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- #archaeology
- #ancientworld
From rock-cut temples and cliffside fortresses to a 5,000-year-old stone mystery, these 10 ancient sites prove the past still has secrets. Discover how ingenious builders shaped mountains, moved massive stones, and left archaeologists scratching their heads.
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#History #Archaeology #AncientWorld
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0:00 - Ancient Structures That Still Puzzle Us
1:11 - Ollantaytambo and Lalibela
4:02 - Perperikon and Sigiriya
7:01 - Hattusa’s Collapse
8:31 - Kailasa Temple and Knossos
11:16 - Huaca Puclana and Rujim El Hiri
13:57 - Erebuni Fortress
15:33 - What Ancient Structures Reveal
Subscribe to our channel for more incredible places!
Tell us in the comments what you liked most about the video!
#History #Archaeology #AncientWorld
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@noelpolotv
0:00 - Ancient Structures That Still Puzzle Us
1:11 - Ollantaytambo and Lalibela
4:02 - Perperikon and Sigiriya
7:01 - Hattusa’s Collapse
8:31 - Kailasa Temple and Knossos
11:16 - Huaca Puclana and Rujim El Hiri
13:57 - Erebuni Fortress
15:33 - What Ancient Structures Reveal
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LearningTranscript
00:00All over the world, there are structures that were built thousands of years ago that still stand today and continue
00:07to pose difficult questions.
00:10Temples carved directly into massive rock, fortresses built in almost inaccessible places,
00:17cities carved from stone, and complexes whose original purpose is still debated to this day.
00:23In many cases, we know which civilizations built them, and we can also determine with reasonable accuracy when they were
00:30constructed.
00:33The mystery begins when we try to figure out how they managed to build these using only the tools they
00:38had at that time.
00:41Why did they choose certain locations, and what is the meaning of some parts of these structures?
00:46From the Andes to India, Ethiopia, and the Mediterranean, here are 10 ancient structures.
00:53Whose engineering, purpose, or history still raises questions that archaeologists are trying to answer.
01:00But before we begin, if you're new to our channel, please click the subscribe button and also the notification bell,
01:08so you'll always be updated with our new videos.
01:11At Olantaytambo in the sacred valley of the Andes, a hill was turned into a private residence by Emperor Pachacuti.
01:19An entire fortress climbs up the hill through stone terraces,
01:23terraces leading to a temple that was never finished and never used.
01:28In 1536, these same mountain slopes became the site of the only defeat that the Incas inflicted on a Spanish
01:36army during their conflict.
01:39And the people living at the foot of the fortress still use much the same street layout as they did
01:45back then.
01:47But above, near the unfinished temple, lies the true mystery of the place.
01:53This is the wall of six monoliths.
01:55It is made up of huge blocks of pink stone joined together without a single drop of mortar.
02:01Some of the stones are over four meters tall and as heavy as an entire cargo truck.
02:06These stones did not come from the hill itself.
02:10These were brought from a quarry on the other side of the Urubamba River, about six kilometers down the valley.
02:16They had no wheels or animals strong enough to pull such heavy loads.
02:21Even so, there were people who crossed the river and climbed the slopes while carrying stones that weighed up to
02:2850 tons.
02:30But not all the stones made it to their destination.
02:35In the middle of that route, you can still see some large stones lying abandoned in the places where their
02:41transport stopped.
02:43It suddenly stopped, as if the project was delayed before it could be fully completed.
02:49La Libela, Ethiopia.
02:52In the mountains of Ethiopia, there is a church that does not rise toward the sky but is instead carved
02:57deep into the ground.
02:59To reach its entrance, you have to go down a trench carved directly into the rock, several meters below ground
03:05level.
03:06This is Bitae Georgis, a church shaped like a perfect cross and one of the 11 churches of La Libela.
03:13None of these were built by stacking stones.
03:16Each one was carved directly from a single solid rock.
03:20The volcanic rock was carved until the block was completely separated from the surrounding mountain.
03:26There are no joints and no mortar was used.
03:29Only stones and simple tools were used to build them.
03:33According to tradition, King La Libela ordered the excavation of the 11 churches in just over two decades.
03:40The goal was to create a kind of new Jerusalem that Ethiopian Christian pilgrims could visit without having to pass
03:48through enemy territory.
03:50But according to some more recent studies, there are rooms in the area that may have existed centuries before La
03:57Libela ruled and their original purpose may have been different.
04:10It has roads, large halls, water reservoirs, and even a throne that was carved directly from the mountain.
04:17There was no need to build a single wall from other materials.
04:21There are stone bricks.
04:22It's called purpuricon.
04:24And it is considered one of the largest megalithic sites in the entire Balkans.
04:30The oldest part of it may date back to the Neolithic period, although not all experts agree with such an
04:38early date.
04:39What is more certain is that over many centuries, the place became a sanctuary dedicated to Dionysus.
04:47Ancient writers such as Suetonius compared it to the Oracle of Delphi.
04:51And according to the same accounts, Alexander the Great is said to have visited here before he left for his
04:58conquests.
05:01Just a year ago, new excavations discovered a circular temple dedicated to the Sunday God, only 20 meters from the
05:10same sacred site.
05:12In 1980, a stone sarcophagus weighing almost two tons was discovered in the highest chamber of the sanctuary.
05:20It was removed from there using a helicopter, but its contents were never made public.
05:28Sigiriya, Sri Lanka
05:30In the middle of Sri Lanka, a massive rock almost 180 meters tall stands in the middle of the plains.
05:38In the 5th century, King Kashyapa the Fai decided to turn its summit and surroundings into a truly fortified city.
05:45There, palaces, terraces, gardens, and various irrigation systems were built.
05:52There were also stairs and pathways built to reach the summit.
05:56What is truly remarkable about Sigiriya is the complexity of the entire complex.
06:02At the foot of the rock, symmetrical gardens were created, connected by canals and fountains.
06:08These are supplied with water from an underground hydraulic system.
06:14Even today, part of this system still works during the rainy season.
06:18At the top, there are also water reservoirs and buildings constructed in a very limited space,
06:25almost completely separated from the ground below.
06:29We know who ordered the construction of Sigiriya and roughly when it was built,
06:35but it's still difficult to know exactly how they planned and carried out all the technical work.
06:41Bringing materials to the top, ensuring there was enough water supply,
06:46and organizing such a massive project on an almost vertical rock was an extremely difficult task.
06:54Because of this, Sigiriya became one of the greatest examples of engineering of its time.
07:01Hattusa, Turkey.
07:03Beneath the ruins of Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire in central Anatolia,
07:09archaeologists have unearthed more than 30,000 clay tablets with cuneiform writing.
07:15These include diplomatic letters, treaties, peace agreements, including with ancient Egypt,
07:22and even records about taxes.
07:24Only a few ancient civilizations have left us with this, much written information about themselves.
07:31But when it comes to the near total collapse of their empire, there are few clear answers.
07:36Around 1,200 BC, the population in the city gradually decreased over several decades
07:44until someone set fire to what remained of the city.
07:48By that time, it was almost like a ghost town,
07:51and the residents had removed their valuables and much of the archives before the fire arrived.
08:00In 2023, experts examined the growth rings of ancient trees
08:05and discovered three consecutive years of severe drought before the fall of the empire.
08:11It was so severe that it caused famine and almost depleted the empire's treasury.
08:17But at the same time, the drought also affected Egypt and Mycenaean Greece.
08:22Until now, there is still no definite explanation as to why some empires fell
08:27because of this while others survived.
08:31Kailasa Temple
08:32India in the Allura complex in western India,
08:36you can find one of the most amazing structures in the world
08:40that was directly carved out of rock.
08:43The Kailasa Temple was directly carved out of a massive block of basalt
08:48in the 7th century during the reign of Krishna.
08:52Instead of building the walls and columns one by one,
08:56the workers excavated the rock from above.
08:59They gradually worked their way down into the rock,
09:02removing parts of it until the entire temple was fully shaped and separated.
09:08The result is a complex with courtyards, columns, sculptures, halls,
09:13and a sanctuary with different levels,
09:15all directly carved from a single massive rock.
09:19Any major mistake while excavating could damage an entire section of the structure.
09:26And once the rock is removed, it can't be put back.
09:30We know who started the project, and we also know a lot about its history.
09:36But it's still hard to know exactly how they managed a project this big.
09:42How fast did the stone carvers work,
09:44and how did they maintain that speed while doing something so complicated?
09:54On the northern part of Crete, you can see the ruins of the Palace of Knossos,
09:59surrounded by red columns and intersecting corridors that seem to have no clear arrangement.
10:05More than a thousand rooms are scattered across several floors.
10:09This is the largest remaining structure from the Minoan civilization.
10:14In its ruins, thousands of clay tablets were found with two different writing systems.
10:20One is called Linear B.
10:22It was deciphered in 1952 and was found to be an ancient form of the Greek language
10:27used by the Mycenaeans who took over the palace after the time of the Minoans.
10:32The other one is Linear A, the original writing system of the Minoans themselves.
10:37Up to now, not a single word of it has been read and understood with certainty.
10:43In the same year, a group of researchers attempted to use artificial intelligence
10:48to do something that humans had not accomplished for over a century.
10:53But the attempt to read Linear A was also unsuccessful,
10:57and the red columns often seen in pictures of Knossos are not original either.
11:03These are concrete reconstructions made by the archaeologist Arthur Evans himself.
11:09These are based on his own assumptions about what the palace looked like in ancient times.
11:15Huaca Puclana, Paru.
11:18In the middle of Lima, you can find Huaca Puclana,
11:22a massive ceremonial center built by the Lima culture between the years 400 and 700.
11:29Its main structure is a stepped pyramid that is approximately 25 meters high.
11:35It is made up of seven consecutive platforms
11:38and was almost entirely built using small handmade adobe bricks.
11:43Many of the adobe bricks were placed vertically and side by side by the builders.
11:48They followed a method of arrangement called the bookshelf technique.
11:52The mortar was placed above and below the bricks while they left small spaces between them
11:58instead of making the entire wall a completely rigid block.
12:03This method had a very important effect.
12:06The walls were able to absorb the movement caused by earthquakes much better.
12:11For about 1,600 years, Huaca Puclana has withstood intense earthquake activity on the coast of Peru.
12:20Meanwhile, much of the damage seen here today is due to long-term neglect
12:25and the expansion of urban areas around it.
12:30Rujim al-Hiri, Golan Heights from the ground,
12:33you can hardly notice some stone walls that don't even reach 2 meters in height.
12:38They are hidden in the vast plains of the Golan Heights,
12:42a region on the border of Israel and Syria.
12:46Not many people noticed them until 1967
12:49when a reconnaissance flight captured from the air
12:52five circles made of identical concentric rows of stones.
12:57More than 40,000 tons of basalt were used to build them.
13:02It is called Rujim al-Hiri,
13:05or Rujim al-Hiri,
13:07which means Wheel of Giants.
13:10It is almost 5,000 years old.
13:13But until now,
13:15no one knows who built it or what the real reason was for its construction.
13:20There are also no written records
13:23that could explain its origin and purpose.
13:26For many decades,
13:28it was believed to be an astronomical observatory
13:31aligned with the position of the sun during the solstice.
13:34But in a study conducted in 2024,
13:38it was discovered that the position of the entire structure
13:41changed over time due to the movement of the ground.
13:44This means that the previously assumed alignment
13:48may not have actually been correct.
13:51Instead of finally solving the mystery,
13:53it became even more puzzling.
13:57Eribuni Fortress, Armenia,
13:59on a hill above present-day Yerevan,
14:01you can find the ruins of Eribuni.
14:03We know the exact name of the king who founded it.
14:07We also know the exact year it was established,
14:11782 BC.
14:13There are even words of the king himself inscribed.
14:16On a stone discovered by archaeologists in 1950,
14:21Yerarchan king Argishti I himself confirmed
14:24that he was the one who started its construction.
14:28And according to the findings,
14:30a large part of the project was built
14:32using the labor of thousands of captives
14:34brought from their conquered territories.
14:38What is less clear is what happened after this.
14:42When the kingdom of Urartu fell,
14:45around the 6th century BC,
14:46Eribuni was not abandoned.
14:49It remained standing and continued to be used
14:52for many generations.
14:54But the written records about it gradually disappeared.
14:58Because of new excavations,
15:00archaeologists were forced to re-examine
15:02the previous understanding of its history.
15:06This includes a large hall with 30 columns.
15:09For many decades,
15:12it was considered a Persian-style courtroom.
15:16Now its actual purpose is still being studied.
15:20Even the name Eribuni is also being debated.
15:25Some say it means conquest,
15:27while others translate it as city of the free.
15:34These structures show just how capable
15:37ancient civilizations were
15:39of changing their environment
15:41with the knowledge, methods, and tools
15:43available to them at the time.
15:47And even today,
15:49we're still trying to fully understand
15:51how they did it.
15:52In some cases,
15:53we know who built a structure
15:55and what its purpose was.
15:58But in other cases,
16:00what we know continues to change
16:02as new discoveries are made
16:04in archaeological excavations.
16:07Each new discovery
16:09helps to piece together
16:10a part of their story.
16:14But along with this,
16:15it also raises new questions
16:17about how these structures
16:19were built, used,
16:20and changed over time.
16:23Among these 10 ancient structures,
16:25which one do you find
16:27the most impressive?
16:28Let me know in the comments.
16:30And if you're interested
16:31in more places like these,
16:33subscribe to see
16:34more amazing places
16:35around the world.
16:37We're still here,
16:38continuing to search
16:39for parts of the world
16:40that we don't fully understand yet.