Ancient civilizations and their cities are always of interest to ordinary tourists who want to look at least with one eye at the thousand-year-old buildings of unknown purpose. We've compiled a list of ruins worth planning a trip to in the next decade: choose 4 of the most interesting but little-known mystical ruins in the world.
Kemune
In the area of Kemune in Iraq, on the Tigris River, not so long ago, a palace was found from the era of the ancient eastern kingdom of Mitanni. They say that this is all that has survived from the city of Zahiku.
Very little is known about the Mitanni civilization:
- this empire flourished in the XV-XIV centuries BC. NS.;
- the Mitannians actively entered into dynastic marriages - it is known that the daughter of the local king became the wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III;
- the decline of the Mitanni empire began in 1350 BC. e, when the local rulers were replaced by neighboring kings from Assyria;
- the location of the capital of the Mitanni kingdom, which was called Washukanni, is still unknown.
That is why scientists considered it incredible luck to find the royal palace in Kemun. The building, with 7-meter-high walls and a bunch of rooms, survived almost 3800 years, thanks to the fact that it was hidden under the water column near the Mosul Dam.
Archaeologists learned about the palace under water in 2010, but only 8 years later, when a drought came to the region and the reservoir became shallow, experts were able to get to the ancient building and partially study it. During the study of the palace, historical artifacts were discovered - clay tablets with inscriptions, which are now being deciphered by the best philologists. Scientists hope that this will help to learn more about the mysterious kingdom of Mitanni.
Longyu Caves
Another greeting from ancient civilizations awaits tourists in China, in the Zhejiang region, in Longyu County, near the village of Shiyan Beicun. Here you can find not an old city, but something more interesting.
For a long time, the inhabitants of Shiyan Beitsun took care of the lakes, which, according to legend, were bottomless. But at the end of the 20th century, a couple of local guys wondered if the old myths were broadcasting the truth. They bought a pump and started to drain one reservoir. When all the water from the lake was pumped out, it turned out that below there is a cave of clearly artificial origin.
The grotto was created in soft sandstone, with traces of cutting hand tools left on the walls. There were about 2 dozen such caves in the area. Their total area was about 29 thousand square meters. m. The volume of rock pulled out to the surface of the earth was about 1 million cubic meters. m.
Who created these caves, and what they were intended for, is still unknown. Scientists have determined that they appeared about 2 thousand years ago. Everything else belongs to the field of vague assumptions.
Taula Menorca
Menorca is an island that is part of the Balearic Archipelago. It is located in the Mediterranean and is part of Spain.
Menorca is often called an open-air museum, as it contains a significant number of artifacts from the Stone Age. Talayots (stone turrets) and libels (trapezoidal structures) are of great interest. These buildings were used by the ancient inhabitants of Menorca for living, communal meetings and burials.
Much more interesting is the purpose of other megaliths, which are called taula. They look like two stones stacked on top of each other and resemble a table in their shape. Actually, the word "taula" in the Catalan dialect means "table".
Tauls, created about 4 thousand years ago, have been hidden by a layer of earth for a long time of their existence. The Spaniards living on the island knew about these stones, actively used their open parts (and these were only the upper horizontal slabs) as benches or tables.
Over time, the taula were revealed to the world in all their glory. And then scientists joined the discussion about their purpose. Some historians believe that these stones served to observe the starry sky. It is also noted that if the taula are marked on the map, then they add up to a schematic representation of the constellation Centaurus.
There is an assumption that the megaliths of Menorca could have been used by ancient people as sacrificial tables.
Hutt Shebib
Hatt Shebib is a 150 km long stone wall that can be found in Jordan. Historians are sure that the Romans built it for unknown purposes. At first it was believed that the wall was supposed to protect from the raids of enemy armies, but then this assumption seemed incorrect to local historians. After all, the height of the Hutt Shebib only in some places reaches one and a half meters, the remaining sections are even lower - about 90 cm.
Recently, historians have decided that the wall at Jordan was just a demarcation line that separated the pastures from the fields. However, its astonishing length casts doubt on this hypothesis.
Scientists knew given about the wall of Hutt Shebib, but they were able to fully mark it on the map only in the middle of the 20th century, when it became possible to remove the wall from the air. And then an interesting discovery awaited them. It turned out that the Khatt Shebib wall was interspersed with turrets and had fortified sections, when another stone rampart was attached close to the building. For what it was needed, what goals were pursued by the ancient builders, scientists have yet to find out.
