Ancient Structures And Cities There have been some incredible structures from ancient times which no longer exist. As a matter of fact, there is only 1 of the 7 wonders of the world which still exists and that is the great pyramid at Giza. It does make one wonder if their existence is just a story and they may not have existed at all. When things go that far back in time, sometimes it is very hard to find evidence of true existence. What were the seven wonders of the world you might ask? They were the Great Pyramid, Lighthouse of Alexandria, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Colossus of Rhodes, Temple of Artemis at Epheus, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Archaeologists seem to be split on whether they all existed at one time or not, with one group saying there is enough documentary and archaeological evidence to prove they existed. Even if they did however, there were other structures which are no longer with us which were just as miraculous. Take the library at Alexandra for example. In ancient times an incredible structure was built with reading rooms, lecture halls and individual rooms for scholarly study of materials. The library was an incredible building based on all accounts, and held the knowledge of the ancient world. Scrolls were collected from all around the world and put into the library. It is a shame it no longer exists. The Romans decided to destroy it in the rush to conquer. Imagine what might have been stored there. Perhaps we could have learned the answers to ancient puzzles which still to this day we have no answer for. We might have been able to learn how they did some of the things which look impossible to us today such as moving giant stones weighing hundreds of tons and sometimes even thousands of tons. We also might have learned who built some of the structures we have found. If we check through the archaeological record we sometimes find abandoned structures but have no idea what happened to the people who built them. Mesa Verde National Park is in Colorado. In that park built on a cliff are many cliff dwellings which are very well preserved and were very carefully built. We can only guess why the people built their village on a hard to access cliff and we have no idea where they went and why they left. One thing is for sure, they were excellent builders. Did you ever wonder what prompted ancient people to join others and live in a city and sometimes just abandon it, or in some cases I have to say abandon them. I am talking about the Maya this time. It is thought the Maya built 40 cities. I wouldn’t be too sure there weren’t more, because we keep finding new cites from different South and Central civilizations, thanks to new technology. It is believed the Maya abandoned their last city in 900 A.D. The reason is uncertain. Some believe it had to do with water, wars, or maybe the trade routes had moved. There were also other reasons put forward, but no one can be sure. There is a history of large numbers of people disappearing from the historical record. Could it be some of these people were captured and taken into slavery? We don’t usually find enough bodies to prove a disease ravaged them. Going much further back in time Catalhoyuk was one of the very first cities. It was in present day Turkey and dates back to as much as 9,000 years ago. I find it hard to imagine a city existing at that time. It is called the world’s oldest city. It is amazing there are still existing ruins of the city. The idea of how to build a comfortable city had not taken root yet. In this city many of the structures were right next to each other and you had to climb a ladder and enter through the roof. I guess if you wanted to visit you would have to walk across roof tops or climb down and walk to the structure you wanted to visit and go up their ladder. The city was eventually abandoned. Some ancient structures have been rebuilt due to their importance to the historical record. Maybe restored is a better word. One of those structures is the Parthenon in Greece. This building is considered by some as the most beautiful structure in the world. Stonehenge was restored and put back together the way the archaeologists thought it appeared originally. It was said the handbook used to tell this, but no longer does. I wouldn’t know this for sure. The temple of Jupiter was rebuilt four times, but lays in ruins today. It is located in Baalbek where there is a couple of incredible stone slabs which were lifted and inserted into a platform structure which weighs thousands of tones. A feat we are not capable of doing today. When I run across mysteries like this I am just amazed at what the ancients could do. When I talk about rebuilding ancient structures or restoring them it also includes disassembly and reassembly. One of the most incredible feats of this was to the Egyptian temples at Abu Simbel. When it was decided Egypt would build the Aswan Dam, the Egyptians decided they did not want the Abu Simbel temples to be covered by water so they planned to move them. Thus began one of the most incredible moves of large ancient buildings. The complex was deconstructed and reconstructed on higher ground and made safe from the waters of the dam. Getting back to abandoned cities, some of them still look amazing. One of these is Petra. It is located in Jordan. What sets this city aside from many others is the fact its buildings were carved out of the stone mountains. Only about 10 percent is said to have been excavated. What happened to the people who lived there and why did they leave? We may never find this out. I guess we have to chalk it up to another mystery. There is no doubt there were a lot of ancient villages, towns and cities which came and went and we may never know why. We also won’t know what happened to the population. I think most of them just moved on to other places because of reasons unknown. When it came to the cities which had human sacrifice, some believed the population eventually just had enough of that and took off, and who could blame them?
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