10: The Watchtowers of Argun Gorge The famous Ushkaloy Twin Towers of the Argun Gorge
are located in the heart of Chechnya. The gorge itself has been home to countless cultures, filled
with roughly 600 monuments of ancient history, archaeology, culture, and nature. The gorge was
used as a pass for caravans during the Middle Ages, and was home to nomadic tribes who lived
in the impassable jungles and sheltered against the steep rock walls. Here, you can find cave
grottoes, burial tombs, ancestral crypts from the 10th century, and even ruined castle complexes.
But by far the most striking pieces of advanced ancient engineering are the
towers which dominate the skyline atop bridges and mountain peaks throughout Chechnya.
In general, these architectural wonders are called Vainakh towers, and range anywhere from 30 to 75
feet (9.1 -22.8 m) tall. Some towers were used as residential structures, built in medieval
settlements like Erzi and Nikaroi. Others were built as military installations. The
oldest of them all date back 2000 years. The Ushkaloy Twin Towers themselves,
known as the great watchhouses over the gorge, are only about 900 years old. What makes them
especially fascinating is that they were built out of the solid rock of the gorge,
guarding the pass. Nobody would have been able to move through the passage without walking past
these imposing towers. The ingenuity of such a design feat is impressive, and even more
impressive that the towers haven’t yet crumbled. 9: The Inca Road System
There's a lot of talk about how great the ancient Roman roads once were. And while it's
true that the Romans did develop an impressive system of roadways to connect their empire,
they weren't the only ones. Thousands of miles away on the other side of the world, the Inca
were also tying together an empire using roads. There are thousands of miles of pathways in
South America, all created by the Inca so their people could travel across their vast kingdom.
Inca roads were made from interlocking stones, laid across some of the most epic landscapes
on the planet. These roads can be found on the coasts, high up in cloud forests,
and are in six modern countries. One of the ancient passageways is still used on a daily
basis by the tourists who climb to Machu Picchu. According to Ramiro Matos with the Smithsonian
National Museum, there could be up to 37,000 miles (60,000 km) of roadways built by the ancient Inca,
winding through Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and of course Peru. It's
amazing because the vast empire didn't have a writing system that we've found yet. They didn't
even use the wheel in any practical sense. And yet they built one of the greatest road
systems the world has ever seen. It was complete with interstates, major highways, local roads,
and dirt paths leading into the more rural parts of the empire. The road operated for less than
100 years, active from between 1450 to 1532. Sadly, when the Spanish arrived, they were able
to use these roads to conquer the entire Inca empire more easily. The roads led the Spanish
conquistadors from city to city as they launched an endless assault and subjugated the natives.
8: Leonardo’s Mechanical Knight In roughly 1495, the great inventor
Leonardo da Vinci came up with a technology long before his time. He created a mechanical knight,
or an automaton knight. It was a humanoid robot that functioned kind of like a giant steel puppet.
The blueprints for the robot were uncovered in sketchbooks belonging to Leonardo de Vinci that
were dug up in the 1950s. In his notes, he claims that he showed the machine at a festival in the
court of Milan, with great success. The robot could stand, it was able to raise its visor,
and it even maneuvered its arms independently. It obviously didn't have artificial intelligence or
any kind of electronics – but it was the first functional robot to come to life. Its robotic
systems were worked by a series of pulleys and cables rather than hydraulics and switches.
Although the actual robot has never been found, we know Leonardo da Vinci’s design really did work.
After the sketchbook was discovered, modern scientists built their own version of the robot
in 2007 exactly as the design was described in his journal. They discovered it to be 100%
functional. Even clad in heavy medieval armor, it still mimicked human motions.
7: The Pyramids of Palau The Pyramids of Palau are some of the most highly
advanced pieces of engineering from the ancient world. Recently, archaeologists conducted studies
of these pyramids, located on the island nation of Palau. They uncovered both the construction
methods and how much work it took to build them. There was a large team of researchers involved,
with everything from soil scientists to ordinary archaeologists. They concluded that the ancient
builders used volcanic rock and a huge quantity of ceramics to form the base of each pyramid.
They then created the upper layers using a specific kind of soil. Unlike many pyramids
across the world that were used as temples or tombs, these were used for horticulture.
At the summits of the pyramids, food was grown to feed the island residents.
This is a pretty exciting revelation. On this isolated island in Oceania, there was a culture
of people who cared more about food and prosperity than burying their leaders in monumental wastes of
resources. They built pyramids simply to grow food, although some were used as burial sites.
At the tops of some of these pyramids, researchers have found bones – but for
the most part this was all agricultural. Even more amazing is that the development
of these pyramids and the complex society on Palau started sometime around 500 BC. The construction
of the pyramids didn’t happen overnight either; it took generations. Millions of tons of soil had
to be moved by workers, something that was only possible in a politically organized society that
didn't squabble amongst themselves. The fact that the pyramids took hundreds of years to complete
proves shocking stability in the governance of the island. This really was a remarkable culture,
both for their engineering feats and for their ability to work towards a single, achievable goal.
6: Boring Through Granite One of the biggest mysteries when
it comes to technology from the ancient Egyptians is that they bored straight through granite. Sure,
the Egyptians had advances in medicine, astronomy, writing, culture and more, but it's really their
stone working, and the fact that they were able to cut and drill straight through granite that makes
them almost unbelievable. Granite is specifically important in this case because it's considered far
more difficult to cut and manipulate than softer rocks like limestone and sandstone.
Right now, the mainstream view of archaeologists is that the ancient Egyptians achieved this feat
using copper, bronze, and wood. Egyptian masons put these three things together to
create highly advanced tools that bored through granite. There are others who
insist the Egyptians used advanced technology handed to them by a group of superior beings.
The hard truth is that we haven't found definitive evidence in either case. We've obviously never
found ancient Egyptian batteries to suggest they were using modern tech. We also haven't
found any serious copper brass mechanisms that could have worked drilled through the hard rock.
Right now, we just have to assume the Egyptians were seriously ingenious and put simplistic
tools to really good use. 5: Persian Refrigerators
About 2400 years ago Persian engineers built the world's very first refrigerator.
It didn't have coils and it wasn't small enough to fit in the kitchen. But it did work well
enough that the Persians could store ice in the summer in one of the hottest places in the world.
Ice would be chopped from nearby mountains in huge amounts during the winter, brought down
to the desert settlement, and then stored in this large ancient refrigerator. For 400 BC,
this was a very impressive piece of technology. It was called a yakhchal, and it was used to
store ice gathered in the winters through to summer. The ice stored in these huge
refrigerators was used to make chilled treats for royal Persians in the devastating heat of
summer, as well as for food storage. Here's how the refrigerator worked.
It was an above ground structure hewn from mud brick into the shape of a dome, usually around
60 feet (18.2 m) tall. Within the dome was an underground space with storage capacity.
The space was equipped with wind catchers that channeled the wind into the structure,
cooling the air temperature inside. Even if it was blistering hot outside, the inside of a yakhchal
would be like stepping into a walk-in fridge. 4: The Marib Dam
The Marib Dam in Yemen was once the greatest dam in the entire world. It's considered in the
top ten of the greatest engineering marvels of prehistory, a great success of human ingenuity
that stretched for 1500 feet (457 m). Ancient people in Arabia used the dam to turn what was
otherwise a desert into an oasis paradise. They used the dam to irrigate roughly 100 square miles
(258 sq km) of sandy soil, something that never before had been done on such a megalithic scale.
When the dam was broken and collapsed in the 6th century, it was so devastating to the
region that it brought the destruction of the city of Marib, wiping out an entire kingdom.
Marib was the seat of power for the Kingdom of Saba. The kingdom was wildly wealthy because
of their trading power along the spice route that ran between the Mediterranean
and farther in the east. This was only possible because of the great dam. The irrigation allowed
the Saba to grow more crops, which produced more frankincense and myrrh, their chief exports on the
spice route. It also allowed them to adequately feed their people, which was hugely important.
The dam lasted even after the Sabaeans were replaced by the Himyarite, but only until
around 570. Lasting somewhere around 1000 years makes it one of the most successful building
projects in human history. 3: Ancient Prosthetics
Prosthetics are by no means a new invention.This is actually an ancient technology that goes back
at least 3000 years. Two decades ago, when archaeologists were excavating a burial chamber
in an ancient Egyptian necropolis near Luxor, they came across an exquisitely made prosthetic
of a big toe. It had been fitted to a woman who was the daughter of an important Egyptian priest.
The artifact is now known as the Cairo Toe, and it's the oldest prosthesis that's ever been found.
In modern times, researchers used computer tomography and x-ray scans to get to the
bottom of how the toe was made. They created a 3D mockup of the device,
identified which materials were used in its creation, and saw how it was crafted. They even
learned that the toe had been refitted several times to perfectly match with the woman's foot.
According to the press release from the University of Basel in Switzerland, the artisan who crafted
the toe must have been really familiar with human physiognomy. The toe came complete with a robust
belt strap to keep it in place. It was carved to have a natural look while still being comfortable.
It also probably helped the woman in her everyday life. It's doubtful the toe was only for looks,
but probably improved her balance and made walking a lot easier.
2: The Barbegal Mill There is an ancient ruin
at the Roman site of Barbegal that was once a water mill, an amazing piece of technology that
allowed the Romans to harness the power of water. It's located near the small French town of Arles,
and was likely employed by the Romans for industrial use in the 2nd century AD.
There are also two ancient aqueducts nearby, which likely supplied the city with almost
unlimited water. The mill was a huge complex built against the slope of a hill, complete with
16 water wheels. These water wheels utilized water coming in from the aqueducts to power
a flour mill. It was an industrial-scale operation way before its time. In fact, the Barbegal Mill
has been called the greatest concentration of mechanical power anywhere in the ancient world.
What was the flour mill used for? For making bread of course! This was the center of breadmaking in
all of ancient, Roman-occupied France. Experts have estimated about 4.5 tons of pure flour was
made per day thanks to the advanced engineering of the mill. That was enough bread for up to
10,000 people a day, meaning the residents in this ancient Roman city had an abundance. They
had unlimited flour and water, two commodities most people could only dream of having a constant
supply of 2000 years ago. 1: Vimana
A vimana is an ancient flying ship that may or may not have existed. In Hindu texts,
the vimana is described as a flying chariot, a self-moving vehicle that carried its occupants
through the air. Some accounts have described it as a house or a palace,
saying it was up to 7 stories tall. Other accounts have described it more modestly, as a seat or
throne that magically hovered high above the heads of ancient people. In fact, vimana translates
directly in some Indian languages to “aircraft.” Sadly, not a single piece of physical evidence has
ever been discovered to suggest the Indians really did create flying vehicles thousands of years ago.
But there has been plenty of speculation. Some claim the vimanas used highly advanced mercury
vortex engines to hover over land. Some say they were powered by jet engines. There are
weird accounts of elephants running in panic as huge, hovering vimana came gliding over the land.
There are even suggestions that specialized gyroscopes embedded
in liquid mercury kept the vehicles airborne. But like I said before, the only actual evidence
is in myth. There are plenty of references to these flying machines, from the account in ancient
writings to carvings in temples and depictions in ancient artworks. Some believe the vimana weren't
actually used by humans, but were the spaceships of extraterrestrials that visited Earth for a few
hundred years before going back into space. Which of these ancient technological marvels
impressed you the most? And for that matter, do you really think ancient India had flying
ships like great floating cities? Let me know in the comments and thanks a lot for watching! Be
sure to subscribe to help support the channel, and I’ll see you again soon! Bye!