Disappearing Empires and Cultures There are so many strange events which happen on this planet which are hard or impossible to explain. There are times in history where races just disappeared or were wiped out by unknown forces. One of the great disappearances were the cliff dwellers. They disappeared from what is now the United States without a trace. No one knows why they took to the cliffs from the plains, but many different guesses have been made, and one of the best guesses might be for protection from a more powerful warlike race. When they disappeared, they left incredible structures behind them. By moving to the cliffs they made it much harder for their elders to get in and out and it seems like an act of desperation to me. Speaking about ancient mysteries, the Gobekli Tepe temple complex in Turkey is said to be 12,000 years old and should not be there according to the scientists. It reverses the entire idea that people were hunter gatherers and never stayed in one place very long, because it would have taken time to build this structure. If they were only hunters and gatherers, how did they continue to find food to eat over the decades it must have taken to build the complex? On top of that, how did they carve the complex animal sculptures they made without the proper tools? Even the T shaped pillars seemed impossible to have been made, and yet, there they are. Some even believe the temple complex is far older which even deepens the mystery even more. Besides all the theories of aliens helping humans build things, there is a theory stating there could have been one or more very advanced race on the planet who either instructed other races and gave them the knowledge of advanced building and art. Afterall, it seems before about 40,000 years ago there were not cave paintings. Maybe they just haven’t been found yet, but just maybe humans didn’t know how to draw them. Lately, the date of 20,000 years ago has been brought up by some who think this is when the Sphinx was created and maybe the Great Pyramid. It is also the date which was assigned to the pyramid in Bosnia. Did something incredible happen at that time which got the human race going intellectually? Another race of people who disappeared almost entirely were on Easter Island. The Island is famous for the giant heads which were carved out of stone, weighed many tons, and moved into certain locations. The heads are known as Moai, and it was discovered they were not only heads, but had bodies buried under the earth. Why they were made is not known, but again there are theories. One is they could represent dead ancestors. Another is gods. They have been dated from 1,000 to 1,200 A.D. these dates are controversial. Others date the Moai from 1,250 to 1,500. A race named the Rapa Nui is believe to have carved them. Scientists are still trying to find out how they were transported due to their incredible weight. Why were they half buried hiding the area below the heads? At one time there was a thriving civilization in part of what is now the United States. It was known as the Mississippian culture and was a native American culture. It was said to have existed from 800 to about 1,600 A.D. The Mississippians were a race of mound builders. There were urban areas and many connected villages. Their largest city was Cahokia. The culture is believed to have started in the Mississippi Valley. They had even developed trade networks. One weakness of their system was the fact they had no writing. Their capital city emptied by about 1,400 and most of the people disappeared by the 1,500s. Some scientists blame this on the first contact with Europeans. Other scientists blame the change on climate which produced droughts and destroyed much of the food production for the exodus. The Sumerian culture began about 6,000 years ago and became very advanced for their time. They were located on the plains of Iraq and Syria. Their country was named Sumer. The Sumerians had some knowledge of medicine and some say surgery. Copper mining was going on in the area even before the Sumerians became a culture. A copper axe was found in the area and dated back to 5,500 B.C. There is a difference of opinion about where the Sumerians came from. Sumer disappeared with the fall of the city of Ur. This took place around 2,000 B.C. The Amorites took over and eventually all the Sumerians disappeared. One of the most successful cultures was the Maya Empire. It was spread throughout Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador and Nicaragua. We are still finding more Maya cities. The earliest record of the Maya dates back to 1,500 B.C. They had settled in villages and were growing crops. What we call the Maya culture started about 250 A.D. and lasted until about 900 A.D. This is called the classic period. We know of more than 40 Maya cities and there could be more found. Some of their cities had populations of more than 50,000 people with the smallest having about 5,000. After the Classic Period there were a few cities that survived until 1,519 A.D. These cities were located in the Yucatan Peninsula. They were also pyramid builders and their cities were incredible examples of engineering. It took us a while but we have deciphered most of their hieroglyphic writing. They had no metal which makes the construction of their stone buildings even more amazing. Their civilization grew out of the Olmec civilization. They were world leaders in math and astronomy and had invented the zero. In general most of the Maya civilization had collapsed by 900 A.D. No one knows for sure what happened. Some blame the weather, others enemies of the Maya, but is seems although unknown, some catastrophe was responsible. There are still descendants inhabiting some of the areas, but they are now part of the general population of whatever country they are in. There was another empire known as the Khmer Empire which thrived from about 800s to the 1,400s A.D. Its capital was Angkor. No one really knows why this civilization fell and disappeared. They had incredible architecture, and the famous temple of Angkor Wat. Some claim the designs on top of the temple are a tribute to UFOs. The empire was known for its ingenious water control projects. It is said the fall of the empire occurred at about 1,431 A.D. One of the strange things is records stopped being kept and building stopped around 1327. A drought occurred in the mid-1,300s. There were wars and eventually the Khmer Empire disappeared.
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