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the history of our cities to be a step-by-step sequence of accomplishments from small settlements
to towns to the sprawling metropolises that we see today the darker parts are remembered
as merely interludes dark ages in the grand story when in reality those dark ages have
had a much larger impact on the course of our history than most periods of peace and prosperity
number 10. delhi timur or tamilan was one of the most successful turko mongol rulers that swept
across asia in the aftermath of the mongol conquests at its extent in the 15th century
the timurid empire stretched from russia to the southern coast of iran the timaru renaissance a
golden age of arts culture and science across the empire would have lasting impact on the
region for centuries to come timur was also to change the subject a little bit extremely
brutal and fanatical in his conquests and that's saying something for a mongol ruler
one of timur's most brutal campaigns was staged against the delhi sultanate in 1398 ruled by the
tulik dynasty from their capital in new delhi the tulips were according to timur too soft on their
non-muslim subjects making them a fitting target for brutal conquest and enslavement
the battle of delhi was short-lived and hardly noteworthy as tamura's forces soundly defeated
target defenses and proceeded to sack the city for weeks up to a hundred thousand citizens were
put to the sword along with widespread looting arson rape and systematic destruction of the
delhi sultanate infrastructure 9. herculaneum the eruption of mount vesuvius in 79 a.d
has come to be associated with the city of pompeii as its preserved artifacts and bodies give us a
visual sense of the tragedy most of the victims died due to the thermal shock caused by the
burning hot debris and lava though the temperature wasn't high enough to burn them while we wouldn't
call them lucky by any definition of the word they certainly got off light compared to the folks over
at herculaneum a roman town settled at the base of the mountain herculaneum was a prosperous trading
center at the time though all of that obviously changed the day of the eruption the remains here
are much harder to dig up as they're covered in about five times the amount of ashes at pompeii
there are no well-preserved bodies either only bones one recent study on the bone suggests that
the victims died due to volcanic heat as many of the bones have signs of fracture caused by severe
heat most disturbingly they also found fragments of skulls unlike the people of pompei citizens of
herculaneum were hit by much more severe bursts of heat which made their blood boil to the point that
their heads exploded 8. constantinople the plague of justinian named after the byzantine emperor
justinian the first for some reason was the first documented outbreak of the bubonic plague caused
by the bacterium eusenia pestis it was the same disease that would return to decimate the european
population in the 14th century also known as the black death it was almost as deadly too killing
about one-third of the affected population within a few months of the outbreak constantinople now
istanbul was the worst affected city at its peak the plague was claiming more than 10 000 lives
per day which was comparable to numbers recorded during the worst phases of the black death the few
records we have from that time describe a scene of utter horror and destruction with scores of bodies
just lying unclaimed throughout the city streets for months on end at one point city officials
were just throwing bodies into the sea as the cemeteries and other burial grounds were filled to
the brim 7. tokyo the fire bombing raids carried out across major japanese cities at the end of
world war ii are rarely if ever remembered in the same vein as the atomic bombings of hiroshima and
nagasaki the latter still provokes questions about the morality of deliberately using weapons of mass
destruction against a civilian population while the former is usually only mentioned in passing as
wartime collateral damage yet the raids were as devastating and horrific as the atomic bombs if
not more so both in their scale and their intended aims to create terror among the
civilian population to force their military to surrender the only difference was the speed of
the massacre as the atom bombs were almost instant in their execution though that difference hardly
matters to someone burning to death in the streets the casualty figures for the entire
campaign were as high as about 387 000 civilians out of which about 97 000 died in a matter of a
six-hour period on the night of march the 9th 1945. the great tokyo air raid as it had come
to be known in the post-war period leveled everything in a 16 square mile region of the
city most of its structures were made up of wood and paper intentionally chosen to inflict maximum
damage to the citizenry a total of 1 665 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped on tokyo that
night erupting in huge violent walls of firestorms that trapped and burned people alive inside people
died from all sorts of reasons too severe burns getting trampled under stampeding crowds carbon
monoxide asphyxiation and even being boiled alive as some people had taken refuge in swimming pools
and other bodies of water american pilots flying overhead reported a strong stench of burning flesh
whenever they opened up the hatch along with high turbulence caused by winds generated by the fire
storm many of the survivors that were found only managed to survive by being buried under huge
piles of burning bodies which would have been the only effective shelter against the flames
at the time 6. leningrad the siege of leningrad nelson petersburg by german and finnish forces in
september 1941 was the longest siege of the war lasting for a total of 872 days as the previous
capital of russia the site of the bolshevik revolution and the home base for the dreaded
baltic sea fleet the city held strategic and ideological importance for both germany and russia
while it was lifted by the ending stages of the war those 872 days were perhaps one of the worst
872 days experienced by any civilian population in history acura figures are hard to come by though
even by the most conservative estimates more than 800 000 russians lost their lives during the siege
extreme hunger and lack of supplies were the primary causes it wasn't uncommon for people
to boil household items like upholstery wood paint off the walls or anything that they could
find to make a meal cannibalism was shockingly common too more than 2 000 people were arrested
for eating or attempting to eat human flesh in just the first half of 1942. alright we'll get
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just follow the link below and now back to today's video number five jerusalem romans were known for
their ruthlessness on the battlefield though their most brutal campaigns were reserved for rebelling
populations the jewish citizens of jerusalem had the misfortune of finding that out firsthand in
70 a.d four years after the jerusalem riots of 66 a.d that overthrew the romans and installed
a revolutionary government the roman response the rebellion also happens to be one of the darkest
chapters in the history of jerusalem led by titus the city was put under an unrelenting siege for
over four months as thousands of its citizens gradually lost their lives to famine disease
and even cannibalism one particularly harrowing account speaks of a woman in the streets killing
and roasting her own child for a meal when the siege was lifted the city's citizens were murdered
or sold into slavery once the soldiers got tired of killing 4. sarajevo the bosnian war was one of
the many conflicts that erupted in the wake of the dissolution of yugoslavia it was marked by
systematic ethnic cleansing mass rape and a degree of brutality not seen in european warfare since
world war ii tensions from world war ii also played a prominent role as yugoslavia saw some
of the worst violence of the war in the european theatre one of his worst episodes was the siege
of sarajevo the capital of the newly formed republic of bosnia herzegovina by nationalist
bosnian serb forces in april 1992. while the war was multifaceted and rather difficult to wrap your
head around without a keen study of the region's long history the siege itself was quite easy to
understand for more than three years serb forces stationed in the picturesque hills surrounding the
city bombarded the city's population with sniper rifles artillery shells and airstrikes their aim
was to force the bosnian government primarily made up of bosniak croat and serb officials to
surrender and make way for a greater serbian empire throughout that time the civilians were
indiscriminately bombed or shot from a distance making everyday chores like going to the market
a terrifying life-threatening affair by the end of it in february 1996 the siege had claimed the
lives of more than 5 000 civilians making it the longest deadliest siege of any city in the modern
era of warfare 3. warsaw when nazi forces invaded the polish capital of warsaw in october 1939
heinrich himmler's orders to his officers were devilishly simple raise it to the ground and
convert it to a transport hub for the beer marked or no stone to remain standing during the course
of the next five years also before it was finally liberated by soviet soldiers in january 1945
those orders were put into effect with the sort of efficiency only associated with the germans the
first red army soldiers into the city described the scene of a complete and absolute destruction
buildings have been systematically leveled to ensure that they can't be repaired or built upon
and that was repeated with every structure no matter how large or small down to the brick it
was perhaps the only city in the war that was completely destroyed it won't be a stretch to
say the pre-world war ii warsaw ceased to exist during the occupation the war or more specifically
the nazis turned warsaw from a multi-ethnic cosmopolitan city to a war-torn wasteland
that would take decades to completely rebuild 2. baghdad the baghdad of 1258 by all accounts was
a city without parallel in the known world easily the largest and most prosperous city in the world
at the time it was the epicenter of the golden age of islam a nearly five century-long period
of renaissance in fields like medicine military technology philosophy culture and art among others
house of wisdom the city's central library was said to be the largest repository of knowledge
ever put together in one place by that time including knowledge that was once thought to be
lost after the fall of ancient civilizations like china india and rome unfortunately 1258 was also
the year hulagu khan a feared yet brilliant mongol commander decided that he wanted to conquer the
levant and amassed perhaps the largest mongol army ever put together to conquer baghdad this proved
to be rather unnecessary however as the siege lasted for burly 12 days for about a week after
the conquest mongol soldiers raped murdered and pillaged across baghdad reducing its world-class
infrastructure to unrecognizable rubble this was the fate of most mongol adversaries that didn't
surrender and choose to fight the caliph himself was rolled inside a carpet and trampled to death
bringing a brutal and sudden end to the golden islamic age as well as the abbasid dynasty by
the end of it the house of wisdom like many other buildings in the city was utterly destroyed with
all of its books burned or thrown in the river the destruction was so complete that it would be
centuries before the city was even rebuilt let alone completely restored to its former glory
1. nanking the invasion of china by japanese forces in 1937 didn't come as a surprise as
they had already invaded manchuria or northeastern china and installed a puppet government there back
in 1931. what was surprising however was the sheer degree of brutality and violence chinese
civilians were subjected to throughout the length of the occupation the rape of nanking as its worst
episode would come to be known started in december 1937 and claimed the lives of over 300 000
civilians over the next six weeks the victims were often bayoneted to death in various ways though
beheading disemboweling impaling and cutting into pieces using swords was also quite common
rape of women of all ages was particularly widespread and the victims were often mutilated
and violently killed in the aftermath over the course of the massacre people were buried alive
ran over by tanks nailed to walls or burned to death two japanese soldiers were even competing
for the total number of people they could behead with their swords as their exploits
were regularly recorded by a photographer and published in newspapers back in japan