100 Ancient Mines and Tunnels Dug Long Before Humans Existed

KirTop Top 100

Ready to journey through time? Dive into 100 mind-blowing ancient mysteries—from secret tunnels to lost cities, forgotten treasures, and puzzling artifacts that’ll make you wonder if history books are telling the whole truth! Which discovery will leave you speechless? Watch now, subscribe for more wild stories, and drop a comment with your favorite mystery from the video! #history #archaeology #mystery #ancient #discovery  👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@kirtop-100samyh  0:00:00 - Mysterious Ancient Tunnels Under Jerusalem 0:01:58 - Hidden Cities and Labyrinths Across Continents 0:04:27 - Lost Civilizations, Misplaced Artifacts, and Ancient Tombs 0:12:23 - Imposing Underground Structures and Ancient Mysteries 0:22:13 - Unexpected Finds and Unsolved Archaeological Puzzles 0:32:12 - Geological Marvels and Ancient Engineering 0:40:54 - Amazing Archaeological Discoveries Around the World 0:58:12 - Buried Mysteries, Lost Cities, and Earth's Deep Past  We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/03446rMw7NEQKZvD764T3X

Transcript

00:00:00I'm Kurthop and these are 100 ancient mines and tunnels dug long before humans appeared.

00:00:08A tunnel to nowhere.

00:00:11Under Jerusalem, before the construction of a new neighborhood,

00:00:14archaeologists were conducting a routine site inspection to see if there was anything ancient underground.

00:00:19Routine, practically daily work, until they fell through.

00:00:22Literally, they stumbled upon a natural void in the rock.

00:00:25And that turned out to be the entrance to a long underground tunnel.

00:00:28The tunnel stretches for more than 50 meters.

00:00:30It's about 5 meters high and in some places the width reaches up to 3 meters.

00:00:34It's not just a natural crevice.

00:00:36You can walk through it at full height.

00:00:38Part of it has collapsed and part is packed with soil, with earth.

00:00:40It accumulated there for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.

00:00:44And most importantly, scientists are certain this isn't natural.

00:00:47People dug this tunnel by hand.

00:00:48And from there, archaeologists and historians are once again faced with a lot of questions.

00:00:52Who built it, when and why is unknown?

00:00:55At first, they thought it was an ancient aqueduct leading to a spring.

00:00:58But they didn't find any water sources nearby.

00:01:00And the walls aren't plastered.

00:01:02They don't build them like that for water, otherwise it would all seep into the bedrock.

00:01:06Later, another theory emerged.

00:01:07That it was a mine.

00:01:08That it was dug for the chalk layer.

00:01:10For building stone or for lime.

00:01:12But that's just a theory too.

00:01:13There's no proof.

00:01:14They can't determine the age either.

00:01:16Inside, they didn't find a single artifact that could be used for dating.

00:01:19Not a shard.

00:01:19Not a coin.

00:01:20Nothing.

00:01:20The backfill is all they have for now.

00:01:24Nearby, there are ruins of an Iron Age settlement.

00:01:27If the tunnel was dug back then, that means it's between two and a half to three thousand years old.

00:01:32Just picture it.

00:01:33Someone carved a tunnel the length of half a football field out of solid rock.

00:01:37And one and a half times the height of a man.

00:01:39Hold tons of rock by hand.

00:01:41Spent months, if not years, doing it.

00:01:42And then this passageway was so completely forgotten that thousands of years later, we stumbled upon it by chance and

00:01:49still don't know what it was for.

00:01:51An entire structure without a single clue as to who built it or why.

00:01:55Just another labyrinth beneath the city.

00:01:57Now let's head over to Clont, to the southern outskirts of Edinburgh.

00:02:01There lies Gilmerton, a former mining village.

00:02:03On the surface, it looks like an ordinary place.

00:02:06Houses, streets, cars, people going about their business.

00:02:09But just a few meters underground lies a man-made labyrinth.

00:02:13The origin of which still can't be properly explained.

00:02:16This is Gilmerton Cove.

00:02:19Inside, there are corridors, chambers, stone benches, tables, niches, drainage channels, and a deep vertical shaft.

00:02:26All carved directly into the sandstone by hand.

00:02:29No explosives, no modern tech, no machinery.

00:02:32Someone spent a very long time very carefully carving an entire network of rooms underground.

00:02:37The official story was quite simple.

00:02:38It was believed that a local blacksmith, George Patterson, created the cave.

00:02:43Supposedly, he worked almost completely alone for five years.

00:02:46And by 1724, made himself an underground home.

00:02:50Later, he used this place as a secret tavern.

00:02:52On weekends, local gentlemen would head down there for a drink, far from prying eyes.

00:02:57It sounds weird, but you could still believe it.

00:02:59A blacksmith, an underground pub, stone tables, secret get-togethers.

00:03:03That feels like a pretty believable story.

00:03:05The problem is that later, researchers started to notice that the cave might be much older than Patterson himself.

00:03:11Maybe he didn't carve it from scratch, but simply found existing passages, expanded them, and adapted them for his needs.

00:03:19And that's when things get a lot more interesting.

00:03:21If the blacksmith wasn't the real creator, then who made this labyrinth?

00:03:25There are many theories.

00:03:27Some point to the Templars, who could have hidden here after the persecutions.

00:03:31Others bring up the Freemasons, because the layout seems way too deliberate for an ordinary seller.

00:03:36Some see a connection to ancient Celtic rituals, especially because of the deep vertical shaft.

00:03:42While a more down-to-earth theory suggests smugglers who needed a place to stash whiskey and goods away from

00:03:48tax collectors.

00:03:49And the most frustrating part for historians is that it's now almost impossible to verify for sure.

00:03:54The cave was used, altered, rebuilt, dirtied, cleaned, and modified again for centuries.

00:04:00Too many people left their mark there.

00:04:02And the earliest evidence could have simply vanished.

00:04:04Gilmerton Cove is remarkable, not because it's massive or older than the pyramids, but because it sits right beneath an

00:04:11ordinary residential neighborhood.

00:04:12Yet nobody knows for sure who carved it or why.

00:04:16Sometimes a mystery isn't hidden in a desert or at the bottom of the sea, but literally under the feet

00:04:20of people who walk above it every single day without even realizing that right below is an entire underground world.

00:04:27The empire erased from the history books.

00:04:29In 2001, in southern Iran, a river overflowed and eroded its bank in the Halil Valley.

00:04:37When the water receded, graves, ancient graves, were exposed.

00:04:41And it was pure chance.

00:04:42No one was looking for this place, or even guessed that there was anything there.

00:04:47The flooding of the river simply uncovered what science hadn't even suspected.

00:04:51An entire forgotten civilization, named after the nearest city, Jiroft.

00:04:55Stone vessels completely covered in carvings were pulled from the graves.

00:04:59Snakes, scorpions, predators, mythical beasts.

00:05:03Intertwined so tightly that they seemed to be moving on the dark stone.

00:05:06Nothing like it had ever been found anywhere else.

00:05:09And it dated back four, or even five thousand years.

00:05:12To the very dawn of written history.

00:05:14To the era of the first great cities.

00:05:16Since school, we've understood that there's only one cradle of civilization.

00:05:21Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers.

00:05:23Where the first cities allegedly arose.

00:05:25The first state and the first writing system.

00:05:27It's printed in every textbook.

00:05:29But Jiroft doesn't fit into it.

00:05:31Archaeologist Yousef Majidzadeh led the excavations here.

00:05:34And he stated plainly,

00:05:35This Iranian culture was not inferior to Mesopotamia.

00:05:38And in some ways, it even surpassed it.

00:05:40Other scholars disagreed, claiming there wasn't enough evidence.

00:05:43The debate continues to this day.

00:05:45Yet there's one trump card you can't take away from Jiroft.

00:05:48Clay tablets with inscriptions were found among the ruins.

00:05:50And this writing is unlike any other in the world.

00:05:53Neither Sumerian nor Egyptian.

00:05:55It wasn't any known script at all.

00:05:57A system of symbols that was never seen before or since.

00:06:00Here's what's strange.

00:06:01We have proof in our hands that an entire nation once lived here with its own language and writing.

00:06:06We hold their tablets.

00:06:07But we cannot read them.

00:06:10It's as if this civilization left us a script, but gave us no way to read it.

00:06:15Labyrinths.

00:06:16Where there is nothing to find.

00:06:18Germany.

00:06:19Present day.

00:06:21While preparing a site for wind turbine construction,

00:06:23archaeologists stumbled upon an ancient Neolithic ditch.

00:06:26That is more than 6,000 years old.

00:06:28But when they started excavating,

00:06:29a massive stone slab was revealed beneath layers of prehistoric soil.

00:06:33The researchers held their breath in anticipation.

00:06:35Typically, such slabs cover the lavish burials of chieftains.

00:06:38But when the stone was lifted, there was neither gold nor bones beneath it.

00:06:42There was only a black void.

00:06:44The archaeologists had discovered an Ertstall, one of the most enigmatic types of underground structures in Europe.

00:06:50It is a narrow winding tunnel carved into hard soil during the late Middle Ages.

00:06:54Think about these dimensions.

00:06:55The height of the passage is just over a meter.

00:06:57The width is only 50 to 70 centimeters.

00:07:00An adult cannot even turn around here, only crawl forward in complete darkness.

00:07:04The tunnel descends tens of meters, twisting and winding.

00:07:08So what is the main oddity?

00:07:09There is nothing in these tunnels that would indicate their use.

00:07:12There is no soot from torches on the walls, no niches for storing grain or wine.

00:07:16No traces of anyone ever living here.

00:07:18In the tunnel beneath Reinstetten, they only found a horseshoe, a fox skeleton,

00:07:22and a layer of charcoal at the bottom.

00:07:24And the creepiest part, at the narrowest point,

00:07:26the entrance was deliberately walled up with heavy stones from the inside.

00:07:31Scientists have been scratching their heads over their purpose for centuries.

00:07:34A shelter, but they have no ventilation.

00:07:36And if an enemy finds the entrance, the tunnel becomes a mass grave.

00:07:38Preasons are too difficult to build.

00:07:40Ritual paths for souls.

00:07:42That's the most popular theory.

00:07:43Local legends call them holes to the underworld.

00:07:46It was believed that through such narrow passageways,

00:07:48the souls of the dead depart for the other world.

00:07:50Or conversely, that evil spirits try to claw their way out.

00:07:52Archaeologists from the LDA noticed an important detail.

00:07:56This tunnel was built right inside a pagan burial ground.

00:07:59Which at that time was already 3,000 years old.

00:08:02Medieval builders deliberately chose a place that had a bad reputation.

00:08:05Perhaps they believed that the ancient curse would protect their cash.

00:08:08Or perhaps they were trying to lock something ancient and evil deep underground.

00:08:14Earth stalls remain one of the greatest mysteries of archaeology.

00:08:17Why spend years of backbreaking labor to dig tunnels into the earth,

00:08:21where you cannot even stand upright?

00:08:23The answer may have remained there forever,

00:08:25behind bricked up walls in the quiet of the German fields.

00:08:29Figurines without a body.

00:08:31In Egyptian Tannis, archaeologists opened a tomb

00:08:33that immediately defied the usual logic of funerary rituals.

00:08:37Inside, there were 225 funerary Ushapti figurines,

00:08:41neatly arranged in strict order.

00:08:43They formed even horizontal rows and geometric shapes reminiscent of star charts.

00:08:48Such a composition requires time, intent, and a clearly defined ritual plan.

00:08:53But the main element was missing.

00:08:55There was no body in the tomb.

00:08:57For Egypt in the third intermediate period, this seems almost impossible.

00:09:01Shaptis were meant to serve the deceased in the afterlife.

00:09:04Their number, placement, and symbolism were always tied to a specific person.

00:09:09More than half of the figurines were female,

00:09:11which was yet another break from tradition.

00:09:13The symbols of power on the statuettes point to Pharaoh Shosheng III,

00:09:17who ruled in the 9th century BC.

00:09:19However, his remains were nowhere to be found here.

00:09:21The excavations were carried out under intense pressure.

00:09:24Archaeologists were unearthing the figurines one by one,

00:09:27documenting their position in order to preserve the structure of the ritual.

00:09:30Already during the clearance phase,

00:09:32it became clear that before them lay a complete funerary space,

00:09:35created according to a pre-planned scheme.

00:09:37The arrangement of the figures, their number, and symbolism,

00:09:40all point to a deliberate ritual act, performed in its entirety.

00:09:43The reign of Shosheng III coincided with a time when Egypt lived in a state of constant tension.

00:09:48Power was fragmented, regions were subject to different centers,

00:09:52and decisions were made in an atmosphere of threat and distrust.

00:09:55In such a reality, even the pharaoh's death ceased to guarantee peace.

00:09:59Traces indicate that the site had been prepared in advance.

00:10:02The ritual was carried out in full,

00:10:03while the fate of the body itself was decided separately.

00:10:06The transfer of remains, the change of burial place,

00:10:08or the concealment of the mummy fits the logic of the era,

00:10:11where security was valued above tradition.

00:10:13As a result, a tomb remained, filled with symbols of power,

00:10:17but deprived of the most important thing, the ruler himself.

00:10:20Why are the pyramids empty?

00:10:23The Great Pyramids of Giza are still officially called the Tombs of the Pharaohs.

00:10:28This version is so familiar that it is rarely questioned.

00:10:31The problem is that over two centuries of research inside the 4th Dynasty pyramids,

00:10:36not a single ruler's body has ever been found.

00:10:38No mummies, no funerary complexes,

00:10:41no traces of burials that could be unequivocally linked to the pharaohs.

00:10:45The stone sarcophagi found inside have always turned out to be empty.

00:10:49The walls lack paintings and texts.

00:10:51In stark contrast to the richly decorated tombs of later eras.

00:10:55Narrow shafts, hidden chambers, and intricate internal geometry

00:10:58look more like an engineering system than a space for funerary rituals.

00:11:03Even in antiquity, this sparked debate.

00:11:05Herodotus wrote that Cheops was allegedly buried in an underground chamber

00:11:09connected by a canal to the Nile,

00:11:10but modern ground-penetrating radar hasn't revealed any such structures.

00:11:14Theodorus Siculus suggested that the pharaohs intentionally left the pyramids empty,

00:11:19fearing looting, and chose other places for their burials.

00:11:22But then a new oddity emerges.

00:11:24If the pyramids were looted,

00:11:26why did the bodies disappear and not the statues?

00:11:28In the Pyramid of Khafre,

00:11:30a massive diorite statue still stands,

00:11:32an object that looters would have destroyed or hauled away first.

00:11:35In the Valley of the Kings, by contrast,

00:11:38mummies were preserved and rehidden even after robberies.

00:11:41The sheer scale of construction raises further questions.

00:11:45Feroz Neferu built as many as three large pyramids.

00:11:48Too much for personal tombs,

00:11:50but entirely logical for a state program with a different purpose.

00:11:53Some passages are lined with specific stars,

00:11:55and the proportions of the structures point to complex cosmological concepts.

00:11:59That is why alternative theories are being voiced more and more often.

00:12:01pyramids as symbolic gateways, monuments, astronomical markers,

00:12:07elements of religious infrastructure,

00:12:09or the architectural embodiment of the ruler's ascension.

00:12:12There is still no definitive answer.

00:12:15Or only empty chambers, flawless geometry,

00:12:18and a feeling that we still do not fully comprehend the purpose of these structures.

00:12:24The Preserved Body

00:12:25In 1719, miners at the Fallon Copper Mine in Sweden made an ominous discovery.

00:12:32From a flooded section, they brought out the body of a man, feet first,

00:12:36yet remarkably well preserved.

00:12:38Judging by his clothes and appearance,

00:12:40it seemed as though he had died just a few days ago.

00:12:43This looked very strange,

00:12:45considering that the abandoned shaft hadn't been used for many years.

00:12:48The body was put on public display,

00:12:50hoping to find relatives or acquaintances.

00:12:52Soon, Margarita Ohlstotter appeared,

00:12:55claiming that the man before her was her fiancé,

00:12:58who had disappeared 42 years ago.

00:13:01When the water was pumped out,

00:13:03it turned out that the deceased had been soaked in a copper sulfate solution,

00:13:06which had preserved his remains from rapid decay.

00:13:10However, as it dried out,

00:13:12this natural preservation began to petrify the body and then crumble away.

00:13:16Alas, the poor man's fate did not end with a simple burial.

00:13:19The locals, stunned by such a rare phenomenon,

00:13:22kept his body for another 30 years to entertain the public.

00:13:25Only later was he buried in a church.

00:13:27Over time, during another renovation,

00:13:30the body was discovered once again.

00:13:31This time, they decided to finally lay him to rest in the town cemetery.

00:13:35These ruins are older than the Egyptian pyramids.

00:13:40Archaeologists near Prague have discovered a mysterious complex from the Neolithic,

00:13:43which turns out to be older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids.

00:13:47The excavated roundel, built around 7,000 years ago,

00:13:51could have served as a gathering place for local farmers.

00:13:53Its diameter is approximately 55 meters,

00:13:56which would be enough to fit the leaning tower of Pisa inside.

00:14:00Maroslav Kraus, the excavation leader,

00:14:03states that the structure belonged to the stroked pottery culture,

00:14:06which existed between 4,900 and 4,400 BC.

00:14:11The first mention of the Wienos roundel appeared in the 1980s,

00:14:16when it was partially exposed during utility work.

00:14:19Modern excavations allowed us to see it in its entirety

00:14:22and revealed pottery, animal bones and stone tools.

00:14:26Analysis of organic remains will help accurately determine the construction period

00:14:30and the possibility of linking it to a nearby Neolithic settlement.

00:14:34Studying the roundel shows that the culture of its builders

00:14:36spread throughout Central Europe,

00:14:38reaching the territories of modern Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic,

00:14:43where they lived in long houses capable of accommodating up to 30 people.

00:14:48The Vilička salt mine

00:14:50The Vilička mine is located near Krakow in Poland.

00:14:53It is a magnificent underground complex

00:14:55that has been operating since the 13th century.

00:14:58Across nine levels, reaching a depth of more than 327 meters,

00:15:03an astonishing amount of rock salt has been mined here,

00:15:06around 200 million tons,

00:15:08Today, the Vilička mine is a popular tourist attraction.

00:15:12Visitors can embark on a fascinating journey

00:15:14through the mine's historical and mythical chambers,

00:15:17where magnificent salt sculptures await them,

00:15:20including the famous work The Last Supper,

00:15:23as well as various chandeliers made of salt minerals.

00:15:27The mine also houses a resort,

00:15:29where guests can try halotherapy,

00:15:31a salt treatment believed to help with various respiratory conditions and skin issues.

00:15:38The mysterious imprint underground

00:15:40Another puzzling discovery was made by archaeologists in Israel,

00:15:45in the old city of Jerusalem.

00:15:47In a previously buried massive moat,

00:15:50researchers discovered a handprint carved into the wall.

00:15:53Scientists were excavating near one of the city's main thoroughfares.

00:15:56It is believed that the moat was dug by the Muslim defenders of the city around the 10th century

00:16:00to bolster the defenses of the city walls.

00:16:04Archaeologists had no idea that one of the city's most important streets

00:16:07was built right over an enormous moat.

00:16:09What's interesting is that the moat was carved directly into the bedrock.

00:16:12It's 10 meters wide and anywhere from 2 to 7 meters deep.

00:16:17Archaeologists still can't figure out why ancient builders left a handprint over a thousand years ago.

00:16:23Interestingly, this handprint could belong to a ruler or a priest,

00:16:27or simply to a regular builder with a sense of humor.

00:16:29As we all know, moats were dug to be filled with water.

00:16:33In our case, the moat was never filled with water.

00:16:37Ancient engineers believed that the size of this barrier

00:16:39would be enough to hold back or slow down the enemy.

00:16:43A Celtic-era silver artifact.

00:16:47In 1891, a farmer named Jens Sorensen

00:16:50was digging peat in a bog near the Danish village of Gundestrup.

00:16:55Back then, peat was used as fuel, so it was just ordinary work.

00:17:00But suddenly, his shovel hit something metallic.

00:17:04Sorensen kept digging and pulled a round silver object out of the ground,

00:17:08and then another 13 plates made of the same material,

00:17:12weighing about 9 kilograms in total.

00:17:15The plates featured embossed images of bulls, fantastic beasts and human figures,

00:17:19the likes of which Sorensen had never seen before.

00:17:22The object, resembling a cauldron, turned out to have been dismantled into pieces

00:17:26even before it ended up in the bog.

00:17:28Scientists believe it was deliberately laid out plate by plate, rather than thrown in whole.

00:17:33Although why they did this is still not known for certain,

00:17:35the cauldron itself was not made in Denmark.

00:17:37According to one theory, it is the work of Celtic masters.

00:17:41According to another, it was made in Thrace,

00:17:43in the territory of present-day Bulgaria and Romania.

00:17:45The style of the imagery resembles Celtic art,

00:17:47yet the manufacturing technique is much closer to the Thracian tradition.

00:17:51There is also an unexpected twist to this story.

00:17:53One of the depictions on the cauldron almost verbatim mirrors a motif

00:17:57from a seal of the vanished Indus Valley civilization.

00:18:00And that's thousands of kilometers to the east and thousands of years earlier.

00:18:03Some researchers consider this a stylistic coincidence,

00:18:06while others see it as evidence of ancient cultural ties across the entire continent.

00:18:10The age of the cauldron is estimated to be roughly the 2nd century BC,

00:18:14but by the time it was buried in the bog,

00:18:16the artifact was already at least 200 years old,

00:18:18and it had been repaired several times,

00:18:20though not as professionally as it was originally made.

00:18:22It was as if, over time,

00:18:24the secret to that former level of craftsmanship was simply lost.

00:18:28Today, the cauldron is kept in the National Museum of Copenhagen.

00:18:31Over 130 years have passed,

00:18:33yet the debate over who made it and why it ended up in a Danish bog remains unsettled.

00:18:37What if these kinds of items were deliberately hidden in water and bogs

00:18:41as offerings to the gods rather than lost by accident?

00:18:43A similar story unfolded with a bronze dagger found in an entirely different part of Europe.

00:18:48And behind that modest-looking object

00:18:50was master craftsmanship that couldn't be replicated for centuries.

00:18:54This place can only be seen from space.

00:18:57In the Sahara, there is a place that from above looks as if the Earth has opened a huge eye

00:19:02and is staring straight into space.

00:19:04This is the Richard structure, or the eye, of the Sahara.

00:19:07It is located in Mauritania, in the middle of the desert,

00:19:10and consists of giant rings about 40 kilometers in diameter.

00:19:1440 kilometers is not just a large crater.

00:19:17It is the size of an entire city.

00:19:19But the strangest thing is that if you find yourself there on the ground,

00:19:22you'd hardly know what you were looking at.

00:19:24In front of you will be rocks, hills, a dry plain, sand, and sparse vegetation.

00:19:30You could walk there for hours and not even notice that you're inside

00:19:33one of the most recognizable features on our planet.

00:19:35The full picture only emerges from above.

00:19:38From a satellite, or from orbit, you can see a massive stone structure

00:19:42lying in the middle of the desert.

00:19:44An almost perfect target made of concentric rings.

00:19:47That is precisely why the eye of the Sahara has attracted so many theories

00:19:50about its origin for so long each one stranger than the last.

00:19:54At first, many thought it was an impact crater from a meteorite.

00:19:57And the logic here is understandable.

00:19:59The structure is round, massive, and clearly visible from space.

00:20:03At first glance, it really does look like an ancient impact crater.

00:20:06But when scientists began studying the rocks, the theory started to fall apart.

00:20:10An actual meteorite impact leaves behind specific signatures.

00:20:14Rocks undergo monstrous pressure.

00:20:16Rocks melt.

00:20:17The fracture pattern looks a very specific way.

00:20:20No such traces were found at the eye of the Sahara.

00:20:23Meaning, it's not a scar from a space rock.

00:20:25Alternative history enthusiasts link this place to Atlantis.

00:20:28Because Plato described its capital as a system of concentric rings of water and land.

00:20:33Some spoke of an ancient civilization, others of a trace left by extraterrestrial intelligence.

00:20:37Because this object, looking as if it were intentionally drawn in the middle of the desert,

00:20:41just seems too bizarre.

00:20:42But the official explanation is much simpler.

00:20:45Scientists believe that magma once rose from deep underground.

00:20:49It didn't erupt like a volcano.

00:20:50But it pushed up the rock from below, as if the earth swelled into a giant blister,

00:20:55creating a geological dome.

00:20:57And then time slowly did its work.

00:20:58Wind, water and temperature changes eroded this dome for millions of years.

00:21:03Softer rocks wore away faster, while harder ones held on longer.

00:21:07That's how the rings visible from space today gradually appeared.

00:21:11And here is what's truly interesting.

00:21:13There's no need to look for aliens or Atlantis in this story.

00:21:16The fact itself is already strange enough.

00:21:18Nature, without any plan, without a blueprint and without human involvement,

00:21:22created a city-sized formation in the middle of the desert

00:21:25that's impossible to grasp from the ground, yet perfectly visible from above.

00:21:29Sometimes the mystery lies in the scale.

00:21:31We understand the process.

00:21:33But we still struggle to imagine how much time, wind, water and erosion it took for ordinary land

00:21:38to turn into a giant eye in the middle of the desert.

00:21:41A network of 3,000-year-old tunnels

00:21:44Thousands of years ago in the Andes, in what is now Peru, an ancient civilization existed.

00:21:50The Chavin, who left behind a temple complex, a Chavin de Huantar,

00:21:54beneath which a vast network of tunnels and galleries was recently discovered.

00:21:58Archaeologists from Stanford University are convinced that these hidden chambers

00:22:02were used for religious rituals.

00:22:05As the lead author of the new study, John Rick, pointed out,

00:22:08some of the dark, isolated chambers might have been used for something like sensory deprivation.

00:22:13Meanwhile, the larger galleries were clearly a place for conducting religious rites.

00:22:18Archaeologists clarified that the hidden chambers in question

00:22:21cannot be considered tunnels in the literal sense,

00:22:24as they were not dug into the ground,

00:22:26but rather built inside a large temple complex,

00:22:29which was constructed in several stages between 1200 BC and 200 AD.

00:22:34The passages remained hidden from prying eyes for 3,000 years.

00:22:39It took scientists 15 years of excavations to discover 36 galleries connected by tunnels.

00:22:45The study of this archaeological site continues,

00:22:48so the researchers have another significant discovery ahead.

00:22:53Human prints in a coffin!

00:22:55In Roman Britain, archaeologists discovered burials

00:22:58that immediately don't fit the usual picture.

00:23:00Around 1,800 years ago,

00:23:03the bodies of the dead here were covered with a thick plaster-like mixture

00:23:06that was poured directly into stone and lead sarcophagi.

00:23:09The material hardened,

00:23:11tracing the contours of the body almost like casts in Pompeii.

00:23:14But that wasn't even the main thing.

00:23:17While cleaning one of these sarcophagi,

00:23:19researchers noticed clear fingerprints left on the surface of the plaster.

00:23:23Marks of a hand

00:23:24that smoothed and pressed the mixture manually

00:23:26were preserved inside the coffin

00:23:28and stayed hidden until they began scanning the layer in 3D.

00:23:31This is a rare case where archaeologists capture not just the ritual,

00:23:34but the direct physical action of a specific person.

00:23:37It was previously believed

00:23:38that the plaster was poured while extremely hot.

00:23:41However, the prints showed that the material was soft and pliable,

00:23:44which means it was applied slowly,

00:23:46touching the body and the sides of the coffin.

00:23:49The marks are along the inside edges,

00:23:51as if someone was carefully smoothing the surface.

00:23:54Researchers hope to figure out whose hand this was.

00:23:56There's a chance that traces of DNA were preserved in the plaster,

00:24:00but the odds are probably low.

00:24:02So far, only one thing is clear.

00:24:04This burial method required close and prolonged contact

00:24:07between the living and the dead.

00:24:09An ancient labyrinth.

00:24:11Modern remote sensing methods provide archaeology

00:24:14with new tools for understanding the past.

00:24:17One striking example is the exploration of the surroundings of Rujm el-Hiri,

00:24:22an ancient complex of stone circles northeast of the Sea of Galilee.

00:24:25This enigmatic monument clearly demonstrates

00:24:28how satellite imagery allows us to view the landscape

00:24:30from a completely different angle.

00:24:33Scientists analyzed photos of the area within a 30-kilometer radius

00:24:37and discovered numerous megalithic structures,

00:24:39massive thick-walled circles,

00:24:41and enigmatic flower-shaped enclosures near rivers.

00:24:44According to one hypothesis,

00:24:46they could all have been elements of irrigation,

00:24:49defense, or livestock pens.

00:24:50In addition, mounds of various shapes and sizes are visible in the images.

00:24:54They might be burials or signal hills.

00:24:57The results of the geological measurements are no less intriguing.

00:25:00It seems the area itself has shifted over the past millennium,

00:25:04which has called into question the hypothesis

00:25:06of the astronomical purpose of Rujm el-Hiri.

00:25:09Satellite imagery captures the multilayered nature of the structures,

00:25:12an archaeological polymcest,

00:25:14where later buildings were erected on top of earlier ones.

00:25:17Such studies open a window into the distant past.

00:25:20By correlating satellite data,

00:25:22excavation findings,

00:25:23and geophysical analyses,

00:25:25scientists hope to reconstruct the way of life

00:25:27of the ancient inhabitants of the Levant

00:25:29and better understand why they built such monumental stone labyrinths

00:25:33and surrounded them with intricate agricultural systems.

00:25:38Atlantis treasures under the Sphinx

00:25:41Egyptologist Roman Orekhoff,

00:25:42a member of the International Association of Egyptologists,

00:25:45commented on the low probability of finding secret halls

00:25:48and the treasures of Atlantis beneath the Egyptian pyramids.

00:25:51He pointed out that the pyramids have been studied for centuries,

00:25:54and if there were anything there,

00:25:56scientists would have found it long ago.

00:25:58The topic of secret halls beneath the pyramids

00:26:01and the Sphinx in Giza

00:26:02arose thanks to the American mystic Edgar Cayce

00:26:04in the early 20th century.

00:26:06And although excavation attempts have been made in the past,

00:26:09nothing of the sort was ever found.

00:26:11Now the Egyptian authorities forbid such research,

00:26:13which confirms the absence of hidden halls.

00:26:16The Egyptologist also emphasizes the difference

00:26:19in the concept of treasure between modern times and the past.

00:26:22For the ancient Egyptians,

00:26:24who lived in conditions where the main clothing was a loincloth,

00:26:27modern concepts of treasure do not correspond to reality.

00:26:31Farouk El-Baze's theory

00:26:33on the natural origin of the Great Sphinx

00:26:35is mentioned separately.

00:26:37Construction expert Fedor Vasiliev considers it logical,

00:26:40noting that the main material of the sculpture is limestone,

00:26:43which is not very durable on its own.

00:26:45In his opinion,

00:26:46erosion could only have formed the general outline,

00:26:49while further detailing was done by ancient craftsmen.

00:26:51I told you about this in the previous video.

00:26:56Slave Quarters

00:26:58Archaeologists in Italy have uncovered a room

00:27:00in an ancient villa near Pompeii.

00:27:02Apparently slaves lived there.

00:27:04Inside they found two beds,

00:27:05but only one had a mattress,

00:27:07along with various small items and the remains of rodents.

00:27:09Just think about it.

00:27:10Even the slaves didn't have bars or locks.

00:27:13This suggests that the slaves were kept under control,

00:27:15not so much by chains,

00:27:16but through the institution of slavery itself.

00:27:18The villa where the room was found

00:27:20is located near Pompeii,

00:27:22a city that was buried under ash 2,000 years ago

00:27:26due to the eruption of Vesuvius.

00:27:28The entire city and its inhabitants were buried,

00:27:30and their homes, belongings, and stories

00:27:32were preserved beneath a layer of ash.

00:27:35An underground oasis in Iran,

00:27:37hidden within the arid landscapes of Iran,

00:27:39is the ancient underground city of Nushevad,

00:27:42also known as Uyi.

00:27:44This impressive three-story underground complex

00:27:46dates back to the era of the Sasanian Empire.

00:27:48The city was carved into the earth

00:27:50to protect against invasions

00:27:52and provide a secure shelter

00:27:53from the region's harsh climate conditions.

00:27:57Nushevad features a sophisticated ventilation system,

00:28:00water wells,

00:28:01various rooms for living and storage,

00:28:02and a labyrinth of interconnected tunnels

00:28:04designed to confuse potential intruders.

00:28:08During the scorching summer months,

00:28:10the residents of Nushevad

00:28:11used the city's thousand-year-old sections

00:28:13for storage and shelter.

00:28:15A copper plant in the mountains,

00:28:18hidden in the Eastern Pyrenees

00:28:19at an altitude of 2,235 meters above sea level,

00:28:23is a cave called Kova 338,

00:28:26that's taller than seven Eiffel Towers

00:28:28stacked on top of each other.

00:28:29The air here is thin and hard to breathe.

00:28:31In winter, everything gets buried in snow.

00:28:33Even today, you can't drive up there.

00:28:35No car or any other wheeled vehicle

00:28:37can make it here.

00:28:38Archaeologists hike up on foot,

00:28:40carrying all their gear on their backs.

00:28:42It would make sense to assume that ancient people

00:28:44had no business being in a place like this.

00:28:47No food, no shelter.

00:28:48Just cold and stone.

00:28:50Were decades.

00:28:51That was the official version.

00:28:53The mountains were considered a lifeless periphery,

00:28:55bypassed by history.

00:28:57Kova 338 proved the opposite.

00:29:00Inside, they found nearly 200 pieces

00:29:03of bright green stone malachite

00:29:04from which copper is smelted.

00:29:06The thing is, there's no malachite in the cave itself.

00:29:09The nearest deposits lie far below, in the valley.

00:29:12Someone deliberately hauled these heavy stones

00:29:15along with firewood up the steep slopes

00:29:17over two kilometers high.

00:29:19And right next to them,

00:29:20archaeologists unearthed ancient hearths.

00:29:22Many pieces of malachite bear traces of fire.

00:29:25As researcher Julia Montes-Monteslanda

00:29:27from the University of Granada explained,

00:29:29the stones weren't burned by accident.

00:29:31It was a deliberate smelting process.

00:29:33A real workshop operated up in the clouds.

00:29:35And they returned here more than once.

00:29:37Radiocarbon dating showed that people

00:29:39kept coming back to this exact same spot

00:29:41for 3,000 years.

00:29:43Generation after generation.

00:29:45The way to this cave hidden in the mountains

00:29:46was passed down like a secret inheritance.

00:29:48By word of mouth.

00:29:50For centuries.

00:29:51The cave held something human as well.

00:29:53In one of the layers, they found a baby tooth

00:29:55and a finger bone belonging to a child

00:29:57of around 11 years old.

00:29:58And right next to them were two pieces of jewelry.

00:30:00A pendant made from a seashell,

00:30:01brought from the coast dozens of kilometers away.

00:30:04And a pendant made from a drilled brown bear canine.

00:30:07An amulet that linked its owner

00:30:08to the most dangerous beast in these mountains.

00:30:11The knight who wasn't there.

00:30:13Barcelona.

00:30:14Pedrolby's Monastery.

00:30:16For the monastery's 700th anniversary archaeologists

00:30:19opened several 14th century tombs.

00:30:21They wanted to learn more about the life

00:30:23of the original women's community.

00:30:25And among these tombs was the grave

00:30:27of Queen Elisenda of Moncada.

00:30:29At the age of 30,

00:30:31this woman married the 50-year-old King of Aragon.

00:30:34She became his fourth wife and stepmother

00:30:36to his 10 children.

00:30:37And one of the most powerful queens of medieval Europe.

00:30:40After becoming a widow,

00:30:41she founded this monastery

00:30:42and lived there until she was 70.

00:30:44By the way, this was confirmed.

00:30:46They bear traces of age-related arthrosis.

00:30:49Everything aligns with history.

00:30:50She was buried modestly in monastic robes

00:30:53in a simple wooden box.

00:30:54But in the tomb,

00:30:55they found traces of gold-embroidered silk

00:30:58and aromatic herbs,

00:30:59rosemary and myrtle.

00:31:00So far, everything makes sense.

00:31:02But what follows is something science can't explain.

00:31:05In the tomb of the monastery's first abbess,

00:31:07they found a puncture wound in the skull,

00:31:09a knife wound.

00:31:10In another grave,

00:31:11where according to all records,

00:31:12a knight should have been buried.

00:31:13There were no male bones at all.

00:31:15Instead of the knight,

00:31:16there were two adult women

00:31:17and three children buried there.

00:31:19And in the third tomb,

00:31:20there were the bones of at least nine people,

00:31:22buried at different times.

00:31:23Among them,

00:31:24four male skulls with stab wounds

00:31:26and the mummified torso of a pregnant woman

00:31:28with the remains of an unborn child inside.

00:31:30Let's run through that again,

00:31:32just so it sinks in.

00:31:33A mother superior of a convent

00:31:35with a stab wound to the skull.

00:31:37Four men stabbed to death

00:31:39inside the walls of an abbey

00:31:40where men shouldn't have been in the first place.

00:31:42A pregnant woman with a baby,

00:31:44right next to the tomb of the queen herself.

00:31:46This isn't an ancient battlefield

00:31:48or a looted cemetery.

00:31:49It's a quiet convent

00:31:50that the queen founded for prayer.

00:31:52And to this day,

00:31:53no one can explain who these people were,

00:31:55how they ended up here

00:31:56or why they were killed.

00:31:57Right now,

00:31:58DNA is being extracted

00:31:59from their bones and teeth

00:32:00to figure out who these people were,

00:32:01whether they were related

00:32:03and if they carried traces of ancient diseases,

00:32:06maybe they'll find the answer.

00:32:07Or maybe the mystery of the quiet convent

00:32:09will forever remain an unsolved mystery.

00:32:12The most unique castle on the planet.

00:32:14Zafra Castle is perched on a rocky outcrop

00:32:17in the Caldereros Mountains

00:32:18in the Spanish province of Guadalajara.

00:32:20The plateau sits at an elevation

00:32:22of about 1,400 meters.

00:32:24The summit can only be reached via a narrow path.

00:32:27This location made the spot strategically important

00:32:30long before the medieval walls were built.

00:32:32Archaeological evidence points to a human presence here

00:32:35as early as the Bronze and Iron Ages,

00:32:37which suggests the terrain itself was utilized

00:32:39long before the fortress even existed.

00:32:41The Visigoths and later Muslim rulers

00:32:43used this high ground

00:32:44as an observation and defense post.

00:32:46The stone castle as we know it

00:32:47began to be built in the 12th and 13th centuries

00:32:50during the period of conflict

00:32:51between the Christian kingdoms

00:32:52and Muslim territories.

00:32:54The architecture is tailored to the landscape.

00:32:56The walls and towers are literally built into the rock

00:32:58without any excessive decorative elements.

00:33:00After the Reconquista ended,

00:33:02Zafra's military significance gradually faded

00:33:04and by the end of the 15th century,

00:33:06the fortress was abandoned.

00:33:08In the 20th century,

00:33:09the castle fell into ruins

00:33:11until it was bought by a private owner

00:33:12who spent decades restoring it.

00:33:14Today, Zafra is known to a wide audience

00:33:17thanks to the television series Game of Thrones

00:33:19where its likeness was used as the prototype

00:33:22for the Tower of Joy.

00:33:23But the fortress itself is an example of

00:33:26how the same place retains its significance over millennia

00:33:29regardless of eras and cultures.

00:33:33They found the place where the Book of Deer was written.

00:33:36Archaeologists in Scotland have discovered a long-lost monastery

00:33:39that is about a thousand years old.

00:33:42This place appears to be linked to the creation of the Book of Deer,

00:33:46one of the oldest surviving examples of Gaelic writing.

00:33:50The Book of Deer is a unique 10th century collection of gospel texts

00:33:54containing entries in Latin, Old Irish and Gaelic

00:33:58housed today in the Cambridge University Library.

00:34:02In it, one can find the Gospel of John,

00:34:04fragments of other gospels,

00:34:06as well as historically significant entries made in Gaelic.

00:34:10The site where the monastery once stood

00:34:12is located in Aberdeenshire,

00:34:14near the village of Mintlaw.

00:34:16Archaeologists suggest that it was here

00:34:18that the unique entries of the Book of Deer were created

00:34:20and the excavations in 2022 confirmed this assumption.

00:34:25Post holes dating back to the same period

00:34:27as the Gaelic entries in the book

00:34:29were discovered at the excavation site.

00:34:31In addition, the finds include medieval pottery,

00:34:35glass fragments, personal items and game boards,

00:34:38which points to the existence of a monastic complex here.

00:34:58It turned out to be an ancient Roman millstone,

00:35:01a special device for pressing olives and extracting olive oil.

00:35:05This wonder device is called a trapitum.

00:35:08It was invented back in Greece

00:35:09and then used throughout the entire Roman Empire.

00:35:12The trapitum works like this.

00:35:14Workers crushed the olives using a second piece

00:35:17that fitted perfectly into the circular hollow

00:35:19and rotated with the help of a long stick.

00:35:21The stone mill, about 90 cm high

00:35:23and 1.2 m in diameter,

00:35:25weighs as much as 3 tons.

00:35:28Archaeologist Jose Antonio Morena

00:35:30estimated the age of the millstone at 2,000 years

00:35:32and suggested that this monumental artifact

00:35:34proves that olives were cultivated in Baina

00:35:36back in the days of ancient Rome.

00:35:39Today, Baina is also famous for its olive oil.

00:35:41Olive groves surround the entire town

00:35:43and local history is showcased

00:35:45in the Museum of Olive Groves and Oil.

00:35:47So this stone millstone

00:35:49will soon be moved to the town's historical museum.

00:35:54What they found after the robbers had been there.

00:35:57June 21, 1971, 2 p.m.

00:36:00In southern Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region,

00:36:04archaeologist Boris Mozalevsky

00:36:06descends into the excavation of a huge Scythian burial mound

00:36:09bearing the not-so-encouraging name of Tovsta-Muhayla.

00:36:13Everyone's mood is so-so.

00:36:14The burial mound is gigantic.

00:36:15The work has been going on for a long time

00:36:17and ancient robbers have already visited almost everywhere.

00:36:19This is evident from the shattered vessels,

00:36:22the looted graves,

00:36:23and most importantly,

00:36:24from the emptiness,

00:36:25where gold should have been lying.

00:36:27The thieves had beaten the archaeologists

00:36:29by more than 2,000 years.

00:36:31Mozalevsky himself was an unusual man.

00:36:33A historian, archaeologist, and poet,

00:36:35having excavated around 150 mounds throughout his life.

00:36:38A man who literally lived and breathed this step.

00:36:41They say that before setting out for the excavations,

00:36:43he left a note with a bold promise

00:36:45to find something big and shiny.

00:36:47And so he crawled through the narrow passage

00:36:49dug by those very same looters,

00:36:51following in their footsteps into the main chamber,

00:36:53to the burial of the king himself.

00:36:55And then,

00:36:55the moment every archaeologist lives for happens.

00:36:58In a chamber the thieves never reached,

00:37:01something glints in the beam of his flashlight.

00:37:03Gold.

00:37:04A large object,

00:37:05lying right where it was left 2,500 years ago.

00:37:08Mozalevsky himself later admitted

00:37:10that he was simply frozen for a moment.

00:37:12It was a pectoral,

00:37:13a massive gold chest ornament

00:37:15belonging to a Scythian king.

00:37:17Over a kilogram of pure gold,

00:37:19almost as pure as a wedding ring.

00:37:21Over 30 centimeters in diameter,

00:37:23and on it,

00:37:24about a hundred tiny figures

00:37:26crafted with jewelry-like precision.

00:37:28People milking sheep,

00:37:29griffins tearing horses apart,

00:37:31lions chasing wild boars.

00:37:32An entire frozen world of the Scythians,

00:37:34cast in gold by Greek masters

00:37:36commissioned by the steppe nobility.

00:37:37What followed was practically a detective story.

00:37:39A find of such caliber

00:37:40was meant to be taken to Moscow,

00:37:42to the center.

00:37:43According to a romantic legend,

00:37:44Mozalevsky brought the priceless gold to Kiev,

00:37:46hidden beneath an ordinary padded jacket.

00:37:48In reality,

00:37:49it was far more serious.

00:37:51The pectoral was transported by train

00:37:52under the protection of armed police officers

00:37:54in a separate compartment.

00:37:55They managed to keep the treasure in Kiev.

00:37:57And essentially,

00:37:58it was for its sake

00:37:59that an entire treasury was created,

00:38:01which they fittingly called

00:38:02the Golden Treasury.

00:38:03And that's where the pectoral remains to this day.

00:38:06Today,

00:38:07it is kept in the Museum of Historical Treasures in Kiev,

00:38:09and is considered priceless

00:38:11in the truest sense of the word.

00:38:13But if you really want to hear

00:38:14some kind of figure,

00:38:15over the years,

00:38:16it has been valued at up to $200 million.

00:38:19$200 million for a piece of metal

00:38:21that lay in the ground

00:38:22for two and a half thousand years

00:38:24and miraculously escaped

00:38:25both ancient looters

00:38:27and those who later wanted

00:38:28to take it far away from home.

00:38:31A mysterious stone structure

00:38:33in the forest.

00:38:34In the early 50s,

00:38:35geologist Vadim Kolpakov

00:38:37was walking through

00:38:37the dense Irkutsk taiga

00:38:39and saw something

00:38:40that shouldn't have been there at all.

00:38:41Amidst the forest,

00:38:43rocks,

00:38:43and typical Siberian landscape

00:38:44stood a massive mound

00:38:46that looked less like a hill

00:38:47and more like the aftermath

00:38:48of some powerful eruption

00:38:50from deep within the earth.

00:38:51Later,

00:38:52this place would be named

00:38:53the Patom Crater

00:38:54or Kolpakov Cone.

00:38:56Imagine a ring of stone

00:38:57roughly the height

00:38:58of a 12-story building.

00:39:00Inside is a crater

00:39:01and at its center,

00:39:02another dome.

00:39:04Around it

00:39:04are shattered limestone blocks.

00:39:06It's not an ancient volcano,

00:39:07not an ordinary mountain,

00:39:08not a quarry,

00:39:09and not man-made.

00:39:10Just a bizarre stone structure

00:39:11in the middle of the taiga.

00:39:12And what puzzled scientists most

00:39:14was its age.

00:39:15By various estimates,

00:39:16the crater is about 500 years old.

00:39:18In other words,

00:39:19it didn't form in deep antiquity

00:39:20when there couldn't have been

00:39:21any witnesses,

00:39:22but within historical times.

00:39:24Sometime in that very same century

00:39:25when books were being printed

00:39:26in Europe,

00:39:27cities were being built

00:39:28and chronicles were being kept,

00:39:29something in the Siberian taiga

00:39:30pushed thousands of tons

00:39:31of rock to the surface.

00:39:32But there are no witnesses.

00:39:34No records either.

00:39:35There are legends.

00:39:36But no proper description

00:39:37of the event exists.

00:39:39The first theory

00:39:40was the most obvious one.

00:39:41A meteorite.

00:39:42It looks way too much

00:39:43like the impact mark

00:39:44of something falling from the sky.

00:39:46A massive shape,

00:39:47crater,

00:39:47ejected rocks,

00:39:48a remote place.

00:39:49But the longer scientists

00:39:50looked at it,

00:39:50the less this theory held up.

00:39:51A real meteorite crater

00:39:52should have its own

00:39:53distinctive signs.

00:39:54Impact altered rocks,

00:39:55signs of an explosion,

00:39:57a characteristic damage pattern.

00:39:58Everything was different here.

00:40:00Then another theory emerged.

00:40:01Gases, water,

00:40:02and rock

00:40:03might have been rising from below.

00:40:05Pressure was building up.

00:40:06The permafrost

00:40:07kept it from escaping smoothly.

00:40:08And at some point,

00:40:09the ground was literally

00:40:10forced upward.

00:40:11That could be how

00:40:12this stone cone was formed.

00:40:14It sounds more believable now.

00:40:15But still,

00:40:16something doesn't add up.

00:40:17Magnetic anomalies

00:40:18were recorded around the crater

00:40:19and the shape itself

00:40:20remains far too unusual.

00:40:22It doesn't look like

00:40:23an ordinary hill

00:40:23that slowly formed

00:40:24over thousands of years.

00:40:25It looks more like a place

00:40:27where something happened

00:40:28abruptly,

00:40:28powerfully,

00:40:29and without witnesses.

00:40:30That is why

00:40:31the Patong crater

00:40:32still looks strange

00:40:33even without mysticism.

00:40:34Not because an alien ship

00:40:36must have crashed there

00:40:37or because it is the work

00:40:38of an unknown

00:40:39ancient civilization.

00:40:40It's because

00:40:41there's an object

00:40:42in the taiga

00:40:42that appeared almost yesterday

00:40:44by Earth's standards.

00:40:45Yet we still cannot say

00:40:46with confidence

00:40:47what exactly created it.

00:40:49And after visiting

00:40:50places like that,

00:40:51you start looking

00:40:51at the very Earth

00:40:52beneath your feet

00:40:53in a completely different way.

00:40:54An ancient

00:40:55zigzag-shaped object.

00:40:58Chinese archaeologists

00:40:59examined the historical

00:41:00site of Wodian

00:41:00and discovered traces

00:41:02of ritual sacrifices

00:41:03from the early period

00:41:04of the Shai dynasty's rule.

00:41:06As CGTN reports,

00:41:07an unusual ceremonial structure

00:41:09stands out among the findings.

00:41:11Wodian is a well-known

00:41:12ancient site in Yuzhou

00:41:13located in central China's

00:41:15Henan province.

00:41:16It houses a large

00:41:18sacred complex

00:41:18believed to have been erected

00:41:20approximately two millennia

00:41:21before the Common Era.

00:41:22Back then,

00:41:23about 4,000 years ago,

00:41:25China was ruled

00:41:25by the Shia dynasty,

00:41:27whose capital

00:41:28was the city of Wodian.

00:41:29Archaeologists

00:41:30have discovered

00:41:30an unusual ancient structure,

00:41:32a zigzag-shaped feature

00:41:33measuring 31 meters in length

00:41:35and 26 in width.

00:41:36The area of the strange structure

00:41:38is approximately

00:41:38800 square meters.

00:41:40At the base

00:41:41of the unique feature,

00:41:42traces of lavish

00:41:43sacrificial offerings

00:41:44were discovered,

00:41:45such as the skeletons

00:41:46of various animals,

00:41:47as well as mollusk shells.

00:41:48It is presumed

00:41:49that these are the remnants

00:41:51of lavish feasts

00:41:52held here

00:41:52as part of ritual ceremonies.

00:41:54Scientists hope

00:41:55to make new discoveries

00:41:56at the Wodian site,

00:41:58which will help shed light

00:41:59on the history

00:41:59of this place.

00:42:01A stone city

00:42:02made of shells

00:42:03in Western Australia.

00:42:05Just a couple of hours

00:42:06drive from Perth,

00:42:06there is a place

00:42:07that looks like a movie

00:42:08set for an alien planet,

00:42:10the Pinnacles Desert.

00:42:12Thousands of limestone spires

00:42:13jutting out of the sand.

00:42:15Some look like pillars,

00:42:16others like mushrooms,

00:42:17and still others

00:42:18like crumbling walls.

00:42:20Some reach up to

00:42:203.5 meters high,

00:42:22and in the sunset light

00:42:23they cast long shadows,

00:42:25turning the landscape

00:42:26into a stone labyrinth.

00:42:27For a long time,

00:42:28these shapes were considered

00:42:29either the remnants

00:42:30of ancient structures

00:42:31or the result

00:42:31of unusual erosion.

00:42:33In fact,

00:42:33the story turned out

00:42:34to be even stranger.

00:42:36Tens of thousands

00:42:37of years ago,

00:42:37an ocean was here.

00:42:39After it receded,

00:42:40huge masses of seashells

00:42:42were left on the surface.

00:42:43Over time,

00:42:44they compacted

00:42:44and turned into limestone,

00:42:46and then,

00:42:47the wind came into play.

00:42:48Slowly,

00:42:49millennium after millennium,

00:42:51it blew away the soft sand,

00:42:52leaving only the densest cores.

00:42:54As is how seashells,

00:42:55which once lay on the seafloor,

00:42:57became vertical spires

00:42:58in the middle of the desert.

00:42:59No volcanoes,

00:43:00no tectonics,

00:43:01no human hands,

00:43:02just water,

00:43:03limestone,

00:43:04and time.

00:43:05Similar formations

00:43:06are found in other parts

00:43:07of the world,

00:43:08but nowhere are they gathered

00:43:09so densely

00:43:10and over such an area.

00:43:11That is precisely

00:43:12why it is easy

00:43:13to mistake the pinnacles

00:43:14for the ruins of a lost city.

00:43:15A city that never existed,

00:43:17but looks far too convincing

00:43:19to be a coincidence.

00:43:22Ancient Stone Circles

00:43:24in Saudi Arabia

00:43:24Archaeologists

00:43:25in Saudi Arabia

00:43:26have excavated

00:43:27eight ancient stone circles

00:43:29that served as dwellings

00:43:30for humans

00:43:30more than 7,000 years ago.

00:43:34About 345 such structures

00:43:36were identified

00:43:37through aerial photography

00:43:38in the Harat

00:43:38al-Uweirud lava field

00:43:40near the city of Al-Ula

00:43:41in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

00:43:43The stone circles

00:43:45range from 4 to 8 meters

00:43:46in diameter

00:43:47and include

00:43:48at least one standing stone

00:43:49at the center.

00:43:50During the excavations,

00:43:51archaeologists

00:43:52discovered numerous

00:43:53basalt stone tools.

00:43:55From just five circles,

00:43:57nearly 225 kilograms

00:43:58of stone tools

00:43:59or their fragments

00:44:00were recovered.

00:44:01Sheep, goat

00:44:02and cattle bones

00:44:03were also found.

00:44:05Among the finds

00:44:06were various seashells

00:44:07from the Red Sea

00:44:08located about 120 kilometers

00:44:10to the west.

00:44:11The circular shape

00:44:12of houses

00:44:13was a global phenomenon

00:44:14in early architecture,

00:44:15while rectangular houses

00:44:17appeared later

00:44:17in the Neolithic period.

00:44:19The architecture

00:44:20of the standing stone circles

00:44:21in Saudi Arabia

00:44:22is similar to structures

00:44:23found in Jordan,

00:44:24dating to about 500 years earlier.

00:44:27The people who build

00:44:28these structures

00:44:29also raised sheep,

00:44:30goats and cattle.

00:44:33The oldest Christian church

00:44:36Archaeologists have uncovered

00:44:37the remains of an Armenian church

00:44:39nearly 2,000 years old,

00:44:41making it one of the oldest

00:44:42in the world

00:44:43and the earliest in Armenia.

00:44:45The University of Münster

00:44:47in Germany

00:44:47which collaborated

00:44:48with the Armenian Academy

00:44:50of Sciences

00:44:50on the excavations

00:44:51called this find

00:44:52a sensational testament

00:44:54to early Christianity

00:44:55in Armenia.

00:44:56The church was found

00:44:57during excavations

00:44:58in Artashat,

00:44:58which was once

00:44:59a thriving metropolis

00:45:00and the capital

00:45:01of the ancient Armenian kingdom.

00:45:04Experts believe

00:45:04the church was built

00:45:05in the 4th century AD

00:45:07at the very same time

00:45:08the Etchmyadzin Cathedral

00:45:09was erected,

00:45:10the first Armenian church

00:45:12considered the oldest

00:45:13in the world.

00:45:15The discovered building

00:45:16is the oldest

00:45:17archaeologically confirmed

00:45:18church in Armenia.

00:45:20This is the first known

00:45:21octagonal church in Armenia.

00:45:23Similar structures

00:45:24are found on the eastern coast

00:45:25of the Mediterranean

00:45:26and also date back

00:45:28to the 4th century.

00:45:29The church resembled

00:45:30early Christian memorial buildings.

00:45:32Its diameter

00:45:33was about 30 meters.

00:45:35The floor was made

00:45:36of a mixture of sand

00:45:37and cement

00:45:37and the walls

00:45:38were made of terracotta,

00:45:40probably brought from

00:45:41Greece or Italy.

00:45:42Scientists also discovered

00:45:44traces of wooden platforms

00:45:45which made it possible

00:45:46to accurately date

00:45:48the structure

00:45:48using radiocarbon analysis.

00:45:51Italian underground city.

00:45:53Perched atop a volcanic cliff

00:45:55in Umbria, Italy,

00:45:57the city of Orvieto

00:45:58mesmerizes visitors

00:45:59with its subterranean wonders.

00:46:02Within the city streets

00:46:03lies an intricate network

00:46:04of over 1,200 caves,

00:46:06wells, tunnels

00:46:07and galleries

00:46:08uncovering Orvieto's

00:46:09rich history.

00:46:10As far back as the 9th century

00:46:12BC this place

00:46:13was inhabited by the Etruscans

00:46:14and many underground features

00:46:16such as cisterns

00:46:17and tombs

00:46:18date back to that era.

00:46:19The impressive St. Patrick's,

00:46:21well, Pozzo di San Patrizio,

00:46:23built in 1537

00:46:25deserves special attention.

00:46:28It goes down

00:46:29to a depth of 62 meters

00:46:30and is a prime example

00:46:31of Renaissance engineering.

00:46:34From ancient wineries

00:46:35to pigeon breeding sites,

00:46:36the underground city of Orvieto

00:46:38offers an incredible journey

00:46:40through time.

00:46:42Temporary means forever.

00:46:461911,

00:46:47American explorer Hiram Bingham

00:46:49climbs into the mountains

00:46:50of Peru

00:46:51in search of the lost city

00:46:52of the Incas

00:46:53and stumbles upon Machu Picchu.

00:46:55An entire complex

00:46:56hidden in the clouds

00:46:57at an altitude

00:46:58of more than 2,000-2,400 meters,

00:47:01the city stood untouched

00:47:03for several centuries.

00:47:04Simply because

00:47:05the Spanish conquistadors

00:47:06just couldn't find their way up.

00:47:08Yale University,

00:47:09which sponsored the expedition,

00:47:11organized several excavations

00:47:13in a row

00:47:13and took thousands

00:47:14of artifacts out of Peru,

00:47:15pottery,

00:47:16human bones,

00:47:17metal jewelry,

00:47:18and tools.

00:47:18Under an official agreement

00:47:20with the Peruvian government,

00:47:21all the fines

00:47:22were sent to the U.S.

00:47:23temporarily

00:47:24for an 18-month period

00:47:26strictly for scientific study.

00:47:28They promised to return them,

00:47:29but it took nearly

00:47:30a hundred years to do so.

00:47:32For years,

00:47:33Yale University

00:47:34responded to Peru's

00:47:35official requests

00:47:36with silence

00:47:37or by claiming

00:47:38that the collection

00:47:38allegedly belonged

00:47:40to the university

00:47:40by right of long-term possession.

00:47:43In 2008,

00:47:44the president of Peru

00:47:45publicly threatened

00:47:46legal action against Yale.

00:47:48Only then

00:47:49did the negotiations

00:47:50finally gain momentum.

00:47:52The return agreement

00:47:53was signed in 2010,

00:47:54and between 2011 and 2012,

00:47:57Yale,

00:47:57University,

00:47:58gradually returned

00:47:59over 46,000 artifacts

00:48:01to Peru.

00:48:02Today,

00:48:03they are kept

00:48:03in a museum in Cusco,

00:48:05the very city

00:48:06where Bingham's expedition

00:48:07once set out for the mountains.

00:48:08A century of waiting

00:48:09has ended,

00:48:10but lingering resentment

00:48:11between the university

00:48:12and the country

00:48:12seemingly remains.

00:48:14Bingham himself

00:48:14published an article

00:48:16about the find

00:48:16in National Geographic magazine

00:48:18in 1913,

00:48:19and the article,

00:48:20with photographs

00:48:21of an abandoned city

00:48:22in the clouds,

00:48:23turned Machu Picchu

00:48:24into a global sensation

00:48:25practically overnight.

00:48:27Peru was only

00:48:28just beginning to realize

00:48:29the tourism

00:48:29and historical value

00:48:31of its own heritage

00:48:32back then,

00:48:32and by the time

00:48:33the country gained

00:48:34enough leverage

00:48:34to seriously demand

00:48:35the collection back,

00:48:36the artifacts

00:48:37had already spent

00:48:38nearly a century

00:48:38sitting in crates

00:48:39at an American university.

00:48:41Officially,

00:48:42the transfer of the collection

00:48:43was completed long ago,

00:48:44but some Peruvian scholars

00:48:45still believe

00:48:46that not everything

00:48:47made it back home.

00:48:48According to them,

00:48:49a small number of specimens

00:48:50remained behind

00:48:51at Yale University.

00:48:52The university itself

00:48:53explains it differently.

00:48:54They say it is part of

00:48:55an ongoing scientific partnership

00:48:57between the university

00:48:59and the Peruvian side,

00:49:00not unreturned artifacts.

00:49:02Officially,

00:49:02the dispute is resolved,

00:49:03but in reality,

00:49:04it's more of a compromise

00:49:05than a clear-cut victory

00:49:06for either side.

00:49:07The story of Machu Picchu

00:49:08clearly shows

00:49:09just how varied

00:49:10the pace of

00:49:10international justice

00:49:11can be.

00:49:12For a country

00:49:12with strong diplomacy

00:49:14and legal weight,

00:49:15the return took

00:49:16about 100 years

00:49:17of persistent negotiations.

00:49:18For poorer

00:49:19and less prominent nations

00:49:20on the global stage,

00:49:22such negotiations

00:49:23might never happen at all,

00:49:24simply because

00:49:25there is no one

00:49:26to loudly advocate for them.

00:49:28Coffins for the gods!

00:49:30Beneath the sands

00:49:31of the Egyptian desert,

00:49:32near the Pyramid of Djoser,

00:49:34lies the subterranean

00:49:35site of the Serapium.

00:49:36French archaeologist

00:49:37Auguste Mariette

00:49:39discovered it back in 1850

00:49:40and an entire avenue

00:49:41of sphinxes

00:49:42once led to it.

00:49:43Narrow corridors

00:49:44descend into the darkness

00:49:45and there,

00:49:46inside hollowed-out chambers,

00:49:48sit stone boxes.

00:49:49Only these

00:49:50are no ordinary coffins.

00:49:52Each sarcophagus

00:49:53weighs dozens of tons.

00:49:55One such box

00:49:56weighs as much

00:49:57as a fully loaded railcar.

00:49:58And some are even heavier.

00:50:00They are carved

00:50:00from solid blocks

00:50:01of granite and basalt,

00:50:02polished inside

00:50:03so smoothly

00:50:04that even a modern engineer

00:50:05would be astonished.

00:50:06And the thick lid

00:50:07fits the box

00:50:08with a precision

00:50:09that is difficult

00:50:10to replicate even today.

00:50:12And it wasn't pharaohs

00:50:13who were buried in them.

00:50:14These coffins held bulls.

00:50:16In ancient Memphis,

00:50:17the priests would choose

00:50:18a single bull

00:50:19and declare it

00:50:20the living embodiment

00:50:21of a god.

00:50:21And as long as the bull

00:50:23was alive,

00:50:23it was revered

00:50:24as a sacred being.

00:50:25And when it died,

00:50:26the carcass was mummified

00:50:27and lowered

00:50:27into these gigantic sarcophagi

00:50:28with such honors

00:50:29that not every human

00:50:31would receive.

00:50:31And so it went,

00:50:32century after century.

00:50:34From the time

00:50:34of pharaoh

00:50:35Amonhotep III

00:50:36almost up until

00:50:37the Roman era,

00:50:38now think about this.

00:50:39To carve such a box

00:50:40out of solid granite,

00:50:42polish it from the inside,

00:50:43drag dozens of tons

00:50:45of stone

00:50:45through narrow

00:50:46underground corridors

00:50:47and lower it

00:50:48precisely into place,

00:50:49you need a quarry,

00:50:50transport,

00:50:51engineering calculations

00:50:52and hundreds of men.

00:50:54And all of this

00:50:54for the sake of a bull.

00:50:55Some researchers

00:50:56still seriously talk

00:50:57about some kind

00:50:57of lost technology

00:50:58claiming that it's impossible

00:50:59to do it by hand like that.

00:51:01Egyptologists simplify

00:51:02everything as much

00:51:03as possible

00:51:04and claim there is

00:51:05no magic at all.

00:51:06Just abrasives,

00:51:07levers,

00:51:08copper tools

00:51:09and years of

00:51:09painstaking labor.

00:51:11Maybe so.

00:51:11Or just imagine it yourself.

00:51:13You need to carve a box

00:51:14and a lid weighing

00:51:15tens of tons

00:51:16out of solid rock.

00:51:17Polish the inner surface

00:51:19to a mirror finish.

00:51:20Lower it all underground

00:51:21through a corridor

00:51:22barely wide enough

00:51:23for a man to squeeze through

00:51:24and place the lid

00:51:25so there's not a single gap

00:51:26with no crane,

00:51:27no angle grinder

00:51:28and no laser level.

00:51:29When you're standing

00:51:30next to a 40 ton box

00:51:31like that,

00:51:32which someone hauled

00:51:33down here over 2000 years ago

00:51:35for the sake of a sacred bull,

00:51:36the theory about primitive levers

00:51:38sounds pretty unconvincing.

00:51:39Another strange thing.

00:51:41Many of the sarcophagi

00:51:42were found empty.

00:51:43There were no bulls inside.

00:51:45Either they were looted

00:51:46in ancient times

00:51:46or they weren't meant

00:51:47for that in the first place.

00:51:49Scholars and historians

00:51:50are still arguing

00:51:51about this to this day.

00:51:52Currently,

00:51:53nine buried bulls are known

00:51:54and according to the theories

00:51:55of Mariette himself,

00:51:56others haven't been found

00:51:58to this day.

00:51:58The scariest thing

00:51:59is that thousands of years ago

00:52:01this was a civilization

00:52:02far superior

00:52:03to our current one.

00:52:04And yet,

00:52:05it was destroyed.

00:52:07What really happened back then,

00:52:08we may never know.

00:52:12Egyptian authorities

00:52:13are falsifying history.

00:52:14For decades,

00:52:15archaeologists have complained

00:52:17that the Egyptian government

00:52:18does not allow excavations.

00:52:20They claim that

00:52:21Egyptian authorities

00:52:22selectively grant permission

00:52:24to study the ancient world.

00:52:26Getting a permit

00:52:26is practically impossible.

00:52:28Only a few archaeologists

00:52:30from the US

00:52:30manage to gain access

00:52:31to excavation sites.

00:52:33And even then,

00:52:34they're not the archaeologists

00:52:35who follow mainstream history.

00:52:36They are mostly employees

00:52:38of some secret organizations

00:52:39and secret societies.

00:52:41It seems to me

00:52:42that these are representatives

00:52:43of a certain global elite

00:52:44that wants to gain access

00:52:45to ancient artifacts

00:52:46around the world.

00:52:47As soon as something

00:52:48extraordinary is found in Egypt,

00:52:50the site is immediately

00:52:51closed off.

00:52:52The press isn't allowed

00:52:53to cover the events

00:52:54and the excavation site

00:52:56is placed under

00:52:57round-the-clock police control.

00:52:58It's no wonder

00:52:59you've heard stories

00:53:00about Egyptian finds

00:53:01on my channel,

00:53:02but all of them

00:53:03were incomplete.

00:53:04And as soon as

00:53:05archaeologists get close

00:53:06to the possible burial site

00:53:07of Cleopatra

00:53:08or other prominent figures

00:53:09of ancient Egypt,

00:53:10the story of the excavation

00:53:11suddenly comes to an end.

00:53:13It used to be believed

00:53:14that the Egyptian authorities

00:53:15did this in order

00:53:16to be the ones

00:53:17credited with the discovery.

00:53:18But Russian researchers

00:53:19have made a sensational claim.

00:53:21In fact,

00:53:21some of the artifacts

00:53:22uncovered in Egypt

00:53:24end up in the possession

00:53:25of secret societies

00:53:26or make their way

00:53:27into private collections

00:53:28of the world's

00:53:28wealthiest families.

00:53:29And if an artifact

00:53:30doesn't fit into

00:53:31the official history,

00:53:32it's simply destroyed.

00:53:33One case observed

00:53:34in the tombs

00:53:35looked like this.

00:53:36In one of the tombs,

00:53:37there were numerous

00:53:38ancient figures on the walls,

00:53:39depicting gods and people.

00:53:41Except the gods

00:53:42appeared intact

00:53:43while the heads

00:53:44of the human figures

00:53:44were smashed and erased.

00:53:46And the destruction

00:53:47didn't happen

00:53:47hundreds of years ago,

00:53:48but in our own time.

00:53:49The images of the hams

00:53:50on the dresses

00:53:51of Egyptian women and men

00:53:52were also erased,

00:53:53as if there was

00:53:54a deliberate attempt

00:53:55to destroy the ornament

00:53:56even though the depiction

00:53:57of the dresses themselves

00:53:58remained intact.

00:53:59Archaeologists also witnessed

00:54:00how, during restoration work,

00:54:03Egyptian workers used chisels

00:54:04to scrape away

00:54:04ancient frescoes

00:54:05and created new ones

00:54:06using stencils instead.

00:54:08So why are ancient frescoes

00:54:09being destroyed?

00:54:10Why are statues

00:54:11being destroyed?

00:54:12Why is the destruction

00:54:14of many ancient sites

00:54:15blamed on terrorist groups

00:54:16as was the case

00:54:17in Iraq and Afghanistan?

00:54:19Why is the so-called

00:54:20world government

00:54:21trying to hide

00:54:22the real history of mankind?

00:54:24And how do the wealthiest

00:54:25clans on earth

00:54:26expand their ancient collections?

00:54:28I will gradually try to answer

00:54:30these questions in future videos,

00:54:32but for now,

00:54:33I will continue the story

00:54:34of Notre Dame de Paris.

00:54:37Melted Steps

00:54:38The staircase in the temple

00:54:40of Hathor at Dendera

00:54:41raises numerous questions

00:54:42among archaeologists

00:54:43and researchers.

00:54:45These steps,

00:54:46located in one of the best-preserved

00:54:48temples of ancient Egypt,

00:54:50look as if they were subjected

00:54:51to incredibly high temperatures,

00:54:52which could have led

00:54:53to their deformation

00:54:54and partial melting.

00:54:57Unusual curves

00:54:58and sunken areas

00:54:59are visible

00:55:00on the surface of the steps,

00:55:01which are not typical

00:55:02of normal wear and tear

00:55:04on stone structures.

00:55:05There are various theories

00:55:07about this phenomenon.

00:55:08One hypothesis suggests

00:55:10that the steps

00:55:11could have been damaged

00:55:12by some unknown thermal effect,

00:55:14for example,

00:55:15ritual bonfires

00:55:16or processes

00:55:17associated with

00:55:18ancient technologies.

00:55:19Another theory points

00:55:20to possible construction errors.

00:55:23If the stones for the steps

00:55:24were cast right on side

00:55:25from liquid mortar,

00:55:27then an interruption

00:55:28in the curing process

00:55:29could have led

00:55:29to irregular shapes

00:55:30and soft material.

00:55:32Scientists are still

00:55:33studying this phenomenon,

00:55:35adding yet another mystery

00:55:36to the rich heritage

00:55:37of ancient Egypt.

00:55:39An ancient gateway

00:55:40to the underworld.

00:55:42How about a trip to Mexico,

00:55:44where archaeologists

00:55:45recently discovered

00:55:46an ancient underground temple

00:55:47with a doorway

00:55:48to the underworld?

00:55:50Sounds mystical,

00:55:51doesn't it?

00:55:52This story began

00:55:53way back in 1677

00:55:54when the priest

00:55:55Francisco de Burgoa

00:55:56described a gigantic

00:55:58underground temple

00:55:59in the city of Mitla

00:56:00in his writings.

00:56:02According to him,

00:56:03the temple consisted

00:56:04of four chambers,

00:56:05one of which had

00:56:06a stone door

00:56:06leading into a deep cave.

00:56:08And that, my friends,

00:56:10was no ordinary room.

00:56:11It was a place that,

00:56:12according to the beliefs

00:56:13of the ancient Zapotec people,

00:56:15led to the underworld

00:56:16called Lioba,

00:56:18or the place of rest.

00:56:20But what happened next?

00:56:21Apparently,

00:56:22the entrance to this cave

00:56:23was sealed off

00:56:24by the French

00:56:24and the temple

00:56:25was destroyed.

00:56:26Now, the church of San Pablo

00:56:27stands on this site,

00:56:28built literally upon

00:56:29the ruins of the ancient temple,

00:56:31thanks to advanced

00:56:32research methods

00:56:33such as ground-penetrating radar,

00:56:35electrical resistivity tomography

00:56:36and seismic ambient noise tomography.

00:56:39Archaeologists have discovered

00:56:40a large void

00:56:41beneath the church

00:56:42that appears to be connected

00:56:43to another void to the north.

00:56:44The researchers also found

00:56:46two underground passages

00:56:47leading into this void

00:56:48from the east.

00:56:49What's more,

00:56:50they even managed

00:56:51to pinpoint

00:56:52the blocked entrance

00:56:53to the ancient cave.

00:56:54It seems this story

00:56:56is just beginning,

00:56:57and we have a lot to learn

00:56:58about the ancient Zapotecs

00:57:00and their beliefs.

00:57:01So subscribe to our channel

00:57:03if you don't want to miss

00:57:04the continuation

00:57:04of this fascinating research.

00:57:08Egypt is rewriting history!

00:57:11Archaeologists in Egypt

00:57:12have stumbled upon

00:57:13something absolutely amazing.

00:57:15In Hierogonpolis,

00:57:16an ancient city

00:57:17on the banks of the Nile

00:57:18that served as the cultural center

00:57:19of Egypt before the pyramids.

00:57:21A cemetery was discovered,

00:57:23but not an ordinary one.

00:57:24Dr. Renee Friedman

00:57:25and her team

00:57:26expected an ordinary excavation,

00:57:28but what they found

00:57:29left them gasping

00:57:30in astonishment.

00:57:31Alongside the human remains

00:57:32in the tombs

00:57:33lay unexpected guests.

00:57:34Baboons,

00:57:35wild cats,

00:57:36and even hippos.

00:57:37These are animals

00:57:38you don't typically find

00:57:39in Egypt.

00:57:40The most astonishing thing

00:57:42was that all these animals

00:57:43were well cared for.

00:57:44They received medical treatment,

00:57:46were fed,

00:57:46and even lived in captivity

00:57:47for a long time.

00:57:48In Friedman's view,

00:57:50this might have been

00:57:50the world's very first zoo exhibit.

00:57:53These animals were symbols

00:57:54of power and might,

00:57:55displays of wealth

00:57:56and control over the wild.

00:57:58This zoo is one of the most

00:58:00astonishing discoveries in Egypt.

00:58:03Imagine how these

00:58:04ancient Egyptians

00:58:05cared for their wild pets,

00:58:06using them in religious rituals

00:58:08and displaying their power.

00:58:11The mystery of the lost

00:58:13ancient Roman city.

00:58:15Archaeologists in Italy

00:58:17have made an impressive discovery

00:58:18on the site

00:58:19where the ancient Roman city

00:58:20of Claterna once stood,

00:58:22known as the Northern Pompeii.

00:58:24Over 3,000 coins

00:58:25and 50 gems

00:58:26were discovered

00:58:27in this forgotten city,

00:58:28many of which

00:58:29are adorned with images

00:58:30of ancient Roman deities.

00:58:32According to Italy's

00:58:34deputy minister of culture,

00:58:35this place is magical.

00:58:37Previously,

00:58:38a forum,

00:58:38mosaic streets

00:58:39and Roman baths

00:58:40were found here

00:58:41and now the excavations

00:58:42have yielded

00:58:43thousands of silver

00:58:44and bronze coins

00:58:45as well as precious stones

00:58:47engraved with deities

00:58:48and architectural elements.

00:58:50Among the coins,

00:58:51Equinario stands out,

00:58:52a rare silver coin

00:58:53of the Roman Republic

00:58:54dated to 97 BC.

00:58:57This allows us

00:58:57to establish

00:58:58the age of the finds.

00:58:59It depicts

00:59:00a winged Nike

00:59:01on a shield

00:59:01which may symbolize

00:59:02military victories

00:59:03and a connection

00:59:04to Roman rule.

00:59:05Scholars believe

00:59:06that Claterna

00:59:07was not just a city

00:59:08but also a center

00:59:09of pilgrimage

00:59:10and trade

00:59:11with close ties to Rome.

00:59:13The city may have

00:59:14housed a workshop

00:59:15that produced coins

00:59:16and precious stones

00:59:16with unique engravings.

00:59:19Subterranean rituals.

00:59:21Deep in the mountainous

00:59:22terrain of central Anatolia

00:59:24lies the ancient

00:59:25underground city

00:59:26of Ersini.

00:59:27According to legends

00:59:28based on local lore,

00:59:30Ersini was carved

00:59:31into the rocks

00:59:31back in the days

00:59:32of the Hittite kingdom

00:59:33around 800 BC.

00:59:35The city was designed

00:59:37for protection

00:59:37against enemy invasions

00:59:39and harsh weather.

00:59:40Ersini extends

00:59:41four levels deep

00:59:42into the earth

00:59:43comprising living quarters,

00:59:45public squares

00:59:45and even a small

00:59:46underground temple.

00:59:48A unique ventilation system

00:59:49made up of long,

00:59:51narrow shafts

00:59:51provided a steady flow

00:59:52of fresh air.

00:59:53In addition,

00:59:54the city had wells

00:59:55for water extraction

00:59:56and storage areas

00:59:57for food.

00:59:57The greatest mystery,

00:59:59the most mysterious part

01:00:00of Ersini

01:00:00is the Hall of Shadows

01:00:02where, according to legend,

01:00:03secret rituals

01:00:04were performed.

01:00:05The Hall's walls

01:00:06are decorated

01:00:07with intricate reliefs

01:00:08depicting mythical creatures

01:00:10and symbols

01:00:11whose meaning remains

01:00:12unknown to this day.

01:00:14Historians believe

01:00:15that Ersini

01:00:16may have been used

01:00:16as a temporary refuge

01:00:18during times of war

01:00:19or natural disasters.

01:00:20However,

01:00:21some studies suggest

01:00:22that the city

01:00:23might have been

01:00:23a permanent residence

01:00:24for a specific class

01:00:25of the population.

01:00:27The largest ancient labyrinth.

01:00:29In India,

01:00:31on the Burramani steppes

01:00:32in the western part

01:00:33of the country,

01:00:34archaeologists stumbled

01:00:35upon a huge stone labyrinth

01:00:36estimated to be

01:00:37about 2,000 years old.

01:00:39This isn't just a pattern

01:00:40on a rock

01:00:40or a fragment of a drawing.

01:00:43It's a full-sized structure

01:00:44laid out to form

01:00:4515 concentric circles

01:00:47leading to the center

01:00:48and is considered

01:00:49the largest known

01:00:50stone labyrinth

01:00:51found in India.

01:00:53This kind of engineering solution

01:00:54isn't just an abstract design

01:00:56but a logical,

01:00:57well-thought-out structure

01:00:58that could have served

01:00:58a ritual or navigational purpose.

01:01:00According to one hypothesis,

01:01:02these labyrinths

01:01:03served as landmarks

01:01:05for ancient merchants

01:01:06and travelers,

01:01:07helping them navigate routes

01:01:08that connected

01:01:09the western coast

01:01:10to the inland regions

01:01:11of the peninsula.

01:01:12The similarity of the patterns

01:01:13to examples found

01:01:14on ancient Roman coins

01:01:16suggests cultural

01:01:17and trade links

01:01:18between India

01:01:18and other civilizations

01:01:20of that era.

01:01:21Surprisingly,

01:01:21the monument

01:01:22was discovered by chance.

01:01:23It wasn't noticed

01:01:24by archaeologists

01:01:25but by wildlife researchers

01:01:27during their routine fieldwork.

01:01:29Such a discovery

01:01:30reminds us

01:01:31just how much

01:01:31is still hidden

01:01:32beneath the surface

01:01:33of the earth

01:01:34and how ancient people

01:01:35could use forms

01:01:36that seem so mysterious

01:01:37to us today.

01:01:39A cave

01:01:40in a hard-to-reach place.

01:01:41In the mountains

01:01:42of north-eastern Spain,

01:01:44in the province

01:01:45of Girona,

01:01:47archaeologists

01:01:47found a cave

01:01:48at an altitude

01:01:49of over 2,000 meters.

01:01:52People have been coming

01:01:53to this cave

01:01:53for over 400,000 years

01:01:55and these weren't

01:01:57accidental visits

01:01:57but real,

01:01:59regular trips

01:01:59with a specific purpose.

01:02:01Inside the cave,

01:02:02researchers found

01:02:03layers of soil

01:02:04mixed with pieces

01:02:05of a green mineral,

01:02:06charcoal,

01:02:07animal bones,

01:02:08pottery shards,

01:02:09traces of fire pits

01:02:10and even human remains.

01:02:12The most interesting find

01:02:14is almost 200 pieces

01:02:15of a green rock

01:02:17that simply couldn't

01:02:18have formed

01:02:18in this cave

01:02:19on its own.

01:02:20Scientists determined

01:02:21that this is malachite,

01:02:22a mineral from which

01:02:23copper is extracted.

01:02:25Since malachite

01:02:25does not naturally occur

01:02:26in this cave,

01:02:27it means it was brought

01:02:28here intentionally

01:02:29and traces of fires

01:02:30show that the mineral

01:02:31was also processed

01:02:33right here on site.

01:02:34Study co-author

01:02:35Julia Monteslanda

01:02:36explained that

01:02:36many pieces of malachite

01:02:38were clearly heated

01:02:39over fire

01:02:39while other materials

01:02:41in the cave

01:02:41were not exposed to fire.

01:02:43This means the fire

01:02:44was used not just

01:02:45for warmth

01:02:45but specifically

01:02:46for processing the mineral.

01:02:48The cave saw

01:02:49the most activity

01:02:50between 3600

01:02:52and 2400 BC.

01:02:56This era is called

01:02:57the Copper Age

01:02:58and it was a turning point

01:02:59for all of ancient Europe

01:03:00when people began to mine

01:03:02and use copper

01:03:02for tools,

01:03:03jewelry and vessels.

01:03:05Besides the mineral,

01:03:06archaeologists also found

01:03:08personal items.

01:03:09a seashell pendant,

01:03:10a brown bear tooth pendant,

01:03:11as well as a baby tooth

01:03:13and a human finger bone.

01:03:14This suggests

01:03:15that the cave served

01:03:16not only as a metalworking workshop

01:03:17but also as a place

01:03:19where the dead were buried.

01:03:20The lead author

01:03:21of the study,

01:03:22Carlos Tornero,

01:03:22said that this is

01:03:23the first time

01:03:24such an active ancient settlement

01:03:26has been found

01:03:26in the Pyrenees

01:03:27at such an altitude

01:03:28with frequent visits

01:03:29and direct mineral extraction

01:03:31inside the cave itself.

01:03:33The tomb

01:03:34they are afraid to explore.

01:03:36Now let's return

01:03:37to the place

01:03:38where this video began.

01:03:39In China,

01:03:40near the city of Xi'an,

01:03:42beneath a massive mound

01:03:43lies the tomb

01:03:44of Qin Shi Huang,

01:03:45the first emperor

01:03:46who unified China.

01:03:47He introduced

01:03:48a unified script,

01:03:50currency

01:03:50and laws.

01:03:51In 1974,

01:03:53farmers were digging a well

01:03:54and accidentally found

01:03:56the first terracotta warrior.

01:03:58Then a whole army

01:03:59emerged from the earth.

01:04:00Thousands of clay soldiers,

01:04:02chariots,

01:04:03horses and weapons.

01:04:03Each warrior

01:04:05has its own face

01:04:06and details,

01:04:06but that was only

01:04:07the outer part

01:04:08of the complex.

01:04:09The emperor's main tomb

01:04:11has still not been opened

01:04:12and the reason isn't

01:04:13that they can't find it.

01:04:14The location is known

01:04:15and the mound

01:04:16has been studied

01:04:17for decades.

01:04:18Beneath it,

01:04:18according to researchers,

01:04:19lies a vast underground palace,

01:04:21but archaeologists

01:04:21are in no hurry

01:04:22to open that door.

01:04:23The ancient historian

01:04:24Sima Qian

01:04:25wrote that rivers of mercury

01:04:27flow inside the tomb.

01:04:29The ceiling is decorated

01:04:30like a starry sky.

01:04:31And crossbow traps

01:04:32are hidden in the floor

01:04:33for uninvited guests.

01:04:35For a long time

01:04:36this sounded like a legend,

01:04:37but soil analysis

01:04:38above the mound

01:04:39showed abnormally

01:04:40high levels of mercury.

01:04:41So,

01:04:41the story about the mercury rivers

01:04:43might not have been fiction,

01:04:44and that is already

01:04:46a serious problem.

01:04:47If there really are

01:04:48large amounts of mercury inside,

01:04:49opening it could be dangerous

01:04:50for people

01:04:51and for the environment.

01:04:52No one knows for sure

01:04:53what will happen

01:04:54if we breach a chamber

01:04:55that has been sealed

01:04:56for more than 2,000 years.

01:04:58The traps can't be

01:04:59completely written off

01:05:00as fairy tales either.

01:05:01In neighboring

01:05:02Chinyera tombs,

01:05:03ancient crossbow mechanisms

01:05:04were found surprisingly

01:05:05well preserved.

01:05:06But that's not even

01:05:07the main fear.

01:05:08The main fear

01:05:09is destroying

01:05:10what lies inside.

01:05:11When the terracotta army pits

01:05:13were excavated,

01:05:14the vibrant paint

01:05:15on the figures

01:05:15began to deteriorate

01:05:16almost immediately

01:05:17upon contact with the air.

01:05:19And in the main tomb

01:05:20there could be textiles,

01:05:21wood, writings,

01:05:22bronze,

01:05:23documents,

01:05:24and artifacts

01:05:24that no one has seen

01:05:25since the emperor's funeral.

01:05:27That is why China

01:05:28officially states

01:05:29the tomb will not be open

01:05:30until technology

01:05:31allows us to preserve

01:05:32everything found inside

01:05:33and there is logic in that.

01:05:35Sometimes archaeology

01:05:36is not just about

01:05:37the desire to uncover a mystery

01:05:38but also knowing

01:05:39when to stop.

01:05:40The strangest thing

01:05:41is that we know

01:05:42where one of the greatest

01:05:43unexcavated tombs

01:05:44in history is located.

01:05:45We have radars,

01:05:46sensors,

01:05:47laboratories,

01:05:48and money.

01:05:49Yet the door

01:05:49still remains closed.

01:05:51Qin Shi Huang

01:05:52wanted to control

01:05:52everything in life.

01:05:54And now,

01:05:552,200 years later,

01:05:57it's as if he still

01:05:58won't let people

01:05:58into his underworld.

01:06:01The oldest burial

01:06:02in northern Germany.

01:06:04In northern Germany,

01:06:06archaeologists visited

01:06:07a mysterious place,

01:06:08the former

01:06:09Duvency bog.

01:06:11Suddenly,

01:06:12this mysterious spot

01:06:13became a kind of

01:06:14doorway to the past

01:06:15when researchers

01:06:16uncovered

01:06:17an astonishing burial site there,

01:06:19which they estimate

01:06:20dates back

01:06:20around 10,500 years.

01:06:23Just imagine,

01:06:24that was back

01:06:25during the early Mesolithic.

01:06:26Now, imagine,

01:06:27there was once a lake here

01:06:28left behind

01:06:29after the retreating glacier.

01:06:31Over time,

01:06:32it became overgrown

01:06:33and turned into a swamp.

01:06:34And it was in this very swamp,

01:06:36which had long ago

01:06:37been a lake,

01:06:38that archaeologists

01:06:39discovered a unique

01:06:39burial site.

01:06:41In 1923,

01:06:42evidence of ancient settlements

01:06:43was first discovered

01:06:44in this swamp.

01:06:45Since then,

01:06:46many ancient artifacts

01:06:47have been found here,

01:06:48from tools

01:06:49to the remains

01:06:49of hunted prey.

01:06:51This tells the story

01:06:53of ancient hunter-gatherers

01:06:54who lived here

01:06:54many thousands of years ago,

01:06:56and now,

01:06:57scientists have found

01:06:57something special.

01:06:59This is the oldest burial site

01:07:00in northern Germany.

01:07:01They found the remains

01:07:02of a person

01:07:03who was cremated.

01:07:04That's the type of burial

01:07:06where the body is burned.

01:07:07It's a hunter-gatherer

01:07:08who lived about 10,500 years ago,

01:07:11at the very beginning

01:07:12of the Holocene epoch.

01:07:13During their work,

01:07:14archaeologists found

01:07:15bone fragments,

01:07:16some of which were charred.

01:07:18The burial was cut out

01:07:19entirely to study it

01:07:20thoroughly in the lab.

01:07:22Such burials

01:07:22are extremely rare

01:07:23in this region.

01:07:24A similar find

01:07:25is known only

01:07:26from Jutland,

01:07:27where a person

01:07:27was also buried

01:07:28following a cremation rite.

01:07:30It's a once-in-a-lifetime find.

01:07:35Archaeologists in Britain

01:07:36have uncovered

01:07:37a unique and very rare find

01:07:38in an early medieval woman's grave.

01:07:40The beautiful necklace

01:07:42consists of 30 pendants

01:07:43and beads

01:07:44made of Roman coins,

01:07:45gold, garnet,

01:07:46glass,

01:07:47and semi-precious stones.

01:07:48A rectangular pendant

01:07:49with a cross motif

01:07:50forms the centerpiece

01:07:51of the necklace.

01:07:51Inlaid with red garnets,

01:07:53it measures 1.5 millimeter.

01:07:56This treasure is 1,300 years old.

01:07:59It's not for nothing

01:08:00that such finds

01:08:00are called once-in-a-lifetime.

01:08:02Finding another piece

01:08:03of jewelry like this

01:08:04is an almost impossible task.

01:08:06Back then,

01:08:07every piece of jewelry

01:08:08was made as a one-of-a-kind,

01:08:10using unique combinations

01:08:11of materials.

01:08:12What's interesting

01:08:13is that the necklace

01:08:14is just part of a collection

01:08:15of grave goods.

01:08:17The find was dubbed

01:08:18the Harpold treasure

01:08:19after the place

01:08:20where it was discovered

01:08:21and it is one of Britain's

01:08:23most important finds.

01:08:24Similar necklaces

01:08:25have been found in Britain,

01:08:27but they all differ greatly

01:08:28from one another.

01:08:29For instance,

01:08:30in Northamptonshire,

01:08:31in 1860,

01:08:32they found the Desborough necklace,

01:08:34which is now

01:08:35in the British Museum collection.

01:08:37Right now,

01:08:38conservators are looking

01:08:39for traces of organic remains.

01:08:41According to ancient burial rites,

01:08:43which I have also already mentioned,

01:08:45women in England

01:08:45were buried on beds,

01:08:46so archaeologists are trying

01:08:48to find the remains of a bed

01:08:49and in the meantime,

01:08:50the skeleton has completely decomposed.

01:08:52Only tiny fragments

01:08:53of tooth enamel remained.

01:08:55Judging by the jewelry,

01:08:57the woman was very influential

01:08:58in her time.

01:08:59She could have been an abbess

01:09:00or even a member

01:09:01of the royal family.

01:09:03But if this find

01:09:04can be more or less explained,

01:09:06then no one can explain

01:09:07the mysterious Book of Enoch.

01:09:10An underground temple in Malta.

01:09:12The Hippogium of Falsaflieni

01:09:14in Malta is an ancient

01:09:16subterranean complex

01:09:17built around 4000 BC.

01:09:19It is one of the best

01:09:21historical sites in the world.

01:09:23In 1980,

01:09:25it was included

01:09:26in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

01:09:29This incredible structure

01:09:31has several levels

01:09:32and chambers carved

01:09:33into limestone rock,

01:09:34and it was used as a site

01:09:35for burials

01:09:36and ritual ceremonies.

01:09:38The remains of more than

01:09:407,000 people

01:09:41were found here,

01:09:42but the most fascinating thing

01:09:43about the Hippogium

01:09:44is its unique acoustic properties.

01:09:46In the oracle chamber,

01:09:48sound resonates

01:09:48at incredible frequencies,

01:09:50creating a unique

01:09:51acoustic effect.

01:09:54Iran's secret arteries,

01:09:56while underground Nushabad

01:09:57was a place for saving lives,

01:09:59the next engineering network

01:10:00became essential

01:10:01to the survival

01:10:01of an entire civilization.

01:10:03We're used to thinking

01:10:04that Iran's greatest treasure

01:10:06is oil.

01:10:07But for 3,000 years,

01:10:09the most precious resource here

01:10:10was ordinary fresh water.

01:10:12To extract it

01:10:14in the sun-scorched desert,

01:10:15the ancient Persians

01:10:16built a system

01:10:16whose scale modern science

01:10:18still struggles to comprehend.

01:10:20We're talking about

01:10:21kanats,

01:10:22grand underground aqueducts,

01:10:23that turn dead sands

01:10:24into blooming oases.

01:10:26Just imagine

01:10:26the sheer scale

01:10:27of this madness.

01:10:28The total length

01:10:29of all the kanats in Iran

01:10:31reaches an incredible

01:10:32300,000 kilometers.

01:10:34To help you grasp

01:10:35the magnitude

01:10:36of this achievement,

01:10:37that distance is enough

01:10:38to wrap around

01:10:39the Earth's equator

01:10:40nearly eight times.

01:10:41This is the longest

01:10:42and most complex hydraulic system,

01:10:44kanats being entirely crafted

01:10:45by human hands

01:10:46without the use of machinery.

01:10:47Yet,

01:10:48the most astounding thing

01:10:49lies not in their length,

01:10:50but in the precision

01:10:51of their calculations.

01:10:52Ancient engineers,

01:10:53armed only with

01:10:54primitive levels and ropes,

01:10:55dug tunnels

01:10:56tens of meters deep

01:10:57with a gradient

01:10:58of just 1 to 2 millimeters

01:10:59per minute ether.

01:11:00It was a work

01:11:01of sheer precision.

01:11:02If the slope

01:11:03was too steep,

01:11:03the water would quickly

01:11:04erode the rock

01:11:05and cause the tunnel

01:11:06to collapse.

01:11:07If it was too gentle,

01:11:08the water would just stagnate

01:11:09and silt up.

01:11:10The secret to the kanan's longevity

01:11:11is that the water flows

01:11:12deep underground,

01:11:13in complete darkness.

01:11:15This completely prevents

01:11:16evaporation,

01:11:17even in the most extreme

01:11:1950 degree heat,

01:11:20when everything on the surface

01:11:22dries out

01:11:23in just a few hours.

01:11:24Building a single channel

01:11:25like this took decades

01:11:26and required the work

01:11:27of entire generations

01:11:28of specialists,

01:11:29known as Mokanes.

01:11:30It was the most dangerous

01:11:31profession of the ancient world.

01:11:33A worker would descend

01:11:34into a narrow vertical shaft

01:11:35down to depths of 300 meters.

01:11:37That's the height

01:11:37of a modern skyscraper.

01:11:38There,

01:11:39cramped and under

01:11:40constant threat

01:11:41of a cave-in,

01:11:42he dug his way

01:11:43through the rock by hand,

01:11:44guided only by sound

01:11:45and the movement of air.

01:11:47The kanat in the city

01:11:48of Gonabad,

01:11:49built 2,500 years ago,

01:11:51is still considered

01:11:52the pinnacle of this art.

01:11:53Its main shaft

01:11:54goes deep into the ground,

01:11:55descending a distance

01:11:56comparable to the Eiffel Tower,

01:11:58and it still supplies

01:11:59clean water

01:11:59to around 40,000 people.

01:12:01Militarily,

01:12:02these underground arteries

01:12:03were Iran's main trump card.

01:12:05While enemy armies

01:12:06died of thirst

01:12:07beneath the city walls,

01:12:08the fortress defenders

01:12:09made use of the inexhaustible

01:12:11supplies of ice-cold

01:12:12mountain water

01:12:13hidden deep within the earth.

01:12:14Besieging such cities

01:12:15was pointless.

01:12:16The water was out

01:12:17of the enemy's reach.

01:12:18It couldn't be poisoned

01:12:19or cut off

01:12:20without going underground.

01:12:21Today,

01:12:21these ancient corridors

01:12:22are spawning new rumors.

01:12:23Many of Iran's

01:12:25modern military facilities

01:12:26and secret ballistic missile depots

01:12:28are built using

01:12:29the very same principles,

01:12:30as some researchers claim,

01:12:32and are even integrated

01:12:33into old cannot branches.

01:12:35This turns the country's

01:12:36underground into

01:12:37an endless labyrinth,

01:12:38where an ancient thirst

01:12:39for life merges

01:12:40with modern warfare technologies.

01:12:42We look at these wells

01:12:43in the desert

01:12:44and see only holes in the sand,

01:12:45but beneath them

01:12:46beats the heart

01:12:47of a civilization

01:12:47that hasn't stopped

01:12:48for 3,000 years.

01:12:50It was built by giants.

01:12:53On the coast

01:12:53of Northern Ireland,

01:12:55a stone causeway

01:12:56made of neat columns

01:12:57rises from the sea.

01:12:59There are about

01:13:0040,000 of them.

01:13:01And each of them

01:13:02has the shape

01:13:03of a regular hexagon,

01:13:04just like the honeycomb

01:13:05sales bees

01:13:06used to store honey.

01:13:07The columns

01:13:08are fitted together

01:13:09so tightly and neatly

01:13:10as if a giant craftsman

01:13:12turned them on a lathe

01:13:13and then arranged them

01:13:14row by row

01:13:15all the way

01:13:15to the horizon.

01:13:17You stand next to it

01:13:18and refuse to believe

01:13:19that nature made this,

01:13:20and not by human hands.

01:13:22For centuries,

01:13:23the locals

01:13:24didn't believe it either.

01:13:25According to an ancient legend,

01:13:26this road was paved

01:13:27by a giant named Finn.

01:13:29He was building

01:13:30a stone bridge

01:13:30across the sea

01:13:31to reach another giant

01:13:32on the other side

01:13:33and fight him.

01:13:34They gave each stone a name.

01:13:36Here's the organ.

01:13:37Here's the giant's boot.

01:13:38Here's the honeycomb.

01:13:39It's a beautiful story,

01:13:41and tourists

01:13:42still come just for it.

01:13:43And then geologists

01:13:44took over,

01:13:45and it turned out

01:13:46that no builder

01:13:46was needed here at all.

01:13:48Once,

01:13:49huge streams

01:13:49of molten lava

01:13:50erupted to the surface

01:13:51from deep fissures

01:13:52in the ground.

01:13:53As it cooled,

01:13:54the molten rock

01:13:55contracted and cracked.

01:13:57Just like drying mud

01:13:58cracks at the bottom

01:13:59of a puddle

01:13:59only on a gigantic scale.

01:14:01The cracks met

01:14:02at equal angles.

01:14:04And naturally

01:14:05cut the rock

01:14:05into those

01:14:06very hexagonal columns.

01:14:08No giant.

01:14:09Just cooling stone

01:14:10and physics.

01:14:11For a long time,

01:14:12it was believed

01:14:13that all this volcanic activity

01:14:14lasted 13 and a half

01:14:15million years.

01:14:16But recently,

01:14:17specialists

01:14:18from the British

01:14:19Geological Survey,

01:14:20led by geochronologist

01:14:22Simon Tapster,

01:14:23recalculated its age

01:14:25and reduced it

01:14:26by more than half

01:14:27to about

01:14:28five and a half

01:14:28million years.

01:14:29Chief geologist

01:14:30Mark Cooper

01:14:31simply explained,

01:14:32the process occurred

01:14:33much faster

01:14:33and more fiercely

01:14:34than anyone thought.

01:14:35What looks like

01:14:36the leisurely work

01:14:37of a giant was,

01:14:38in fact,

01:14:39a brief and furious

01:14:39explosion

01:14:40of the planet itself.

01:14:42The drone spotted

01:14:43an ancient city,

01:14:44Romania,

01:14:45named County.

01:14:46In a dense forest,

01:14:47a fortified settlement

01:14:48about 5,000 years old

01:14:50was found.

01:14:50It cannot be seen

01:14:51from the ground.

01:14:52The ramparts and moats

01:14:53are completely hidden

01:14:54by the canopy.

01:14:55Leader helped,

01:14:56a laser that scans

01:14:57the terrain

01:14:57through the foliage

01:14:58and builds a precise

01:14:59elevation model.

01:15:00Drones flew over the area

01:15:01and a site plan

01:15:02appeared on the screen.

01:15:03Platforms on the hilltops,

01:15:05enclosed lines of ramparts,

01:15:06deep ditches

01:15:07stretching in places

01:15:08for hundreds of meters.

01:15:09These aren't random mounds.

01:15:11The defensive lines

01:15:12block the ridges,

01:15:13control the entrances

01:15:14and inside you can discern

01:15:15terraces for dwellings

01:15:16and workshops.

01:15:17That volume of earthworks

01:15:18is impossible

01:15:18without organization.

01:15:20You need a crew,

01:15:20a plan

01:15:21and time.

01:15:22Ground checks

01:15:23confirm the model.

01:15:24In the sections,

01:15:25there's a cultural layer

01:15:26and charcoal

01:15:26for future dating.

01:15:27For now,

01:15:28the archaeologists

01:15:29are working carefully.

01:15:30First the map,

01:15:31then targeted excavations.

01:15:33Based on the shape

01:15:34of the ramparts

01:15:35and ditches,

01:15:35the site is dated

01:15:36to the transition

01:15:37from the Neolithic

01:15:38to the Bronze Age.

01:15:39The supernatural destruction

01:15:41of Mohenjo-Daro.

01:15:42In 1922,

01:15:43an officer

01:15:44of the Archaeological Survey

01:15:45of India,

01:15:46along with a Buddhist monk,

01:15:48went to an area

01:15:49that turned out

01:15:50to be a religious monument.

01:15:52Instead of mounds

01:15:53of mud and stones

01:15:54in the Sindh region

01:15:55of present-day Pakistan,

01:15:56an entire Bronze Age city

01:15:57was discovered,

01:15:58featuring a street grid,

01:16:00a drainage system

01:16:00and flush toilets.

01:16:03The city was part

01:16:05of the Harappan civilization,

01:16:06which flourished

01:16:075,000 years ago

01:16:08and ceased to exist

01:16:09around 1900 BC.

01:16:12The Mound of the Dead

01:16:13was the legacy

01:16:14of one of the oldest civilizations.

01:16:16The people of Mohenjo-Daro

01:16:18were in no way

01:16:18behind those of Egypt

01:16:19and ancient Mesopotamia.

01:16:21Once,

01:16:21about 30 to 35,000 people

01:16:23inhabited this region,

01:16:25but archaeologists

01:16:26were only able

01:16:27to find 40 to 43 skeletons

01:16:29that have survived

01:16:30to this day.

01:16:31The city's disappearance

01:16:32was mysterious,

01:16:33but in 1977,

01:16:35a British researcher

01:16:36found evidence

01:16:36indicating

01:16:37that a massive explosion

01:16:38was the cause.

01:16:40Melted stones

01:16:41and calcine skeletons

01:16:42suggest that the inhabitants

01:16:44of Mohenjo-Daro

01:16:45died instantly.

01:16:47In 2014,

01:16:48a doctor of mineralogy

01:16:49conducted a series

01:16:50of analyses and tests

01:16:51leading to claims

01:16:52of connections

01:16:52between the Harappan civilization

01:16:54and aliens.

01:16:55This is indicated

01:16:56not only by the high level

01:16:57of development

01:16:57of the local inhabitants,

01:16:59but also by the fact

01:17:00that they were incinerated

01:17:01at a temperature

01:17:02of several thousand degrees.

01:17:03There are no volcanoes here,

01:17:05and technologies

01:17:06capable of reaching

01:17:06such temperatures

01:17:07did not exist.

01:17:08The wealth

01:17:09of the ancient elite.

01:17:11In the city

01:17:12of Larnaca, Cyprus,

01:17:13lies Hala Sultan Teke,

01:17:15the place where

01:17:16Umm Haram,

01:17:17said to be the aunt

01:17:18of the prophet Muhammad,

01:17:20is laid to rest.

01:17:21But this city

01:17:22has another unique history

01:17:23that began

01:17:243,300 years ago.

01:17:27In ancient times,

01:17:28this town

01:17:28was a picturesque

01:17:29trading post

01:17:30that controlled

01:17:30world-famous

01:17:31copper reserves.

01:17:32Because of its success

01:17:33in copper mining,

01:17:34the city attracted

01:17:35many of the elite

01:17:36of that time,

01:17:37which is confirmed

01:17:38by the recent discovery

01:17:39of royal tombs.

01:17:41These tombs

01:17:42turned out to be

01:17:42a storehouse

01:17:43of historical treasures

01:17:44containing more than

01:17:45500 high-quality

01:17:47burial goods.

01:17:48Thanks to the diligence

01:17:49of local farmers

01:17:50who stumbled upon

01:17:51a fragment

01:17:51of ancient pottery,

01:17:53archaeologists

01:17:54uncovered

01:17:54these stunning finds

01:17:55using modern

01:17:56ground-scanning equipment.

01:17:59Inside these tombs,

01:18:00deep underground,

01:18:01researchers discovered

01:18:02an amazing collection

01:18:03of items adorned

01:18:04with gold,

01:18:05precious stones,

01:18:06and ivory.

01:18:07Among the finds

01:18:08were also

01:18:09the stunning remains

01:18:10of a woman,

01:18:10adorned with ceramic

01:18:11vessels and a bronze mirror.

01:18:12And next to her

01:18:13was a one-year-old child

01:18:14with a ceramic toy.

01:18:15Analysis revealed

01:18:16that the gold and ivory

01:18:17came from Egypt,

01:18:18while the blue lapis lazuli

01:18:20and turquoise

01:18:20came from Afghanistan,

01:18:22India,

01:18:23and the Sinai.

01:18:24The ceramics

01:18:24were brought from Greece,

01:18:26Turkey,

01:18:26Syria,

01:18:27Palestine,

01:18:28and Egypt.

01:18:29It is not surprising

01:18:30that the elite of that time

01:18:31could afford such luxury

01:18:33as the copper

01:18:33they mined and sold

01:18:34to neighboring cultures

01:18:35was an essential resource

01:18:37since it and tin

01:18:38were used

01:18:39to make bronze.

01:18:41An opium vessel.

01:18:42In one of the museum

01:18:44storerooms

01:18:44at Yale University,

01:18:45an inconspicuous

01:18:46alabaster vessel

01:18:47from ancient Egypt

01:18:48stood for many years.

01:18:50No inscriptions,

01:18:51no decorations,

01:18:53nothing that would make

01:18:53it stand out

01:18:54among hundreds

01:18:55of similar objects,

01:18:56until researchers

01:18:57decided to study

01:18:57the dark residue

01:18:58on its inner walls.

01:18:59Chemical analysis

01:19:00revealed traces

01:19:01of substances

01:19:02that are hard to explain

01:19:03as mere coincidence.

01:19:04In the residue,

01:19:05they discovered compounds

01:19:06characteristic of opium,

01:19:08morphine,

01:19:09noscopine,

01:19:09and papavirine.

01:19:10This meant the vessel

01:19:12was not used

01:19:12for incense or oils,

01:19:13as previously believed.

01:19:15And perhaps not just

01:19:16on rare occasions,

01:19:17but regularly.

01:19:18The strangest thing

01:19:19about this discovery

01:19:20isn't the fact

01:19:20of opium use itself,

01:19:22but its sheer scale.

01:19:23It seems vessels

01:19:24are found in burials,

01:19:25temples,

01:19:26and residential houses.

01:19:27They appear across

01:19:28different regions and eras.

01:19:29And if even a fraction

01:19:31of them contained

01:19:31the same substances,

01:19:32then opium was

01:19:33neither a rarity

01:19:34nor a secret tool

01:19:35of priests,

01:19:36but a part

01:19:36of everyday life.

01:19:38Some researchers

01:19:39suggest that such vessels

01:19:40could have accompanied

01:19:41a person from birth

01:19:42to death,

01:19:44used in rituals,

01:19:45medicine,

01:19:45and rites of passage.

01:19:46There is even a theory

01:19:48that similar alabaster vessels

01:19:49found in Tutankhamun's tomb

01:19:51initially contained

01:19:52opium as well.

01:19:53But it's no longer

01:19:54possible to verify this.

01:19:56The contents

01:19:57have long since vanished.

01:19:59All that remains

01:19:59are traces on the walls

01:20:01and a question

01:20:01that changes our view

01:20:02of ancient Egypt.

01:20:03Who really were the people

01:20:05whose civilization

01:20:05we are used to seeing

01:20:06as a model

01:20:07of strict sacred order.

01:20:08The labyrinth

01:20:09of the Incas.

01:20:11Beneath the center of Cusco,

01:20:13they spent a decade

01:20:14searching for what

01:20:15was considered a myth.

01:20:1616th century chronicles

01:20:17mentioned the underground

01:20:18labyrinth of Chincana,

01:20:20a network of tunnels

01:20:21that began at the

01:20:22Temple of the Sunday

01:20:23and went beneath the city.

01:20:24For a long time

01:20:25this was taken as a legend,

01:20:26until archaeologists

01:20:27tackled the problem

01:20:28without excavating,

01:20:29using acoustic surveying

01:20:31and ground-penetrating radar.

01:20:32The result proved

01:20:33too precise to ignore.

01:20:35An extensive system

01:20:36of hollow corridors

01:20:37was detected beneath the city,

01:20:38with a main branch

01:20:39connecting the Coricancha Temple

01:20:41to the fortress of Sacsayhuaman,

01:20:42a distance of over a kilometer.

01:20:44The tunnels are about

01:20:45two and a half meters wide

01:20:47and around one and a half meters high.

01:20:49This isn't a secret crawlway,

01:20:51but a fully-fledged

01:20:51underground route.

01:20:53The system branches off

01:20:54into various parts of the city,

01:20:56just like a real street grid,

01:20:57only hidden beneath stone.

01:20:58The Incas first dug trenches,

01:21:01then reinforced them

01:21:02with stone walls and beams,

01:21:03turning the space

01:21:04into a sturdy structure.

01:21:05Right now,

01:21:06researchers are preparing

01:21:07targeted access points

01:21:08to get inside

01:21:09without destroying the system.

01:21:11All this points

01:21:12to a well-thought-out

01:21:13infrastructure

01:21:13designed for actual movement

01:21:15and spatial control

01:21:16at a time when the city above

01:21:17might have been unsafe.

01:21:20A horrific child sacrifice?

01:21:22Shenyan.

01:21:25Archaeologists find evidence

01:21:26of human sacrifice

01:21:27in every corner of the globe.

01:21:29But what they found

01:21:30in northern Peru,

01:21:31near the ancient

01:21:33Chimu capital of Chan Chan,

01:21:34shocked even seasoned researchers.

01:21:37The remains of 269 children,

01:21:40showing cut marks

01:21:42on their sternums and ribs,

01:21:43who committed

01:21:44this horrific murder.

01:21:45And why?

01:21:46In total,

01:21:47across two adjacent burial sites,

01:21:49they would uncover

01:21:50the remains of 269 children,

01:21:52aged 5 to 14,

01:21:54and 3 adults.

01:21:55They all died over 500 years ago

01:21:58during meticulously planned sacrifices.

01:22:00Perhaps world history

01:22:02had never known such rituals,

01:22:03either before or since.

01:22:05In 2011,

01:22:06the owner of a local pizzeria

01:22:08shared some astonishing news.

01:22:10His kids and local dogs

01:22:12had begun finding human bones

01:22:13protruding from the sand

01:22:15in a nearby wasteland.

01:22:16He persuaded the archaeologist

01:22:18to investigate

01:22:19what was going on there.

01:22:20At first,

01:22:21Prieto thought

01:22:22it was merely

01:22:22an abandoned cemetery.

01:22:24But after excavating

01:22:25the remains of several children

01:22:26wrapped in shrouds,

01:22:27and obtaining radiocarbon dates

01:22:29pointing to the 1400s-1450s,

01:22:32the archaeologist realized

01:22:33he had stumbled upon

01:22:34a massive and horrifying burial site.

01:22:37Piecing together the events

01:22:38at Juan Chiquito

01:22:39is far from easy,

01:22:40primarily because scientists

01:22:41know very little

01:22:42about the Chimu culture.

01:22:44Light is shed

01:22:45on the mystery of Juan Chiquito

01:22:47by the hardened mud

01:22:48in which the victims were buried.

01:22:50The thick layer of mud

01:22:51points to prolonged

01:22:52torrential rains.

01:22:53The population of Chan Chan

01:22:55sustained itself

01:22:56through sophisticated

01:22:57irrigation systems

01:22:58and coastal fishing.

01:23:00Both the rising sea temperatures

01:23:01and torrential rains

01:23:03brought by this climate phenomenon

01:23:04could have shaken

01:23:05both the political

01:23:06and economic foundations

01:23:07of the Chimu Empire.

01:23:09Perhaps the priests

01:23:10and leaders decided

01:23:11to perform a mass

01:23:12sacrifice

01:23:13in a desperate attempt

01:23:14to appease the gods

01:23:15and halt the deluge

01:23:16and starvation.

01:23:18Jane Eva Baxter,

01:23:19an anthropologist

01:23:20from DePaul University

01:23:21in Chicago,

01:23:22supports the hypothesis

01:23:23that,

01:23:24in the eyes of the Chimu,

01:23:25children may have been

01:23:26among the most valuable

01:23:27offerings they could

01:23:28present to the gods.

01:23:31Drones,

01:23:31frozen for billions of years.

01:23:33And finally,

01:23:34a discovery that makes us

01:23:35feel like mere grains of sand

01:23:37in the ocean of time.

01:23:38In Burkina Faso,

01:23:39in the village of Fabidugu,

01:23:41rise the cliffs

01:23:41that archaeologists

01:23:42call the stone guardians.

01:23:44At first glance,

01:23:45an ordinary natural wonder,

01:23:46similar to Australia's

01:23:47Bungle Bungles.

01:23:48But the geology says otherwise,

01:23:50these rocks are

01:23:51two billion years old.

01:23:52Think about that number.

01:23:54That's the middle

01:23:55Proterozoic.

01:23:56At that time,

01:23:57there were no plants

01:23:57or animals on Earth yet,

01:23:59only bacteria in the ocean.

01:24:01Usually,

01:24:01rocks of this age

01:24:02turn into metamorphic rock

01:24:03under colossal pressure,

01:24:05losing their original appearance.

01:24:06But the rocks of Fabidugu

01:24:08are an exception to the rule.

01:24:09They look remarkably young.

01:24:10On their surface,

01:24:12you can still see the ripples

01:24:13left by the currents

01:24:14of an ancient ocean

01:24:15two billion years ago.

01:24:16Essentially,

01:24:17these are fossilized sand dunes

01:24:19that have been preserved

01:24:20in their pristine form.

01:24:21Different rates of weathering

01:24:22have created this layer cake

01:24:23of history.

01:24:24This is the archaeology

01:24:25of the planet itself.

01:24:27Looking at these domes,

01:24:28we see the world

01:24:28as it was before life began.

01:24:30They are silent witnesses

01:24:31to the formation

01:24:32of the solid ground

01:24:33we walk on today.

01:24:34The truth is always buried

01:24:36deeper than it seems.

01:24:37Which of these artifacts

01:24:38made you question the textbooks?

01:24:40I'm waiting for your theories

01:24:41in the comments.

01:24:42Thanks for watching

01:24:43until the end.

01:24:44Bye everyone!

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