Assalamualaikum, and welcome back to Orange Shots.
When I was young, and I studied
the story of the Merchant of Venice,
I was really excited about it.
As I grew up, I found out
that this city is submerged in seawater.
I never imagined there'd come a time when I'd actually visit this city.
And that time came,
this man you see in the picture is me.
That's me, on my visit to Venice.
Venice is marvellous, it's beautiful.
Believe me, I enjoyed my time there.
When people ask me about the places I'd like to visit
or live in again, my answer is two places.
Either it's Istanbul or Venice.
But this gigantic, marvellous city has a problem.
Every year, it's gradually sinking into water.
Eventually, a time will come when this city will sink
so far down, living here won't be an option anymore.
As marvellous and beautiful as it is,
it's another story why this city was populated in the first place.
Why did its inhabitants decide to
abandon a beach and live in the middle of a sea?
These are two really important pieces of information,
that I want to convey to all of you today.
Today, we'll discuss the answers to these very questions.
So, let's start.
Venice is a beautiful city,
and if you go there you'll notice
that this city wasn't built because it was needed to be built.
It was built for its architecture.
To show off its beautiful buildings.
By all means, this city is magnificent.
Its architecture really is beautiful.
Its places, breathtaking.
For travelling,
you either travel via a gondola or hire a boat.
Because even the streets are submerged in water.
But actually, this city WAS built out of necessity.
First, let me tell you where Venice is.
Venice is a city in Italy,
located on the Adriatic sea.
Where this city is situated is called the Venetian Lagoon.
A lagoon is a shallow body of water, cut off from the mainland.
This city has 118 islands,
and its population is 55.000.
55,000 people.
First, let's talk about the more immediate issue.
This city is obviously beautiful.
It's extraordinary, awesome.
The memories I have of visiting this city are still fresh.
A study conducted from 2000 to 2010
revealed that every year, this city
is gradually sinking 1-2 millimetres underwater.
This means that over time,
the sinkage will keep increasing.
And over the next centuries,
it living there won't be possible anymore.
There are two reasons Venice keeps sinking underwater.
The first reason is the tectonic plates,
Venice lies on the Adriatic Plate.
Going into the history of its geography,
you'll find out that the Adriatic Plate
broke off from the African Plate.
The Adriatic Plate lies in the middle of the African Plate
and the Eurasian Plate.
And since these two plates, which are huge, are constantly moving,
the Adriatic Plate keeps going under the Eurasian Plate.
The movement of these tectonic plates
causes the volcanism witnessed in Italy.
But the biggest effect on the city of Venice is that
as the Adriatic Plate keeps going under,
it pulls Venice along with it.
The altitude of the city keeps decreasing.
The other reason why the city is sinking is
the way it was built.
How was Venice built?
This was approximately 118 islands,
present in a muddy lagoon
which, as I told you before, is a shallow water area
abundant with mud.
It's not ideal for building.
So, what did they do?
The foundation of any kind of architecture should be solid,
so as not to let it sink.
What they did then was actually brilliant.
They used more than 10 million tree trunks as foundations.
Sometimes, the distance between them so minimal
that they'd be stuck together.
You might not like this idea
but imagine lots of tree trunks sinking in water.
There's going to be mud when a building is built on top of them,
there won't be any room for Oxygen to get in.
Wood needs Oxygen to rot.
And notice how, after so many years, centuries really,
the tree trunks are still there.
Most of the buildings in Venice still stand on those foundations.
Those same foundations that were built when Venice came into being.
There's a problem with this idea, however.
The tree trunks were
pressed into the mud, and the more pressure you add to the mud
the more it gets displaced.
The same thing happened with the city of Venice.
Despite the trunks being strong
and clumped strongly together, but after centuries,
and buildings upon buildings later,
and considering the weight of the thousands of people living there
as the weight increases
the soil gives away
and the city sinks further.
And that's exactly what's happening with Venice.
So, these are the two main causes of Venice sinking.
You must be thinking "Why doesn't this happen to the other cities?"
All the other cities of the world
have been built on solid bases.
There are ways in and out. They have airports,
i.e., easy access.
Then why did the people of Venice decide
to build their entire houses on water.
Can you think of a reason why? Because there was one.
The answer to this question is hidden in the reality behind
why Venice's foundation was laid.
The term Venice comes from the Veneti clan.
and the Veneti people ruled a region of Italy
known as Veneto.
When you look at this region of Italy,
its northwest region is surrounded by the Alps
with the sea towards its southern region.
The only access point for any invaders was towards the east.
The real question is, why did invaders want to go there anyway?
This entire area was agricultural land.
Rich in agriculture.
The invaders had two choices for entry, to either pass through the Alps,
which is impossible.
The second, from the east.
And after numerous invasion attempts,
the Veneti people felt the need to find ways to live peacefully
because the invaders didn't only go there for looting,
there was bloodshed involved.
The only solution for the Veneti people
was to move to the 118 islands close to their land.
This way, they wouldn't have to spend fortunes on weaponry,
in fact, the islands would provide them with natural defence.
Now you would think, "wouldn't the invaders think of getting ships?"
They would make it to their land,
and leave after plundering and bloodshed.
So Venice was built out of necessity.
To keep the bloodthirsty invaders at bay.
This way the people of Venice were offered the kind of protection
they couldn't get on land.
You've seen forts in the movies
with moats around them for defence against invaders,
to keep them from invading the forts or castles.
The people of Venice, in a way, had natural moats to
protect them against invaders.
They didn't need towering walls,
or huge guns, or canons anymore.
The ocean was providing the defence they wanted.
Now let's move forward.
Despite Venice being built out of necessity,
it continued to flourish with its trade inflow.
When we talk about Medieval times,
when the Roman empire had almost collapsed
due to invasions and internal pressure;
one city didn't collapse, its trade continued to flourish.
And due to Venice's natural production, most preferred to carry on trades with it,
and that's where the Merchant of Venice -
the story I mentioned at the beginning
written by Shakespeare, which I'd read in my childhood -
came from.
Because the people of Venice were getting richer and richer.
Venice was also considered safe for trade.
So the city that was built out of necessity,
gradually flourished, getting richer with time.
And due to these riches, the Republic of Venice was established.
The territories of the Republic of Venice slowly made their way,
not just into Rome,
but various parts of the Mediterranean as well.
Venice continued to flourish due to the success in its trade business,
with command over its spice trade, over salt export.
Venice controlled numerous islands in the Adriatic sea, Turkey, Greece
and due to its riches, Venice slowly became increasingly beautiful.
It became modern, with all the beautiful architecture we still see today.
And the beauty of Venice we see today,
was all built on trade.
One special fact about the beauty of Venice is
that it was built to keep intruders out,
but now its beauty, architecture, and uniqueness, attracts outsiders to it.
Also, Venice's tourism is mind-boggling,
I mean, I just remembered,
when I went to Venice it was crowded with tourists.
Come to think of it, it must be hard for them
living among so many tourists.
Venice is a living example of when
a certain people are given a safe haven,
a safe place to live, a place where they can use their expertise;
just notice how quickly the place they inhabit will boom.
It's a shining example of that.
So, in today's video, we talked about the city of Venice.
If you liked today's video, as well as the facts I told you,
don't forget to like the video, share it, and subscribe to the channel.
Take very good care of yourselves, remember me in your prayers,
with tons of love to my Orange Shots family,
and to-be Orange Shots family.
This is Orange Shots, I'm Zahid Nisar.
ALLAH Hafiz.
Obviously, this is the reason behind Italy's volcanism
volc- on.
Volcanism! Volcanism!
Volcano. Volcano. Volcanism.
Such a difficult word.
Obviously due to these-
obviously, due to these tectonic plates.
Obviously due to these tectonic plates-
Volcanism!
Volcanism, volcanism! Oh God.
These same movements of the tectonic plates give way (rasta)...
are related to.
Not rasta (way), raabta (relation).
Because of the volcanism of these tectonic plates,
... related to the volcanism of these tectonic plates,
it was supposed to be movements, not volcanism.