Amazing Ancient Structures and Ruins One thing I am very interested in are countries that are so old they contain many ancient cities, structures and objects. Egypt is very high on places containing ancient structures. You can see one of them in Central Park, in New York City. It Is almost 3,500 years old, it is an Egyptian Obelisk imported from Egypt and is known as Cleopatra’s Needle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is another place in the city where there is an entire ancient Egyptian section. There is probably nothing outside of Egypt that can compare with actually going to Egypt and seeing the ancient wonders oneself. The culture there in the ancient times was incredibly innovative in building structures, many of which still baffle the experts. One of the things baffling them are some of the statues of Ramesses. I never noticed what I am about to tell you, then I read about it. There is a series of these statues where one side of the face is an exact copy of the other side. No one can figure out how this was done. I know, you thought I was going to talk about the Great Pyramid, didn’t you? That has a mystery attached to it also, besides the obvious problem of how the blocks were moved. That mystery has to do with how they got the measurements so perfect without measuring tools, using only string? The ancient Egyptians got the most out of what they had to use to build structures. One country which also has very ancient roots is Iraq. I am sure we have all heard about Babylon. The remains of Babylon are inside Iraq. One unfortunate thing which has happened to that country is people have attacked and destroyed some of the ancient structures in the country including inside the remains of Babylon. While some of the destruction was caused by the war and both sides, later on a movement to destroy evidence of the glorious past resulted in more destruction. One incredible ancient site is the Great Ziggurat of Ur. It was built and later rebuilt and is an incredible site. The remains of the oldest civilization in the world are said to be Sumer, where the Ziggurat overlooks. It is said there are about 25 ziggurats which are in different states of repair, but this ziggurat is the only standing one. Incredibly, it was built around 2,100 B.C. A ziggurat is sort of a stepped pyramid with a bell tower. There are many other interesting sites to be seen in Iraq. One of my favorite countries for ancient structures is Turkey. Turkey was conquered many times and since it is so ancient, the countries that conquered it left many structures behind. This also caused some of the residents to construct tunnels and complete underground cities to protect themselves. One man was working in the cellar of his home and moved a wall and found a walkway behind it. When he explored, he had to stop because he had found a huge underground city capable of holding over 20,000 people and their possessions and animals. One has to wonder how these ancient people could have carved out the stone and to create such cities? Every race which conquered turkey left structures behind. Turkey was Anatolia until the 11th century A.D. Anatolia had been invaded by Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Mongols. The Turks existed before Turkey and were a nomadic people. It is said Turkey has more ancient ruins than any other country. I guess it is about time to mention Alexander who conquered the known world at the time and spread Greek civilization. While ancient Greek structures can be found in many places, Italy has some interesting ones. Sicily contained the ancient city of Syracuse, a Greek colony and home to Archimedes. It was only one of many ancient Greek colonies. The Greeks left their temples behind. One of the most famous areas is known as the valley of the temples or Valle dei Templi. It is located in Agrigento, Sicily. Moving to mainland Italy we find the ancient Greek ruins at Paestum. Greek temples can also be found in Cyprus and Turkey besides Italy. It seems to me Rome has left more structures around the world than any other civilization. You can find Roman structures all over Europe, and even in Israel. The Romans were involved in Israel for over 400 years and left their mark. Israel was known as Judea at the time. Jerusalem contains some interesting Roman sites. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built by the Roman Emperor Constantine who had converted to Catholicism. The Romans built a Cardo in Jerusalem which was a string of ancient cities. It starts at the Damascus Gate and ends at the Zion Gate and contains Roman columns. Let’s not forget all those Roman ruins, buildings and aqueducts, some of which are still used today. The modern-day city of Rome still uses the Aqua Virgo aqueduct to carry water. It was built in 19 B.C. It supplies the water to the Trevi Fountain, a famous tourist attraction. It seems strange to me but ancient China didn’t seem to do much colonizing in ancient times. Yet we know from history several Chinese fleets sailed outside of China. Marco Polo was said to be on one of these excursions and ancient stone anchors were said to have been found off the west coast of the United States. A Chinese fleet of 14 ships took Marco part of the way home when he left China. The oldest Chinese settlement is said to be in the Philippines in the district of Binondo in Manila and dates back only to 1594. These settlements from ancient countries make me wonder if there were any older ones which was so old no evidence of them has been found or was destroyed by natural disasters. Also, could archaeologists be mistaken when they credit certain structures to certain cultures? Perhaps some of the famous structures were actually modelled after even more ancient structures the ancients were told about. It seems there are older pyramids around than even the Great Pyramid so is it so far fetched to think this way? While search engines give the result has the oldest pyramid being the Egyptian Pyramid of Djoser, some experts claim it is the pyramid at Gunung Padang in West Java, Indonesia and date it at 27,000 years old. Other archaeologists dissent. I guess it will take more proof of age before they can all agree, because this would be a huge game changer for the historical record. The builders are unknown.
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