Hi it’s Bob!!!
From giant medieval cities in Africa to lost civilizations that were found again, here
are 6 cities in ruins that remain a mystery to this day.
6.
GREAT ZIMBABWE, ZIMBABWE
The enormous, walled city of Great Zimbabwe, which is located in the southeastern hills
of Zimbabwe, is known as one of the greatest mysteries of southern Africa.
Great Zimbabwe peaked from 1200 until 1450, during which time it had as many as 30,000
residents.
Wealth from distant lands flowed into the city, which was at the heart of a trade region
that reached as far as China or India.
Additionally, Great Zimbabwe’s local mines and large cattle herds made it rich in gold.
Equipped with walls that are 20 meters in height, the medieval city is suspected to
have been used as a royal palace for the Zimbabwean monarch.
Although experts have established that the city was technologically advanced, the extent
of its influence and industries remain unknown.
Even more mysteriously, Great Zimbabwe suffered a decline that, so far, is unexplainable.
Baffled scholars speculate that political instability, changes in trade routes, exhaustion
of gold mines, or famines caused by overgrazing may have something to do with the downfall
of Great Zimbabwe.
In other words, the city likely fell due to a shortage of resources, but this theory is
yet to be proven by the experts.
5.
Çatalhöyük, TURKEY
From 7400 B.C. to 6200 B.C., up to 8,000 thousand of people lived in Catalhoyuk, making it one
of the world’s earliest urban settlements.
The unique city, which was located in the southern Anatolian region of Turkey, was designed
and built like a honeycomb.
Homes and buildings, which were accessed by doors cut into the roofs, shared walls.
People essentially treated the roofs like streets, strolling across them and using ladders
to access their living quarters below, and deceased loved ones were buried beneath the
home’s floor.
The shared rooftop space also contained communal ovens.
While Catalhoyuk isn’t the oldest or largest Neolithic era settlement, its contents are
invaluable to our understanding of early artwork.
The site, which was discovered in the 1950’s by British archaeologist James Mellaart and
excavated between 1961 and 1965, proved to be a treasure trove of artifacts, such as
pottery, paintings and statues.
Art was a major part of daily life for the town’s residents, as evidenced by the abundance
of it they left behind.
To give you an idea, nearly every household that has been excavated contains artwork on
its walls, and there’s evidence that the art was redone seasonally, or even monthly.
Zigzags, geometric designs, and images of animals and people were popular themes of
the artwork found at Catalhoyuk.
The 9,000-year-old town also bears evidence of mankind’s transition from nomadic customs,
such as hunting and gathering, to plant farming and the domestication of animals.
What ultimately became of Catalhoyuk?
Well, nobody knows, and little to no information is available online about the demise of the
ancient town, which was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2012.
4.
PALENQUE, MEXICO
Palenque, Mexico was known in the ancient world as Lakamha, which literally translates
to “Big Water.”
During the seventh century, this Mayan city-state, which is located in southern Mexico in the
present-day state of Chiapas, flourished.
However, all that’s left of the original Palenque are ruins that date between ca.
226 BC and 799 AD.
Although medium-sized Palenque is smaller than the ruin sites of some other ancient
cities, such as Tikal, Chichen Itza, and Copan, it contains some of the finest and best-preserved
art and architecture ever produced by the Mayans.
The tomb of Palenque’s most famous ruler, Pacal the Great, was excavated from the site’s
Temple of Inscriptions.
Historians have pieced together significant portions of the city’s past by examining
the hieroglyphics on many of Palenque’s monuments.
Among their findings are an extensive history of Palenque’s rivalry with other states
and the sequence of its ruling dynasty throughout the fifth century.
Palenque was abandoned sometime after 800 A.D.
The collapse of the Mayan empire as a whole remains largely a mystery to this day, even
in the scientific community.
As things currently stand, even the experts can do little more than speculate about how
or why this advanced civilization, which dominated parts of Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala,
seemed to vanish without a trace.
Many modern inhabitants of Mexico and Central America are of Mayan descent, but by the end
of the 1400’s, all of the Maya’s great cities had been abandoned and fell into ruin,
and nobody knows exactly why.
Several theories exist, including famine, warfare, and climate change, but for now,
that’s all they are: theories.
The excavated portion of Palenque amounts to roughly one square mile, which scientists
estimate is only ten percent of the ancient city’s total area, the rest of which remains
shrouded by the dense foliage of the Lacandona Jungle.
There are thought to be over a thousand unexplored monuments.
Palenque is a popular tourist destination and received over 920,000 visitors in 2017
alone.
3.
CAHOKIA, UNITED STATES
Contrary to the historical myth, er, narrative that has become customary in public schools
across the U.S., people occupied the North American continent long before it became known
as such, and long before Christopher Columbus supposedly “discovered” it.
In fact, if you travel to St. Clair County, Illinois, which is directly across the Mississippi
River from St. Louis, Missouri, you can gain a firsthand look at the remains of a pre-Columbian
city that was a thriving metropolis for hundreds of years before a European even set foot on
North American soil.
Known as Cahokia, the once-prosperous city is thought to have had a population similar
to that of modern-day London.
Cahokia was built by a group of Native Americans known as the Mississippians, who occupied
a large portion of what eventually became the southeastern United States.
Cahokia is unknown to most modern-day Americans - at least partially because, as a sophisticated
and cosmopolitan city, its history contrasts with the all-too-common stereotype of Native
Americans as “primitive” and “backwards” that dominated the travelogues of European
explorers and has perpetuated throughout U.S. history.
To the surprise of many, Cahokia was extraordinarily advanced for its time.
From its conception in 1000 A.D., the city was planned.
Atop the massive, man-made earthen mounds that Cahokia is best known for were things
like a town center, public plazas, and important buildings.
More than 120 of these mounds were constructed within the six-by-nine-mile city’s borders.
In addition to hosting its fair share of urban planners, who relied on astrology to map the
city’s layout, Cahokia’s population consisted of farmers, hunters, and traders.
Moreover, the city was a popular place for religious pilgrimage.
Writer Lee Bey compared the diverse mix of Cahokia residents to an “early-day Manhattan.”
Indeed, people from tribes such as the Natchez, Pensacola, Ofo, and Choctaw flocked to the
city from other parts of the Mississippi-controlled region.
By 1050 A.D., Cahokia had become a thriving metropolis.
Despite its success, Cahokia was mysteriously abandoned by 1350 A.D.
Its seemingly sudden decline can’t be attributed to war, disease, or even European conquest
- in fact, it wasn’t until 1540 that the first white man, Spanish explorer Hernando
de Soto, stepped foot into the region.
Some discoveries at Cahokia hint toward possible reasons for its downfall, including mass burials,
and evidence that the city was rebuilt four times over the course of just 100 years, between
1175 and 1275.
Scholars have developed several theories to possibly explain why Cahokia’s inhabitants
simply abandoned it, including the exhaustion of natural resources, extended droughts, climate
change, and political and/or social unrest.
Whatever the cause, Cahokia is conspicuously absent from Native American folklore, only
furthering the mystery.
2.
DERINKUYU, TURKEY
When the huge, ancient underground city of Derinkuyu actually began is unknown, but it
definitely dates back to the early Byzantine Empire, and perhaps as early as the seventh
century B.C.
Located in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey, it reached its greatest size sometime
between 500 and 1000 A.D.
As underground civilization began to thrive, people dug into the soft volcanic rock to
make more rooms and tunnels.
At its peak, Derinkuyu was five stories deep, or around 250 feet, and had kitchens, a church,
a wine distillery, and room for 20,000 or more people, plus livestock.
Out of around 200 underground cities in the Cappadocia region, Derinkuyu was both the
largest and the deepest.
It was a sanctuary city of sorts, hosting Christian refugees who had fled both anti-Christian
Romans and anti-Christian Muslims.
Derinkuyu contained a number of safety features, including narrow passageways that forced people
to walk single-file, doors that only opened or closed from inside, and holes in the middle
of the doors that could have been used as peepholes or for shooting arrows.
Sometime after the tenth century, the city was sealed up.
Perhaps there was no longer a perceived need for refuge, or maybe something more sinister
was at play.
1.
. MACHU PICCHU, PERU
Located approximately 50 miles northwest of Cusco, Peru and perched above the Urubamba
River, Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911 by Yale lecturer and explorer Hiram Bingham,
and remains a huge tourist destination to this day.
Bingham mistakenly believed he had found the ‘Lost City of the Inca,’ known as Vilcabamba,
and he adamantly defended his findings as such for around 50 years after his initial
discovery.
He was wrong, however, and he might’ve been okay with that if he could have predicted
how significant and popular Machu Picchu would become.
The site was found nearly intact, and the pre-Columbian ruins proved to be monumental
to both tourists and scholars alike.
Paradoxically, the extensively-studied, well-known historic site, along with the Inca Empire
in general, remains shrouded in mystery.
What researchers do know is that for hundreds of years before the Spanish invaded Inca territory,
the empire dominated parts of present-day Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Argentina.
More specifically, Machu Picchu bears telling evidence of the advanced technology, architecture,
and agriculture that was used by the Incas.
The estate was built by the Incas around 1450.
A century later, around the time of the Spanish Conquest, Machu Picchu was abandoned.
Not only are researchers stumped as far as what caused the Incas to leave Machu Picchu,
they aren’t quite sure of the site’s purposes and uses.
Perhaps the cryptic nature of the ancient city’s remains are one of the things that
draw over a million curious and fascinated tourists to the site annually.
In 2007, the UNESCO World Heritage site was named one of the “New 7 Wonders of the World.”
I hope you enjoyed watching and listening to today’s list as much as I enjoyed talking
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