From a mysterious palace with a murky past to a long-lost Inca laboratory in r ural Peru!
Here are ten of the most incredible archaeological sites you’ve probably never heard of!
10: Ardashir Palace Ardashir’s Palace, also known as the Temple
of Fire, is a relatively unknown archaeological site in modern Iran.
It was built as a castle in the 2nd century AD by the great emperor Ardashir I, ruler
of the Sassanid Empire.
Archaeologist Morteza Djamali says that this empire was the most powerful political and
economic rival of the Roman Empire for nearly half a millennium.
The castle is positioned on the slope of a mountain just a few dozen miles from Shiraz.
Over 2000 years ago, the castle was built in a city called Peroz, after the Sassanid
Empire defeated the last king of Partiah and took over the area.
It would be several centuries later that the Persians showed up to conquer Peroz, changing
its name to Firuzabad.
The Sasanian Kings built numerous palaces and forts as well as fire temples to burn
fires as a symbol of divine light.
This was extremely important for those who practiced the Zoroastrian religion who believed
that light from the burning flame represented good triumphing over evil.
The palace was incredibly lavish and unique, suited for a god-king when it was built.
Archaeologists believe it was designed to be a show of wealth and power rather than
a functioning defensive structure.
Another curious thing about Ardashir’s Palace is that it doesn’t match any other buildings
made by the Parthians or Sassanians; it’s completely unique.
It was built next to a pond, fed by a natural spring, and archaeologists say this probably
had something to do with the goddess of water and growth, Anahita.
This was the site of the royal gardens and to people on Earth in the desert, it probably
looked like heaven thousands of years ago.
Today, there is not much left of the palace.
It’s a decimated ruin in an unvisited part of Iran, slowly eroding into nothing.
However, it was recently registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018 which will hopefully
help to preserve the once amazing palace.
9: The Chalk Horse In England, there is a chalk horse that was
carved onto the top of a hill 3000 years ago and it is still there today.
It's known as the Uffington Horse, and it's located in Oxfordshire.
Excuse me, Oxford-shr -see, I'm learning!!
It dominates the view for miles around withhe huge white horse made of chalk, looking like
an abstract stick figure running across the flank of the hill.
The horse has thin legs, an oddly long tail, and a single round eye in the middle of its
square head.
It's the oldest hill figure anywhere in England and is known as a pictogram.
It's about the size of a football field and can be seen clearly from over 20 miles in
the distance.
But how did such a remarkable figure survive so many centuries?
There has been a cleaning ritual going on here for three thousand years.
Volunteers with hammers, buckets of chalk, and a love of history, come every year to
reapply the chalk and keep the horse white.
But the custom goes back to when the horse was first designed.
It's one of the oldest continued rituals in humanity, with participants never missing
a year and people coming from all the nearby villages to make sure the horse is maintained.
In ancient times, there was a fair held in a prehistoric fort nearby, and those attending
the fair would be sure to maintain the horse.
Today, the chalking is overseen by the National Trust.
They make sure the original shape and design of the horse are kept safe.
Anyone can volunteer to do the work, and they are never short of volunteers.
But just who drew the horse in the first place?
Nobody knows for sure, but it's likely a piece of Celtic artwork left behind by an ancient
tribe residing in the area.
In Celtic art, horses are often depicted pulling the chariot of the sun across the sky, and
that may be what this horse is doing.
8: Mysterious Alaskan Fort An elusive Alaskan fort from the 19th century
was recently discovered using specialized radar technology.
Researchers from Cornell University have finally pinpointed the location of the remains of
the last fortress built by the local Tlingit people.
They were trying to hold back the invading Russian forces as Russia spread across Alaska
in 1804.
The fort was a physical barrier, and the last great building that the Tlingit would make
before Russia invaded and commandeered Alaska for 60 years.
That is of course before the Russians eventually sold it to the United States in 1867 for a
cool $7 million.
To try and keep the Russians away, the Tlingit built a sapling fort at what is today Sitka,
Alaska.
This is where the mouth of the Indian River connects with Sitka Sound.
It was an ideal defensive position, though it didn't make much of a difference.
The Russians plowed through them anyway and tore their fort down.
For the past century or so, archaeologists have been trying to find its remains – and
now, they finally have.
The fort is named Shiskinow, and was found by Thomas Urban and his team using ground-penetrating
radar to identify its perimeter.
These modern tools found the exact place where the fort had been erected and destroyed, though
nobody has actually dug up any significant artifacts just yet.
And if you're wondering how the Tlingit lost the battle with Russia even though they had
a fort, it was in part because their supply of gunpowder blew up while it was being transported
in a canoe.
The fort held out for five days until it was finally overtaken, and the clans had to escape
in the night.
7: Yangling Mausoleum The Han Dynasty in China ruled for over 400
years and they left behind some of the most spectacular tombs in the world.
While you might think of Egypt as the place to go for amazing tombs, the Han had tombs
resembling entire palaces, measuring millions of square feet in size and containing everything
you would need in the afterlife including soldiers, concubines, weapons, musical instruments,
you name it.
The Yangling Mausoleum is found about a dozen miles from the modern city of Xi-an, in the
Shaanxi province.
It's arguably one of the most impressive burial plots anywhere in China.
It's actually a double mausoleum, containing tombs of both emperor Liu Qi and the empress
Wang.
The mausoleum was built in 153 AD and covers almost 5000 acres.
It holds more than just the tombs as well, since it’s complete with a variety of burial
pits, a huge ceremonial site, a graveyard riddled with the bodies of human sacrifices,
and a cemetery that was used for burying criminals.
At the center of the immense mausoleum are the royal tombs, with the other burial pits
and cemeteries branching out from the core.
In total, the mausoleum contains 86 pits, some of which are over 300 feet deep.
Inside the pits, archaeologists have discovered many naked pottery figurines that look like
creepy miniature mannequins!
They also found chariots and horses, weapons and many pottery animals.
One of the reasons the mausoleum is so interesting is that it obviously shows the hierarchical
structure of the day, with the royalty at the center of the universe and everyone else
along the fringe.
The mausoleum is also amazing because it's all underground.
The tombs are in subterranean chambers with tunnels leading from one room or cemetery
to the next.
In ancient times, there were even huge gates separating the individual chambers.
Do you want to go visit??
Let me know in the comments below!!
6: Vatican Necropolis You may be familiar with St. Peter’s Basilica
in Vatican City.
But what you may not know is that hidden under the famous basilica is a city of the dead
and gone, and the actual body of St. Peter himself may be down there in the gloom, not
yet identified.
The basilica is a wonder, filled with amazing pieces of art from frescoes to sculptures.
It has rich and detailed architecture, fascinating woodworking, and is a must-see attraction
in Vatican City.
But almost nobody knows that there are five stories beneath the architectural wonder,
ruins that date back to the beginning of the Roman Empire.
In fact, the altar at St. Peter’s was built over 2000 years of history, spanning six different
periods.
Beneath the basilica there is a pagan burial ground from the 1st century AD.
Above that is a burial ground mixed with pagans and Christians from the 5th century AD.
These two levels alone make up the entirety of the span of the Roman Empire, which only
actually flourished officially from between 27 BC and 476 AD.
Then there's the mystery of St. Peter, who is said to be hidden between the two main
levels.
There is a mysterious earthen mound here with a large hole dug in the center of it, with
the bones of someone who has never been officially identified but is said to be St. Peter.
5: Amphitheatre of El Jem The Amphitheatre of El Jem is located in the
small town of El Jem in central Tunisia.
It looks almost identical to the Colosseum of Rome.
In fact, if you didn't know any better, you probably wouldn't be able to tell the two
places apart.
It had a seating capacity of 30,000 and its walls are over 100 feet tall.
The only other amphitheaters larger than this is the Colosseum itself and the broken theater
of Capua.
Plus, the Amphitheater of El Jem and the Colosseum of Rome are the only two structures like this
that still have an intact façade and all three galleries unbroken.
The amphitheater was constructed in the 3rd century and, just like the Colosseum on the
other side of the water, was used for gladiator battles, chariot races and exotic animal hunts.
At the time, the city was the center of olive oil manufacturing and its residents were becoming
very wealthy.
The amphitheater remained in almost perfect condition even after the fall of the Roman
Empire, up until the 17th century.
However, that was when the archaeological site began being pillaged.
People started stealing stones from the amphitheater to help build their own homes and even as
building blocks for the Great Mosque in Kairouan.
Later on when the Ottomans and Turks were having their troubles, the amphitheater became
a hideout and fortress for rebels.
4: Baalbek You may not have heard of Baalbek, but it
has been around for an extremely long time!!
Known during Roman times as Heliopolis, Baalbek dates back to at least 9000 BC. making it
one of the oldest cities in the world.
This ancient Phoenician city is located in what is today Lebanon, just slightly north
of Beirut.
It's hard to imagine the true grandeur of this old city and important pilgrimage site,
but have no doubt that it was amazing.
The city was named in honor of the Sky God Baal and legend goes that this city was built
where Baal first arrived on Earth.
This makes ancient alien theorists believe that this is where the sky god Baal would
actually come to earth, visit the people and take off again.
People traveled from all over the region to give worship to the sky god Baal and his consort,
the Queen of Heaven, Astarte.
In the very core of the city was a huge temple dedicated to Baal and his consort.
The temple is gone today, though its foundation is still underneath the Roman Temple of Jupiter
that was built over it several thousand years after Phoenicia was gone.
There is a lot about Baalbek that we just don’t understand.
Heliopolis was built on a massive platform of stones that were placed there way before
the Romans came around.
The purpose of the ancient structure is unknown and the massive building blocks that were
used remain a mystery.
Researchers have identified the cornerstones of the original temple, as well as some of
the monoliths used in the original retaining wall.
The cornerstones were about 100 tons each, with some of the largest monoliths weighing
1,500 tons.
They are some of the largest building blocks that have ever existed in the entire world.
Nobody has a clue as to how these enormous and heavy stones were moved 11,000 years ago.
Keep in mind, this was about six thousand years before Stonehenge was built.
The stones are so huge and perplexing that even those who came later, like the Romans
and Alexander the Great, simply used the stones to build their own temples without moving
them.
If the stones were too big for the Romans to move, just how in the world did the Phoenicians
do it?
3: Fatehpur Sikri Fatehpur Sikri, also known as the City of
Victory, was the capital of the ancient Mughal Empire for a very short period of 10 years.
According to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, it was built in the 16th century as a huge
complex of monuments and temples, and it contained one of the biggest mosques anywhere in India.
The City of Victory was built by Emperor Akbar sometime between 1571 and 1573.
It was the first ever city planned to be the capital of the empire, meant to be filled
with palaces, mosques, public buildings, and room for an entire army.
And of course, room for the king and all his servants.
However, Fatehpur Sikri was short-lived and by 1585, the capital had moved to Lahore,
which is today still the capital of Pakistan.
So, what went wrong?
After all, it was a splendid city and there was no reason for it to be left in ruins.
The problem was that Emperor Akbar went to war in 1585 and had no choice but to move
the capital, and by 1610, there was nobody left in the old city.
It was built, abandoned, and amazingly is still in almost perfect condition today.
2: Caves of Monte Castillo The Caves of Monte Castillo are nothing short
of mystifying.
The cave system boasts four main caverns, each one filled with art that can be traced
back to the earliest humans that ever lived in Europe.
The caves are located in the north of Spain, and some refer to them as “the troglodyte
city.”
Monte Castillo itself is a limestone hill about 1100 feet tall.
It’s the caves underneath that hold all the treasure, and by treasure I mean countless
passages, corridors, and subterranean caverns that were inhabited for the past 150,000 years.
But the most incredible thing about it is the artwork.
One of the most amazing things found is known as the Gallery of the Hands, a small cavern
filled with hand stencils made with red ochre, dated back to the year 39,000 BC.
It's kind of insane how much art was left behind by our ancient ancestors.
There are hundreds of figures that go back to the earliest days of Homo sapiens in Europe,
with the figures comprising animals like deer, horses, bison, and even mammoths.
There are also abstract figures that some have suggested could be representations of
some of the first gods or alien visitors!
The drawings have incredible detail with shadowing and fine lines.
As ancient origins points out this is some of the oldest artwork ever discovered belonging
to a pre-literate culture and there is much to learn about these ancient people!
1: Moray Ruins The Moray ruins can be found in the Sacred
Valley of the Inca.
But Moray isn’t what you think, it’s not a typical ruined city.
There are no remains of houses, temples or fortresses here.
Instead, experts believe Moray may have been used by the Inca as an agricultural laboratory.
The ruin itself is a bowl-shaped hollow that kind of looks like an amphitheater mixed with
a rice paddy.
The circular terraces are positioned strategically so that each terrace is a different temperature
and exposed to a slightly different climate.
Researchers have discovered that there's a difference of 27 degrees Fahrenheit between
the top of the ruin and the bottom, along with differences in exposure to wind and sun.
Those small changes make a big difference!
The prevailing theory right now is that the Inca were using Moray as an agricultural research
station.
Soil samples have shown that the Inca brought soil from different regions to grow a variety
of crops here.
It could be that they were trying to create microclimates, or natural greenhouses, to
study the different environmental effects on crops when exposed to different temperatures
and given different times in the sun – though whatever knowledge they gained from these
experiments is still a mystery.
Which of these ancient places is your favorite?
Let me know in the comments and thanks for watching.
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