10: Ancient Roman Sanctuary There is a mysterious place called the Lapis
Niger Sanctuary hidden beneath the city of Rome.
In Latin, it translates roughly to “Black Stone.”
The place was first discovered in 1899 underneath the Arch of Septimius Severus.
Excavations revealed a square of black pavement, and underneath the subterranean chamber from
the 6th century BC.
It contained fragments of animal bone, deposits of gravel, small idols, and evidence of sacrifices.
Back then, the sanctuary had likely been used for cult worship.
What kind of cult and what kind of worship is still unknown.
What’s really fascinating is that the imperial Romans also thought the Black Stone sanctuary
was of great importance.
They believed the black stone marked an unlucky spot.
They thought the underground sanctuary was supposed to serve as Romulus’s grave (Romulus
being one of the fathers of Rome).
But this never happened and it was instead his foster father, Faustulus, who was buried
here instead.
But the truth is that the Romans had already forgotten what the sanctuary was used for
by the time they had become a republic.
It just kind of became a dark and foreboding place.
And in the end, they covered it and forgot it completely.
9: Viking Boat Graves The Valsgarde burial ground was used for over
1000 years, with the elite members of Viking society being buried here continuously for
at least eight centuries.
It began as a Viking burial ground for ordinary folk, and by the time it stopped being used,
it had become reserved for the highest echelon of Swedish society.
The site itself consists of boat graves, unique Viking-style burials in which people were
entombed inside massive boats.
At least 92 graves have been found here, the majority of them from the Vendel Period of
550 to 750 and the Viking Age of between 750 to 1100.
But not all of them are in boats, some were just stuffed into burial pits.
Some weren't even human.
Many people buried here were discovered alongside the skeletons of dogs, suggesting a very close
relationship between the ancient Vikings and their canine friends.
8: Island of Gold In Indonesia, divers have discovered the lost
location of the mysterious Island of Gold.
While local divers were splashing around in the Musi River looking for treasure at the
bottom, they discovered tons of gold rings and shiny beads.
These sparkling treasures likely came from the Srivijaya Empire, a great group of people
who controlled sea trade across massive stretches of Asia for about 400 years, between the 7th
and 11th centuries.
According to maritime archaeologist Sean Kingsley, coins, pieces of gold, and gems had been turning
up randomly throughout the last five years.
This led locals to believe there was some kind of treasure at the bottom of the river
leaking onto the shores.
And sure enough, they were 100% right.
They've so far discovered heaps of precious gems, giant bells from destroyed temples,
mirrors, and musical instruments shaped like peacocks.
But how did it all get to the bottom of the river?
The kingdom had its capital located on an island in the river.
This allowed them to control all the trade goods coming into the Malay Archipelago, and
moving in and out of China and India.
It was also a Buddhist sanctuary, with reports from the 7th century citing over 1000 Buddhist
monks living in the city.
But like every ancient civilization, this one had to come to an end eventually.
They seemingly vanished overnight almost 1000 years ago.
But we don't actually know what happened to them.
Because their city was literally on an island in the river, basically floating on rafts,
we have very little evidence to go on.
They may have been destroyed by their rivals, wiped out by an earthquake, or something even
worse.
What do you think happened to the mysterious residents of the great floating island of
gold?
Let me know any theories you have in the comments 7: Last Roman Gladiator Arena
The last Roman gladiator arena ever built has been found somewhere you probably wouldn't
have guessed.
It was discovered in Switzerland.
Archaeologists recently uncovered the ruins of a Roman amphitheater that had been used
to host gladiator fights and animal hunts.
To make matters exceptionally bizarre, the gladiator arena was found in a fully developed
residential area.
Less than ten feet from the entrance of the amphitheater is somebody’s house – and
a major road just across the street from that.
It was discovered in the last piece of undeveloped land in a major Swiss suburb.
The arena was built in an abandoned Roman quarry sometime around 337 AD.
That makes it the youngest amphitheater in the Roman Empire.
It's actually quite strange because by this time, the Roman Empire was already in a major
decline and had already outlawed gladiator fighting.
It may have had something to do with how far this was from Rome itself, closer to the region
of Germania than to the city of Rome.
Whoever built the theater probably didn't care too much about Roman rules.
6: The Palace of Zominthos In 1982, Yannis Sakellarakis discovered a
two-story building on the Greek island of Crete, built by the Minoans thousands of years
earlier.
You remember Crete, famous for the palace of Knossos and the terrifying minotaur beast
in the labyrinth!
Here it is difficult to separate legend from truth!
As it turned out, this building was only one piece of a much larger archaeological site.
Excavations revealed a massive Minoan palace, and investigations are still ongoing even
after 40 years.
This was one of the most important palaces in the ancient world.
The unique structure is situated on a mountaintop, where it served as a strategic location for
centuries.
It's the oldest building on the island from the Protopalatial Period between 1900 and
1700 BC, which is already super old by our standards, yet it was built on the bones of
an even older, unknown structure.
It’s called the Palace of Zominthos, constructed by the descendants of the Knossos dynasty.
This was the cultural, religious, industrial, and administrative center for the island.
But it was also built strategically for the rich grazing lands of the surrounding area.
It had subterranean hallways, dozens of rooms, winding staircases, altars for worshipping
the gods, and indoor atriums.
It was also believed to be the location of the birthplace of the god Zeus himself, which
truly made it one of the most important places of worship.
Because it was built so high up on the mountain, it was only accessible during the spring,
summer, and fall.
The ancient people couldn't even reach their massive palace in the winter months.
This place was spectacular, with an advanced drainage system with pipes, large walls, and
even a small gold nail which could have been lost or stolen by the Romans!
It would have been covered with decorated walls, with large corridors, private rooms,
atriums, staircases and workshops.
Archaeologists are very excited to see what they find next!
5: Mount Nemrut Mount Nemrut is an archaeological wonder located
in southeastern Turkey, in the rolling hills where it was forgotten for centuries.
At its peak are enormous stone heads left behind by the Kingdom of Commagene 2000 years
ago.
These mysterious stone idols were crafted in 62 BC by the decree of King Antiochus I
Theos of Commagene.
He was the ruler of this small dynasty who wanted to leave an enduring monument that
would showcase his greatness for all the generations to come.
He was in a strategic position between the Romans and the Parthians and he liked to change
sides whenever it was convenient for him.
However, we remember him today for this impressive religious sanctuary he left behind high up
in the mountains.
King Antiochus I was greatly inspired by astrology and wanted to be buried as close to heaven
as possible.
Sitting over 7000 feet above sea level, The site contains statues of Antiochus himself
measuring 26 to 30 feet (8-9 meters) high, as well as statues of his relatives and animals.
The gods he worshiped were a combination of Greek and Iranian gods and so the monuments
here show both.
And fun fact, it also has one of the oldest representations of two people shaking hands
in history!!
It is Persian Antiochus shaking hands with Greek Heracles as well as with Apollo and
Zeus.
Up until 1960, the only way to reach the summit of the mountain was by donkey or on foot.
And believe me, this was an intense hike.
It's believed the king is buried somewhere beneath this mound, but his tomb has never
actually been found.
For reasons that remain a mystery, some of their heads were removed from their bodies
at some point and scattered throughout the site.
Based on the damage, it seems as though they were destroyed on purpose.
Thousands of years later, this religious site was lost until 1881 when it was discovered
completely by accident by a German road engineer.
4: The World’s Oldest Coin Mint In 2021, researchers discovered the oldest
coin producing factory in history.
The archaeological site is 2600 years old, and was once used to produce standardized
money.
But this money looked nothing like what we think of money today.
They did indeed produce coins, but they weren't exactly circular.
They were instead shaped like spades, or like shovel heads.
The bizarre discovery was made in the ancient city of Guanzhuang, located in central China.
Researchers were shocked when they started digging up finished coins, molds for coins,
and pits used for disposing of the casting waste.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that minting operations began at this workshop sometime around the
year 640 BC.
All the clay cores were made carefully with a specific measuring tool to make sure each
coin was made the same size, with no variations.
This was as standardized as it could get, and it was nearly 3000 years ago.
It's hard to really get across how impressive this ancient Chinese coin factory is.
The coins likely replaced the shells that had been used for currency during the Zhou
dynasty between 770 and 476 BC.
While the Europeans were running around with bags of bronze scrap for trade, China actually
had a monetary system of standardized coinage.
However, it all came crashing down in 450 BC when the factory was abandoned for unknown
reasons and the spade coins stopped being minted.
3: The Collapse of Zita Zita was once a city in the great empire of
Carthage.
For hundreds of years, the Carthaginians flourished in northern Africa.
They established themselves as masters of trade with colonies throughout the area, and
were politically dominant in much of North Africa and some parts of the Mediterranean.
Zita’s economy was based around the agricultural goods they were able to produce, such as olive
oil which was like liquid gold.
But here's something really fascinating.
Researchers investigating Zita were curious to find out why such a successful city was
abandoned in the year 200 AD.
It had been doing extremely well for itself until war broke out between Carthage and Rome.
Rome won, the city fell under Roman control, and everything went downhill.
What the team discovered is that when the Romans arrived, they forced the local people
of Zita to forget all about their agricultural economy and become industrialized.
Archaeological evidence has shown that immediately upon Roman occupation, Zita shifted from producing
olive oil and other sustainable products to refining metal.
According to this study, published in the scientific journal Current Anthropology, researchers
believe the Romans had Zita produce massive amounts of iron until they ran out of resources.
The way they had been living before was totally sustainable, but the Romans pushed them to
their limits.
The result was a total collapse of their society and the complete abandonment of their city.
That's a way to truly defeat your conquered people!
2: Turkey’s Hellish Spa Town The ancient city of Hierapolis in Turkey was
a spa town under Roman control in the year 133 AD.
The city boasts some of the most beautiful boiling mineral pools anywhere on the planet.
Even just recently, 2.5 million people every year traveled to Hierapolis to take pictures
of the limestone cliffs and the mineral springs that formed over 400,000 years ago.
The Romans were just as impressed by the natural wonder.
They turned the town into a thriving vacation destination by the 3rd century.
People came from all over the Roman Empire to bathe in the healing waters.
But here's the thing, Hierapolis was famous in the Roman world for another reason.
Yes, it was a bustling spa town with vacation rentals and a happy, diverse population.
But it was also said to be the location of a gate that went straight to hell.
The city hosted a portal to the underworld that was inaccessible to the living because
it was filled with toxic gas.
The Romans believed the toxic gas was the physical breath of the hellhound Cerberus,
stationed beneath the ground to keep mortals out.
In reality, the poison gas was directly connected to the bubbling mineral pools.
The Romans had accidentally stumbled onto a vent spewing out toxic levels of carbon
dioxide.
Within a few minutes, such concentrated levels could kill a person.
But the Romans didn't understand the connection.
They saw beautiful pools above, and the literal entrance to hell below.
Still, it worked in their favor.
People came to visit the pools, while religious cultists who worshiped the god of the underworld
came to give praise to their preferred deity.
Tourism won all around.
1: The Lost Norfolk Villages In the area of Norfolk, England, there about
200 settlements lost to time.
Some of these ancient settlements were deserted as people abandoned rural villages and sought
out the cities in the Middle Ages.
Some were swallowed by the sea because of coastal erosion.
And some were evacuated more recently during World War Two, with the citizens never bothering
to return.
Some of the villages don't even have any trace of them left.
The only reason we know they ever existed was because of a manuscript called the Domesday
Book.
The book was completed thanks to an order by William the Conqueror.
He wanted a full record of every town in England, and by-golly he got it.
The Domesday Book mentions several vanished villages.
We have Babingley, a deserted village from the medieval days.
All that remains of it now is a small group of houses near the highway.
Then there's Egmere, which was a very large settlement in the 10th century but was down
to only 10 residents in 1428.
Nobody knows what happened to it after that, but it seems to have vanished off the map.
And finally, there's the deserted medieval town of Godwick.
The only thing that remains of Godwick today is a single, broken church tower.
Everybody walked out in the 16th century and we have no idea why.
Which of these mysterious ancient places would you love to see with your own eyes?
Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to come back soon for another awesome video!
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Bye!