All language subtitles for Ancient Top 10 Series 1 1of9 Most Lethal Weapons 720p

male narrator:
The world's first

ballistic missile launcher...

[arrows whizzing]

The biggest chariot
battle in history,

a nine-story killing machine,

a death claw for grabbing
whole ships,

and the most explosive weapon
of the ancient world.

Where will they be ranked
on the only top ten list

thousands of years
in the making?

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

History has shown

some of the greatest
advancements in technology

have been driven by warfare.

[gunshot]

The devastating weapons
of today's battlefields

wouldn't exist if it wasn't
for the innovations

of the ancient world.

- Humans are good
at a lot of things,

but one of the things
we're the best at

is killing each other.

Humans fight, and humans
always think of a better way

to more effectively fight.

That's where we get weapons.

♪ ♪

narrator: This week's
"Ancient Top Ten":

the ancient world's
most lethal weapons.

♪ ♪

The list is ranked by experts

according to which is
the biggest game-changer

on the battlefield.

At number ten...

♪ ♪

A lethal weapon invented by
one of the most ingenious minds

in history:

the Archimedes claw.

♪ ♪

When the Roman empire
decided to attack

the city nation of Syracuse

on the Mediterranean island
now known as Sicily

in 214 B.C.,

they came up against
a formidable

ancient lethal weapon.

- Syracuse is in the path
of an expanding Roman empire,

an empire that's gobbling up
every city, state, and country

in the Mediterranean.

Rome is bringing with them
a professional army

and 60 state-of-the-art
warships.

narrator:
Syracuse had harbor walls,

and the Romans could only
invade by scaling these.

The Syracuseans knew this

and defended their city
with aggression.

They would use this
lethal weapon.

- The Romans tried a nighttime
amphibious attack.

They thought they had
the cover of darkness

as their advantage,

but then Archimedes' claw
was brought into bear.

narrator: A number
of these claws

were deployed along
the city walls

to grab the Roman ships.

- The claw pulling the ships
out of the water

while the crew slept.

Imagine how terrifying
that experience would be--

to wake up feeling your ship

suddenly lifted out
of the water.

narrator: For once, the Romans
were on the receiving end

of a high-tech superweapon.

- The Archimedes claw meant
that just a few men

could physically lift a ship--

a 60-ton ship--

up out of the water.

That is a remarkable thing.

narrator: Men would use ropes
to raise the claw

with a system of pulleys
and fulcrums,

allowing them
to lift the weight

of an entire ship.

The tension on the pulley

would eventually reach
breaking point,

causing it to pop out,

dropping and destroying
the ship.

- In a panic to get away,

the ships actually smashed
into each other,

causing more devastation.

It was mayhem.

narrator: We don't often know
the super brains

behind the lethal weapons
of the ancient world,

but we do for this one:

Archimedes.

He was such an incredible
inventor

that he himself was
the greatest secret weapon

of the city of Syracuse.

- The genius of Archimedes

is that he took basic
principles of physics,

a lever and a fulcrum--

same thing you'd use
to lift a rock--

only he supersized it.

narrator: The Romans had
no idea how to conquer

or compete against
the Archimedes claw.

♪ ♪

Just the name of Archimedes

was itself a weapon of terror.

He was the inventor of other
incredible weapons,

such as a steam-powered
cannon...

♪ ♪

And a solar-powered death ray.

- Today, a small army
can beat a larger one

if it has a technological
advantage.

This is what we call
a force multiplier.

Now, a small city-state
back in ancient times

managed to hold back the force
of the Roman empire

using just such a thing.

narrator: Thanks to
the Archimedes claw,

the city of Syracuse held out
against the mighty Romans

for over a year.

Eventually, they were undone,

because at a crucial moment,

they left the claws unmanned.

- Now, we don't know
if Archimedes' weapons

had more of a psychological
or physical impact--

maybe a combination of both.

The point is, they gave Syracuse

such a leg up in this fight

that it gets on
our top ten list.

narrator: Archimedes himself
was killed in the aftermath

of the battle of Syracuse.

Sadly, the world lost one
of the greatest inventors

it had ever seen.

His claw had been a lethal
work of genius.

But where lethality
is concerned,

sometimes smaller is better.

At number nine...

[rousing music]

The sharpened spikes
known as caltrops

make that point.

- For centuries,
caltrops were used

as a crippling defense
against cavalry.

Today, they're used
by modern military

to puncture the tires
of enemy vehicles.

They're simple.
They're effective.

This weapon will never grow old.

narrator: The caltrop
is the godfather

of one of today's most
prolific weapons:

land mines.

[powerful explosion]

[metal clattering]

- Caltrops are really
easy to carry.

They're really quick to deploy.

They are the ultimate
area denial weapon.

♪ ♪

narrator: An area denial weapon

prevents the enemy from
entering a certain region.

They're a key factor
in warfare

and can swing the course
of a battle.

- The beauty of a caltrop
is that any way you throw it,

there's at least one spike
sticking up in the air,

ready to stop your enemy
dead in its tracks.

One of the first recorded
uses of caltrops

was by one of Alexander
the Great's generals,

way back in
the fourth century B.C.

They thwarted an attack by one
of the most formidable weapons

of the ancient world.

- Caltrops stopped
a battle charge

of 70 elephants
dead in their tracks.

[elephant shrieks]

Because the animals
couldn't move,

attackers came in
and cut them down.

The elephants behind those

could hear the elephant screams.

They panicked, turned round,

and stampeded back through
their own ranks,

crushing people to death.

[elephant roaring]

- Over time, every ancient
weapon either disappears

from use, or it develops
and evolves into something

much more advanced,

with one exception:

the caltrop, because even today

we're still using
the exact same design

in modern warfare.

And anything that
can survive unchanged

for thousands of years has to be
in the top ten.

narrator: The caltrop
has been used longer

than any other weapon
on our list,

but our next lethal weapon
got left behind

in the ancient world--

literally.

Coming in at number eight...

♪ ♪

It's the Helepolis,
the largest siege tower

of the ancient world.

♪ ♪

Siege towers had been
used in battle

since the 11th century B.C.

♪ ♪

The job of the infantry is to
fight hand-to-hand combat,

but to do that,
they have to be

where the enemy soldiers are.

Siege towers protect them while
they're moved into a position

where they can get behind
the city walls

and fight the enemy soldiers
in hand-to-hand combat.

narrator: Once up against
a city wall,

a siege tower could
lower its drawbridge

so that the troops
inside the tower

could rush the walls.

[men screaming]

When the Macedonians were
attacking the city of Rhodes

in 305 B.C., they decided
to build the biggest

siege tower of them all.

The Helepolis was born,

and it was massive.

- The Helepolis was
a masterful feat

of ancient construction.

We believe it was about
140 feet tall,

which is nine stories,

and 65 feet wide,

and it would have
weighed 180 tons.

It was a monster.

♪ ♪

narrator: Helepolis is Greek

for "taker of cities."

It had a giant, wooden frame
on wheels,

covered with iron plates,

with men inside shooting
giant catapults.

♪ ♪

- A massive 3,400 men
were used

to control the Helepolis

and operate its many catapults.

I mean, this was
a huge operation.

- It took 200 men
working the gearbox

just to turn the wheels.

This was a mobile fortress.

narrator: It must have
seemed unstoppable

to the people of Rhodes.

But there was a flaw.

The whole operation relied
on it moving smoothly,

and for that,
it needed firm ground.

- Basically, the only way
to stop the Helepolis

was the flood the ground
in front of the fortresses,

turning it into
a soggy, muddy mess.

The Helepolis just
couldn't handle that.

narrator: As the Helepolis
edged forward towards Rhodes,

the situation got sticky.

As well as flooding the ground,

the defenders used a cunning,
novel device

that is the forerunner
to the anti-tank mine.

- They got big, earthenware jars

and buried them in the ground
in front of the stronghold.

When the Helepolis rolled
over the top of these,

it collapsed, creating craters.

And that stopped the siege
engine in its tracks.

narrator: The Macedonians ended
their siege of Rhodes

and withdrew,

leaving the Helepolis behind.

The victorious
people of Rhodes

decided to put it to good use.

♪ ♪

- The Helepolis was so massive

that when the battle was over,

the victorious defenders
were able to rip it apart

and use its scrap material
to build

one of the seven wonders
of the ancient world,

the Colossus of Rhodes.

♪ ♪

narrator: The huge,
100-foot statue

famously stood at the harbor
of the city

in the third century B.C.

The Colossus of Rhodes
would never have existed

without the Helepolis.

narrator: We're counting down
the top ten lethal weapons

of the ancient world.

- [screaming]
narrator: Coming up next

is a lightning-fast
attack vehicle

at number seven...

[thrilling music]

The Egyptian war chariot.

[hoofbeats rumbling]

On the walls of the temple
of Abu Simbel

in southern Egypt
is a depiction

of the war chariot in action.

- For me, a chariot
is an incredible weapon.

It allows an armored unit to
move around on the battlefield

quickly and slay ground soldiers

from an elevated position
of protection,

a devastating tool against
any kind of unit.

♪ ♪

narrator: War chariots were
all about shock and awe.

They were fast and mobile.

For over a thousand years,

they dominated
the battlefield.

And it was the Egyptian
war chariot

that was best.

- The Egyptian chariots
were so well-designed,

they could zoom around
the battlefield

up to 30 miles an hour,

putting themselves exactly
where they need to be

to hand out death
to the enemy.

[horses whinnying]

- These are the fastest weapons
on the battlefield.

They'd appear out of nowhere--

could be deployed into
any part of the battlefield,

surrounding the enemy
or attacking from any direction.

♪ ♪

narrator: There were
two men aboard,

a driver and an archer,

each free to concentrate fully
on their own job.

- A right-handed archer
on a horse

could only shoot to the left.

The advantage of a chariot
over a horse

is that an archer with a longbow
could shoot anywhere.

This made chariots deadly
fast and precise.

- 100 chariots could fly
around the battlefield,

letting off 1,000 arrows
a minute in any direction.

That's devastating.

That's a similar rate of fire
to the gun

on a modern Apache helicopter.

[helicopter blades whirring]

[dramatic music]

narrator: But what was
so special about the design

of the Egyptian chariot?

- The chariot wheel was made
of six spokes

and a rim made
of flexible wood.

It meant the whole thing
could travel fast

across even
the roughest terrain.

We see those same principles
being used

in shock absorbency
and suspension

in the cars we see out
on our roads today.

♪ ♪

narrator: Chariots gave
an advantage to whichever side

deployed them.

But what if both
sides had them?

[man screaming]

♪ ♪

It happened 3,000 years ago...

♪ ♪

The Egyptians against
the Hittites

in the epic Battle of Kadesh.

- It's estimated that as many
as 6,000 chariots

clashed at Kadesh.

This is more vehicles
on a battlefield

than at any time in history.

narrator: It was the Egyptian
chariot that proved superior.

They were better-designed
and crafted.

And with just one driver
and one archer,

they were lighter
and more mobile

than the three-man machine
of the Hittites.

- These were effective,
very effective weapons,

and that's why they've
got to be on this list.

narrator:
Thanks to its chariot,

the Egyptian empire expanded

to become the mightiest
of its time.

♪ ♪

And chariots were so revered,

the pharaohs demanded
to take them with them

into the afterlife.

Tutankhamun, the most famous
pharaoh of all,

was buried with six

incredibly preserved
war chariots,

two of which were clad in gold

with shock-absorbing
suspension systems.

[dramatic music]

Less mobile but more devilish

describes the next
lethal weapon on our list.

At number six...

♪ ♪

Mysterious, deadly--

Greek fire.

[swords clashing]

In the seventh century A.D.,

the Byzantine empire was coming
under constant attack

from the Arabs.

But Byzantium, also known
as Constantinople,

had a secret weapon.

Somehow, they were able
to project flames

at enemy ships,

creating an inferno

that couldn't be extinguished.

- Accounts of Greek fire show

that it was the ultimate
weapon of terror:

a liquid that could
burn on water.

Imagine being at sea
in a naval battle.

The enemy is shooting
jets of fire at you.

This stuff burns on the water,

it burns underwater,
and it sticks to you.

Men are screaming all around.

This is the horrors
of Greek fire.

[man screaming]

- As a weapon,
fire is hard to beat.

It kills you, it hurts you,

and it instills fear in you.

And that is why Greek fire has
to be on this top ten list.

♪ ♪

narrator: It could be shot
in a lethal jet

up to 150 feet.

- In 678 A.D.,

it destroyed an enemy fleet

and killed up to 30,000 people.

narrator: And it was used
in land battles, too,

to deadly effect.

- By taking Greek fire
and putting it in small,

hand-held pots that
exploded on impact,

they essentially created
the world's first hand grenade.

It would be centuries before
the world's battlefields

saw anything like this again.

[loud blast]

narrator: We've seen
how devastating

Greek fire was,

but what secrets does this
ancient napalm still hold?

♪ ♪

narrator: We're counting down

the ancient world's most
lethal weapons.

At number six is
the devastating Greek fire,

which is still surrounded
by mystery.

[exciting music]

♪ ♪

Created by
the Byzantine empire,

it was used to great effect

to defend their capital,
Constantinople.

- Greek fire may be
the best-kept secret

in military history.

This actual secret recipe

could only be put together
in the capital, Constantinople.

It consisted of four components:

the mixture itself, the machine
used to heat and pressurize it,

the machine used to fire it,

and the crew used
to deploy it.

Now, unlike modern classified
military information,

Greek fire is still a mystery.

narrator: The different stages
employed men

who only knew the secret
to their part of the process.

Once ignited,
it was extremely difficult

to put out the flames.

- Greek fire could not be
extinguished by water--

only by strong vinegar

and old urine and sand.

narrator: Many scientists have
tried to recreate Greek fire--

tried and failed.

- We don't know the recipe
for Greek fire,

but we do have an idea

of how they projected it
at high pressure:

the force pump.

narrator: This force pump was
invented by Heron of Alexandria

2,000 years ago

and has a pressurized siphon

that can project liquid fire--

a lethal jet of flame,
over 30 yards,

burning at 800
degrees Fahrenheit.

♪ ♪

- Many view Greek fire
as the inspiration

for the lethal flamethrowers
and the horrors of napalm

in the 20th century.

[heavy explosion]

- Greek fire added centuries
to a declining empire.

But every weapon has
its limitations,

and Greek fire could only
be used in a limited range

on a calm sea.

- A downside?
Wind.

If the wind changed in the midst
of using Greek fire,

then it's the Byzantines
that would have suffered.

Talk about a plan backfiring.

narrator: In time,
the Arabs adapted

to this terrifying weapon.

- Eventually, Byzantine's
enemies learned to stay

outside of its range,

and they soaked felts
and hides in vinegar

and put them onto their
warships to protect them.

narrator: But for years,
this lethal flaming concoction

kept Byzantium safe.

- The ingenuity of putting

these quite simple
ingredients together

and that fact that we
still don't know

the exact chemical composition
of Greek fire

is what for me puts it
in this top ten.

[flames rushing]

narrator: From a water inferno

to a fast-firing rain of death.

[bow creaking]

Shooting in at number five
on the lethal list...

♪ ♪

The Chinese repeating crossbow.

- Over 2,000 years ago,

the Chinese invented a weapon
that turned untrained soldiers

into lethal killers.

It was the first hand-held,
rapid-fire weapon

in history.

narrator: The earliest
known crossbows

are from China in
the sixth century B.C.

The repeating crossbow
evolved from this

and turned a simple weapon

into a mass killer.

- The ancient crossbow
was all well and good.

But the physical effort
required to re-cock it

meant you could fire one
or two bolts a minute.

[trigger clicks]

Along comes the Chinese
repeating crossbow,

which fires one bolt
every single second.

narrator: On the battlefield,

it gave an overwhelming
advantage,

creating a close-quarter
killing zone

that belongs more on
a modern battlefield

than an ancient one.

[gunfire]

- If you arm a regiment
of 1,000 Chinese soldiers

with these repeating crossbows

which can each fire
a bolt every second,

that's 60,000 bolts coming
towards your enemy

in a minute--

60,000 in a minute!

narrator: This rate of fire
wouldn't be seen again

for thousands of years.

narrator: The simple design

was just four parts:

wooden stock, bamboo bow,

wooden magazine,
and the lever.

As the lever goes forward,

the string catches in a notch.

Pulling the lever
pulls the string back,

and a bolt drops down
from the magazine.

This peg pushes the string
out of the notch,

the crossbow fires,

and the whole process
starts again,

the magazine holding
eight crossbow bolts.

As well as being easy to make,

the repeating crossbow
was easy to use.

- The beauty of the Chinese
repeating crossbow

is that it took
untrained farmers

and turned them into killers.

narrator: The repeating
crossbow has drawn comparisons

to a game-changing weapon
of the modern age.

[dramatic music]

[gunfire]

- Look at one of today's most
widespread weapons:

the Kalashnikov assault rifle,
the AK-47.

This is something that is cheap
and easy to produce,

but also, it's very easy
to teach someone how to use it.

So instantly, a raw recruit
can be turned into a killer.

narrator: But the real legacy
of the repeating crossbow

rests with what
it helped build.

In the third century B.C.,

the armies of Emperor Qin

used repeating crossbows
to defeat

the warring factions in China.

He became China's
first emperor,

whilst his warriors
became immortalized

as the famous Terra-Cotta Army.

Together, they unified China
for the first time...

♪ ♪

narrator: We're counting down

the most lethal weapons
of the ancient world,

judged by experts
and historians

according to how much
of a gamer-changer they were

on the battlefield.

[exciting music]

At number ten was the ingenious
Archimedes claw.

At number nine was
a lethal weapon

still used today, the caltrop.

Number was the fearsome,
giant siege engine

known as the Helepolis.

And at number seven,
shock and awe--

the Egyptian war chariot.

Number six was the secret
but deadly Greek fire.

And number five was the first
repeating weapon in history,

the Chinese repeating crossbow.

[wood creaking]

Now we're into the top four,

and the next lethal weapon
was the big artillery gun

of its time.

♪ ♪

Number four is the trebuchet.

- Most people think
that the trebuchet

is a medieval weapon,

but actually, it's got its
origins in ancient China.

- Ancient Chinese blueprints

show an incredible
artillery weapon

dating back as far as
the fourth century B.C.

narrator: This is a replica
in the National Military Museum

in Beijing.

- The ancient Chinese trebuchet

could throw huge boulders
up to 250 pounds

a distance of 200 feet.

[rumbling]

- The Chinese trebuchet

was lightweight and mobile

and could be moved around
the battlefield as needed.

narrator: It was like a modern
piece of mobile artillery.

- Now, this thing
pushes the boundaries

of ancient engineering to create
a ballistics revolution--

a flexible, portable
killing machine.

That's the first trebuchet.

narrator: In one battle
in China in 617 A.D.,

there were 300 trebuchets
on the battlefield.

It was a highly effective
weapon of terror.

- The ancient Chinese
didn't just use

huge boulders as missiles
in that trebuchet.

They also used to set fire
to the projectiles

before throwing them
at their enemies.

♪ ♪

narrator: Centuries later,
the Mongols naturally took this

one stage further.

- [yelling indistinctly]

- Trebuchets weren't only used
to throw stones and rocks.

They were also used to throw

plague- and disease-ridden
bodies over city walls.

♪ ♪

This is one of the first
examples of biological warfare.

narrator: Eventually,
knowledge spread west.

By the time of the Crusades,

trebuchets were much bigger.

- The medieval trebuchets
were massive--

over 50 feet tall.

And it could throw something
the weight of a car

over 1/3 of a mile.

They used giant wheels to pull
the firing arm into place.

narrator: The huge
counterweight crashes down,

swinging the arm up
with incredible power,

launching the 40-pound missile
into the air

at 42 miles per hour.

- Unlike the Chinese trebuchet,

the medieval one couldn't be
moved around the battlefield

quickly or easily,
but the payoff

is in tremendous firepower,
with a counterweight

consistently pulling
down 4,000 pounds.

That's huge.

narrator: The trebuchet took
siege warfare

to an all-new level.

It would be used in battle
for centuries.

[intense music]

But another ancient
missile launcher

would strike fear into
the hearts of Rome's enemies.

At number three...

♪ ♪

The Roman ballista,

a lethal, wooden crossbow

usually mounted on a stand.

- The ballista fired bolts with
incredible speed and accuracy,

firing up to 100 miles an hour.

That's like getting hit by
a brick at that speed.

♪ ♪

- The ballista was so powerful

and so accurate that it could
drive a bolt straight through

an enemy soldier,
pinning him to a tree.

♪ ♪

narrator: Like a more
modern artillery,

the ballista could point
downward at an oncoming charge

or tilt up for
long range lethality.

- It could fire a bolt
1,300 feet,

which was double the distance
that the best archer

with the best bow and arrow
could fire at the time.

♪ ♪

- You have a huge advantage
over your enemy

if you can launch your artillery
farther than him,

and that's exactly what
the Romans had in the ballista.

It was the forerunner for
the modern ballistic missile.

In fact, that's where we get
the word "ballistic" from.

And so no list would be complete

without the inclusion
of the ballista.

narrator: The typical Roman
legion had about 60

of these lethal
shooting weapons.

They could deliver
a lethal rain

of 120 bolts a minute
at enemy troops

a quarter of a mile away.

- The ballista gets its power
from the twisted ropes it uses.

Now, sometimes these ropes
would be made of hemp

or even human hair,
but mostly of animal sinew.

And the Romans called these
ropes "fiber tormenta,"

like tormented souls,

'cause as you
cranked them round,

they would wail and groan
under the pent-up power,

ready to unleash their missiles.

[wailing and groaning]

You would hear the screams
of the ballista,

and you'd know it
meant one thing:

your impending doom.

narrator: This claw
grips the bowstring

like an archer's fingers,

and the mechanism
is wound back.

The twisted ropes
are like coiled springs

ready to burst.

The tension would be enough
to tear the ballista apart

if left unleashed.

[dramatic music]

[cracking]

- There's nothing as effective
on the battlefield

for over 1,000 years.

narrator: A ballista could
launch bolts, arrows,

or even cannonballs.

The ballista makes the list

because it was, in terms
of lethal weapons,

the complete package.

And the Romans may
even have built them

on an impossibly large scale.

- There is a story that
the Romans built a ballista

so big, it could fire a missile
across the river Danube.

That's 2/3 of a mile.

That meant you could take out
your enemy force

before you were ever
in their range.

narrator: When mounted
on a cart or a boat,

the Romans had a highly
effective armored vehicle.

Able to fire in all directions,

could this be the world's
first tank, 2,000 years ago?

♪ ♪

- The ballista was capable
of firing

further and faster than
anything else at the time

and with amazing accuracy.

♪ ♪

narrator: Coming up,
the devastating weapon

behind the ancient world's
largest land empire.

Then our number one
most lethal weapon.

♪ ♪

narrator: We're counting down

the most lethal weapons
of the ancient world.

At number two...

[dynamic music]

A battlefield necessity,

the composite bow.

- The basic bow and arrow:

it's been around for tens
of thousands of years.

But along comes
the composite bow.

Compare cowboy six-shooter
with a modern magnum revolver.

This thing is a game-changer.

narrator: The composite bow
was the favored weapon

of ancient Egyptian archers.

- The composite bow fired
at 300 feet per second.

narrator: That's unbeaten
in a hand-held weapon

until the nineteenth century.

♪ ♪

The composite bow
was so powerful

because it was made up
of several different materials.

Around a wooden core,
curved by steaming,

there's a layer
of slithers of horn.

Then the whole bow is wrapped
in animal sinew

and glued together.

When the string is drawn,

the horn compresses,
and the sinew stretches,

storing as much energy

as a much longer
and heavier wooden bow.

- The bow packed a lot of power

into a very short frame,

which allowed it be used
on horseback,

creating the horse archer,

which was devastating
on the battlefield.

♪ ♪

narrator: The archers
of classical Greece

used composite bows.

The ancient Chinese also
used them to great effect.

♪ ♪

Then, when the Romans
came across them,

it was a true game-changer.

In 53 B.C., the Romans
were attacking Parthia

in modern-day Iran.

The Romans outnumbered
the Parthians 50,000

to just 10,000.

They thought they
couldn't possibly lose.

- But the Parthians have
mounted horseback archers.

And up to this point,
the Romans haven't seen

anything like it, and they're in
for a big surprise.

[arrows whizzing]

- The Parthian horse archer
composite bows

outranged anything
the Romans had,

and they were literally able
to fire thousands of arrows

into the Romans at will.

When the Romans tried
to counterattack,

the Parthians would withdraw,

firing over their shoulder

and staying out of range
of the Romans.

Then the Parthian
heavy cavalry came in,

mopped up what was left,
and that was that.

Only one in eight Romans
escaped from this.

To me, this is the perfect blend
of a great weapon

with even greater tactics

and deserves a high place
on our list.

♪ ♪

narrator: After this
terrible defeat,

the Romans took up
the composite bow themselves,

only to be outdone
centuries later

by the composite bow
in the hands of the Huns

and their great leader, Attila.

[indistinct shouting]

♪ ♪

Nearly 1,000 years later,

the Mongols adapted the bow
even further.

- The Mongol horde was armed
with the composite bow,

which allowed them
to dominate any battlefield.

♪ ♪

narrator: Their bows
were held together

with fish glue and took
18 months to bond,

but the result was
the best bow ever.

And with it,
they took on the world.

♪ ♪

- The Mongolian bow was said
to fire up to 1,700 feet.

That's just under 600 yards.

That's amazing!

narrator: The bow gave
the Mongols power and speed.

50,000 horse archers
forged their huge empire

in just 25 years.

♪ ♪

- With just bow and arrows,

the Mongols could cover
300 miles a day.

That's way more than the
coalition forces in the Gulf.

narrator: Genghis Khan's
armies are estimated

to have reduced the Earth's
population at the time by 11%,

many dying at the tip
of a Mongol arrow.

- It is estimated that they
killed over 40 million people

in their conquest.

This horrific body count means
that the composite bow

is one of the most lethal
weapons in history.

♪ ♪

narrator: This replica
made of modern-day materials

has just half the performance

of the ancient composite bow.

Even now, the ancient methods
can't be bettered.

- Now to me, what makes
the composite bow so great

is that like anything good,

it has continually
improved over time,

especially by the nomadic people
of central Asia.

With this great weapon,

they made one of the most
devastatingly effective

conquering armies
of all time.

These guys took
a 2,000-year-old weapon,

continually improved it,

and conquered the world.

narrator: For its monumental
death toll

at the hands of the Mongols,

the composite bow
has earned its place

as runner-up on our list.

But the top slot in
this ancient countdown

has gone to something
even more lethal.

Number is still to come.

It's explosive and changed
warfare forever.

♪ ♪

narrator: This is
"Ancient Top Ten's" list

of the most lethal
ancient weapons

ranked by experts
and historians.

At number ten, we saw
the terrifying Archimedes claw.

Number nine was a truly
prickly situation:

caltrops.

At number eight,
the abandoned siege tower,

the Helepolis.

Number seven, shock and awe--

the Egyptian war chariot.

At number six, we saw
the mysterious and deadly

Greek fire.

Number five was
the fast and furious

Chinese repeating crossbow.

And number four was
the mighty trebuchet.

Coming in at number three

was the revolutionary
super-weapon,

the ballista.

And our number two

is the tried-and-true
composite bow.

But now, it's time

for the all-time
ancient number one,

the biggest battlefield
game-changer of them all,

and it's the Chinese again.

The number one, the most lethal
ancient weapon on our list,

is gunpowder.

[victorious music]

♪ ♪

- Gunpowder:

it changes everything.

- Throughout history,
the Chinese have been

at the forefront
of military technology.

And this weapon has to be
the most lethal of all.

It literally redefined
warfare as we know it.

[roaring]

♪ ♪

- There's warfare
before this invention

and then warfare after it.

Gunpowder was a true
revolution in warfare.

Gunpowder has to be number one.

[explosions]

- It changes warfare.

It changes the power dynamic

of South Asia.

The Chinese were there first,

and it meant that they
could dominate the region.

♪ ♪

narrator: The story
of gunpowder begins

centuries before it was even
thought of for use as a weapon.

- Gunpowder first appears
in 142 A.D.

where Chinese alchemists
were attempting to make

an elixir of life
for their emperor.

They ended up making
the exact opposite.

narrator: Today, the Chinese
word for gunpowder

translates literally
as "fire medicine."

The magic powder wasn't
the answer to everlasting life,

but the invention
was put to use.

- Surprisingly, one of the first
uses of gunpowder

was not to create
a world-conquering weapon.

It was used by the Chinese
for entertainment

in the form of fireworks.

[fireworks bursting]

♪ ♪

narrator: But eventually,
fireworks did inspire

the world's gunpowder weapon.

♪ ♪

It was in
the tenth century A.D.

when China was divided
into several kingdoms.

These separate kingdoms
were constantly fighting

to control the entire country.

When one Chinese city
was being besieged,

they took the fire
medicine powder

and came up with this:

the fire arrow,

a lethal war machine
that used exploding gunpowder

to launch flaming arrows
out of bamboo tubes,

hundreds at a time.

[arrow whizzing]

♪ ♪

- Imagine you're part of an army
of 100,000 soldiers,

and you're laying siege
to a city,

but all of a sudden you hear--
inside the city walls,

there's this horrible roar.

And all of a sudden,
there's catapulted

these fiery,
rocket-propelled missiles.

♪ ♪

narrator:
Launched by gunpowder,

the fire arrow had a range
of up to 1,000 feet.

It's like a modern-day missile.

- The psychological effect
of those first enemy troops

when they encountered
gunpowder--

they're using bows and arrows
and swords and clubs and spears,

and suddenly, devastating
noises, flashes, and explosions

going off around them.

It would have been
absolute carnage.

narrator: Not surprisingly,

China's warring kingdoms

all wanted a piece
of the action.

- A few years after the first
uses of gunpowder

on the battlefield,

it was being mass-produced
in factories.

narrator: The Chinese worked
hard on improving

the explosive mixture.

And a range of new,
groundbreaking weapons

was quickly developed.

- Now, every fire needs
oxygen to burn,

and the Chinese soon realized

that the more oxidant
they added to the mixture,

the faster it would burn.

And this gave them an idea:

the world's first firearm,

the fire lance.

This was 1,000 years ago.

narrator: The hand-held
fire lance.

This was a primitive shotgun.

Stones or pieces of metal were
blasted out of a bamboo tube

by gunpowder.

♪ ♪

Used at close quarters,

it had devastatingly
lethal results...

[blasting]

♪ ♪

An ancient 12-guage.

There were also
primitive hand grenades,

flamethrowers,

and land mines,

all thanks to gunpowder.

This is the move
from ancient warfare

to modern scientific warfare.

In fact,
nearly all modern weapons

have evolved from
this discovery.

- I don't think that
anybody could argue

that this weapon deserves
to be at the top of the list.

It not only redefined warfare,

it reshaped the planet.

Welcome to the age of gunpowder.

♪ ♪

Gunpowder changed
history forever.

It started off as an attempt
to prolong life

but ended up as a lethal weapon

responsible for countless
millions of deaths.

Our world has been shaped
by the wars and lethal weapons

of the ancients.

Repeating crossbows led
to Kalashnikovs,

caltrops led to landmines,

and gunpowder led to every
firearm around today.

Proof the legacy of lethality

is still felt
in the world today.