All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.S08E01.Impossible.Ancient.Structures.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

Magnificent temples

carved from
a single massive rock.

A megalithic fortress

encoded with a mysterious
hidden language.

And mystifying stone tombs

that may have been created
to contain a creature

of monstrous proportions.

Some of the greatest mysteries
on our planet can be found

in the ruins
of ancient structures

that are often described as
nothing short of extraordinary.

All around us, we find walls

made of massive
interlocking stones,

sacred temples constructed
with complex geometry,

and colossal
architectural masterpieces

that rival or even surpass
what we can create today.

How did the builders
of these structures achieve

such seemingly impossible
feats of engineering

without the use
of modern technology?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

China.

With over 4,000 years
of recorded history,

it is the oldest continuous
civilization in the world.

Its rich culture has been shaped

by powerful dynasties
and countless wars

and unrivaled feats
of engineering

that are truly
a wonder to behold.

But of all its dazzling
constructions,

none is more iconic
or monumental

than the Great Wall.

The Great Wall of China

is now classified as one of

the Seven New Great Wonders
of the World.

We think of the Great Wall as

this one thing that
the tourists visit near Beijing

which is, like,
extremely refined,

sophisticated architecture,

but actually,
it consists of many walls

stitched together
over 2,000 years.

The length of the wall,
until recently,

was thought to be
about 2,000 to 5,000 miles.

Now we know it's 13,000 miles.

Okay, that's half
the circumference of the Earth.

This is by far the largest
human-made structure

on the entire planet, by far.

It's amazing. It's phenomenal.

At the same time,

you have to wonder, what
the hell were they thinking?

We certainly know that the wall

functions as a very,
very long castle.

There have been times
it's been attacked

and the people on the wall
have held those attackers off.

Originally, in the 220s BC...

the first emperor of China,
the man called Ying Zheng,

decided to stitch together
the little walls

that connected
the little kingdoms

to hold out barbarians
in the north

who are coming
across his border.

But different dynasties
had different walls.

You got four or five different

nomad groups
that are various threats.

As time goes on,

it extends further
and further out

towards the west,

over by this remote part
of the desert.

And sometimes it uses gravel
and reeds and mud,

which is also rammed down
and closely compacted.

Sometimes it even uses wood.

Eventually,

the Ming Wall,
the one that was built

in the 14th century, um,

that uses stone
and sometimes brick.

And sometimes it's 50 feet tall,

sometimes it's 30 feet tall,
sometimes it's ten feet tall.

You put this huge amount
of manpower

into creating this
really impressive edifice,

and if that scares
your enemies away

before you even have to fight
them, then you've already won.

The walls
were certainly significant.

We think of them
as military operations.

But the most important purpose,
I think, is economic.

That they could funnel
the trade that was coming

in and out of China
through these gates.

You could monitor the goods.
You could tax them.

And they also controlled

the human populations
that sort of came through.

So these gates served
as a hybrid

military, economic project.

And, of course, it worked,
but it also, like, didn't work.

In the 13th century,

Genghis Khan
and his Mongolian hordes

famously broke through
these legendary defenses

and actually took control
of China.

Rebel forces overthrew
the Mongols in 1368

and established
the Ming dynasty.

For nearly 300 years,
the Mings built

and reinforced over 5,000 miles
of even more sophisticated walls

until the dynasty
collapsed in 1644.

What we see today
is a construction effort

that spanned two millennia
and largely remains

one of Earth's greatest
man-made mysteries.

In archaeology,

we have a method or a strategy

for studying how much investment
goes into architecture.

It's called
the study of man-days.

How long would it take me
to do this?

No one has yet calculated

the man-days required to build
the Great Wall of China.

The problem is that
you can't get inside

all the sections of
the Great Wall to understand

just what they encountered

trying to build over
mountain passes or ridges,

across valleys
and these kinds of things.

The investment
and the resources are

so enormous,
it's almost unimaginable.

While some believe
that a construction effort

of this scale would easily
take millions of people,

the actual size
of the Great Wall's workforce

remains unknown.

Although the structure
has become a symbol

of China's strength
and ingenuity,

it's likely those tasked
with the construction

were living in a grim reality.

I would say that
most of the wall

was constructed
through forced labor.

Being sent to the wall
was a punishment.

It would just say
on the statute books "qiáng,"

which means "wall,"
and that's where the men

were sent to carry bricks
and ram earth.

But there was a punishment
for female criminals, as well.

It said "sent to pound rice."

And for centuries, no one
really knew what that meant,

but it turns out that
the bricks in the wall

need cement
to hold them together.

And these armies of
female convicts were sent

to create this sticky rice soup

that creates a really powerful,
strong cement.

And so, these people are
basically being exiled

in the middle of nowhere,

and the wall for them
is a kind of prison.

The workers
were essentially worked

to death in many cases,
and there are reports

of a lot of these people dying

while they were building
the wall.

There are folk tales,

um, that have been recorded
about people

who expired
being buried under the wall

or their bodies being used
to build the wall itself,

which is quite
a macabre thought.

And we can't really look
for these bodies

or the remnants of the bodies.

Were dead bodies really used

in the construction
of the Great Wall of China?

Some estimate that upwards
of a million workers

lost their lives,

so it remains
a chilling possibility.

And while there are
countless unanswered questions

about the making
of this engineering marvel,

Chinese researchers have begun
using modern technology

to try to solve the mystery

of this wonder of the world.

In 2018, researchers
from Tianjin University

decided to do a full-scale
drone-mapped survey

of the Ming dynasty portion
of the Great Wall.

And what they found took
a lot of people by surprise.

They were able to get
a comprehensive view of areas

that people aren't normally
able to access,

and they discovered
these doors--

they're effectively holes--
in the wall

that were used
at various portions

for troops to surprise enemies

by suddenly appearing
through the wall.

They were gates, basically,
that nobody knew about.

There were more than 200
of them hiding in plain sight.

It turns out that the wall

was not just
some solid monolith.

There were actually passageways,

these secret doors
that were totally unexpected.

China has only recently

come to really start
to explore itself historically,

archaeologically, scientifically.

We haven't known a lot about
why the Great Wall was built.

And I can tell you
from firsthand experience,

it is simply impossible

to access many areas
of the Great Wall.

And you have to remember,

we can't see
underneath the wall.

We can't see
if there were people

who died in the construction
and were thrown in the fill.

We can't see if there were
settlements that were built

and then the wall covered them.

What are the different
features of the wall?

We just don't know these things.

So I think the mysteries
are gonna continue to unfold

over the course
of the next several lifetimes.

In the shadow
of the Great Pyramids

sits a monumental
ancient landscape

of countless
architectural mysteries

that continue
to defy understanding.

And just northwest
of the Pyramid of Djoser,

the oldest pyramid in Egypt,

lies one of the most baffling

archaeological sites
ever discovered:

the Serapeum of Saqqara.

In 1850,

French archaeologist
Auguste Mariette

finds a head of a sphinx
in the sand

and decides to dig under it.

And as they excavate,

they find staircases
down to some catacombs.

And when they go inside,

there's a burial ground
with chambers,

doorways, corridors,
and most intriguingly,

there are around 60 tombs

and 24 giant sarcophagi.

These sarcophagi are unusual
because they are so huge

and they are clearly not
human tombs.

This place was built
around 1400 BC

by the Pharaoh Amenhotep III,

who very much
revolutionized Egypt,

and it seems to have been used
right up until about 30 BC,

but the sheer scale
and precision of the sarcophagi

suggests that they did have some

importance that isn't
just clear to the eye.

The Serapeum of Saqqara

is based around
two large corridors,

each with offshoot rooms

where the sarcophagi
were housed.

This is what
we would call the coffins.

And the sarcophagi
in the Serapeum

are absolutely huge.

Ten-foot-wide, 13-foot-long,
each with its own lid

and weighing
around 60 to 70 tons.

Moreover, what makes each
sarcophagus really unusual

is that they are built
of one piece of solid granite.

They have been brought down
into the Serapeum as one piece.

It's simply remarkable.

Sarcophagi that you might find

in royal tombs in the Valley
of the Kings or in pyramids

are rectangular boxes,

roughly human-body-shaped
and then a little bit larger.

These sarcophagi in the Serapeum

were more like the size
of a small building,

which prompts us
into thinking, you know,

how on earth did
the Egyptians even go about

cutting pieces
of stone like this

but also maneuvering them
into position?

To get these huge sarcophagi
into the burial vaults,

they have to travel a long way
in quite a confined space.

And the fact is
that we don't know

precisely how
the Egyptians did this.

What could possibly be entombed

in a ten-by-13-foot coffin
that weighs 70 tons?

Well, some believe the answer
lies with a large animal

the ancient Egyptians
considered sacred,

known as an Apis bull.

The Apis bull was
a real-life bull,

a-a real animal,
identified by the priests

according to
particular markings.

It had to have
the right combination

of black and white markings,
and that would be

the giveaway that, in fact,
this was the Apis bull,

which was believed to be
a manifestation

of the spirit of the god Ptah.

And Ptah was a creator god

and the most important god
in the capital city of Memphis.

And once the Apis bull
was identified,

it would be taken
to the Temple of Ptah

and looked after and treated
as if it were a god.

And at the time the bull died,

they would have been given
a full ceremonial burial

comparable to the funeral
of a pharaoh.

While we do know Apis bulls

were buried in ancient Egypt,

were the giant sarcophagi
in the Serapeum of Saqqara

specifically designed
to inter the mummies

of these holy creatures?

When the catacombs
were first being explored,

the remains of a few bulls
were found mummified

in a slightly
sort of unexpected way,

in that the bodies appear
to have been broken up

and gathered together
in a kind of bundle.

But because most
of the sarcophagi

have been found to be empty,

there are questions
about whether or not

they really were the sarcophagi
for mummified bulls.

The evidence is a bit thin
on the ground.

It's very possible
that the sarcophagi were used

to house
the Apis bulls themselves.

But as usual with things
in ancient Egypt,

there's both evidence
for and against.

But we don't have a lot
of the ancient skeletal remains

resulting from that, and so
of course it's enormous fun

to speculate who these tombs
might have been created for,

given their absolute
vast size and proportion.

What purpose did these

enormous stone vessels
truly serve?

Were they actual tombs?

While a lack of physical remains

has certainly led
to various theories,

the most tantalizing hypothesis

revolves around
an ancient race of giants.

When you look back

and go into
the old Arabian records

and myths and legends,

you find stories from
the book Akhbar al-zaman,

which was written
about a thousand years ago.

It detailed all these giant,
godlike beings

coming from the land
of Ad or Adam,

and arriving in Egypt
and building the pyramids.

We have the first pyramid in
Egypt being built at Saqqara,

and we have
these giant sarcophagi.

Some people have suggested
that these could have housed

human giants.

And you find all these stories
of these giant pharaohs.

And there are lots of images
that have been recorded

on many of the walls of
the tombs and temples of Egypt.

Some of them look like
they're depicting giants.

I mean, you kind of
have to admit that.

So I find this really,
really compelling.

Was the Serapeum once

a burial ground for giants?

It's a fascinating idea
to entertain,

but the truth is
the answers to how and why

these immovable containers
were created

remains lost
to the sands of time.

If there is one

really great enduring mystery
about the Serapeum, it's really

whether, in fact,
we have found everything

of the Serapeum, or if one day,

a bit of archaeology could
lead us to new chambers

with everything that
that might bring.

Was there supposed to be

something else there
that we don't know about?

And so, it's making us

ask questions about

this period
of ancient Egyptian history

that's not very well known.

It's hard to imagine
just how much time and effort

went into constructing the
giant sarcophagi at Saqqara.

And perhaps
the bigger question is: Why?

Like in the case of another
impossible structure

found in India.

It's an enormous temple

carved from a single
piece of stone.

Just outside
the city of Aurangabad

lies the Ellora Caves,

a series of rock-cut temples,
shrines and monasteries

carved out of
a massive basalt cliff

stretching for more than a mile.

Constructed by a series
of dynasties that ruled India

between the sixth
and tenth century AD,

this extraordinary complex
is an unparalleled monument

to the diverse spirituality
of India.

The Ellora Caves is
a religious site

that are a series of
cave temples in western India.

And it is one of the most
breathtaking structures

in all of South Asia,
if not the world.

It is comprised
of 34 different caves.

32 of the caves
are proper cave temples,

while two of them are rock-cut,

freestanding temples.

17 of them are Hindu,
12 are Buddhist,

and five are Jain.

This particular part of India

had many important trade routes,

and the rulers there also had
a great diversity of religions.

It was the duty of the king
to make everyone feel welcome.

While the Ellora Caves symbolize

an era of religious harmony
in India,

their beauty and precision

also represent a true mystery
of ancient engineering.

And the site's
most baffling construction

is the Kailasa Temple.

Built in the eighth century AD

and spanning an area
of about 300 feet long,

175 feet wide and 100 feet tall,

it's the largest monolithic
temple in the world.

For Kailasa Temple,
to replicate it today

would be nigh to impossible.

Part of the mystery is trying
to reverse engineer

what they did
and how they made this.

So, normally,
you build a building

by starting with a ground plan
and building up.

Here, these are rock-cut,

which means you start
from the top

and you work your way down,
chiseling the material out

to make it look like
it was built from the bottom up.

So, basically,
you're building these things,

in a way, upside down.

And the skill of producing this
and the geometry,

it doesn't exist anymore today.

We don't have any way
to understand exactly

how they were doing this.

So you
have to scoop out the rocks

and then build the temple.

It's like a piece
of a sculpture.

And there has to be a blueprint
in order to carve such a temple.

But there has been no evidence
of finding a blueprint

or even mentioning
that there was a blueprint.

So, is it mentally imagined?

Or maybe they used
a small replica,

like a model of a temple
that they had on the side.

We don't know.

There are not
any written documents.

So we are totally baffled.
It's an enigmatic temple.

Three million cubic square feet

was the amount of stone
that was removed.

And that is another
of the big mysteries here.

Where did it go?
How did they move it?

It's still an enigma
because just to be there,

to walk in that space--

you have a multistory building

of immaculate beauty
and complexity

that is a single piece of stone.

The curvatures
and the sculptural tableau

are so intricate,
so beautiful and so profound.

It's hard to conceive
that anyone could do it,

even with modern technology.

It's estimated
that 200,000 tons of stone

were removed
to create Kailasa Temple,

the equivalent of two
U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.

And what makes
this exquisite structure

even more extraordinary

is how quickly
it was constructed.

Kailasa Temple
was allegedly built

in less than 20 years,

which has left a lot
of people wondering how--

by what means or methods
they accomplished such a feat.

And especially if we're thinking
that the site was built

about 1,400 years ago,
this is doubly impressive.

So there have been certain
hypotheses that there were

certain tools that vibrated
at certain frequencies

that were used
to break down the rock.

Magnetism might have been used.

But there's no hard evidence for
any of these building methods

and no record of how

these methods were deployed
on the site.

Could some kind
of lost technology

have been used
in the temple's construction?

Well, it's certainly
a possibility,

but legend has it
that there may have been

some supernatural assistance
at the Ellora Caves,

and according to local folklore,
secrets may still be hiding

deep inside the mountain.

There is this 13th-century work

known as the Leela Charitra

that tells the story
of the visit of Chakradhara,

this great Hindu sage,
into the vicinity of Ellora.

And he's traveling there
with his disciples,

and they need to find refuge
for the night.

So they go and spend the night
at the caves of Ellora.

They start hearing
strange voices emerging

from out of the beautiful
sculptures that surround them.

And some of them
start having odd visions,

and one of the disciples

turns to Chakradhara

and asks, "How could these
possibly be built?

What is this structure?"

And the master says,
"This whole mountain is filled

with hidden chambers
and all kinds of hidden tunnels,

and no one knows
their entrances or their exits."

And so, this is probably
the story of the start

that there are
all kinds of hidden caves,

and that lends to a lot
of later speculation, as well.

There are legends
that the Kailasa Temple

was constructed
by the gods themselves

or certainly that they had
a hand in its construction.

And this therefore suggests
the possibility

that a lost technology
was actually involved.

So, whatever way
you look at this,

this is an extraordinary
achievement for humanity

and one that we still
cannot explain to this day.

Could a secret chamber
inside the mountain

hold the answers to how and why
the Ellora Caves were created?

If so, its discovery
could potentially rewrite

much of what we know
about ancient engineering.

Not unlike another baffling
stone structure in Indonesia,

the largest Buddhist temple
in the world,

that was mysteriously built
and abandoned

more than 500 years ago.

Dominating the skyline is

Mount Merapi,
Indonesia's most active volcano,

standing like
an ancient guardian

above miles of dense,
misty jungle.

And in 1814,
when this island nation

was part of
the Dutch East Indies,

Javanese locals spoke
of a strange location

hidden in the jungle

they called the Mountain
of a Thousand Statues.

The British had control

of the Dutch East Indies,
and their governor,

Thomas Stamford Raffles,

was on this inspection tour
in what is now Java.

And the locals said to him,

"There's a few statues
up that hill."

So he sent some engineers
to check.

The engineers came back,
and they said,

"They're not just
a few statues up that hill.

They're all linked together.
There's some kind of complex."

And it's not a hill.

The hill is the complex.

They had to clear away 200 trees
and a load of ash from the soil

before it started
to reveal itself

as this nine-stepped
place of worship.

And they slowly revealed
Borobudur,

this massive Buddhist temple
in the middle of nowhere.

The temple covers an area
of 25,000 square feet,

and it would technically

be the largest
Buddhist temple in the world.

Borobudur is
designed as a mandala.

A mandala is a diagram
of squares and circles

that Buddhist monks would use
for meditation practices.

There are these square terraces,
and they represent

the transition from
the troubled daily life

to nirvana, which is a life

freed and blessed
from any types of problems.

This building is a philosophy
expressed in architecture.

Towering at about 115 feet

is the site of Borobudur.

It's composed of nine
stacked tiers or nine stories.

It has over 500 Buddha statues

and 2,000 relief panels

that tell the story
of the Buddha

and his progress
towards enlightenment.

When visitors are going
through the site,

they are effectively going
through a path to enlightenment

that's laid out in stone.

Actual records
of Borobudur's construction

have never been found,
but most historians believe

this remarkable structure
was built

around the ninth century AD
by the Shailendra dynasty,

a powerful family
that once ruled Indonesia

and established Buddhism
in the region.

And while much of the site's
origin is unknown,

many believe
Borobudur's greatest mystery

is that after centuries of use,
this awe-inspiring site

was left completely abandoned.

Sometime in the 15th century,
everything is abandoned.

No one knows exactly why.

It could have been changes
of military power.

Could have been changes
of economic power.

Could have been
the mountain started rumbling

and people got nervous.

It could have been any number
of possible reasons.

But it is quite astonishing.

They moved out, and they moved

to other places
on the Java Island,

and Borobudur was just left
to the jungle.

That's very mysterious.

Why was such an impressive

Buddhist temple abandoned?

While some historians believe
it was due to a massive shift

in the region
from Buddhism to Islam,

the most prevailing theory
revolves around

deadly volcanic eruptions.

Borobudur is located

in between
two very active volcanoes.

Mount Merapi is one of them,
and it's fairly famous.

It's about 15 miles
from Borobudur.

And there were historically
documented eruptions

that affected the area.

So, for the Javanese,
this area is inherently sacred

and inhabited
by deities and gods.

And the fact that you would
have repeated volcanic eruptions

would have perhaps signaled
at some point

that the gods were displeased
with something

or that they wanted
something to change.

But the story of Borobudur

becomes even more mysterious

when considering
the geological record.

While it sounds obvious
that volcanic eruptions

would be good cause
for evacuation,

it appears that
no major activity occurred

at the time the site
was deserted

and left to be consumed
by Mother Nature.

By the time
we get to the 1700s,

the local Indonesians forgot
it was even a structure.

All they knew was that there
was a mountain out in the jungle

covered with a thousand statues.

People were afraid of it
a little bit.

They didn't really understand
or really know what it was.

The prince of Yogyakarta
in the 1700s

had heard rumors
about this place.

And he went there,
and immediately after, he died.

And by then, clearly, it's seen

as a cursed site,
an ominous site,

so the rumors of it being
a place of danger and mystery

did continue to circulate
up until the modern period.

Whether Borobudur
was considered cursed

or merely left abandoned
as a precaution,

today, millions of people
visit this sacred site

to revel in
its architectural grandeur

and imagine
what was once at this

Mountain of a Thousand Statues.

Was the Borobudur Temple
abandoned

because it was cursed
by the gods?

Well, the only thing
we know for certain

is that its construction
was far ahead of its time.

Which was also the case with
a mysterious Incan fortress

whose massive walls
were built using stones

so perfectly placed
that even a piece of paper

won't fit between them.

High in
the Peruvian Andes,

overlooking the ancient city of Cusco,

lies one of the most baffling
structures ever discovered.

It is called Sacsayhuamán.

And while time and warfare
have transformed this site

into a shadow
of its former glory,

it remains one of
the most spectacular examples

of megalithic stonework
in the world.

Sacsayhuamán is in
the very heart

of the ancient Inca capital
at Cusco.

And it's a gigantic,
fortified structure.

It's got three layers of walls

that are really remarkable
for their zigzaggy shape.

And it's the most patchwork
kind of stonework

that you've ever seen.

And yet it's so precise.

It's something
that archaeologists call

polygonal masonry,

and it's just
a fancy word for saying

that all the rocks are of
a different size and shape.

And these stones
aren't just huge.

They're gargantuan.

Some of them weigh
a hundred tons.

The Inca managed
to fit them together

with these curves and lines
so perfectly,

without any mortar,
that you could not even

slide a blade of grass
between them.

Our best guess as to when
Sacsayhuamán was constructed

was under
the Inca ruler Pachacuti,

who ruled beginning in 1438
till around 1471.

But we can't be sure
because we don't have

any written records about it.

The Inca Empire used
a system of recording

that was colored knots
and strings,

and this is how
they did their accounting.

And they even recorded history
through this system.

But we don't actually have
any records from the Inca

telling us what Sacsayhuamán
was used for

or why it was built
or who built it,

but probably most importantly,
how did they build this thing?

While the techniques
used to build Sacsayhuamán

remain one of history's
great riddles,

we do know that in 1536,

the site became
an Inca stronghold

during the Spanish conquest
of Peru.

And in a great
and bloody battle,

the Spanish slayed thousands
and overtook the fortress,

which proved a key event
in the fall of the Inca Empire.

The conquerors dismantled
all but the largest stones

down to their foundation

and used them to rebuild Cusco
in Spain's image.

Fortunately, famed chroniclers
such as Garcilaso de la Vega

collected indigenous myths,
legends and oral histories

related to this mighty
stone masterpiece,

including the story of
the site's original builders,

said to be here long before
the Inca themselves.

Viracocha is
the Inca creator god,

described in legend as being
a pale-skinned figure

who rose out of
the Pacific Ocean at some time

and gave rise to the first men,
as they're called.

Some mythic race
that some have said

are attributed with
the building of Sacsayhuamán.

But other versions
of the legend say that

Viracocha himself
built Sacsayhuamán

and that the stones
literally walked

into place on their own.

The story that I like most
is that it's said

that a great serpent or dragons

created the stones

by petrifying the local Inca
with its gaze

and that they then became the
blocks that were then stacked

in this great puzzle of rocks,
all interlocking.

Now, obviously, these are just
legends, they're just stories,

but do they contain some kernel
of truth within them?

While legendary tales
may be metaphors

for lost civilizations
or forgotten technology,

a more recent
intriguing theory suggests

that the true secret
of Sacsayhuamán

may be written on its walls
in an ancient form of writing

encoded in
the very stones themselves.

We have the remarkable
construction of Sacsayhuamán.

We have to question why
they created it like this.

Some people have suggested
that all the different angles

and size and measurements
at Sacsayhuamán

actually make up a code
and this was part

of their sort of
symbolic language.

It's almost like
a message through time,

if we know
how to read the signs.

And this isn't
the only site in the area

that has this style
of stonework.

We have places,
very famous places.

Like Machu Picchu.

We have Ollantaytambo.

We have Qenko.

We have Tambomachay.

We have all these
different sites

stretched all across
the Sacred Valley.

And so, who knows?

When you start looking
into things like this,

you realize that there's a whole
other level of sophistication

that unless you study it
you can't even see.

Could the written
record of Sacsayhuamán

be encrypted within
the walls themselves?

And if we can decode
some hidden language,

might it be part
of a larger message

that continues across
other megalithic sites in Peru?

It's certainly
an exciting proposition,

but until we learn how to
decode these remarkable walls,

the mystery will remain
as enigmatic

as the stones themselves.

In the southwestern
heart of the country,

where fertile plains give way
to rising mountain foothills,

there's an enormous stone figure
that has towered

over the landscape
for more than a millennium.

It is known as
the Leshan Buddha.

The Leshan Buddha is
this colossal structure

that sits literally
almost in a throne

overseeing the confluence of
three major rivers in the area.

It's carved out of
the rock face of Mount Lingyun,

and it was built between
roughly 700 and 800

of the Common Era,
so over 1,200 years ago.

It's 233 feet in height,

which is actually the largest
premodern statue ever recorded.

So it's quite
an impressive sight.

And to cut this
out of the rock face

requires just unimaginable

artistry and techniques.

The Leshan Buddha
emerges out of this cliff

right at the junction of three

turbulent rivers.

These three rivers were
an important waterway for trade.

But during the flooding season,

it would become
so dangerous at that cliff.

And because of how many people
lost their lives,

this is where this Buddha
was chosen to be built.

As impressive
as this massive sculpture is,

what is truly confounding

is that after the
Leshan Buddha was completed,

it is said that the dangerous
and turbulent waters

beneath its feet were
almost miraculously tamed.

Remarkably,
when the statue was completed,

there are records that show
the rivers became calmer.

If you're a Buddhist,

then that tells you
that the Leshan Buddha

would calm the waters
of the river.

If you're not a Buddhist,
then there's no real evidence

that Buddha came along
and calmed the waters.

So, it seems
that this construction,

maybe by design,
maybe by happenstance,

affected at least the flow
of the rivers

and this turbulent confluence
and pacified them.

So, some people
have interpreted this

as an action of the Buddha.

Others, historians, believe

that by strategically
placing rock,

reworking the riverbanks and,

uh, realigning sediment

and rock at the bottom
of the riverbeds,

that would have been
intentional.

So there's a mystery there that
remains to be, um, resolved.

Was it the
benevolent power of the Buddha

that made these
dangerous waters safe?

Or are engineering efforts
responsible

for successfully altering
the river's currents?

Perhaps both are true.

But as with so many structures
of the ancient world,

their majesty
and mystery continue

to amaze and confound us

as we seek to understand
what appears to be impossible.

Megastructures
from the ancient past

teach us a lot about what people
in antiquity were able to do.

We think very highly
of our own civilization,

and we tend to think
that past civilizations

were very primitive
in comparison.

And great structures show us

that not only could they do it,

we would actually struggle to
do something like that today.

Whenever we see something

we don't understand,
we become curious.

But in the absence
of written records,

you have to rely on myth

and oral tradition to understand

who built these things,
how and why.

And I think that mystery
is going to remain a mystery

for a long period of time.

It's interesting to consider

what ancient cultures chose
to construct out of stone,

a material
difficult to work with

but one that defies
the test of time.

Whether it's a 230-foot statue

said to calm violent waters,

massive walls that stretch
for 13,000 miles,

or a temple complex
carved from one solid rock,

there seems to be no end
to the engineering feats

our ancestors could achieve.

And while we're able to marvel
at these amazing structures,

we may simply have to accept
that the secrets

of their construction
and purpose

may forever remain unexplained.

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