1. Baby mammoth Dima
A mammoth cub, found by the bulldozer driver A. Logachev in June 1977 at the mouth of the Kirgilyakh stream of the Magadan region at a depth of 2 meters from the surface of the earth, was the only fully preserved mammoth in the world for 30 years, until the reindeer herder Yuri Khudi discovered the baby mammoth Lyuba in May 2007 years on the Yamal Peninsula. A mammoth (age 6-7 months), who was named Dima, lived on Earth 13-40 thousand years ago. It was a scientific sensation on a global scale: thanks to the find, scientists studied the structural features of mammoths and their life.
2. Giant people
Not far from the town of Borjomi, located in the Kharagaulsky reserve, in 2008, archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a three-meter man. The giant's skull was three times the size of a normal human. According to archaeologists, the find is a sensation and confirmation that giant people lived on Earth in ancient times.
3. Princess Ukok
In 1993, archaeologists found in the Altai Republic the mummy of a woman with tattoos, presumably living in the 5th – 3rd centuries BC. Journalists and residents gave her the name "Princess Ukok" (after the Ukok plateau). This is one of the most significant discoveries of Russian archeology at the end of the 21st century. During the excavations, it was discovered that the deck in which the body was lying was filled with ice. The burial chamber was opened for several days, melting the ice. Thanks to the find, scientists managed to make several ethnographic discoveries.
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4. Underwater volcano
Researchers from the American University of Houston discovered an underwater volcano in September 2013 and named it the Tamo Massif. It is larger than the largest volcano on Earth, Mauna Loa, in Hawaii. The volcano was found in the Pacific Ocean at a distance of about 1.6 thousand kilometers from the coast of Japan. Its shape is different from other underwater volcanoes. According to preliminary data, the Tamo Massif is about 145 million years old, and it ceased to be active several million years after its formation. Before that, scientists did not assume that the bottom sediments lead to a single volcano vent 4 km high. Thanks to the discovery, experts hope to learn more about how volcanic formations form and how much magma can splash to the surface.
5. Tutankhamun's tomb
In 1922, in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, an English archaeologist found the tomb of Tutankhamun. The discovery is recognized as one of the main and famous events in Egyptology. The most valuable exhibit of the tomb is considered to be a mask of pure gold weighing 11 kg 260 g. The discovery aroused unprecedented interest in Egyptian history and led to new finds.
6. Pompeii
In 1592 the architect Domenico Fontana, while laying a canal from the Sarno River, discovered part of the city wall. Almost 100 years later, during the construction of the well, the ruins of an ancient building were found, on which the word "Pompeii" was preserved. Experts have concluded that this is the villa of Pompey the Great, but large excavations of the city near Naples, buried under a layer of volcanic ash after the eruption of Vesuvius, began in 1748. Today Pompeii has become an open-air museum as evidence of history and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
7. Venus de Milo
In 1820, a Greek peasant found a famous ancient Greek sculpture in the field, created in 130-100. BC. The goddess's hands disappeared after her discovery - at the time of the conflict between the French, who wanted to take her home, and the Turks (at that time the owners of the island), who pursued the same goal. The find of Venus de Milo is one of the most significant in the history of archeology.
8. "Schliemann's Gold"
Amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who spent several years of his life in search of Troy, managed, after long excavations in 1869-1890, to unexpectedly discover under the ruins of a Greek city the Mycenaean civilization and a treasure of copper and gold jewelry, which turned out to be a thousand years older than the events described by Homer. The bulk of the treasures, known as "Schliemann's gold", is kept in the Pushkin Museum. Pushkin in Moscow.
9. City of the Incas
Machu Picchu was awarded the title of New Wonder of the World in 2007. The city of the ancient Incas, forgotten for 400 years, was found by Yale University professor Hiram Bignham in 1911. The city has preserved a solar observatory, the Sacred Square, and so on, because the Spanish conquistadors simply did not get here. Today the city is a center of pilgrimage for tourists from all over the world.
10. Ashurbanipal Library
The oldest known library in the world was discovered in 1849 by the British archaeologist Austin Henry Layard on the banks of the Euphrates. It consists of 25,000 clay tablets with cuneiform texts, which were created by order of King Ashurbanipal in the 7th century BC. The discovery allowed scientists to expand their understanding of the Assyrian culture and civilization of ancient Mesopotamia. A sensation in the scientific community was made by the epic about Gilgashm, which tells the story of the global flood, close to the biblical one.