are called mustatils.
18:21These are low stone walls
18:23that form long rectangles
18:25with a kind of head
18:26or section at one end.
18:27The smallest ones
18:29are about 20 meters long,
18:32while the longest ones
18:33exceed 600 meters.
18:36The word mustatil
18:38comes from Arabic
18:39and refers to an elongated
18:40rectangular shape.
18:42From the ground,
18:43they are almost unnoticeable
18:45because the walls
18:46rarely rise above waist height.
18:51You can walk over the stones
18:53and not immediately realize
18:54that you're crossing a structure
18:56that's half a kilometer long,
18:58but from the air,
18:59they are immediately visible.
19:02They look like marks
19:04drawn with a ruler
19:05across the vast land,
19:06and here,
19:08everything becomes
19:09even more fascinating.
19:11When these structures
19:12were dated,
19:13it turned out that some of them
19:15are approximately
19:167,000 years old.
19:19This means they are
19:20about 2,000 years older
19:22than Stonehenge.
19:23They are also older
19:24than the earliest pyramids
19:25of Egypt.
19:28In other words,
19:29the mustatils
19:30are among the oldest
19:31large structures
19:32made by humans
19:33that have been discovered
19:35on the planet.
19:36Inside some chambers
19:38at the ends
19:39of the mustatils,
19:41archaeologists found
19:42horns and bones
19:43of domesticated animals,
19:45particularly cattle,
19:46carefully and deliberately
19:48placed there.
19:49They were not just
19:51left there
19:51or gradually
19:52ended up there
19:53over time.
19:56In subsequent studies,
19:58the number of known
19:58mustatils increased
20:00even more,
20:00and each new aerial survey
20:02continues to add
20:03new structures
20:04to the list.
20:07There are almost
20:08no dwellings
20:09around them.
20:10There are also
20:11no clear graves
20:12inside,
20:13and they don't seem
20:14to have been built
20:15for defense
20:15because the walls
20:16are quite low.
20:19For now,
20:20one of the main theories
20:21being studied
20:22by researchers
20:23is that the mustatils
20:24may have served
20:25as ritual sites
20:26related to cattle
20:27and the people
20:28who tended them.
20:31But there are still
20:32many questions
20:33about the true purpose
20:34of these structures.
20:36Seven thousand years ago,
20:38this desert
20:39was once
20:40a lush savannah
20:41and cattle
20:42were one of the main
20:43resources
20:44of the people here.
20:45The ancient people
20:47built these same
20:48rectangular structures
20:49while grass
20:50was still growing around,
20:52rainfall was regular,
20:54and the vast sands
20:55we see today
20:56were not yet present.
20:57The sand only arrived
20:59after a very long time.
21:01So now,
21:02the question is up to you.
21:04Which do you think
21:05is more likely?
21:08First,
21:09are these identical
21:10rectangular structures
21:11part of a vast system
21:13of beliefs or rituals
21:14that spread across an area
21:15almost as large
21:16as an entire country?
21:19Or second,
21:20is this simply
21:21a practical way
21:22to mark the boundaries
21:23of pastures
21:24repeatedly made
21:26by people
21:26over many centuries?
21:29There is still
21:30no definite answer
21:31until now,
21:32and both possibilities
21:33can still explain
21:34why these structures
21:36look the way they do
21:37when seen from the sky.
21:40Everything we've talked
21:41about so far
21:42has been about things,
21:44walls,
21:45tombs,
21:45tunnels,
21:46and buildings.
21:47But now,
21:48we're going to talk
21:49about people.
21:50In 524 BC,
21:53the Persian king,
21:55Cambyses II,
21:56conquered Egypt.
21:57According to the Greek historian
21:59Herodotus,
22:00he sent a large army
22:02westward toward the
22:03Siwa oasis.
22:04Herodotus directly mentioned
22:06the size of this army,
22:0850,000 men.
22:09The army left Egypt
22:11and reached the Karga oasis.
22:13From there,
22:14they continued westward
22:16into the vast desert,
22:17but they never made it
22:18to Siwa.
22:19According to the story
22:20by Herodotus,
22:22they were struck
22:23by a powerful sandstorm
22:24and the entire army
22:26disappeared,
22:2750,000 men,
22:30along with their weapons,
22:32carts,
22:33supplies,
22:34water,
22:34pack animals,
22:35camp equipment,
22:36and other army gear.
22:39For 2,500 years,
22:42many people thought
22:43that this story
22:44might be a huge exaggeration
22:46or completely made up.
22:49There are some historians
22:51who even today
22:52believe that Herodotus
22:53may have just told
22:54a rumor or a legend
22:55that was used to cover up
22:57an ordinary defeat
22:58of the army.
23:00The Great Sand Sea
23:02is vast.
23:03It's roughly the size
23:04of Ireland
23:05and is almost entirely
23:07made up of sand
23:08and sand dunes.
23:10If you don't have
23:11the exact location,
23:12it's almost impossible
23:13to find a lost army there.
23:15It's like searching
23:17for a small coin
23:18on an entire beach.
23:19The so-called army
23:20has been searched
23:21for several times.
23:23Different expeditions
23:24went to the vast sea of sand,
23:26but they came back
23:27without any concrete evidence.
23:30In 2009,
23:32two Italian researchers
23:33publicly announced
23:34that they might have
23:35found traces of the army.
23:37They reported the discovery
23:39of bones,
23:40bronze arrowheads,
23:42and some pieces
23:43of equipment near Siwa.
23:44But the Egyptian authorities
23:46rejected the claim
23:48and said that the evidence
23:49presented
23:50was insufficient.
23:51Until now,
23:53the debate is still open
23:54and it's better
23:55to say it plainly.
23:56There is still no confirmed
23:58archaeological discovery
24:00of the lost army.
24:02There is also
24:03no verified image
24:04that can prove
24:05the entire army
24:06has really been found,
24:07so the scenes
24:08you will see in this part
24:10are only reconstructions.
24:13This is the only entry
24:14on our list today
24:15that remains truly unsolved,
24:18and this is where
24:19the most significant number
24:20in the whole story
24:22comes in,
24:2350,000 people.
24:24That is almost equivalent
24:26to the population
24:28of a small town,
24:29including families,
24:31workers,
24:31and other residents.
24:33Try to imagine
24:34how big that is.
24:36An entire army
24:37went into the desert
24:38and never came back.
24:40If even half
24:41of Herodotus' story
24:43is true,
24:43there could be
24:45a huge number
24:46of human remains
24:47buried under the sand.
24:49But if he was wrong,
24:51it means that
24:52for 2,500 years
24:54people have been searching
24:55for an army
24:56that may not have disappeared
24:57in the way
24:58the story describes.
25:01Both possibilities
25:02are equally hard
25:03to think about,
25:04and until now,
25:05there is still
25:06not enough evidence
25:07to fully choose
25:08between them.
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