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Ancient Engineering Secrets That Changed Everything · Be Amazed

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: On the outskirts of the city of Salzbury, England, there's a pretty unassuming series of rolling fields that stretch as far as the eye can see.
• 0:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Aside from a few grazing sheep, there's nothing much here.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Except, shutting out of one of these fields is a bizarre monument that dates back some 5,000 years.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is Stonehenge, one of the last remaining relics of England's mysterious ancient past.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a monument that consists of an outer ring of 13-foot tall sarsons standing stones weighing around 25 tons.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: The equivalent of a large firetrip.
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Each, and the smaller blue stones in the middle aren't actually that much smaller weighing between two and five tons, which is still a couple of
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing, 5,000 years ago, there was no heavy machinery like cranes or excavators.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's no other structures nearby or big trees that could have been used for leverage.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: So these had to have been lifted into place by hand.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: But now, it was a question that had historians scratching their heads for decades.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was until one man set out to solve this problem.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: And as he was doing so, he made a shocking discovery, one that would change how we understood ancient engineering forever.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And intrigued?
• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, grab your hard hats, because we're going to take a look at the secrets he uncovered along with even more ancient engineering marvels.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now Stonehenge is located on the Sawsbury Plane in Willchshire, England.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, the man who channeled his efforts into recreating it in his own backyard lives across the pond and Lupier County, Michigan.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Made Wallace T. Walington, a former construction worker with one heck of a name who became massively obsessed with monoliths.
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: After retiring, Wallace found himself with a lot of free time on his hands, and in 2003, he set up on an ambitious project to solve the mystery of how Stonehenge was built.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: He first realized he might be able to figure it out when he placed a small stone underneath the large heavy block and discovered that at a certain point of balance, he could spend the stone.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Following this, Wallace constructed his own concrete slabs, each one scaled in size and wait to mimic those at Stonehenge.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Through experimenting in his backyard, he found that by attaching a long wooden lever to the block, adding a second stone underneath the slab and putting a counterweight on one end, he on his own was able to rotate and walk a one-ton block around.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: You may think Wallace has Superman-like strength to be turning giant count-crete blocks around with his bare hands, but actually, he's applying a clever rule of physics regarding levers.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: The way levers operate is by applying an effort at a point, which moves a load at another point through a balanced point called the Fulcrum.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: If the Fulcrum is closer to the load, then less effort is needed to move the load a shorter distance.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: If the Fulcrum is closer to the effort point, then more effort is needed to move the load a greater distance.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's why Wallace could easily tip heavy concrete blocks with one long wooden lever, allowing him to shift the pivoting stones and continue walking the big blocks forward at a rate of some 300 feet per hour.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: In his test, he also constructed a wooden road to roll the stones, which had bumps the same width as the block.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Once set in motion, the concrete blocks own momentum and weight keeps it rolling across the wooden
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: but how the blocks were moved into position was only half the explanation.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wallace also tried to answer how the ancient constructors raised the super heavy stones toward the skies.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: For this, he again figured that the answer bland the stones own way.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: He used a shoring box and a counterweight to slowly elevate the block, rocking it from side to side before adding in wooden slats and the gaps in the block, the rocking motion created.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Gradually, this pivot power raised the block off the ground like a makeshift jack.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wallace had already dug a large hole beneath one end and filled it with sand and eventually, when the block was at a steep enough angle to tip upright, he hosed away the sand in the block's own weight, tipped it down into the desired position.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's how one man proved it was possible to move a giant concrete block by hand.
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's these methods while this posits that the stone hinge creators might have used, with ancient teams of constructors working
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: But archaeologists have found a number of flaws in Wallace's proposal.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: You see his method involved manipulating uniform concrete slabs, all evenly weighted on top of the flat ground of his backyard.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, the Stonehenge Stones are all rough cut and unevenly waited.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's more, the Sarsin Standing Stones are thought to have been quarried from the Marburough Downs, 18 miles to the north of the site.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: The smaller blue stones were brought even further, as they had been traced back to the
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: At 300 feet an hour, that would have taken some 100 and 10 days.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And back in 3000 BCE there weren't any smooth highways.
• 6:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: The builders would have had to carry or walk these boulders across hundreds of miles of ancient England's uneven ground, steep hills and swampy bog land.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: That sounds impossible.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So impossible that most other theories posit that Oxen and other animals were likely used
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: In addition, Wallace's concrete blocks were a whole lot lighter than the standing stones.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: While scaled to the standing stones, his heaviest block weighed 9.6 tons and his counterweight block 1.2 tons.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: A relatively light load compared to the whopping 25 tons that each of the standing stones weigh.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: So while Wallace's methods are effective, they don't reflect the reality of the conditions in which Stonehenge was built.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Rehistoric builders probably use different methods, but that's not to say Wallace's findings didn't play a part.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: A team from the University of Exeter discovered small stone balls, like the one's Wallace used to rotate his blocks within the proximity of another stone circle in Scotland, similar in design to Stonehenge.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's possible Wallace's balancing stone theory wasn't too far fetched after all.
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: And most experts agree that the way Stonehenge's largest stones were raised was through a rocking method very similar to Wallace's Slat attack.
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: They believe the ancient builders repeatedly rocked the giant stones from side to side with levers, each time carefully adding jointed planks of wood that gradually lifted the stone into the air.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was raised to a point where one final tug with a rope brought it fully upright.
• 7:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the rest, as they say, is history.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the greatest mystery of all remains, why was Stonehenge constructed in the first place?
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some are spiritually minded people, and by spiritual I mean, crystals and star signs rather than God believe that Stonehenge sits on a series of laylines.
• 8:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Laylines are straight lines drawn between prominent landmarks which are set to draw upon earth energies, which basically makes them your kukiyan's favorite hiking trails.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stonehenge itself is said to be a prominent layline hub as it connects to Salsbury Cathedral, the Iron Age settlement of Old Sarram, and Clearbury Ring.
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, Horsescope-style explanations aside, the most widely accepted theory today is that Stonehenge was built as a prehistoric pagan temple that helped track the movements of the sun, moon, and stars thousands of years ago.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: But while Wallace Wellington may have tried to make Stonehenge a one-man job, it's believed to have been built, altered, and worshipped over a period of 1,500 years, and involved people from over 100 generations.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: So technically, Stonehenge was one of the world's first forms of family entertainment.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm so glad I was born in the mirror where YouTube exists.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Easter Island sounds like a place full of cute rabbits and chocolate eggs, aka my ideal vacation destination, but it's actually home to a much stranger phenomenon.
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the most remote places on earth is located in the southeast Pacific Ocean over 1,000 miles from the other islands of eastern Polynesia and some 1,400 miles west of South America.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's called Easter Island as the first European explorer located it on Easter Sunday, 1722, and discovered its home to the indigenous Rapa Nui people.
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's here that you can find the famous Easter Island heads, giant monolithic faces and torsos carved out of volcanic rock.
• 9:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: But these aren't just heads.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, each head belongs to a whole body buried below the earth.
• 10:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Over on the other side of the island, you can see the statues with their limbless bodies.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The statues known as Moi were carved by the Rapa Nui and honor of their ancestors mostly between the 1250s and 1500s.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: No doubt you've noticed the statues overly large heads which comprise 3-8s of their bodies.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though an average human head is typically only one-eighth-the-size, did the Rappanui-all have super big heads or were they curving alien heads instead?
• 10:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, archaeologists believe this all comes down to a matter of style, because the oldest statues are squat with rounded circular heads.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the youngest statues are taller, more slender, and their heads are more in proportion.
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: But why make them so big initially?
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it may have been to support the weight of giant hats.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Known as Bucal, there were cylindrical red stones which represent a top-not-of-hair.
• 11:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's more, researchers also uncovered broken fragments of white coral around various moi sites and realized the statues used to have eyes.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the real mystery is how these gigantic moi were ever moved across the island.
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're over 900 statues, but none of them are of uniform size.
• 11:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: On average, they're 13 feet high and wait 13.8 tons, though some are even bigger.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: The tallest moi erected, known as Harrow, is almost 33 feet high in weighs 80.7 tons.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: This same is a large fin whale.
• 11:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: So how on earth did the Rapa Nui move such mammoth statues?
• 11:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: They couldn't be rolled along on logs as the statues are so heavy they'd have crushed them.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Were aliens involved after all?
• 11:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the truth is even weirder than that, because it's believed these statues
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sounds crazy, but the statues and genius design enabled them to stand upright and rock forward from side to side while being guided by ropes, inching them forward with every heave and ho.
• 12:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Another set of ropes at the back prevented the statue from falling flat on his face as it was rocked forward, allowing 10 foot specimens to walk at a rate of about 320 feet per hour.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Rapa Newy people were so brilliant at carving that they added specific curved angles to the base of each statue instead of any legs to make these giant monoliths easier to rock.
• 12:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: While the Moi May look like talking heads, they should be known as walking heads.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: On a rocky plateau, some 200 miles southeast of Lima, Peru, hundreds of white lines are etched into the Peruvian desert.
• 13:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you were just walking across the desert, you'd probably think nothing of them.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: You might even think they just warned down trails with my animals.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: But, if you were to view the area from above, you wouldn't be able to take your eyes off them.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because these random looking lines transform into a series of intricate geometric shapes, patterns, and animals.
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's a spider, a monkey, a man, and a hummingbird.
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But how are such precise drawings laid out?
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And more importantly, who put them there?
• 13:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Called the NASCAR lines, the biggest of these shapes stretched nearly 1,200 feet across.
• 13:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're over 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures, with 70 animal and plant designs.
• 13:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the lines are so precise, they almost look like they've been carved out by lasers.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Could this be proof of aliens?
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: This time it has to be, right?
• 14:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Except it turns out the NASA creators, who were a people that lived until about the year 700, were more human and less alien.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Called geoglyphs, these designs were made by digging up the red-colored topsoil to expose the lighter subsoil underneath.
• 14:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The lines are between 4 to 15 inches deep with more than half the lines over 13 inches wide.
• 14:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: They've remained near perfectly preserved for well over 2,000 years due to the lack of rain and wind in the area.
• 14:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though best viewed from above, shapes can partially be seen from surrounding food hills.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Although what has researchers stumped is how they manage to carve out such huge shapes so precisely, without being able to view their work from above.
• 14:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's simply no way without modern technology they'd been able to access a high enough point of reference to see what they were doing.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, I don't know if you've tried to freehand draw a spider or monkey or a man recently, but I struggle to draw these things on a piece of paper, let alone carve a perfect symmetrical
• 15:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: How they manage this is an engineering mystery, one that's so complex it currently doesn't have an answer.
• 15:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So how do you think they did it?
• 15:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: They say it's impossible to freehand draw a perfect circle.
• 15:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: So carving a perfect sphere is just unthinkable, right?
• 15:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And yet one group of ancient craftsmen managed just that.
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: many times over.
• 15:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: On the small island of Isla del Canoe off the coast of Costa Rica, they were over 300 stone spheres that had scientists scratching their heads when they were first uncovered, because they were almost perfectly spherical.
• 15:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Later investigations then confirmed they're actually the last remaining artifacts of the extinct dichwas culture, which existed from around
• 16:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: The spheres range in size from just a few centimeters in diameter to over 6.5 feet, weighing up to 15 tons.
• 16:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're made of Gabro, a dark course igneous rock formed thousands of years ago from slow cooling magma.
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some were buried, some were exposed, some weren't down, others were in near-perfect condition.
• 16:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: But no one had any explanation for why they were there.
• 16:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: War to that, no records have been left behind describing how so many of these perfectly shaped spheres were made.
• 16:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scientists suspect it was the result of hammering boulders and accrued spherical shapes before polishing them with sand until the friction smooth them down into perfect spheres.
• 16:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Without metal tools, that must have taken weeks if not months.
• 16:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, more than ancient engineering, this seems like a masterclass and ancient tenacity.
• 16:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was later discovered that the dick was typically placed this stone from spheres and important zones within their settlements, such as along the paths to the homes of the village chiefs.
• 17:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: That theory follows that the larger the sphere, the more important the place.
• 17:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I guess that tracks, after all, it wouldn't be the first time that the size of a man's stones made him feel important, if you get my meaning.
• 17:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Europe, Paris may be known as the most romantic city in the world, but Rome arguably has the most impressive history.
• 17:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: You walk around a random street corner, boom!
• 17:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Roman ruin, you walk into a restaurant?
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Boom.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a Roman ruin.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It takes a sip of coffee.
• 17:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Boom.
• 17:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Roman ruin floating in it.
• 17:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay aside from that last joke, you get the picture.
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though one of the greatest ruins in Rome by far is the Colosseum.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: A colossal amphitheater that puts Madison Square Gardens to shame.
• 17:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: it's the largest permanent amphitheater of the ancient world.
• 17:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: While many other contemporary theaters were built of wood, the Colosseum was built with a vast 3.5 million cubic feet of Travertine, a form of limestone commonly deposited around hot springs.
• 18:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The completed Coliseum rose to a height of 157 feet, roughly the same height as a 15-story building, and had seating for between 50,000 to 80,000 people.
• 18:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: While much of Rome's ancient architecture has been eroded away over time, the Coliseum still remains mostly intact.
• 18:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: But how?
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Modern engineers suggest this is the result of the Coliseum Solid Concrete Foundations.
• 18:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was built on a wetland area near the type of river with poor soil conditions, which forced the engineers to dig a deeper foundation to stabilize the structure.
• 18:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: In addition, Roman concrete is actually stronger than modern-day concrete, because where modern concrete is largely made to be inert, Roman concrete had a secret ingredient, volcanic ash.
• 18:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: This makes it reactive to seawater, long-term exposure of Roman concrete to seawater creates a very rare mineral called aluminum tobermoreite, which actually strengthens the material over time.
• 19:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: So the Roman Empire might have fallen, but that Colosseum is going to be standing for a long time to come.
• 19:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ah, the Egyptian pyramids.
• 19:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the magnificent seven wonders of the world.
• 19:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I visited the pyramids once, but I slipped on the sand and hurt my back and visited the chiropractor.
• 19:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Get it, Cairo?
• 19:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Look, don't let my terrible jokes put you off the pyramids, because they're actually one of the world's most sophisticated works of architecture.
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Literally the opposite of my jokes.
• 19:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: More than 5,000 years old, it's theorized that the mighty pyramids were built as tombs for ancient Queens and Pharaohs.
• 19:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I can bet there'll be at least one person in the comments angrily typing.
• 19:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're not tubes, they were used to store great, do your research.
• 19:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that guy, I say, cool story bro, tell me.
• 20:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: if they were used to store grain, then why aren't they hollow?
• 20:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Also, were you homeschooled?
• 20:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because these pyramids are solid structures made up of millions of precisely cut stones weighing two and a half tons each on average, built to enclose several tiny chambers.
• 20:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: To get an idea of how difficult these blocks would be to maneuver, imagine dragging a tireless pickup truck on ropes through the desert under the blistering sun and 95 degree Fahrenheit temperatures.
• 20:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: even describing that sounds like a living hell, so with conditions that difficult, how were the pyramids built?
• 20:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even today, with all the cranes and excavators in the world at our disposal, building a pyramid would be one hack of a task.
• 20:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: yet the ancient Egyptians managed it without any machine power.
• 20:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the way the ancient Egyptians actually cut and moved stone remains a mystery to this day.
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: As an authoritarian regime with the Pharaoh residing as an absolute ruler, the Egyptians were very secretive and kept no records of how the pyramids were built as they did not want to leak any information to their enemies.
• 21:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Although there is some evidence to suggest they used a method similar to a modern technique we use today.
• 21:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Known as the plug and feather, it's a technique that requires a 3-piece tool kit.
• 21:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: A metal wedge known as the plug and two metal sliders that are wider at the bottom and curved at the top called the feathers.
• 21:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: First, the line is scored on the surface of the stone, a number of holes are then drilled into the stone along this line, typically four to eight inches apart.
• 21:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Plugs and feathers are then inserted into each of the holes.
• 21:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: With each head, the pressure continues to build until a large cracks splits in a part.
• 21:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Egyptians may have used a similar technique with bronze plugs and feathers, and I'm sure they knew to stay well away from the stone when it was about to split apart.
• 21:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so stone cutting aside, how are these stones assembled?
• 22:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've probably been taught in school that the pyramids were built by slaves, but that's actually believed to be a myth.
• 22:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: The slavery story was a historical fiction spread by the ancient Greeks.
• 22:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: With historians now understanding that the pyramids were built by skilled workers.
• 22:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though the estimated number of this work force varies.
• 22:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: The ancient Greek historian Herodidis said it remains the great pyramid of Giza took 20 years to construct and demanded the labor of 100,000 men.
• 22:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: This figure is believable given the assumption that these men were agricultural laborers who worked on the pyramids during the months when the now river was flooding the
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, by the late 20th century archaeologists theorized that a smaller workforce may have occupied the site on a permanent basis.
• 22:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was suggested that as few as 20,000 workers with a support team of Bakers, Doctors, and Priests would have completed the project.
• 22:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: As for how the stones were moved, the best theory is that the Egyptians built a sloping and bankmen around the pyramid constructed of compacted earth and brick.
• 23:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: This embankment rose and hide as the pyramid was built up, woodstone blocks hauled up to slope by means of sledge's rollers and, Wallace Wallington's favorite, letters.
• 23:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I can't talk about the pyramids and not address the hovering saucer in the room.
• 23:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: As many believe that the ancient Egyptians had some extraterrestrial help in building the pyramids.
• 23:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry to burst the ten-hat leverage bubble, but these theories actually originate from science fiction stories written back in 1898.
• 23:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Seriously, they were first proposed by writer Garrett Service and his novel Edison's Conquest of Mars.
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where he argued there was a link between UFOs and the pyramids alongside some pretty hilarious illustrations.
• 23:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you're still convinced it was aliens who built a pyramids and not the engineering genius of real people, nah, I can't help ya.
• 23:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: While most houses of worship are designed to attract the masses over an Ethiopia Christians preferred to keep things more underground.
• 24:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not hypothetically, literally, because an Ethiopia's mountainous Amara region, 11 medieval monolithic churches have been constructed underground.
• 24:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: The churches were not built with traditional brick and mortar, rather they were carved straight out of the solid rock.
• 24:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The red rock has been chiseled out to form doors, windows, columns, and multiple floors.
• 24:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: They descend 131 to 164 feet deep into the earth and are carved with cross-shaped chiseled openings to let sunlight head.
• 24:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: The churches only appear when you stand directly above them, where if you look down you'll see a series of carved monolithic rocks and courtyards.
• 24:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're so well concealed archaeologists might have passed by these underground anomalies if it weren't for the thousands of worshippers who attend daily service inside them today.
• 24:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Their popularity is due to the devout Ethiopian population, with Ethiopia claiming to be one of the oldest Christian countries in the world, having been officially Christian since 330 AD.
• 25:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So exactly how were these churches created?
• 25:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Was it a miracle from God that suddenly sprung up from the ground?
• 25:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, locals certainly believe so.
• 25:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Seriously, local beliefs stipulates that the churches were carved by angels.
• 25:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, archeologists argue they're actually the work of King Li Bella, who sent out to construct a new Jerusalem after Muslim conquest halted Christian expansion into the Middle East in the 12th century.
• 25:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: The churches are organized into two main areas.
• 25:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: The northwest group of seven churches includes Bet, Manhan, Alam, the largest church in the world card from a single block of stone.
• 25:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: It stands in impressive 40 feet high and is supported by 72 columns.
• 25:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: While the Southeast Group includes several churches that were hand-carred from existing caves.
• 26:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: But a manual is considered the most beautiful of all the rock churches, as its windows and columns are carved in painted timetade real wood.
• 26:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now I've seen plastic imitating wood before, but solid rock imitating wood?
• 26:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's next level.
• 26:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: None of these were here overnight, or over a month, or over a year.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's believed that with the tools they had available, the hardness of the rock and the detailing involved, it took decades to hand carve out each church.
• 26:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: By some estimates, the work continued for some 200 years, stretching into the 14th century.
• 26:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Which of these ancient engineering feats did you find the most impressive?
• 26:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And what incredible monument would you most like to visit?
• 26:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the podcast, we'll see you again next time you'll want to be amazed.