Ancient Top 10: SHOCKING History Secrets You Didn't Know *2 Hour Marathon*

This week on Ancient top 10 the killer of Romans and Scourge of Europe armies fled in his wake Rivers ran with blood the greatest general of all time he's really the Incarnation of what it is to be a megalomaniac the queen who held the world in her hands we think our rulers today have power but it was nothing compared to what he had and the most murderous dictator in history he was a great ruler a military genius And truth be told a bloodthirsty Tyrant the baddest in the ancient world where will they be ranked in

the only top 10 list thousands of years in the making the ancient world was ruled by ruthless dictators want and brutal ity was the order of the day there was killing on a massive scale and all for the sake of absolute power this week's ancient top 10 total dictators of the ancient world ranked by experts according to the impact they made and Their evil Deeds at number 10 psychotic unpredictable a terrifying dictator murdered after only 4 years of ruin the most power crazy of the Emperors Caligula he was determined to show off his Godlike Powers

by being the most extravagant and the most outrageous he was born gas germanicus into one of Rome's most distinguished families his great great-grandfather was Julius Caesar Caligula was actually a nickname it means Little Boots and it was a name that was given to Caligula when he was just a boy his father took him on Military campaign it was almost like he was a kind of mascot so he was dressed up as the perfect mini Roman soldier right down to his little boots he hated this name he thought it was very disrespectful and it almost seems

to have fueled a kind of Psychopathic rage Inside him Caligula had other reasons to be disturbed his own adoptive grandfather the emperor Tiberius wiped out his whole family his father killed by the emperor his mother put into prison exiled and then starved to death his siblings died in prison and he's then adopted by the same Emperor responsible for it all If This Were a TV series it would just be considered unbelievable I think it's safe to say this guy had issues he loved watching Torture and gruesome executions he spent his nights in Wild ories he

was even thought to have committed incest with his sisters and all this before he became emperor he was just 24 when he rose to power in 37 ad at first he was popular he abolished taxes and put on lavish entertainment for his people like the gladiatorial games but his extravagance almost bankrupted Rome he squandered the equivalent of $4 billion in the first year of his Reign alone During this year he also suffered a serious illness although he recovered many believe it turned him into a megalomaniac we're told this story that he was sacrificing a bull

in a temple and he was just about to strike the animal with a mallet when he turned around and whacked the priest instead this man was lying bleeding to death on the ground and Caligula just laughed hugely entertained by this deadly prank his behavior knew no bounds Even in public at the Coliseum igula displayed his psychotic side when he got bored during the intermission of the Gladiator fights Caligula had his guards grab dozens of people from the crowd and throw them into the arena just to watch them be eaten by wild animals Twisted doesn't even

begin to describe this guy and it wasn't just extreme violence Caligula was so out there there's even a story that he made his beloved horse a Roman Advisor he was even more insane when it came to his own self-image Caligula was so deluded he didn't think he was like a god he seems to have thought he was a God himself we're told that he dressed up as gods and even goddesses sometimes out in public and he'd remove the heads of sculptures of gods he'd decapitate them and replace them with a sculpture of his own image

this isn't just power craz this is An example of power corrupting absolutely after a 4ye reign of terror his people had had enough so they got rid of him by stabbing him over 30 times Caligula was so hated that after his death the Senate tried to erase him from history by destroying his monuments but his behavior was so extreme that he's remembered to this day as one of the most crazy of Roman rulers dealing with a legacy of violence and despotism the Senate hoped for more peaceful times But instead someone far worse was to come

at number nine another mad Emperor Nero Nero was one of the most infamous Emperors of Rome the stories of his brutality are absolutely legendary and it's for this reason why he's got to be in my top 10 emperor of Rome from the age of just 17 from 54 to 68 ad famous for fiddling while Rome burned he wandered the streets murdering at random because he could when we look At the horrific acts attributed to Nero it looks like he's reading right out of the Playbook of Caligula it's said that Nero was envious of the extravagance

of his uncle Caligula he may even have been trying to emulate him when Nero came to power his mother had planned to rule jointly with him but he had other ideas he built a ship for her to travel in and designed it so that as she slept the roof would collapse Killing her but it would look like an accident she survived this attempt on her life but Nero wasn't giving up he sends a guard to go and attack her in her own bedroom and the guard bludgeons and stabs her to death Nero's first wife met

a similar end after he's had her exiled and put to death he has her head delivered to his new wife and her luck was no better she's pregnant with child and she dares to complain that he's spending too much Time at the games he kicks his pregnant wife to death he then tried something new he had taken a shine to a young man so he had him castrated and made him his new wife he could do that he was in the history books of Rome a total Tyrant and a horrible monster there are even stories

that he'd dress up in animal skins have young men and women Tethered to posts and then ravage them roaring like a beast even Biting off their genitals a fire during Nero's Reign caused Devastation on a scale Rome had never seen before half of the city burnt to the ground in true dictator fashion as the fire was still smoldering Nero laid claim to vast areas of land in order to build an extravagant Palace for himself this brought accusations that Nero had deliberately started the blaze so he created a scapegoat he rounded up Christians and had them

publicly executed nuro was incredibly brutal one of the most famous stories about him is how he used to light Christians on fire and use them as torches for his dinner parties no one was safe from him Nero had his own Senators whipped branded with irons and tortured if he liked a woman he had her husband murdered his brutality was endless on top of this his extravagant spending nearly bankrupted Rome's Treasury towards the end of Nero's life his excesses became quite extraordinary when his wife died he bought what would be the equivalent of half a billion

dollars worth of Frankincense Rome at this point was on its knees financially it was crippled by debt and I think that combined with his depravity meant that the people of Rome had just had enough the Senate voted Nero An Enemy of the State and he was encouraged to Commit suicide Nero left behind him a legacy of murder debauchery and Christian persecution it made him yet another ruler the Senate wanted to wipe from their records this time they actually passed a law saying that Nero never existed from Nero to zero this man was so extreme he

was so sick he was so perverse that he has never been forgotten by history and we're still talking about him and his Dreadful Deeds today the Emperors of Rome carved their Place in history as much for their notoriety as their achievements and they're not alone our next two rulers are even more Infamous for their acts of tyranny one's ego would shape their Kingdom's greatest monuments and the other used sex as a weapon to become the most famous woman in ancient time this is ancient top 10's list of total dictators the tyrants of the ancient world

causing destruction on a mass Scale stamping their bloody footprint on history next on our list is a ruler who challenged the mighty Roman Empire and set its generals against each other in at number eight Cleopatra the last queen of Egypt a temptress of the Nile who used sexuality to maintain her grip on the throne she would ultimately destroy the Empire she sought to protect Cleopatra was the last Pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the most famous woman of ancient Times we think our rulers today have power but it was nothing compared to what she had she

was literally a god walking on Earth she's best known as a beautiful seductress but there was a lot more to her than that Egyptian royal families were a hot bed of scheming plotting murder and incest Cleopatra did very well indeed even to make it adulthood alive and then she secured her position as Pharaoh by murdering her brother she would stop at Nothing she was calculating and she was also extremely bright and well educated in fact it said that she spoke nine languages she was a very learned woman educated in mathematics and geometry Cleopatra we think

of her as this sexy fem fatal this Elizabeth taylor-like figure and we forget that she was incredibly brilliant not only did her talents and Beauty attract attention but also her country's wealth the Romans were threatening to Invade the Egyptian Army was not strong enough to take them on so Cleopatra turned to other means to keep her kingdom safe she realized that Egypt needed Rome's Allegiance and so she decides to set her sights on the most powerful man of the time Julius Caesar she seduces and beds him there's a story she had herself rolled into a

carpet and smuggled into the Royal Palace of Julius Caesar just to meet him and she not only met him but Apparently beted him and then the two went on to become this immense powerful couple they formed a political Alliance over the course of 4 years even having a child together but Caesar's relationship with the queen of the Nile angered Rome and in 44 BC it came to a bloody end he was murdered by the Senate after Caesar's death the Roman general Mark Anthony was sent in to assert Rome's control what happened she beted too we're

told that in order to demonstrate Egypt's incredible wealth when she was seducing Mark Anthony Cleopatra took a big fat Pearl now this thing was the most precious the most expensive jewel in the known world it's estimated that this Pearl would be worth around $30 million today she dissolved it in a cup of wine vinegar and then drank that down it is the most brilliantly theatrical Act of Seduction Cleopatra and Mark Anthony became lovers And allies but just like her previous relationship with Caesar their Union was seen as a threat to Rome Antony's political rival Octavian

declared war he defeated Anthony in 31 BC forcing him to flee with Cleopatra Anthony committed suicide after being surrounded by his enemies in one final Act of defiance Cleopatra did the same she either allowed her herself to be bitten by a poisonous snake or took a fatal overdose of Narcotics Cleopatra Had tremendous pride and so she would rather die than suffer the indignity of being paraded through the streets of Rome as a prisoner Cleopatra's ultimate success lay in her seduction of Rome's most powerful men what we have to remember about Cleopatra is that she wasn't

just a kind of beautiful pinup bathing in asses milk this was a feisty smart woman and IC Ally she was able to control the men around her and that's why she deserves to be in this top 10 But Cleopatra's appetite for power was nothing compared to our next total dictator the most powerful Pharaoh ever to rule Egypt who fought the largest Chariot battle known to man at number seven rames II when we think of Egyptian pharaohs rames II is the name that inspired all Ramsey expertly used propaganda to portray himself as The Greatest Warrior of

the Egyptian Empire he presided over Egypt at the height of its powers he Ruled for 67 years in the 13th century BC it was the longest fully documented reign in Egyptian history and he kept himself busy Ramsey II had 200 wives and concubines 96 Sons 60 daughters how could this guy not be in the top 10 rames II lived to 93 years old this is in a period where most people die by the age of 40 it was almost impossible to picture Egypt without rames II leading it in true dictator fashion he commanded his people

to build huge Statues of himself all for his own Glory old rulers built monuments but rames II outb built them all his greatest of all is this Abu symbol a true reflection of Ramsey's self-promotion rames built more temples obelisks and huge monuments than any other pharaoh and the biggest Egyptian statue ever was of himself he was a true megalomaniac he was also battle hungry and wanted to reclaim territories lost By past pharaohs at just 22 he embarked on and won numerous military campaigns his arch enemy was the Hittites a people that lived in what is

now modern turkey and Syria Ramsey's most famous fight was the Battle of cadesh which took place against the Hittites in 1274 BC it was the largest Chariot battle in history and 6,000 thundered across the battlefield it was absolute carage it was to be the end of a conflict that had lasted for two centuries over control of The lands of the Eastern Mediterranean the battle is believed to have been a draw but Ramsey claimed Victory he was a great propagandist because he didn't win that war he didn't win that battle they didn't take the city of

Kadesh but he went back to Egypt and erected these huge monuments celebrating his victory the final outcome of the battle of cadesh was the signing of the world's first peace treaty in 1258 BC a copy of the treaty now hangs on the war all of the United Nations ironically Ramsey's greatest Monument was a symbol of peace we're counting down the top 10 total dictators of the ancient world the most powerful the most brutal and the most devastating changing the course of history forever next in our countdown is a great military dictator at number six the

man famous for leading elephants across the Alps Hannibal he is one of the greatest generals of all time which means he deserves a place in our top 10 list in the 3rd Century BC the North African Republic of Carthage what is modern day Tunisia was at war with Rome Hannibal's father was a general in the carthaginian Army he had fought the Romans for 40 years but eventually suffered defeat this humiliation fueled an obsession for revenge in Hannibal when his time to command the Army came he made it his Mission to wipe out Rome for good

he planned an audacious attack his army included 90,000 infantry 12,000 Cavalry and even 40 war elephants Hannibal was the master of surprise he built giant rafts on the river ran to carry his famous elephants and he did the unthinkable he marched into Italy over the Alps elephants and all tot surprising the Romans leading his army over the mountains was an astonishing achievement but it was his victories on The battlefield once in Italy that made him such a great commander in the first two clashes he routed the Romans and he used his war elephants to do

it two battles two blood baths in each case Rome loses 3/4 of her Army this has never happened to the world's leading superpower Rome's response it raised its biggest army ever 990,000 fighting men the next battle would be a Monumental Clash the Battle of Kai in this battle Hannibal lost about 4,000 men the Romans up to 70,000 this was one of the bloodiest battles in history the Romans should have crushed Hannibal but he used one of the greatest Battlefield Maneuvers in history called the pencer movement simultaneously attacking both sides of the enemy this strategy was

to Define Hannibal as one of the greatest tacticians of all time this is the worst defeat the Romans had ever had we've got To look forward 2,000 years later to the battlefields of World War I to even see that level of Carnage and remember this wasn't guns this was slashing stabbing bloody hand to-hand combat Hannibal went on to occupy by much of Italy for 15 years but failed to take the biggest prize of all the city of Rome he had won the battles but ultimately lost the war in the end like Cleopatra Hannibal poisoned himself

rather than face Roman capture he had no Intention of giving the Romans one inch of satisfaction Hannibal's victory at Kai had far-reaching effects Rome lost its status as a fighting power but ultimately it led to the Roman military being transformed into a professional force and they even adopted Hannibal strategies for their own Hannibal defeated the Romans in their own backyard his tactics were so good that they're still being studied in military acmis around the world I can't Think of a better endorsement for combat leader Hannibal was one of Rome's most feared adversaries but he wasn't

the only Tormentor to threaten its Authority our next total dictator had such power that he had the fate of the Empire resting entirely in his hands riding in at number five Atilla the hun just the mention of his name strikes Terror into the soul this barbaric dictator murdered his brother so that at only 28 he became the Leader of the Huns a nomadic tribe in 5ifth Century ad Eastern Europe there are few historical figures who Inspire the terror of Atilla the Hun armies fled in his wake Rivers ran with blood AA expanded his rule by

attacking the Roman Empire he did it by rampaging through cities torturing entire towns raping and killing he was so ruthless it said that if you were a citizen in Rome and begged for mercy he would still kill you that cemented his reputation as one of the World's most brutal dictators Atilla had the advantage of commanding an army that was vast bolstered by Warrior from different tribes he was able to unite the Germanic tribes against the Roman Empire he was a just and fair ruler unless you were Roman the Huns were expert Riders and under ailla

they became famous for their rapid movement catching the enemy off guard they would swoop in then disappear just as suddenly the K to Atilla the hon success was a Composite bow compact powerful and you can use it from horseback mobile Firepower deadly in less than 10 years from virtually nothing AA the Hun built an Empire that stretched all the way from Central Asia to modern-day France atilla's reputation struck such fear into his enemies he wasn't just the scourge of Rome they called him the scourge of God after causing widescale destruction across Italy he set his

eyes On Rome itself but was prevented by the most unlikely of sources he could have actually gone on to destroy Rome but he stopped not because he didn't have the military means but apparently because the pope came to see him unarmed and in person and somehow convinced him noty soon after that Atilla died in rather undignified circumstances on his wedding night after heavy drinking when atila the Hun died his entire Army was devastated and and his Elite Horsemen Smeared their faces with blood and rode around in a circle slowly around the tent where his body

lay and would have been a powerful emotional sight it's argued that the impact of aa's Reign was so great he was ultimately responsible for the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west today he is still remembered as a vicious Unstoppable Force this is the ancient top 10 list of total dictators ranked according to Their impact on history at number 10 we saw the crazy Roman Emperor Caligula number nine matters still was Nero number eight was manipulative Cleopatra at number seven the greatest Pharaoh Ramsey II at number six was the mighty General Hannibal and at

number five the terrifying Atilla the Hun next in our countdown the most famous Roman of them all at number four all hail Julius Caesar General brilliant politician born In 100 BC Caesar created a new chapter in Roman history he made his name conquering Gaul what is now France in the first of many brilliant campaigns that would give him a reputation as one of Rome's alltime great leaders but this infamy came at a bloody cause L Caesar himself claimed that he killed a million Gs and enslaved another million Caesar nearly doubled the size of the Roman

Empire and under him the focus was pushing into northern Europe Away from the heartland of the Mediterranean World his enemies feared him but to his men he was a hero he was never known to have lost a battle Julius Caesar has three qualities that makes him absolutely Unstoppable one he fights on the line with his soldiers they respect him two he never gives up and three he has the most capable armies in the world and he knows exactly how to exploit them he's bold and audacious and Thinking the unthinkable but Caesar had political enemies the

Roman senate ordered him to step down from his command and return to Rome they were afraid of his power he went but took his army and when he marched into Rome people flocked to him they treated him like a returning god with the support of the people behind him he took over leadership of the city he was made dictator for Life Giving Him extra Powers which he used to rule like A king he didn't get into his position by being born into it like many other leaders on the list he won it through determination through

his Dynamic personality his impact on Rome was immense he built magnificent new buildings and temples he taxed the rich and helped the poor he was responsible for the rise of the Roman Empire Julius Caesar had become the new state the Roman Republic was no more it had been replaced by one total dictator At the height of its Empire Rome is thought to have been the largest city on the planet with a population of more than a million but Caesar's endless ambition created enemies he was eventually killed by his own men on the floor of the

Senate the legacy of his dictatorship Roman culture spreading further than ever before we still live by some of Caesar's principles the 365-day calendar and many of Europe's laws today are based on Those introduced by Caesar himself the thing about Caesar is that he had the greatest historical impact of any Roman leader ever while Julius Caesar fought for Domination of Europe on the other side of the world an even greater Evolution had taken place it had created the world's most enduring Empire and it's all thanks to our number three the emperor chin of China he created

one of the Seven Wonders of the World and an army of Clay Soldiers he was the first emperor of one of the oldest civilizations in the world China 200 BC the emperor chin before before this time all was [Applause] [Music] disunified 27 million people the scale of this is unbelievable in the 3r century BC no man on Earth could rival chin he came to power at the age of 39 and did more than Any other ancient dictator to build a legacy he carried out a series of reforms that would unify the country and build a

lasting Empire Emperor chin created a Dynasty created a system of standardized measures scripts language roads and he began the building of the Great Wall of China the most ambitious engineering project in all history but in order to build and keep control of his incredible Empire Chen was a merciless dictator enemies were Hunted down and Enslaved the emperor chin created a police state in ancient China he persecuted confusions he enslaved people he castrated prisoners he basically Allowed no private citizens to have their own weapons this was Ultimate dictatorial control he even had a plan to rule

in the afterlife it gave us one of the most extraordinary archaeological finds of all time and this is ancient top 10's list of Total dictators ranked according to their impact on History brutal cruel power-hungry rulers who would stop at nothing to grow their Empires at number three on our list the emperor chin the first emperor of China Emperor chin was obsessed with immortality he had his Alchemist working on an elixir of life now some of these Elixir contained Mercury which ironically rather than extend his life probably did the exact opposite and Hastened his death even

so death posed no obstacle and he wanted to do whatever was necessary to rule in the afterlife as well as this one chin had over 700,000 workers build his tomb and the construction took place over his entire life after his death Chin's entire court was buried with him hundreds of slaves servants concubines wives musicians even his favorite horse and Chariot buried alive chin believed that he would also Need protection in the afterlife so he built forces in his tomb to guard him the one problem with being a violent Tyrant who comes to Power by slaying

everybody who stands in your way is you make a few enemies when you're alive it's not a problem you've got bodyguards you can keep them out of the way but when you're dead they're waiting for you in the afterlife and they carry a serious Grudge chin would create an entire Army To look after him when he died to be buried alongside him this is where we find the famous Terracotta Army 8,000 soldiers horses and chariots all designed to protect him in the afterlife Emperor Chin's tomb was also protected by booby traps and a great Mercury

Lake even today archaeologists have yet to UNC cover the full Mysteries of the Tomb Emperor chin he built the Great Wall he left us the Terra Cotta Army and he gave his name to China this guy left a serious Legacy Chen United a country to create his Empire but our next total dictator was intent on dividing and conquering to build his Reaching Across several continents just missing out on the top spot at number two Alexander the Great military commander and king of ancient Greece a man whose very name is a Tribute to the vast territory

he conquered the story of Alexander is a mix of myth and fact he was a puple of Aristotle the great philosopher and then became ruler of the Macedonian Empire in the 4th Century BC some saw him as a tyrant an alcoholic and a thief whilst others painted him as a saint and a hero Alexander was certainly charismatic the son of a king he even washed his hair in Saffron to make it shiny today he would be a movie Star it's easy to romanticize him though don't forget he was a cold blooded killer Alexander became very

successful very quickly when he was just 16 he was left in charge of Macedonia and by the age of 19 he'd been declared [Applause] King a couple years after that he had vanquished the Greek's greatest enemy Persia from within which he ruled over 2 million square miles there had never been an Empire that big before Alexander Was a brilliant commander and expert tactician throughout history military leaders have looked at Alexander the Great for inspiration bold Maneuvers surprise attacks being at the right place at the right time to deliver the perfect killing blow exactly when it

was needed this guy is as good as it gets Alexander the great was a brilliant General but he suffered from these bouts of rage and paranoia he's really the Incarnation of What it is to be a megalomaniac he is brilliant but he also had his demons as many of the other dictators on our list have shown sometimes power can bring about debauched Behavior Alexander the Great had quite the complicated love life he had three wives one mistress a lifelong male lover and a sexual relationship with a unic and who knows how many others on the

side and like most soldiers Alexander the Great was kind of a party animal his drinking was Legendary once when drunk he killed one of his best friends with a spear at another time after a drinking contest 42 of his buddies lay around him dead with alcohol poisoning this guy was a pro after 15 years of battling across half of the Known World Alexander died at just 32 possibly of malaria in all his years of Conquest Alexander the Great never lost a single campaign he is definitely one of the greatest military Minds that ever Lived Alexander's

drive for immortality was responsible for the deaths of a quarter of a million people that's more than anyone up until that time he was a great General but he was brutal really really brutal love him or hate him Alexander was one exceptional guy Alexander fought for honor and glory and the result was the spread of Greek culture across several continents he will always be remembered As an all-conquering dictator so who could be greater than Alexander the Great a devilish ruthless ruler who changed the course of history slaughtering millions in his quest to create the largest

Empire of the ancient world this is ancient top 10's list of total dictators violent rulers of the ancient world ranked according to the impact they had at number 10 was power crazed Caligula number nine the demented Nero number eight the last queen of Egypt Cleopatra and number seven the mighty Pharaoh Ram II number six was the brilliant General Hannibal and number five brutal a Tilla the Hun at four Rome's ultimate dictator Julius Caesar and at number three the first emperor of China the emperor Chen just missing the top spot at number two the immense Alexander

the Great but who do our experts consider to be the number one ancient total dictator was he Roman Chinese Egyptian no springing upon the world in a blaze of glory this evil warlord was a Mongolian warrior who would turn most of Asia into a bloodbath at number one genas Khan he left Terror and destruction in his wake annihilated tens of millions of people and created the biggest empire in anti Equity he was the greatest dictator the world has ever Seen genghiskhan was a great ruler a military genius and truth be told a bloodthirsty Tyrant Mongolia

in the 12th century ad a land of feuding tribes raiding and marauding genas Khan's father was murdered he rose from poverty he escaped from slavery and Exile and he then Rose to the top and United the Waring Mongol tribes underneath him it's the ultimate example of coming from nothing and then staying at the top Against All Odds by 1206 ad KH had turned the individual tribes into one single political and military force known as the Mongols he then LED them into war against their Arch Enemy with 90,000 men KH invaded China it had the largest

army in the world over a million men and he destroyed them when the Mongols took xang duu the capital of China they massacred over a 100,000 people it said that the Earth Was greasy with human fat but he didn't destroy everything genas Khan was incredibly violent but he was smart so you know he went through China but he took from China paper and printing guns gunpowder and brought them with him to the rest of the world and used them well then he turned West and wiped out around 3/4 of what is now Iran in 25

years gangis Khan and his Mongol hordes managed to conquer an area Bigger than the Romans managed to in four centuries it was the largest land Empire in the ancient world it went on to cover over 12 million square miles more than three times the size of the United States no Army moved as far or as fast until World War II and they did it all on horseback for its citizens being part of the Mongol Empire had a great many advantages it was one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse in History but as for rival

leaders if they didn't surrender they suffered the consequences now we can't know exactly how many people died as a result of genas Khan's Conquest but a rough estimate is a staggering 40 million that's at least as much as Stalin and more than Hitler so many lives were extinguished under genas Khan's rule that the amount of carbon in the atmosphere caused by People breathing was reduced by a staggering 700 million tons this is incredible on two levels one he was able to murder 11% of the global population at the time and two this led to climate

change Khan's impact was immediate and devastating but he also brought law and civilization his Conquest was so solid there was a century of Peace afterwards this guy wasn't just brutal he was brilliant so for example he saw that the Chinese had amazing law codes and and codes for Commerce and medicine and these kinds of things and he left them in place he said these people are doing it right I'll rule as an Overlord and leave things as they are trading rots opened and cultural and technological exchanges took place explorers like Marco Polo were able to

travel freely across the land this unification was key in building a strong Empire but individually Khan believed a man's Strength was in the children he left behind and he had a Herm of women that numbered in the thousands now believe it or not due to genas Khan's great success in raing and pillaging over such a huge area one in 200 men on planet Earth today can trace their DNA directly back to him I would call that success no one knows where Genghis Khan is buried the witnesses to his burial were killed and his grave is

hidden somewhere but to this day in Mongolia he Remains a national symbol as well as modern-day Mongolia genas Khan's Empire included most of China spreading throughout Asia the Middle East and even Russia no one else in history has ever come close genas Khan is the ultimate dictator there have been dictators throughout his history but for sheer ruthlessness nothing can match the Ancients with their ambition determination and Relentless brutality They forged Empires and changed the world forever these were the ancient total dictators an industrial super Factory thousands of years ahead of its time this really was

the world's first mega Factory a huge 2,000-year old building that grows stronger the older it gets it's an enormous space you could hold over 5,000 people it's absolutely amazing a revolutionary machine that transformed cities if you can lift more You can build bigger and the most ambitious Roman engineering project of them all huge networks transporting gallons upon gallons of water across the Empire where will they be ranked in the only top 10 list thousands of years in the making Rome engineered an Empire which stretched from the Atlantic to the tigis at its peak there might

have been up to 70 million citizens the Romans shaped our world More than any other civilization from Antiquity this week's ancient top 10 Rome's greatest hit amazing Roman Feats of engineering ranked by experts According to which most changed the world at number 10 courtesy of Julius Caesar the bridge that beat The Barbarians Caesar's bridge over the rine its incredible engineering amazingly executed in 55 BC Rome's greatest General Julia Caesar decided to launch an attack on the Hostile Germanic tribes he wanted to expand and secure his empire into what is now modern-day Germany but how was

he going to get his whole Army of 40,000 men across the river most leaders would simply go around it but Caesar wasn't going to let anything stand in his way Caesar couldn't wait and he wasn't willing to accept that something couldn't be done in a typical Caesar fashion he was Willing to try something bold and audacious Caesar's plan was an engineering breakthrough and clearly demonstrated the strength of Rome's power to their enemies this River had never previously been bridged this was a hugely ambitious project at the very edge of the Roman World Bridge Building at

that time normally took months if not years juliia Caesar did it in a matter of days Caesar was trying to cross the rine at a point Point where it was quarter of a mile wide so that's crossing a span that's as long as the Empire State Building is tall the Rind wasn't just wide it was 30 ft deep with strong currents these are military engineers in today's British army they have modern high-powered mobile bridge building equipment but Julius Caesar had to start from scratch 40,000 Roman troops start chopping down all the trees in the area

they didn't Just need timber for the bridge itself they also needed Timber to create a huge floating Crane and an enormous pile driver the pile driver would hammer in giant wooden Stakes which would give the bridge stability and allow it to hold the weight of Caesar's massive Army this wasn't a standard method of construction it was revolutionary engineering and the Romans were inventing it on the spot with the piles in the bridge Advanced the length of three school buses every day that's faster than modern Engineers can do the Germanic tribes were on the other side

of the river thinking they were safe and you can just imagine their horror when this bridge started to creep towards them the bridge took just 10 days it was long enough and strong enough to hold the entire Army it was a real incarnation of the might that was Rome The Barbarians actually outnumbered the Roman soldiers 10 to one but they were so intimidated by the speed and the efficiency with which this bridge had been built over their river that by the time Caesar and his troops crossed over they'd all fled the area Caesar had won

the battle without the loss of a single Roman Life Caesar was the master of the publicity stunt he marched across his bridge and said here I am I can do whatever I want then he Marched back and tore it down the bridge was destroyed but the point had been made it cemented Rome's reputation as a military might more than any bloody battle would have done and the bridge was an early example of using piles for support today steel and concrete piles are the norm for making things stable Caesar and his Engineers were thousands of years

ahead of their time like Cesar's Bridge the next Roman Marvel on our countdown was also the product of the mighty Roman military shooting in at number nine the repeating ballista also known as the pbos it's a Gatling gun the same idea as today but 2,000 years ago the Roman army couldn't be matched organization tactics Weaponry their weapon of choice was the ballista a giant wooden crossbow that could launch bolts a quarter of a mile but They were always looking to improve and to make their weapons even more deadly the Romans inherited a new design from

the Greeks and took it to another level a repeater this was the machine gun of its day the repeating ballista could fire one bolt about every 10 seconds which doesn't sound like that much until you realized that it actually tripled the rate of fire that the Romans had previously had this was a devastating Weapon it was a barrage it was a deadly rain of bolts and we're talking 1500 years before the first artillery barrage a repeating weapon was sophisticated ancient engineering it had a gravity-fed magazine which would be constantly dropping bolts down one by one

winding the mechanism pulls back the string and the ballista fires automatically as long as the magazine was kept loaded this ancient machine gun could fire Continuously it's known as a chain drive and it was the first in Western technology the Roman Engineers were were the first people to master the chain drive they were so ingenious years ahead of its time this technology wouldn't be seen again until the 16th century when Leonardo D Vinci supposedly reinvented it the engineering genius behind the poolos was centuries ahead of its time amazingly there's nothing as effective on the battlefield

for over a Thousand years it was the Pinnacle of Roman military engineering and the principles behind the pbos underpin our modern mechanics today the development of technology has seen our cities Advance at a staggering Pace but our survival still depends on the one basic need that hasn't changed in Millennia water coming in at number eight it's the Basilica sistern of Constantinople Modern day Istanbul a giant underground reservoir providing a clean Safe Water Supply underneath modern day Istanbul there's a Subterranean treasure it's the Basilica system it was actually dug out by 7,000 slaves working in appalling

conditions so it's a wonder of the medieval worlds but it has a dark history the Basilica sister was built not only to be a source of water but to form part of the city's defenses the cities of the empire were Were a prime target for invasion they would be taken by force and the best way to do that was with Siege Warfare as long as we've had cities and fortresses we've had Siege Warfare The Defenders have to wait it out the attackers have to find a way to starve them thirst them or just make them

give up these things can take years and if you think about it it really is just a tactical chess game and who's going to win might take forever to find Out here in ancient times for a city to be secure and to withstand a Siege it took more than strong walls and an army what was needed most was a safe supply of water if there's no water inside the city then you can be held to Ransom and having it underground meant it was protected as soon as you can secure a water source inside the city

in assistant for example you have got the upper hand and that's exactly what the Roman Did at Constantinople but this City's incredible piece of engineering lay hidden beneath the streets a secret for hundreds of years how was it discovered it's coming up next on Ancient Top This is Rome's Greatest Hits amazing Roman Feats of engineering ranked by experts According to which most change the world the city of Istanbul in modern mod day Turkey in Roman times it was called Constantinople and was capital of the Eastern Roman Empire its buildings conceal a secret that laid undiscovered

for thousands of years something so important it had to be hidden deep underground number eight in our countdown 500 years ago in Istanbul there were people in residential neighbors who were able to open up the floorboards and the and the stones of Their houses lower cups and jugs down and bring up water for drinking and washing their clothes they launch an expedition they dug down deep and they found the Basilica ssts the Basilica sister deep underground but today open for the public to view over 400 ft long and 200 ft wide the biggest and most

magnificent sstn in antiquity it's as big as an underground Cathedral 336 marble columns were brought in from disused Pagan temples from across the Empire of all the hundreds of columns there's one that I love the most it's a shorter one and it's propped up by a reused block and what's on that block is a beautifully carved Medusa face it's absolutely Exquisite it's believed the Romans transferred this sculpture from another temple in order to keep Construction Cost down the Romans were nothing if not practical the Basilica sister wasn't the only sophisticated water system in ancient times

in 73 ad there was an uprising of Jews against the Romans despite being surrounded and their supplies cut off a rebel force was able to hold out for months in the mountain Fortress of Masada in what is modern-day Israel thank to a sistern providing a Ready supply of fresh water and Alexandria in ancient Egypt had a remarkable sister under the city making it a major stronghold but the water supply delivered to Constantinople by the Basilica sister was unmatched it was the largest and most impressive in the ancient world the Basilica system was huge it stored

22 million gallons of water so that gave Constantinople its strength And its security it meant the city could not just survive but Thrive this engineering Marvel would not be bettered for500 years the Romans used Advanced Technology and Engineering to ensure that the sister was built to last the walls of the Basilica system are 12 ft thick and they're lined with waterproof cement and it still works it's not a ruin it still function it still holds water thanks in part to this incredible piece of Roman engineering Constantinople was able to withstand repeated sieges for nearly a

thousand years to overtake Rome and become the greatest city in the world at the time control of water was also behind the next engineering grate at number seven the Nei tunnel 19 mies South of Rome is a sacred lake lake Nei in the early Roman period the lake was prone to Flooding at the lake side was a temple to the Goddess Diana and allowing her Temple to flood was simply unacceptable the Romans came up with an extraordinary solution to build a tunnel through a mountain and this is exactly the sort of thing that the Romans

would do a giant overflow pipe on a Monumental scale the Nei tunnel was over a mile long through a solid Mountain this is ancient engineering at its most Sublime the tunnel was built around 500 BC constructing any kind of tunnel back then was an extraordinary feat let alone won this long and 2500 years later it's still intact the Nei tunnels were actually dug out by hand this was harsh horrendous manual labor but they persevered to the end and dug out a staggering 5,000 ft the Roman workers only had simple tools and just the light of

small oil lamps in the tunnel it was dark cold and wet but this tunnel was built with such accuracy Even modern Engineers would struggle to match it today we use lasers to tunnel in a straight line unbelievably the Romans started digging from both sides of the Mountain at once and somehow met partway through it's absolutely incredible how could they build this without modern building and surveying equipment two tunneling teams worked independently with Incredible Precision when they met the paths they dug were within 10 ft of each other both sides meeting with pretty impressive accuracy and

it travels across an impossibly gentle gradient the tunnel's over a mile long and in that entire distance it drops by just 41 ft that's an average gradient drop of less than 1% even today we don't know exactly how they did it it could be an example of skills and technology that have been Lost to time this workmanship has kept the tunnel in use right up to recent times in the 1930s the Italian dictator musolini used it to drain Lake nimi he wanted to recover what lay at the bottom the Priceless remains of two ships built

for the Roman Emperor Caligula the lake gave up its Secrets but the tunnels impressive construction Still Remains a mystery This is ancient top 10's countdown of the most amazing feats of Roman engineering shining a light on technology that would change the world rolling in at number six is the underground hell of the silver mine at Rio tento the Roman empire spread all the way from Britain to the Middle East but it was here in the hills of southern Spain that a 100 years ago the remains of this strange wooden wheel Were found what could it

be it was soon discovered to be Roman and it was over 2,000 years old what the experts soon realized was that they discovered a giant water wheel 14 and 1/2 ft in diameter and the most amazing thing it hadn't been buried it was supposed to be underground this water wheel was part of the Machinery of an ancient Silver Mine known as as riotinto precious medals like silver and gold Were crucial for the Romans their huge Empire needed paying for massive building projects the military and their Administration somehow this all needed to be funded the 60

million citizens of the Roman Empire needed a currency to trade in to get that currency they needed pure silver in order to get this silver they constructed underground mines but they had a problem the mines were prone to flooding from subsurface Water Supplies so the Romans constructed huge water wheels they were used to drain the water away from the mine how was this done by the feet of slaves huge underground water wheels being walked on by slaves it's crazy isn't it would you have liked to be the Roman engineer who Flo the idea they must

have thought he was nuts incredibly there were eight pairs of Wheels raising the water from one Cavern to the next and up out of the Mine once again the Romans were using their engineering genius to overcome nature the whole system could lift water at the height of a 10 story building these astonishing Wheels never stopped they were worked 24 hours a day it's estimated that one slave could raise 21 gallons of water per minute so that means the whole system could lift 180,000 gallons of water every day but the water was full of poisonous minerals

which made the air toxic to breathe in Imagine you're underground the air is toxic from the fumes emanating off the water it must have been absolutely horrific they were terrible conditions to work in and once the slaves were down there they would most likely never see the light of day ever again most of these slaves didn't live much over a year and when they died the Romans didn't even bother taking their bodies to the surface this worked out fantastically For the Romans but not so well for the slaves it's impossible to imagine the horrifying lives

that the slaves endured down in the mines sacrificing lives for an incredible feat of engineering this was typical of the Romans without mining The Riches of riotinto the Empire would never have been able to expand so far a growing Empire brought with it a growing population they all needed to be fed so the Romans used technology to do It on a massive scale next in our countdown is an extraordinary food factory it could be described as Roman fast food coming in at number five the amazing water Mills of barbal this is barbal in southern France

near the city of Al in the 1940s experts realized that these strange ruins were the remains of something truly spectacular a series of water Mills producing huge amounts of flour Thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution to this day there has never been anything else like it it's an industrial super Factory and it's Roman water Mills were already used in food production individually the ancient Chinese had them and the Greeks too but Mills linked together with something completely new it was a huge technological leap they didn't just have one water wheel they had 16 this

really was the World's first mega Factory the water flow through a series of Mills powering each one in turn now this only drop of 65 ft but each water mill is going to be receiving 33 gallons of water every second that's a huge energy output unlike most conventional water wheels which were powered by the flow of a river at the bottom of the wheel these were overshot water wheels the difference being that they were powered by the water dropping on the Wheel from above a much more powerful method the construction of this new system was

a huge technical challenge to power these water wheels the Romans actually diverted a nearby Aqueduct and even more impressively they cut a Channel Through the solid rock of a mountain side to create a passage for the water to reach the [Music] wheels enough flour was made there to Produce 9,000 loaves of bread every single day that's 4 and 1/2 tons of bread daily this was enough to feed the Roman troops nearby as well as the recently conquered GS in all if their new citizens were fed and watered the Romans knew they would be less likely

to Rebel as well as grinding flour the Mills could be used for other purposes too such as powering mechanical saws barbag gal might well have been the world's first multi-purpose Factory It's been described as the greatest known concentration of mechanical Power in the ancient world this was an industrial revolution 2,000 years ago this is ancient top 10 Rome's Greatest Hits Roman engineering breakthroughs ranked according to their effect on the world number 10 was Caesar's amazing Bridge across the Rind at number nine the incredible repeating ballista number eight was the Magnificent Basilica sisters and number seven

the Intriguing Nei tunnels six was the horror that was the mine at riotinto and number five astonishing ancient industry at barbag gal but next in our countdown is an engineering breakthrough that was bigger still it transformed the face of the towns and cities of the western world at number four elevating the Romans to new heights it's the ingenious crane the poly Spos building in the ancient world was hugely labor intensive every massive block of the mighty Egyptian Pyramids was hauled up by Manpower alone but Roman engineering was to change building forever they invented the ultimate

lifting machine the poly pastos was aimed massive breakthrough it allowed the Romans to build bigger and faster than they'd ever done before this revolutionary machine was many pulley joined together into a crane Hence the name poly spos meaning multiple pulley the amount that one crane could lift increased massively to over 3 tons this crane allowed each person using it to shift 60 times as much as they would otherwise Roman engineer in went into overdrive incredible buildings and monuments how are they made possible with this amazing crane the poly pastos crane built Rome but the Roman

Engineers didn't stop there they took things one step further the Crane's original design used a cap standand to lift the arm which is a horizontal wheel turned by hand but again the Romans saw the opportunity to make their invention more powerful they swapped out the capston for a tread wheel which was walked by slaves thereby doubling the lifting capacity of the crane if you can lift more you can build Bigger it maybe even possible that several poly spasto cranes were used together in one big interlocked mechanism and if that's the case imagine the lifting power

this sky is the limit they basically liked to show off not only did they want to prove that they had Mastery over the natural world they also wanted to intimidate their enemies nothing changed the face of the Empire as much as this remarkable Crane and the monster lifting Machines Of today and the skylines that they've built have all evolved from this groundbreaking device our next Roman breakthrough was a monumental engineering project at ground level at number three the extraordinary and revolutionary system of Roman roads before the Romans people used simple tracks but the Romans wanted

to March their armies across their empire not to Be constrained by their environment they knew a well-built and reliable system of Roads would be good for trade and for their Military Road building went into overdrive there are over 250,000 miles of known Roman roads there are probably actually even more that we simply don't know about that is more than the distance to the moon no civilization since has ever built on such a scale 372 great roads Connected the Empire's 100 13 provinces in those days the saying all roads lead to Rome was more than just

a saying it was the literal truth on a newly constructed Road a Roman legion could March about 20 M A Day the mile itself is a Roman invention it was created to measure 1,000 steps of the army the roads were vital for Messengers on Horseback too on the more important Roman roads there were post houses Messengers could swap horses here and ride up to three times the distance that's up to 60 M every day the Romans created their roads with precision and Incredibly modern techniques the amazing thing about Roman roads is their construction that's what

makes them such incredible Feats of engineering and they were built to last there were large stones at the bottom laid up with smaller stones and then gravel hard packed on Top are famous for being straight because it's the most efficient way to reach your destination but straight roads were also a sign of Roman power they built them straight because they could whatever the obstacles and much of the huge Network can still be seen to this day the Ingenuity of their design and the sheer amount of mileage that they covered means that the Roman Road system

has to have its place in any Roman top 10 roads were the glue that held the Roman empire together and they still connect towns and cities today the Romans used a secret ingredient in their road construction something that transformed engineering and architecture it's a 2,000-year-old technology that most would think was only invented in the past few hundred years today we take it for granted it's all around us and this extraordinary Revolutionary breakthrough is coming up next as our number two on Ancient time Roman construction that changed the world this is Rome's greatest hits the most

incredible Feats of Roman engineering next on our list is an engineering breakthrough that revolutionized Construction in the ancient world and thousands of years later our modern engineering depends on it at number two Is concrete concrete the Romans invented concrete 2,000 years ago we think of concrete as a modern Discovery but in fact it's reinvention it's rediscovery the pantheon in the middle of Rome one of the most astonishing buildings ever built it's 2,000 years old and still intact and its huge dome made entirely Of unreinforced concrete the pantheon was built as a temple to honor all

of the Roman gods it actually has the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world the fact that this is still standing today just stands as a testament to the awesome engineering minds of the ancient Romans the beauty of concrete is that it can be poured and molded into blocks of any shape the Romans could make arches vaults and Doms this was an architectural Revolution and the pantheon is the Pinnacle of Roman Concrete Construction the Dome of the pantheon is a fantastic example of how good the Romans were at building in concrete it's 142 ft in

diameter with no columns to support the Dome that is 50% bigger than the Dome of the capital building in Washington the diameter of the pantheon is the same as the height of the structure it's an absolutely enormous Space you could hold over 5,000 people inside the pantheon it's absolutely [Music] amazing Roman concrete technology was incredible in fact they varied the densities of the aggregate in the cement they would use high density aggregate in the foundations and in the walls but then up in the dome where the cement had to be a lot lighter they would

use a lower density aggregate it's this ingenious Engineering that allowed the Romans to build in concrete without the need for reinforcement or pillars there's one very special quality of Roman concrete it continues to harden with age the Dome of the pantheon is now stronger than it was 2,000 years ago modern concrete buildings rarely last 50 years they are in constant need of repair the capital Dome was finished in 1856 and has had two extensive Restorations since then the last time The pantheon Dome was repaired was 202 ad and that was after an earthquake and there

was another astonishing feature of Roman concrete Roman engineers was so ahead of their time that they discovered that if they changed the chemical composition of concrete this would allow the concrete to set even underwater underwater concrete this was revolutionary the key ingredient a volcanic ash from the slopes of Mount Vvus it contained about 85% volcanic ash lime water and some even say animals blood this stuff was strong it doesn't let water in like modern concrete it's weatherproof and resistant to Decay and Incredibly it meant that the Romans could build in the sea and construct Harbors

they could build artificial Harbors wherever they wanted the Roman Empire flourished the Romans poured the concrete into wooden crates which then Sank into place and the concrete set on the seabed they did this again and again building up at the harbor the concrete continuing to harden over time underwater the biggest concrete Harbor the Romans built was at caesaria in modern day Israel they shipped in 44 ships each containing 400 tons of volcanic ash with concrete they built one of the biggest Harbors in the ancient world at over 800,000 square feet The Harbor at caesaria rivaled

the finest natural Harbors in the world at the time it was constructed it was one of the biggest man-made structures to ever exist cesaria Harbor was 990,000 square yards that's big enough to enclose 30 football fields it could accommodate 300 ships they used over a million cubic feet of concrete to build it and this Thing extended out into the sea almost half a Mile it was massive concrete was an engineering breakthrough and it has literally shaped our world more than any other ancient invention so far we've seen the most incredible structures and discoveries but there

can only be one number one the greatest feat of Roman engineering of all quite simply it was the biggest construction project the Roman empire ever under undertook and it was unsurpassed not for hundreds Of years but for Millennia the greatest Roman engineering breakthrough is next on Ancient top it's Rome's Greatest Hits ancient top 10's list of the most amazing feats of Roman engineering at number 10 we saw Caesar's incredible bridge and number nine was the deadly repeating Ballista at number eight the underground Cathedral the Basilica Sister and number seven the extraordinary Nei tunnel number six

was the horrific mine that was riotinto and in at number five barbal ancient industry number four was the mighty poly spos crane number three the amazing Road system and number two the concrete Revolution but what is been picked as the greatest engineering feat of them all what changed the world more than anything else it's the number one Rome's greatest [Music] hit aqueducts aqueducts were the arteries of the Roman Empire and the Romans were Master engineers at building them Rome built its first aqueduct in 312 BC it was such a success uccess that they went on

to build them far and wide a Marvel of Roman engineering huge networks transporting gallons upon gallons upon gallons of water across the Empire it's estimated that the Romans built 6,000 Mi of aqueducts which if laid end to end would go a quarter of the way around the world a ready supply of fresh water meant that Roman civilization could flourish agriculture industry and expansion of the Empire they could establish cities in places that they otherwise couldn't because they wouldn't have had a secure supply of drinking Water all across the Empire a supply of fresh water meant

that cities could grow and prosper the main Aqueduct supplying the city of Rome was an incredible 57 M long but this wasn't the only one 11 aqueducts totaling more than 300 M in length that's 183 Golden Gate bridges in total over 300 million gallons of water flowed into Rome each day that's more per person than Modern-day New York City enough for drinking water sanitation bathouses and even the occasional spectacular event on an epic scale one of the most remarkable engineering features associated with the Coliseum is for the inaugural games they actually flooded The Arena floor

for Naval battles and the next day had it all drained out in the stage back in place incredible just as amazing is the Precision Engineering that went into Roman aqueducts and none more so than the Pont to guard in southern France this thing is huge 16 stories high 164 ft it's the height of the Coliseum enormous it's made of over 50,000 tons of stone and it's still standing the bridge over the gorge covers just a small section the whole Aqueduct actually travels for 30 miles even today that would be a public works undertaking on an

unimaginable Scale the Precision Engineering that went into Roman aqueducts like Pont deard is incredible the wow fact that stays in my mind is that over the course of the whole Aqueduct that's 30 Mi the drop in height is only 55 ft that is an absolute Tor force of Roman engineering the gradient is less than 1% imperceptible to the naked eye was a 1T drop every 3,000 ft the rate of flow was 58 Gall per second that's pretty amazing and there was yet another Technological innovation that was way ahead of its time the inverted siphon as

long as one side is slightly lower water flows from one pipe down then up to the other it meant that no Valley was too wide to cross the inverted siphon ingenious not only could water be transported along Lev ground and downhill but thanks to this Innovation they could transport water uphill when this principle was applied to huge aqueducts the Romans could Transport water no matter the terrain there could even be a series of these tanks from one Valley to the next the Romans perfected the inverted siphon technique and they rolled it out across the entire

Empire in any one hour they could make 10 million gallons of water flow not just flow it flowed Hill an infrastructure project on this scale had never been tried before it hadn't even been contemplated but that's what the Romans Were like they'd come up with the most amazing Solutions no matter how crazy or ambitious the [Music] plan aqueducts were the veins of the Roman Empire their civilization depended on them the world hasn't seen engineering on this scale since Roman engineering was the greatest of the ancient world it overcame any obstacle in its Way centuries ahead

of its time it transformed the Roman world and in doing so it has transformed ours too this week on Ancient top 10 evidence of man flight in the ancient world of all the mysterious ancient AR facts in the world these are the ones that really make you stop and pause to wonder did these ancient people know about aircraft could there have been electricity thousands of years ago it is really difficult to imagine what it Could have been if it wasn't some sort of device for making electricity was there a power drill more advanced than anything

today this cor seems to have been drilled out of solid Granite using a rapidly rotating drill and the world's first computer 200 BC one of the greatest treasures of the ancient world where will they be ranked on the only top 10 list thousands of years in the Making the mysteries of the Ancients are boundless so much from ancient times will remain a secret forever on this show we have evidence of Technology more advanced than today's how can this be some suggest that this is evidence for extraterrestrial Communication in ancient times fact or fiction you decide

this week on Ancient top 10 it's ancient Mysteries the most bewildering ancient Mysteries ranked according to how much They tell us about the secrets of the ancient world and we start where else but in ancient Egypt astonishing evidence of ancient flight soaring in at number 10 the Sakara bird it's a wooden carving of a bird and at first glance this Sakara bird doesn't appear to be anything special it's only when we examine it more Clos clely that the real mystery is revealed ancient Egypt the greatest civilization of the ancient World the oldest known Pyramid in

Egypt here at Sakura 20 M south of Cairo over a hundred years ago an intriguing object was recovered from this site it's a small carving made of Sycamore wood and over 2,000 years old clearly it's designed to look like a bird some experts believe that this bird is evidence the ancient Egyptians had knowledge of the principles behind gliding modern gliders date from the 19th century but the idea of a glider is Nothing new over a thousand years ago in 9th century Cordoba southern Spain one Brave inventor Abus ibben fernas threw himself off of a tower

in his own self-built glid machine accounts say he glided a considerable distance and he has gone down in history as the first man to fly but could the Sakara bird really be evidence of an ancient blinding machine it's just a bird a carving of a Bird so what makes it so mysterious well first we have to ask why is it there the reason for items being placed in tombs is very practical they're scale models of objects from real life either to help the dead person in the afterlife or to help them get there a means

of transport a model of a giant bird what use would that be and there weren't any giant birds in Egypt anyways all of the other models are of real practical things but an aircraft now that would be Useful the Egyptians believed the dead lived on in the skies to get there an aircraft would be ideal could the Sakara bird be a scale model of an actual aircraft the ancient Egyptians had throwing sticks similar to boomerangs for hunting birds it was a royal Pastime so given that they understood some basic principles of aerodynamics could it be

that the Sakara bird with its vertical tail fin to act as a stabilizer was a kind of Glider a vertical tail fin like this doesn't occur in nature but if this bird was going to fly it would also need a horizontal fin in the back such as modern gliders have without this it would plummet to the ground it's because even veras didn't have a horizontal tail fin that he couldn't control his descent there are in fact marks on the Sakara bird where exactly such a fin might have Been this would make it more stable than

even fasa's machine which was a thousand years later thanks to modern technology it's possible to test how aerodynamic a model of the bird would be with a horizontal fin added this is an Amazing Experiment it will Pro prove whether or not the ancient people had knowledge of flight and if they did the implications are staggering all the data can be fed into A computer and a flight simulator then the bird can be tested in the air the million-dollar question is if a scaled up version of this carved bird would actually fly this high-tech analysis provides

an unbelievable result amazingly modern scientist ific analysis shows that the Sakara bird conforms to our understanding of aerodynamics it Glides perfectly modern plans for gliders the Technological knoow for gliders didn't appear until the 19th century and those ancient plans actually work better than some of the earlier versions of modern gliders could the ancient Egyptians really have flown it can't be proved it's still up in the air but why have that capability and not use it if they could have then they would be more advanced than we ever imagined as amazing as an ancient gler would

be our next ancient mystery is Even more Illuminating possible evidence of ancient electricity at number n the dendera light it's the classic out ofpl artifact which does look bizarrely similar to a big electric light bulb the dendura temple complex near Luxor one of the best preserved in Egypt and it's here at the Temple of haor that we find a set of mysterious carvings they are 4 and a/2 th000 years Old could some bright spark back then really have invented electricity amazingly this image is evidence for some that they may have there's a wire connected to

a socket at the bottom there's a filament inside what looks like a giant electric bulb and there's even a pillar with features resembling modern pylons the ancient Egyptians did have primitive glass which could have been Used to make the casing of a bulb of course the ancient Egyptians didn't have electric lighting but it can't be denied that the dendera light does resemble a large light bulb some experts believe that dendera was not actually a temple but that it served another purpose possibly as a scientific research lab of some kind or even an ancient power station

it's generally thought thought That the ancient Egyptians lit their temples by burning torches surprisingly there is little evidence of this supporting this theory that the dendrite is electrical is how there's supposedly very little smoke damage in ancient Egyptian tombs so if they weren't using torches to light their tombs what were they using electricity in ancient Egypt this may be a truly Illuminating [Music] mystery but there's more even greater evidence of modern technology in the ancient world we're back to flight but this time powered flight it could even be evidence of spacecraft at number eight the

mysterious Golden Plains of South America it looks like we have another airplane on our hands only this time not A glider like the Sakara bird no this is ultra modern this looks like a supercharged aircraft these remarkable golden objects were found in an ancient tomb deep within the Colombian rainforest at the end of the 19th century they were made by the kimbaya people over a thousand years ago they look like small pieces of jewelry made to commemorate a particular aircraft but these golden planes are Ancient this must be an accurate representation of something but the

question is of what the shape of the Wings to me that says modern aircraft But Not Just Aircraft it sort of Screams space shuttle they do look like aircraft could they actually be models of something from the natural world but like the Sakara bird it has a vertical tail f no flying insect or bird even has Vertical fins or Wings attached to the bottom this simply doesn't happen in nature these are characteristics of an aircraft so did these ancient people in South America truly have the knowledge of powered flight groundbreaking scientific testing of a recreation

May welcome back to ancient top 10's top 10 ancient Mysteries ranked by experts according to how much they tell us about the secrets of the Ancients we've Reached number eight and we're in the jungles of South America where these remarkable golden objects were found they look like miniature space shuttles but they were made over a thousand years ago could they be models of alien spacecraft there are many people who believe that aliens visited Earth a long time ago and when you think about it it's just just as likely that they would have visited South America

say a thousand years ago As it would be for them to visit us today we'll never know for sure if these models were influenced by something otherworldly it will remain a mystery but there is one practical test that can be made one that will determine once and for all whether these planes could actually fly in 1997 German Aviation experts made a 16 to1 scale model painstakingly constructing it to mirror exactly a Golden plane and it flies just like a modern plane the aerodynamics are perfect of all the mysterious ancient artifacts in the world these golden

planes are the ones that really make you stop and pause to wonder did these ancient people know about aircraft I mean you can't escape the feeling that in three dimensions they look like modern aircraft but the mysteries of ancient aircraft don't end There coming in at number seven an ancient mystery that may show even more compelling evidence for High-Tech ancient flying machines the extraordinary abidos hieroglyphs these mysterious hieroglyphs are on a temple wall in central Egypt they're from the 13th century BC and some experts believe that they reveal more about the Ancients than any other

carving the abidos hieroglyphs are Probably the most famous Egyptian hieroglyphs in the world there's one that looks like a helicopter there's one right next to it that looks like a tank and there's yet another one that looks like a modern fighter jet meets a flying sorcer helicopters tanks flying Sorcerers now what's really amazing about this is that these things aren't just in the same tomb they're all next to each other which is an incredible Coincidence now one could be coincidence but three these hieroglyphs are over 3,000 years old that's just ridiculous how can that be

the temple complex is dedicated to Osiris the Egyptian god of the afterlife could these be craft designed to transport the dead to their place in the heavens some have even theorized that perhaps these are the craft of visiting aliens commemorated in stone The stuff of Science Fiction maybe or were these futuristic craft imagined by some brilliant engineer ahead of his time an ancient D Vinci it took another 3,000 years before someone thought of the idea of a helicopter and that was Leonardo Da Vinci and we consider him a genius and of course it was many

hundreds of years later when we actually invented the helicopter so where does this leave us We're the artists at abidos Time Travelers it all sounds rather farfetched and yet there the hieroglyphs are for all to see the notion of flight in the ancient world is truly astonishing but even more shocking is evidence of ancient electricity and this time it's not a carving it's an actual artifact at number six the Baghdad battery looking at this object it is Really difficult to imagine what it could have been if it wasn't some sort of device for making electricity

this is a photograph of the Baghdad battery it's now lost but back in the 1930s it was in the national museum of Iraq and it's been the cause of huge controversy ever since it was a terracotta pot dating from around 2,000 years ago and inside was a cylinder made of a Rolled copper sheet with an iron Rod precisely held in place in the middle of it tests on the interior of the jar have provided a clue as to what it may have been used for looking inside the Baghdad battery we can see that it contained

some sort of acidic solution perhaps lemon juice wine or vinegar now this easily could have been used to pass an electrical current from the iron to The Copper if it wasn't an ancient object it would be obvious what it is a battery I mean just look at it all its components fit so precisely together so if this is true I mean once again the implications are astounding welcome back to our countdown of the top 10 greatest ancient Mysteries amazing wonders of the ancient world that continue to baffle to this day we're at number six and

it's the Baghdad battery found in the desert of Iraq this is a replica of the battery with a copper tube a steel or iron rod and vinegar as an electrolyte solution we can put the mystery surrounding this object to the test incredibly electricity is produced about 1 VT this is astonishing but if it was a battery the mystery is what it would have been used for now even though the Bagdad batteries weren't powerful enough to produce electric lighting experiments With replicas of them connected up have found that they could produce enough current to electroplate small

objects electroplating is when an electric current is passed through a liquid solution like this gold solution making its metal atoms deposit themselves on something acting as an electrode by electroplating a piece of jewelry or a coin could be coated with gold or silver imagine that how incredible would it be for someone in Ancient times to be able to electroplate Metals if this is a battery then the biggest question of all is where did that knowledge come from you know this is evidence for many that there was a great ancient civilization perhaps many of them whose

knowledge we have now forgotten electricity in the ancient world even the concept sounds ridiculous you would have thought we'd have had some sort thought of a written record of it yet the Baghdad battery Exists technology thousands of years ahead of its time if true the implications are beyond belief but for our next mystery the evidence is Rock Solid it's there for us all to see coming in at number five impossible engineering from the ancient Roman Empire the B bbec blocks Balck Lebanon the Temple of Jupiter here was the largest temple in the hole of the

Roman Empire standing at 300 ft high and completed about 60 AD it covers the same area as nearly nine football fields it's intimidating and imposing and that's just how it was meant to be walbeck is a massive Temple and the Romans built places like this in part to show the locals what they could do not only did they want to prove that they had Mastery over the natural world they Also wanted to intimidate their enemies it's a demonstration of absolute power but the most incredible thing about this Temple isn't its overall size it's these three

massive blocks of stone at the base of the Temple each one is 12 ft high and 65 ft long that's bigger than the biggest Egyptian obelisk amazingly these three stone blocks are the largest building blocks ever used by any human being anywhere in the world weighing in at around 800 tons Each and they are lined up absolutely perfectly now we know that the Romans had technology which allowed them to raise a 100 tons or so so how on Earth did these things get up there um they're one of those ancient Mysteries that at the moment

are just leaving us with a great big question mark there are no marks on the stone to give us any clue as to how they were moved but we do know that they came from a quarry nearby hacked out of the Hillside in single giant pieces because there is one left in place today to lift anything so heavy we would use a mega crane like this it's the lever 11200 one of the most advanced most powerful cranes around but the Romans had nothing like this their cranes relied on muscle power they were super Advanced for

their time and this example called the poly spasto could lift 6 Tons this crane allowed each person using it to shift 60 times as much as they would otherwise with these cranes the Romans could build enormous structures such as six story apartment buildings huge temples and the Coliseum but they were built using small blocks these blocks at Balck were 800 tons and even once lifted somehow they would need transporting we know that the Ancients Used barges to float huge Stones down to certain building sites but Balck is nowhere near a river so we might have

some good guesses but to be honest we don't really know how they moveed those huge Stones it is and will probably forever remain a mystery why use such big blocks in the first place Nobody Knows the answer is lost to history this is the ancient top 10 list Of ancient Mysteries ranked according to how much they tell us about the secrets of the ancient world flying high at number 10 was the Intriguing Sakara bird number nine was the light bulb carving at the dendera temple number eight the enigmatic Golden Plains of South America at number

seven the mysterious hieroglyphs at abidos number six the shocking Baghdad battery and number five was the mystery of the massive stones at ball backck next in our countdown is for Some the most convincing evidence yet of extraterrestrials at number four the NASCAR lines the NASCAR lines are a mystery that make the complete works of Agatha Christie look like the puzzle on the back of a cial box these mysterious lines and shapes are in the desert in southern Peru a giant hummingbird a spider mysterious diagrams shapes and Straight lines the nasca lines are astonishing intricate geometrical

design and mathematical figures I mean the longest one is a th000 ft that's over three football fields these mysterious lines are between 4 and 12 in deep they're made just by pushing away the surface stones and Earth and exposing the lighter ground underneath and because the area is so Dry and windless they've lasted some of these lines date back to 500 BC there are over 800 straight lines 300 geometric patterns and over 70 animal and plant figures over an incredible 200 square miles from the ground they're pretty much invisible but looking down from the sky

the NASCAR lines come to [Music] life it's absolutely incredible to imagine these ancient people laying out These patterns that they can't even see from the ground how they did it is a mystery but as big a mystery as how they did it is why they did it there are a lot of theories about the nascal lines one of the central groups of theories has to do with the possibility that they can be studied using astronomy so that these things might be calendars or they might represent constellations or be mapping the movement of the Sun another

theory that I happen to agree with is that these animals represented by the nascal lines were actually parts of ritual circuits that you could actually walk like in A procession through the actual body and being of these creatures as if you were experiencing the Divine Essence viscerally I think that overall we have to conclude that the nascal lines are still a great mystery and then there's this he's known As the spaceman is he a depiction of an extraterrestrial waving to us or is he a human waving hello or goodbye to Something in the heavens there

are many who believe that the lions are commemorative that is they represent a past visit of extraterrestrials and it's a message to them to say hey we're still here come back the nascal lines have become world famous with a whole host of mysteries to explain what they mean from rituals to Produce more rain in the desert to messages for alien visitors coming down from outer space one thing is certain though this is a mystery that will remain but next in our countdown evidence of something seemingly impossible ancient Technology Way more advanced than even our own

at number three it's course seven it's a bit of rubble but it might just be the most mysterious bit of rubble in all of History this strange 4500y old piece of rock known as core 7 is ancient Egyptian it was found near the Great Pyramids at the end of the 19th century by this man the British archaeologist flenders Petri it's kept here in London in the Petri Museum it's an exact cylinder and has strange lines scored into it which are perfectly spaced in fact it's one continuous line like the grooves of a Record what is

it it's the core that would be thrown away when a hole is drilled in this case the hole of a door pivot but this rock is granite how could the ancient Egyptians drill into solid Granite the strongest metal tools the Egyptians had were copper and copper is quite soft so it's mind-boggling to think that that is what they use to penetrate Granite the only material really strong enough to penetrate Granite well that's diamond And if the ancient Egyptians had diamond cutting technology well then history would have to be Rewritten the shape of the groove is

further evidence of impossibly advanced technology it's the grooves in Petri core 7 the are the real mystery as far as we know the ancient Egyptians only had bow drills which moved back and forth this is a reconstruction of an ancient Egyptian bow drill it makes a very distinctive back and forth line as It drills one continuous line such as that of core 7 is the mark of a modern power drill this core seems to have been drilled out of solid Granite using a rapidly rotating drill can this possibly be true this is ancient top 10's

list of the greatest ancient Mysteries we've reached number three and it's a remarkable piece of granite from ancient Egypt known as core 7 incredibly the perfect line around the Cylinder appears to be the line made by a super Advanced power drill a modern Diamond tipped machine like this powered by electricity makes a cord just like the ancient Egyptian one this machine turns at 1,600 revolutions per minute how on Earth could the Egyptians drill like this nobody knows it's clearly impossible and yet they did it the evidence is carved in stone but even this isn't the

end of our Mystery from looking at theace space between each Revolution it's possible to work out the force of the drill The Wider the space between the groove the greater the force amazingly research shows that the core was made by a drilling process with greater strength than a modern power drill what does this tell us there are no tools of that caliber that we know of is This evidence for even far greater civilization that had those tools that We have no historical record of it remains an unexplained mystery and it's one of the greatest but

next in our countdown of incredible ancient Mysteries is one of the most immense extraordinary discoveries of all time at number two it's an entire Army the Terracotta Army this was one of the most amazing archaeological finds ever in the 1970s Chinese farmers were Digging a well and they stumbled across these giant pits the biggest was 750 ft long and filled with these amazing figures they became known as the Terracotta Army and more just kept coming coming terracotta figures 2,000 years old and not a few thousands of them and 520 horses 130 chariots musicians acrobats each

one is unique every single one is different it's as if they were Sculpted from real people it's as if you were there 2,000 years ago it's absolutely eerie 8,000 individually sculpted pieces what were they and why were they created a clue is in the location it was inside the huge Mausoleum complex built for the emperor Chen the first emperor of [Music] China spread over 56 Square mil it took More than 720,000 people 37 years to construct it the tomb itself lies within one of the largest burial mounds in the world it remains unexcavated it is

thought to be booby trapped to stop anyone breaking in and it is said to be surrounded by a lake of mercury but why was this Army of clay buried with this great emperor for the answer we have to look to his lifetime Chen was responsible for the deaths of thousands the one problem with being a violent Tyrant who comes to Power by slaying everybody who stands in UA is you make a few enemies when you're alive it's not a problem you've got bodyguards you can keep them out of the way but when you're dead they're

waiting for you in the afterlife and they carry a serious Grudge 8,000 soldiers chariots and horses all there for one purpose to Protect him in the afterlife as well as being protected Emperor chin wanted to hold on to power he meant to rule forever but the mystery doesn't stop there after his death Chin's entire court was buried with him hundreds of slaves servants concubines wives musicians even his favorite horse and Chariot buried alive [Music] so wouldn't the obvious thing be to bury His Elite troops alive in a way the mystery is why they are made

of clay rather than being the skeletons of real troops perhaps forcing the living troops into the pits was a step too far even for the mighty chin and it gives us one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time this is ancient top 10's list of the top Mysteries of the ancient world based on which reveals the most about the secrets of the Ancients at number 10 was the highflying Sakara bird at number nine shining a light on the secrets of ancient Egypt the dendera light number eight was the mysterious Golden Plains of South America

and at number seven the intriguing hro glyphs at abidos at number six the Baghdad battery and at number five was the mystery of the massive stones at Balck in at number four the famous nazka Lines of Peru number three was the mysterious piece of granite known as core 7 our number two the unique enigmatic Terracotta Army me clearly there was more to the Ancients than is found in recorded history but now we've reached the top of our countdown and prepare to be astounded at number [Music] one the anti-ra mechanism an ancient Computer the most incredible

and mysterious device one of the greatest treasures of the ancient world The Story begins just over 100 years ago near the Greek island of adika a group of Greek sponge divers were underwater looking for sponges when actually what they stumbled across was a shipwreck full of treasures there were beautiful statues and all kinds of precious artifacts and then there was This a corroded lump of br bronze what could it be it was taken back to the National archaeological Museum in Athens and there one of the bronzes broke open to show Gear wheels and inscriptions now

Gear wheels were not known from the classical era so this was something quite extraordinary what was this mysterious seemingly outof time artifact debate has raged in the scientific Community since its Discovery but it was only when it was Radio red in the 1970s that the total number of Gears could be seen and its complexity was revealed when it was built it undoubtedly had more maybe 45 Gear wheels and then it wasn't until 2005 2006 the application of 3D x-ray computed tomography a sort of body scanner to look at the structure of the thing allowed us

to work out what mechanism was really inside and just how technologically Sophisticated that was this is a reconstruction of what the highly Advanced mechanism may have looked like but what was it for on the front of the antira mechanism was a representation of the universe solar system with the Earth in the center and around it went the moon the sun and the planets that they knew about at that time on the back of the mechanism there Was a spiral at the top that was a cycle of the moon 235 months over 19 years and at

the bottom a dial which allowed you to predict whether it was likely there would be an eclipse of the Sun or the moon a sort of wonderful encapsulation of what they knew about astronomy at that time the anti-am mechanism predicted and modeled aspects of the known sky in a very real sense it was a handheld model of the Greek Universe the anti-ra mechanism allowed you to input data uh and get a result so you'd find a date and then it would show you where the sun the moon and the stars would be in the sky

on that date so what we've got here is a Computing calendar genius input data get a result a computer in fact the technology is remarkably similar to what is traditionally thought of as the first computer invented by Charles babage in the 19th Century imagine the knowledge and skill needed to create such a thing thousands of years ago where did that knowledge come from that is the biggest mystery of all this mind-blowing mechanism is M represents not just a phenomenal technical achievement but the culmination of research reaching back who knows how many centuries the mechanical sophistication

of the antira mechanism reminds us that The Greeks were just as intelligent as we are the difference is the much greater knowledge base we have these days what's changing is our view of their world the antira mechanism is our number one as it reveals the Ancients were far more advanced than we ever previously thought we still don't know who made it or why it's our ultimate mystery without the anti mechanism it would be difficult to realize how sophisticated the design technology had Become and it makes you wonder what else we're missing or misinterpreting in the

ancient world this remarkable object tells us more than any other discovery that there is so much about the Ancients that we don't know [Music] there are Mysteries so deep that it seems they'll never be solved super advanced technology thousands of years ago one thing we can Be sure of the ancient world will continue to surprise and astonish us it will always be a world of the most extraordinary secrets and Mysteries