Mysterious Ancient Cities and Structures We just seem to keep finding out many of the stories in the bible have been proven true. The latest one is archaeologists think they found proof the Tower of babel was real. They say they not only found out this fact, but they now know how it was constructed and it was not with stone as many believed, it was made of brick and bitumen. Bitumen is a black, gooey material, which many of us call asphalt today. One of the amazing things about archaeology is it gives us a window into our past and sometimes proves some of the things we have heard about for centuries were true. I find this especially true when we talk about places. For millennia, the story of Troy and how the Greeks defeated it has been told. It is a great story, but many believed that was all it was, just a story. Then in the 19th century, the city of Troy was discovered by an amateur archeologist named Heinrich Schliemann along with Frank Calvert. It turned out to be a city in Turkey. Many archaeologists complained that Schliemann ruined the site and this was mainly caused because he was an amateur and didn’t have the skills of a professional archaeologist. Anyway, this makes us wonder about part of the story about Helen of Troy who was said to be the reason the Greeks attacked. That reason being they wanted to get even for her being whisked away by the Trojans. The greatest find which is still to be made would be if someone could find Atlantis. Well guess what, there are a few who believe it was found and it was the city of Helike. Helike, according to myth, was destroyed by Poseidon. Poseidon was the god of the sea, tidal waves and earthquakes. In other words, Helike sank under the water. It was found again over 2,000 years later buried. It seems an earthquake hit the city first causing it to fall into a lagoon. One very famous place was Xanadu. Even songs were written about it. This was truly thought to be a mythical place. When Marco Polo returned from China, he spread the word about the incredible palace of Kublai Khan. The palace was thought to be Xanadu. It encompassed many miles of land which had been carefully manicured and contained many wonderous things, such as a stable which was said to contain 10,000 white horses. Now we know this alone would be an incredible building so perhaps we have to chalk the numbers up to a bit of exaggeration. There was also said to be many beautiful fountains and other animals. Unfortunately, the place was demolished in 1369. Luckily, Polo got there in 1275 so he got to see this magnificence before it was gone. I don’t know what the ruler of Sri Lanka knew about Egypt in the 5th century, but he built something very famous at the time which reminds me of the Sphynx. He built a castle which became known as the 8th wonder of the world. It was built on a giant rock and the entrance had stairs which were flanked by the paws of a lion and you entered the castle through the mouth of a lion to enter. Am I the only one thinking the Sphynx might have been the idea for this and the king was trying to outdo it? The castle was called Sigiriya. Over the centuries it was believed this was only a story, but the castle was found again proving the story was true. What cemented its fame was the fact UNESCO called it the 8th wonder of the world. One has to wonder how many other stories we believe were myths about places which existed which will turn out to be true. Some places there are not even stories about and yet they might be large cities lost in the annals of time. One example of this are the medieval cities of Cambodia. These cities have never been recorded or the records are lost, but today no one had known they existed before they were found. One large medieval city was found near Angkor Wat the famous temple. It is being felt the history of Cambodia may soon be changed by the discoveries of these cities. Some of the cities are so large, they are about the size of the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. It does make one wonder how large cities can disappear over time whitout modern man knowing about them. The cities are being found in the country’s jungles. Jungles all over the world could be hiding long lost cities. It is especially true when the civilization that built them didn’t have any written language. In the case of the Maya, they not only had a written language, but also had books. Still there are mysterious Mayan cities being found in the jungle. It seems the jungles in Guatemala are turning up Maya cities. This is in many ways thanks to new equipment which allows archaeologists to look through the trees when flying over the jungle. This is going to lead to way more cities being found along with structures. Sometimes cities and structures are revealed by a natural tragedy. This is what happened in India a few years ago when they were hid by a tsunami. As the water was being drawn away from the coast, which happens before the tsunami hits, two temples were revealed offshore which were presumed long lost. Unfortunately, this disaster took many lives, but now the people know the tale of these temples once existing was true. In 1748 Pompeii was discovered. There had been stories about it, but it was mostly forgotten and thought to be a tall tale. As construction was going on the structures of the long lost city started coming into view. I guess the rest is history. We have been working on the city every since to bring it back to the way it looked before the eruption. It is a view into how the Romans lived and historically one of the greatest finds. It is also sad to see the casts which were made from the ash that covered the victims in their last minutes. The occupants didn’t seem to have any warning, or else they thought the rumble was just normal and nothing would happen. It is true the volcano might have rumbled for years before blowing its top. One has to wonder how far back in time some of the finds will go. So far, we are roughly back to 12,000 B.C. in some of the finds in Turkey and that main find is a temple.
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