The wise Greeks were wrong and inaccurate, reducing all the achievements of civilization to the sacred number "seven" (Seven Wonders of the World). Modern historians, re-calculating the creations of the famous architects of antiquity and the Middle Ages, count dozens of true masterpieces of architecture.
Here is just a small part of this list - ten forgotten wonders of the world. Their list covers the accomplishments of people who lived in four parts of the world: from the capital of the Incas to Indonesia.
GREAT BRITAIN. MAIDEN KASTLE
The monument is located in the south of England, on a hill, two miles from Dorchester. The construction of a fortress here began in the 6th century BC. What efforts were required for the people who lived here to build a grandiose system of fortifications! What ditches have been dug here, and what walls have been built!
Excavations show that the construction took about three hundred years. An inner rampart with two gates fenced off an area of about 17 hectares. Later, the old fortress was surrounded by four concentric walls, turning into an impregnable stronghold.
On the hill, you can see traces of streets and rounded foundations of buildings, clearly visible when filmed from the air. Obviously, there was a settlement here, built up with stone and wooden houses. Paved roads ran between them.
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We do not know yet who built Maiden Castle. How long have people lived here? Did anyone attack them? Did the inhabitants of the fortress have to withstand long sieges? It is only known that its defenders were probably armed with slings. After all, piles of stones have survived to our time, with which, obviously, they fired at the attackers.
In total, as scientists have calculated, there are about 22 thousand stones. An enviable arsenal! The subsequent fate of the fortress is also known. In the 1st century AD, it was captured by Vespasian's legion. The local settlement fell into decay. Only in the 4th century a Roman-Celtic temple was built here.
ZIMBABWE. GREAT ZIMBABWE
One of the legends says that this city was built by the legendary Queen of Sheba. In fact, the fortress of Great Zimbabwe, after which the whole country is named, was erected in the 13th century AD - at a time that was by no means biblical.
The fortress on the hill became the stronghold of the local rulers who held the vast country in subjection - it became its capital. According to scientists, up to eighteen thousand people lived here. They traded with neighboring peoples and even distant countries: during the excavations, clay products from Persia and China were found.
The outer ring of the walls is the best preserved. Their height reaches ten meters, but they are folded without a single drop of solution. The stones are hewn and tightly fitted to each other. Various buildings and structures towered under the walled-up walls.
However, scientists still know little about the life of the inhabitants of this fortress. Who were they? What was this stronghold built for? To defend against enemies? Or was it some kind of temple structure that attracted pilgrims under the canopy of a high fence? Or the residence of the ruler of the country, sheltered by a powerful defense?
After two centuries of prosperity, Greater Zimbabwe fell into decay. The mystery of its Cyclopean walls worries historians today.
INDONESIA. TEMPLE BOROBUDUR
In the jungle of Java, this ancient temple grows like a mountain. Six square and three round terraces lead to the summit, forming a pyramid and rising to a height of 22 meters. It is crowned with a memorial sign - a stupa ten meters high. She symbolizes the Buddha and his wisdom, elevating him above people.
Construction of Borobudur began at the end of the 8th century AD. Its square base is aligned with the cardinal points. The base is 113 meters long. There is no interior space in the temple. But it is very richly decorated on the outside. There are 72 stupas and 504 Buddha statues.
On the side walls of the temple, 1,300 reliefs are carved, depicting scenes from the life of Prince Gautama Shakyamuni, considered a Buddha, as well as scenes of his incarnations. The total length of the reliefs is two and a half kilometers.
In total, the construction of the temple took about one million six hundred thousand hewn stones. There was no cement slurry. The stones are so tightly fitted to each other!
In ancient times, the shrine of the Buddha shone with bright colors; red, blue, green, gold. Scientists have found particles of paint and grains of sheet gold. It is still not known which of the then rulers of Central Java ordered the construction of this splendor. We can only say that he was one of the kings of the Shailendra dynasties, who ruled in the middle of the VIII - the middle of the IX centuries. After all, after her fall, worshipers of the god Shiva returned to power in Java.
However, whatever the name of this kind-hearted customer, it should be admitted that the king, who started the construction of such a temple, fervently believed in Buddha and, in addition, did not know the constraint of means. While erecting it, he evidently wanted to capture how the soul, having escaped from the "world of passions", ascends to the desired enlightenment.
A fortunate fate was given to this temple. Opponents of the Buddhist faith were ready to destroy it, but the defenders covered the temple with earth. Under its layer, it was preserved intact, and only in the middle of the 19th century was it rediscovered by archaeologists. In our time, Borobudur is preserved as a monument of world culture.
IRAQ. THE ROYAL PALACE IN KTESIPHONE
"May the world be amazed at my greatness and splendor!" Apparently, the king of Persia Khosrov I thought so, deciding to build himself a new palace in Ctesiphon in about 550 AD, his capital, which lay not far from Baghdad.
There was truly something to be surprised at! The decoration of the palace was its throne room 50 meters long and 25 meters wide, crowned with a huge arch 35 meters high. Historians are still amazed today when looking at her.
During its construction, the builders used a special bonding solution: it dried out with extraordinary speed. Bricks instantly stuck to one another, not threatening to collapse on the head of the crowned ruler.
The skill of the ancient architects was excellent. The arch stood for over thirteen centuries, until the flood of 1888 brought down most of it. And what about "greatness and splendor"? It disappeared long ago. In 636, the Arabs captured Ctesiphon, ending Sassanid Persia.
MALI. CLAY MOSQUES TOMBUKTU
About a thousand years ago, at the turn of the XI-XII centuries, the rise of the city of Timbuktu began, based on the intersection of trade routes that led through the Sahara from the shores of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
Caravans of merchants incessantly stretched to Timbuktu, for, as the Portuguese geographer of the beginning of the 16th century Valentim Fernandis wrote, “is a collection point for all gold that is exchanged for salt both in the east and in the west” (translated by LE Kubbel) …
"There is the greatest abundance of grain and livestock," echoed Leo the African (16th century). No wonder Timbuktu became the most important center of the state of Mali. About one hundred thousand people lived here.
The buildings here are among the finest examples of clay architecture in Africa. Among them there are three magnificent mosques. The most ancient of them - Djingereber - dates back presumably to the XIII century. It was made of clay bricks and then covered with clay.
To make it easier to repair the building, a frame made of poles, also plastered with clay, was put into its walls. After all, they were often engaged in the repair of dwellings and temples: their walls suffered from heavy showers, then from sandstorms.
In 1591, the city, replete with shops of merchants, artisans and weavers, was captured by the Moroccans, and three centuries later - by the French. Its clay mosques - Jingereber, Sankore (XIV century) and Sidi Yahya (c. 1440) - have survived to this day. They are included in the list of monuments protected by humanity.
MALTA. Temples of the Great
About 3600 BC - more than a thousand years before the appearance of the Cheops pyramid! - the inhabitants of Malta began to build huge megalithic temples (according to other dates, in 2800-1900 BC).
Hagar Qim Temple
In total, there are 23 temples in Malta and the adjacent islands. All of them are oriented strictly to the southeast. On the days of the solstices, light falls directly on the main altar. Some of the temples are even hidden underground from prying eyes: The construction of these masses stopped around 2500 BC.
We do not know who built them, in honor of which gods ceremonies were held here, and what these festivities were like. Archaeologists only assume that the first settlers, who appeared in Malta about seven thousand years ago (according to other sources, about 3200 BC), arrived here from Sicily, which lies nearby - just ninety kilometers to the north.
Subsequently, when the history of ancient temples was long forgotten, the new inhabitants of Malta, looking at these walls, made of stones that weighed more than one ton, could explain their appearance only for one reason, understandable to the common people: once upon a time there, on the island, lived giants. They also erected these strongholds, hewn the fragments of the rocks and piled them on top of each other.
MEXICO. STONE HEADS OF OLMECS
The Olmecs were the forerunners of the Maya and Aztecs. About three thousand years ago, they created the first civilization of Mesoamerica - Central America. Among the legacy left by them are colossal heads carved from basalt. The largest of them reaches a height of 3.4 meters and weighs 50 tons.
The look of these stone idols is striking: they are all slightly cross-eyed.
Archaeologists do not know who served as the prototype for these unusual sculptures: the rulers of the "country of rubber" (the term "Olmecs" means "inhabitants of the country of rubber"), its warriors, or maybe the famous ball players? After all, we honor our athletes more than writers or scientists!
It is unclear how the stone heads were brought to their destination. After all, the Olmecs did not know any wheeled carts or draft animals, and they had to overcome up to a hundred kilometers. Perhaps, according to one of the hypotheses, these sculptures were transported along the rivers.
But how to load a heavy stone ball weighing almost fifty tons on a boat? It was impossible to do this without a whole system of lifting blocks, and the Olmecs did not have them. There is only one way out: roll them by hand!
And one more mystery: how were these boulders processed? After all, the Olmecs did not have metal tools and did not have stone tools harder than basalt. Alas, these idols remain silent, and, obviously, archaeologists will have to look for an answer to their questions for a long time.
PERU. SAKSAYUAMAN TEMPLE FORTRESS
It was "the largest and most majestic building, showing the valor and power of the Incas," wrote the Spanish chronicler. The temple, built in the 15th century, served simultaneously as a fortress. It towered over the capital of the Incas - Cuzco.
When Europeans arrived here in 1533, they were amazed not only by the beauty of the temple itself. They looked in amazement at the stones from which it was built. The length of these blocks reached five meters. Calculations showed that they weighed up to 128 tons!
How did the Indians manage to lay down the walls of these blocks, which even a giant cannot move from its place? How did they get them here? The Incas did not know the wheel. They had no carts. The authors of ancient chronicles report that the Incas dragged these blocks to the temple, tying them with ropes as thick as a human hand. And how did you lift the stones up, balancing on a narrow wall and deftly fitting them to one another? This remains a mystery to this day.
In total, about twenty thousand people worked on the construction of the temple. The work lasted for almost half a century. However, this "wonder of the world" did not last long. He suffered about the same fate as the famous Colosseum. After the fall of the Inca Empire, the Spaniards began to gradually dismantle the temple, using it as a huge "quarry". The dwellings of the new rulers of Peru were built from this stone.
SRI LANKA. SIGIRIA PALACE AND GARDENS
Paradise rises two hundred meters above the jungle dome. Once upon a time, King Kassapa I (473-491) settled here. It was surrounded by magnificent gardens with fountains, streams and ponds, in the middle of which waslets were visible. On these islets there were wonderful pavilions.
King Kassapa ordered to build his palace on the very top of the cliff. To climb to him, one had to go through a huge lion's mouth, carved in the rock. Hence the name of this magnificent citadel - Sigiriya, "Lion's Rock".
The king's house was beautiful, enveloped in the aromas of flowers and the murmur of streams, but the path to it was paved with blood and death. In his hideout, Kassapa hid from enemies and conspirators. After all, he himself was a usurper, and not a legitimate king: he killed his father and sent into exile his brother, who was to inherit power.
Fearing the dagger and poison, he at the same time felt like a god. Here, at the top of the world, he was the embodiment of Kubera - the god who once ruled Sri Lanka and who created Paradise on earth for people.
In his chamber full of earthly temptations, Kassapa ruled for eighteen years. Everything was like in a fairy tale: “Among the gardens, streams were woven a pattern, Spicy flowers were fragrant, And the hills of the same age, pine forest, Meadows, which were flooded with bright sun, framed the hills” (translated by V. V.
However, in the unfinished poem by Samuel Coleridge, Kubla Khan reigns eternally in his extraordinary palace, and this tale of the southern seas is still over. The legitimate heir - the exiled brother - returned and overthrew Kassapa. Since then, none of the kings have settled on the Lion Rock.
ETHIOPIA. AKSUM STEELS
At Aksum, one of the most ambitious daring of antiquity failed. One of the rulers of this African kingdom planned to build the world's largest tombstone. Its height reached 33 meters, and its weight was 520 tons.
However, the attempt to install this stele failed. The column collapsed and split. However, other steles erected by the kings of Aksum are also admired. The height of the largest of them is 20.6 meters, and the weight is 160 tons. It resembles a ten-story building - and not only because of its height.
The ancient builders decorated the edges of the stele with clear ornamentation reminiscent of windows and doors. Why did they need it? How did this strange idea come about? In the 2nd-4th centuries AD, when these steles were built, no multi-storey buildings were built in Aksum.
It is unclear how these steles were delivered from a quarry about four kilometers away. Archaeologists suggest that elephants were used for this purpose. The stele was raised, obviously, with the help of an embankment - a ramp. However, there is no certainty about this.
It remains to be admitted that in erecting these tombstones, the inhabitants of Aksum showed no less ingenuity than their northern neighbors - the pyramid builders.