From the hollowed out rocks of Mada'in Saleh to the BIGGEST Pre-Columbian city in South America; These are 11 Unreal Ancient Sites and Artifacts HEY YOU ! There are more awesome videos being made every week, like and subscribe to World Unearthed so you don't miss a beat ! 11.Mada'in Saleh LOCATION - Saudi Arabia 10.The New World Egg 9.Kaunos LOCATION - Turkey, Anatolia 8. The Maya Calendars 7.Ajanta Caves LOCATION - INDIA, Maharashtra 6.The Mask of Agamemnon 5.Skellig Michael LOCATION - Ireland Quick, what does Star Wars The Force Awakens, and The Witcher game series have in common? Skellig Michael, thats what. Skellig Michael is the larger of two islands off the coast of Ireland, sometime during the 6th to 8th Century AD a monastery was built, and the island became a hermitage. It is believed that no more than 12 people lived on the island at any one point. The island was suffered a Viking attack in 823 , and due to harsh harsh climate change, the island was abandoned in the 12 Century AD. Due to its recent rise in popularity, which will increase even more when scenes from the upcoming Last Jedi movie appear, conservationists believe the influx of visitors will negatively impact local Puffin and Storm Petrel colonies. 4.Panagyurishte Treasure Panagyurishte is a small town that has many ancient ties, located Bulgaria, the the town became famous for the immense Thracian treasure found there. You might have heard of one of the most famous Thracians - I’m SPARTACUS (such a great scene ) Back to the treasure, it is believed to have been used as a ceremonial set by Thracian kings, the total weight of all the objects is 13.5 lb (6.164kg) of 24 Karat Gold. If you had to put a price on the gold alone, it is worth $237,125 today. Many scholars consider this the best Thracian treasure ever found and people have commissioned a few exact replicas of it, some speculate that the original treasure which sits in a Museum in Sofia, is actually a replica itself. 3.Chan Chan LOCATION - Peru, Andes Mnts. You may have never heard of this place before, but it is the largest pre-Columbian era city in South America ! It served as the capital of the Chimor Empire, who were later taken over by the Inca Empire. Chan Chan translates to “Sun Sun”, it got its name from the incredible sunny climate in the area. The city was founded sometime around 850 A.D. and grew to an estimated 60,000 people in 1300 A.D. After the Inca take over Chan Chan fell into an economic decline, but that did not stop the Spaniards from looting an estimated 80,000 pesos (or $5 million in today's money) worth of gold from it. The city fell into complete obscurity and was abandoned, well only until 1969 when archaeologists began excavations at the site. Nowadays, the city is World Heritage Site and the grandiosity of it still inspires many explorers and adventurers. 2.Celtic Tomb In March of 2015, a team from the National Archaeological Research Institute started excavating a site in France, what they found was astonishing ! A burial chamber for a Celtic Prince was unearthed, filled with Greek Iron Age artifacts, Denis Gliksman managed to capture photos of the most prominent ones. We are looking at a wine cauldron with a sculpture of the Greek God Acheloos on it. The original god of all water ! Sadly, he got demoted to just a normal river god during the hellenistic period. These artifacts shed a new light on Iron Age trade 1.Terracotta Army LOCATION - China In 1974, some farmers in China stumbled across one of the most unreal archaeological discoveries ever, the terracotta army. Can you imagine what it was like to find hundreds of statues of soldiers all perfectly lined up? At this point, I would imagine there was an evil ancient curse, that would befall me too if I didn’t get out of there fast enough ! The figures date back to around 210-209 BC, and they are believed to be the protectors of the Emperor in his afterlife, they are made of terracotta, and sport some amazing details. Terracotta stands for “baked earth”, commonly referring to clay-based ceramics. The army is only a small part of the 38 square mile (98 sq.km) necropolis, the tomb of the emperor has actually never been opened due to concerns over preservations of its artifacts.

• published: 01 Feb 2017
• views: 176831