hi it's katrina number 10. the burnt city char esukte is a lost ancient city which looks an
awful lot like a labyrinth it's known more simply as the burnt city and it's an archaeological site
from the bronze age archaeologists say it is associated with the ancient giroft culture
believe it or not this was one of the very first urban settlements in southeastern iran founded
around the year 3200 bc it may not have been the very first city but it is one of the earliest
representations of a complex society in this part of the world archaeologists have discovered houses
burial mounds ancient relics hiding underneath the desert sands and a lot of really great stuff
this settlement was probably built first 5 000 years ago and then occupied over four main phases
that was up until 1800 bc when it seems to have been abandoned completely one of the coolest
things discovered here came in 2006 when a team of researchers found the earliest artificial eyeball
in the world the eyeball was covered in a thin layer of gold and engraved with an iris and was
worn by a woman this woman had for whatever reason lost her eyeball and somehow they had made her a
replacement one while the city isn't actually a labyrinth it was laid out in a maze-like pattern
looking at it from above it would appear that these streets alleys and byways of the city were
all created to resemble a labyrinth it's hard to say if this was intentional or not whether
this had something to do with their ancient belief system or was just a total fluke scientists don't
really know number 9. the labyrinth under canosis the island of crete in greece is a place of gods
monsters and labyrinths the palace of kenosis is one of the most spectacular unesco world heritage
sites in the world this is the actual location of the legendary labyrinth of the minotaur as told
in greek mythology the palace was where the king lived and the labyrinth was supposedly where he
kept the great minotaur beast that his wife gave birth to canosis can be found just outside the
modern city of heraklion and is still considered the oldest city in europe humans have been present
here since at least 7000 bc and kenosis was the center of the minoan civilization it was the
minoans who rose out of the mediterranean at the same time as the greeks in the bronze age
and started to build their great palaces around 1900 bc it was under the great palace of kenosis
where the megalithic labyrinth was built to hold the beast the myth says that king minos
had offended the gods by keeping a beautiful white bull that was supposed to be sacrificed to them
he lied about it and as punishment zeus became angry and made the queen fall in love with the
bull she became pregnant and gave birth to a monster but king minos was stuck with it since
it was given to him by the gods the creature was so powerful that no cage could contain it and it
would only eat human flesh so king minos built a megalithic labyrinth underneath his palace on the
island of crete to hold the beast unfortunately the palace was struck by an earthquake and 1700 bc
and much of canasis was destroyed even after they made repairs disaster struck again in 1450 bc
and the minoan started to weaken after a sequence of natural disasters and invaders from greece
yet somehow despite all odds many of the old city structures remain somewhat intact the
palace is still there although the actual labyrinth is a bit more difficult to prove
there certainly is something underneath the foundation of the palace of canossus but we
don't actually know if it was really a labyrinth or if it really held a minotaur but get this there
is a cave system about one mile away near the site of feistos which some historians have speculated
could have been the entrance to the labyrinth if it wasn't under the palace perhaps there was a
labyrinth but just not in the way that we thought number eight biggest labyrinth in the world
the largest labyrinth in the entire world can be found in the rolling green hills of northern italy
it's one of the best kept secrets in the country and is unrivaled in its scope and size it's called
the masone labyrinth and the whole thing is made from bamboo plants it was put together
by the famous italian designer franco maria ricci unfortunately though the biggest labyrinth in the
world is not that ancient the maize only opened in 2015 in the small village of fontanellato it
covers approximately seven hectares it's made of 20 different species of bamboo plant and at
the very center it contains a pyramid-shaped chapel but to be completely honest you can't
even really get an idea of just how massive this thing is by looking at pictures the only way to
reach the heart of this labyrinth is to maneuver yourself through nearly two miles of intricately
winding pathways that's a lot of work especially considering you'll probably get lost a few times
it took the designer 30 years to make this dream become a reality and he actually based it off the
story of the minotaur from crete number 7. mysterious indian labyrinth archaeologists
have discovered an ancient labyrinth in india this labyrinth dates back 2 000 years and has a
bizarre connection to some clay tablets discovered in greece the clay tablets were found at the site
of pillows they date back to 3002 years ago and they have images of labyrinths sketched on them
labyrinths that look exactly the same as the one that's just been found in india it's all quite
mysterious but here's what you need to know in india the labyrinth was excavated by researchers
from tirupur they uncovered the mysterious maze along an ancient trading route on the east coast
the labyrinth was hidden underneath a temple that had been built over the original site and
the archaeologists had to dig underneath it just to get to the remains the labyrinth is about 56 by
56 feet a perfect square but what exactly the labyrinth signifies is still a major mystery
according to the research team the labyrinth may have been part of a kind of ritual the person who
walked from the entrance to the middle without getting lost may have supposedly had their wishes
fulfilled as for what the labyrinth in india has to do with pictures of labyrinths on clay tablets
in greece that's another problem altogether it's a pretty big coincidence that they would have made
exactly the same labyrinth and so whoever designed the one in india was almost definitely a copycat
somebody 2000 years ago seems to have gotten the blueprints from greece
and then built their own all the way in india number 6. the labyrinth of bolshoi zayatsky
the labyrinths of bolshoi zayatsuki are nothing short of breathtaking they're the biggest group
of ancient stone labyrinths that can be found anywhere on the planet located on the island
of the same name in rural russia these labyrinths have never been properly studied by archaeologists
and were only briefly analyzed by a group of researchers from saint petersburg
it's been theorized the labyrinths are probably around 2 500 years old but nobody really knows
some say they only date back to the middle ages they were built of stone but are mostly grown
over now and covered in vegetation still just by looking at the pictures it seems pretty obvious
these things were used for rituals another really interesting fact is that between all
of the zolovetsky islands in russia there are 35 labyrinths total each one is made up from boulders
and nobody knows the history of any of them they measure up to nearly 75 feet in diameter
and most are shaped to form a spiral some believe the ancient builders could have been trying to
recreate the form of two serpents within the labyrinth at the end of the day these are some
of the most mysterious monuments anywhere nobody knows their history and we don't even know exactly
when they were made other strange things have been found on the islands as well on bolshoi
there have been over 850 tons of boulders that seemed to hold absolutely no purpose in all
likelihood somebody had gathered these boulders and was planning on making even more labyrinths
but never got around to it number 5. the tonto labyrinth the tonto labyrinth is a little
different from the other labyrinths i've told you about since you can't physically walk around it
instead the labyrinth was carved into a chunk of plaster within the inner room of the casa grande
monument in arizona the monument can be found in the gila valley a place which was farmed by
a group of desert people who lived here thousands of years ago they had developed massive irrigation
projects and extensive trade networks to deal with other native american groups across the continent
they lasted over 1 000 years and it wouldn't be until 1450 a.d that the people of the gila valley
disappeared the biggest monument left standing is a small adobe structure known as the great house
it's a pretty sad structure these days sheltered from the sun by an extremely old and outdated
metal roof it may have been used as a house but some archaeologists believe it functioned at least
a little as an astronomical observatory this is because some of the windows are aligned with the
positions of the sun and moon at very specific times of year while each wall points to one
direction of the compass but what does this have to do with the labyrinth the truth is that nobody
really knows the design is on the north wall of the great house and there is no context for what
it could possibly mean researchers also don't know when it was made saying it could have been over
1 000 years ago or it's just a recent piece of graffiti number 4. stone age labyrinth researchers
in denmark have just discovered a series of enclosures from the stone age these enclosures
are shaped like labyrinths and scientists are busy trying to figure out what purpose they served the
archaeologists working on this mission were from the museum southeast denmark and they were the
ones responsible for finding the remains of walls and posts from the neolithic period these walls
covered a space of nearly sixty thousand square feet it was a huge building and according to lead
archaeologist pernil rhodes sloth it really could have been used as a labyrinth researchers noticed
that the entrances don't exactly line up like the traditional entrances should the building also
appears to have been built in extending rows each one offset to make the design extremely confusing
in simple terms the structure was built in such a way that you would have had to take a lot of
twists and turns to get from one entrance to the other which makes them think of a labyrinth
the biggest mystery now is trying to figure out what the purpose of this huge labyrinth was for
people living in stone age denmark number 3. the labyrinth of witchcraft island there is an island
in sweden which was once home to a cult of witches and before them mysterious stone age rituals
it can be found just off the swedish mainland and these days is something of a geological nature
reserve it's called blood jungfrun island and it's filled with mysterious caves a history of darkness
and even a stone labyrinth in swedish folklore this island was a meeting place for evil witches
on every monday and thursday the witches would meet here on their own private island and openly
worship the devil this story has been part of the local folklore at least since the 16th century
but could go back even further there's even a rumor that says anyone who dares remove a single
stone from the labyrinth on the island will be cursed with a lifetime of limitless bad luck
looking beyond the myths and legends there really is a bizarre labyrinth here and for that matter
rituals did happen here as well researchers have already identified two main caves where rituals
definitely took place during the mesolithic stone age one of the caves was found hollowed out by
stone age men who built a fireplace inside to help conduct ceremonies it was like one big altar
the only thing we don't know is what exactly the rituals were that is we don't know why the stone
labyrinth was built if the rituals happening in the caves really were some kind of witchcraft
or if witches ever did dwell on the island number two the secret labyrinth under rome
underneath the floor of the coliseum in rome where men fought lions and decapitated one
another to the roar of the crowd there is a labyrinth it's not all that secret but it's
definitely not common knowledge either in fact the very heart of rome's colosseum is a labyrinth of
passageways and mysterious chambers which together are known as the hypogeum and for the first time
in modern history this underground maze of slowly eroding stone passages is open to the
public it's been restored by funds given by an italian luxury shoe company and is now open for
everyone to see the hypogeum was once housing for gladiators prisoners and wild beasts from all over
the world it was a labyrinth of interconnected chambers where gladiators prepared for battle
where the romans kept their slave prisoners in cramped metal cages and where all the
actual workers at the coliseum carried out their duties it was kind of like a backstage area right
underneath the coliseum and out of the public's view number 1. the lost labyrinth of hawara the
most mysterious labyrinth in the entire world is the one supposedly buried underneath the hawara
pyramid in egypt this pyramid can be found near the fium oasis and it looks like nothing but a
giant pile of sand in fact you wouldn't even know this was a pyramid because it's eroded so badly
it looks like a natural hill there is nothing grand or spectacular about it
unless you use your imagination this big chunk of dirt had once been smooth and covered in limestone
built by the great egyptian ruler king amenemhat iii in the twelfth dynasty not far from the hiwara
pyramid is a smaller one that the king had built for his daughter nefer upta the pyramid
is definitely real but what's underneath it is the real mystery because according to ancient scholars
amenemhat iii built some kind of strange labyrinth complex underneath the desert floor
right in front of his pyramid this thing was called ank amenhat and it was where the king
went to be worshipped as a god after his death the labyrinth remained open to the public it was there
all the way up until the 6th century a.d and was mentioned by multiple greek historians the greek
historian herodotus described it as having 3 000 rooms connected by a series of winding
maze-like passages if true this would be one of the most spectacular monuments ever built by the
ancient egyptians rivaling even the pyramids of giza the only issue is that nobody has ever
actually found it so we don't really know if it's down there or not thanks for watching remember to
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