10: Stupa of Takht-e Rostam The Stupa of Takht-e Rostam is a mysterious
site in Afghanistan from before the days of Islam.
As you may already know, Afghanistan was drenched in Buddhist teachings for hundreds of years
before converting to Islam.
Since that day, much of their Buddhist past has been destroyed.
In 2001, the Bamiyan Buddhas, some of the biggest and most impressive Buddha statues
in the world, were blown apart by the Taliban.
And yet there is one place that remains: Takht-e Rostam.
It's a subterranean stupa carved directly into the earth just like the rock-hewn churches
of Lalibela in Ethiopia.
If you've heard the word stupa thrown around a lot but don't actually know what it is,
let me quickly explain.
A stupa, for Buddhists, is a symbolic religious sanctuary.
It holds the same function that a church does for Christians.
It's a symbolic building where people go to practice their religious beliefs.
Surrounding the main bulk of the stupa is a ditch about 24 feet (7.3 m) deep.
At its bottom is a path where Buddhist monks once walked, deep in thought, around the stupa
in endless circles.
Inside the stupa, there were once important Buddhist relics.
But it's empty now, a hollow reminder of the past.
There are no decorations here, no paintings or pieces of art.
The stupa is only impressive because of the fact that it was built underground.
As for why it was built underground, historians aren't completely sure.
They think it might have been to camouflage the monastery from invaders.
If not, it was probably just a clever way of keeping the Buddhist monks cool in the
hottest months.
9: Mother Shipton’s Cave Mother Shipton's Cave was once believed to
be the home of a horrible witch and prophetess who predicted disasters and knew exactly when
the end of the world would be.
Her name lives on as Mother Shipton, but she was allegedly born under the name Ursula Southhell.
It’s said her mother gave birth to her in the woodland cave, and she went on to become
a very powerful and evil witch.
She even had a well near her cave that was bewitched to turn objects into stone.
But the true story of Mother Shipton is somewhat mythical.
She was held responsible for heaps of bizarre things that happened throughout a period of
around 200 years in the UK, Australia, and the US.
She became so famous that her face is still used today by fortune tellers, and her name
can be found on pubs all across England.
The problem is that no one knows what she actually did.
Mother Shipton did exist, and she did publish her prophecies in 1641.
However, nobody knows if she ever really did turn a king and his men to stone.
We don’t know if she died eight years before her prophecies were published.
We don’t even know if she truly was born in her creepy cave.
What scientists have figured out is that she really did have a magical well that turned
things to stone.
The Petrifying Well that helped make the witch so famous does indeed turn things like teddy
bears and hats hard as stone in about 3 months.
It's because of the high mineral content of the water and natural evaporation.
Things don't actually turn to stone, but they do become solid and crusty.
That sounds pretty terrifying to me if I lived in 17th century England and didn't know any
better!
8: The Mozu Tombs The Mozu Tombs near the city of Osaka in Japan
are some of the most beautiful burial mounds anywhere in the world.
The Mozu area contains several dozen gravesites from between the 4th and 6th centuries.
They were built for the ruling elite, with the larger and more elaborate mounds signifying
a higher status than those buried in the smaller ones.
Makes sense right?
The largest of all the tombs was built for Emperor Nintoku Kofun.
His tomb is surrounded by moats, it's over 2400 feet (731 m) long, and it's the largest
grave in all of Japan.
Actually, not just Japan.
It's one of the largest graves in the entire world!
And less than a mile away from it is the third largest tomb in the country, that of Emperor
Richu Kofun.
The area of Mozu in Sakai City is like the Giza of Japan.
The enormous tomb for Emperor Nintoku is so big that it stands out in the very center
of the metropolis.
Because the mound is considered sacred, it's been entirely left alone by the Japanese people.
Covered in trees, it's not even open to the public, and as a result the emperor’s body
is still safe inside his tomb.
This is one example of a people who don't actually want to dig up the graves of their
ancestors.
The Japanese have decided to keep the emperor’s body entombed out of respect.
There are other tombs to consider here though, with plenty of small and medium graves spread
all across the area.
The biggest mystery of all is that they were all made in the shape of a keyhole – and
nobody quite knows why.
7: Delos Delos was once the most sacred place in all
of ancient Greece.
It was a trading center, an island hub in the middle of the Aegean Sea.
It was in the perfect spot to meet traders from the most important cities in ancient
Greece, such as Athens, Corinth, Macedonia, Rhodes, and Crete.
But the history of Delos goes far beyond its rise as a trading center.
The island was originally inhabited back in 3000 BC, settled for 1500 years, and then
turned into a site of worship around 1580 BC.
Nobody knows exactly what happened, but thousands of people started flocking to Delos in the
8th century and didn’t stop for a thousand years.
People started to make up stories about the place.
They believed the god Apollo was born on Delos, which brought pilgrims from all over Greece
in the surrounding areas.
The city's fame lasted all the way into the 1st century BC, when it peaked at around 25,000
inhabitants.
That's not much today, but it was considered a lot of people back then.
The city started its decline in the year 540 BC.
The Athenians took the island over, they ruined the temple of Apollo, and they forbid anyone
to be born or to die on the island.
After the Persian wars in 478 BC, Delos prospered under the new rule of Macedon.
The Romans burned the island down 400 years later in their war with the Mithridates.
And by the 3rd century AD, the island was a very different place.
There was a small Christian community living on Delos, its past connection to the gods
of Olympus forgotten, and it faded into obscurity.
6: Dimmuborgir Dimmuborgir is an incredible lava formation
in Iceland that was once said to be the entrance to the underworld.
It can be found today near Myvatn Lake in the northern region of the country.
It's a volcanic field of jagged rocks and caves that were formed after a devastating
eruption around 2300 years ago.
When the volcano erupted, there was probably a small body of water at the site.
When the water mixed with the lava, it created a unique landscape of geological features.
One of the most impressive of these features is a great rock arch that locals call “The
Church.”
The name of this place, although it may just sound like gibberish to you, is quite ominous.
Dimmuborgir translates to “Dark Cities.”
The rock formations may be fascinating to you or me, but they were terrifying to the
ancient inhabitants of Iceland.
When Christians arrived on the island and beheld the black and jagged landscape of rock,
they immediately connected it to the devil.
They decided it was where Satan had landed after he was tossed out of heaven.
Dimmuborgir became the source of many other myths as well.
It was said to be a portal to the nether world.
Traditional folklore even says the lava field was once home to an Icelandic group of trolls
called the Yule Lads.
What do you think of this place?
Let me know in the comments below!!
5: Altar of Monte D`Accoddi The Altar of Monte D'Accoddi was once something.
It was definitely once something.
But archaeological experts can't fully agree on what that something was.
Some say it was a viewing platform, some believe it was a prehistoric altar, and others say
a step pyramid.
Some even argue it was an ancient ziggurat inspired by the Babylonians.
What we do know is that the earliest construction here in Sardinia dates back to 4000 BC.
It was the people known as the Ozieri who laid the first stones.
These were prehistoric hunter-gatherers in the midst of learning animal husbandry and
practicing agriculture.
They're the ones who came before the Nuragic civilization, which went on to dominate Spain
for many centuries.
By the end of the first phase of construction, there was a platform about 15 feet (4.5 m)
tall accessible by a ramp.
It was all made of rock and earth and was extremely primitive.
But whatever may have been here was destroyed in the year 3000 BC.
Then after 200 years of abandonment, a second phase of construction began.
This was by a totally different culture who had become dominant in the region: the Abealzu-Filigosa
culture.
They created a structure with a second tier, something of a step pyramid about 30 feet
(9.1 m) tall.
However, we don't know what this place was used for.
It continued to be occupied by the Beaker Culture, but the monument was abandoned before
the Nuragic Age began in 1800 BC.
It wasn't discovered in modern times until the 1950s.
These days, it's the closest thing to an actual pyramid anywhere in Sardinia.
And now for number 4, but first wanted to give a big shout out to Xxtayce
and Marie Krantz
Thanks so much for watching!
If you are new here, welcome!
And remember to subscribe if you haven’t already for more videos like these!!
4: Aggersborg Aggersborg is the biggest Viking ring castle
in Denmark.
It's also one of the country's largest archaeological sites.
It consists of a circular rampart and a really big ditch surrounding it.
The castle is intersected at its center by 4 main roads running through it.
These roads were tunneled under the outer rampart so that the main structure would stay
intact.
They also split the fortress into four main quadrants.
Pretty impressive engineering, huh?
But none of this is still in the castle today.
All that you can see when visiting the site is the outline of what once stood here.
The ring castle has been completely destroyed.
It once had walls over 12 feet tall (3.65 m) and a huge rampart of soil, turf, and oak
wood.
But the giant fortress is completely gone.
There were once 5000 men stationed here in at least 48 longhouses – all gone.
The only reason we even know there was once a giant fortress here is because the imprint
of it has been left on the ground, leaving behind a sort of layout of what was once here.
Archaeologists don't know what the stronghold was used for.
It could have been for controlling trade moving through the region or as a training ground
for Vikings. 3: Bagan
Bagan is one of the most important ancient religious cities in Southeast Asia.
You have Angkor in Cambodia, long-since abandoned by the Khmer to the jungle.
And then you have Bagan in Myanmar.
Angkor definitely gets more tourists, but Bagan deserves some recognition as well.
This mysterious place is located on the floor of a valley and contains so many exotic Buddhist
temples you would need to live here for a year to explore them all.
The original Kingdoms of Bagan made their appearance in the 2nd century BC.
They dominated the region for over 1000 years before it finally entered its golden age under
the rule of King Anawrahta in 1057.
Then, until 1287 when the forces of Kublai Khan overran the area, over 13,000 temples
and other religious structures were built here.
Pagodas, stupas, everything you can imagine.
And now, 700 years later, there are still 2200 of them remaining.
The river washed away about a third of them, thieves looking for treasure destroyed the
others, and time ruined the rest.
What's truly incredible is that even with so few temples remaining, Bagan is a sight
to behold like none other.
It's hard to imagine what it would have looked like 700 years ago when there were 11,000
more temples to look at!
Do you want to visit this place?
Let me know in the comments below!!
2: Camulodunum Before the Romans arrived in Britain in the
year 43 AD, the area of what is today Colchester was occupied by the Trinovantes.
Later, they were replaced by the Catuvellauni tribes, who constructed a stronghold that
they called Camulodunum.
In the local language, it meant “the stronghold of Camulus,” which was in reference to a
mysterious Brythonic deity who may have been very similar to the Roman deity Mars.
Have you ever heard of these tribes before??
In the 1st century, the Catuvellauni was one of the major tribes in Britain.
This put a huge target on their backs when the Romans arrived.
They wasted no time in attacking the tribesmen and taking over their lands.
The Romans then built their very first British legionary fortress at Camulodunum.
After the year 49, the fortress was no longer needed because the Romans were in full control
of the area.
It was converted into a civilian town and used as something of a relaxation point for
discharged legionnaires.
But then a decade later in the year 60, a sudden uprising led by Queen Boudica of the
Iceni tribal coalition completely destroyed the city.
Not only did they destroy Camulodunum, but they also burned down Londinium, what is modern
London, and more!
But the story for the city wasn't over.
It declined in the 4th century, as the Roman empire crumbled.
But it remained occupied and is still occupied today.
In the city of Colchester, the ruins of Camulodunum can still be seen if you look hard enough.
1: Gila Cliff Dwellings The Gila Cliff Dwellings were built in the
late 1200s by desert-dwelling Puebloans.
They crafted their homes in natural caves and overhangs in the dry and dusty landscape
of what is now New Mexico.
This was 700 years ago, and today we have no idea what happened to them.
We know they were part of the Mogollon culture, but that they lasted less than a century in
the Gila wilderness.
They built their mysterious cliff dwellings in the 1280s and vanished by the early 1300s.
What's truly interesting is that archaeologists believe there was only one generation of people
here.
This is based on the number of houses and the few artifacts that were left behind.
There were likely eight or ten families who carved the cliff dwellings and lived in them
for a single generation.
They grew squash and corn nearby in the river, hunted wild game, and they fashioned pottery.
But within just one generation, they abandoned their farms, their homes, and dispersed to
unknown lands.
Have you ever visited one of the many ancient cliff dwellings in the US?
Let me know about your experiences in the comments and don’t forget to hit subscribe
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Thanks for watching and I’ll see you again soon for another awesome video.
Bye!