Lost Cities.
Mohenjo-Daro, India
The city, whose name translates from Hindi as "Mound of the Dead," disappeared from the face of the earth about three and a half thousand years ago. The demise of one of the centers of the Indus civilization around 1700 BC is described in the Indian epic "Mahabharata." According to it, the city was destroyed by a powerful explosion, resulting in melted stones, boiling waters, and roasted fish, not to mention the people. Subsequently, scientists suggested that the city was destroyed as a result of a natural phenomenon – so-called black lightning, or ball lightning that did not have time to "ignite." The explosion of one of them triggered a chain reaction, leaving only ashes in place of Mohenjo-Daro.
Arkaim, Russia
Excavations of the ancient Aryan city of Arkaim, built at the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC, became one of the major archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. At the height of its glory, Arkaim – the City of the Sun, a temple and astronomical observatory – was considered the spiritual center of all Siberia and the Urals.
In plan, the city represents 2 rings of defensive structures, 2 circles of houses leaning against the walls, a central square, and a circular street with wooden flooring and stormwater drainage. People lived in Arkaim for about 200-300 years, after which, according to some versions, a fire occurred in the city and it burned down. There are three versions of the origin of the fire: the city was set on fire by local residents; the city was burned by an external enemy; an accidental fire occurred. According to another version, the inhabitants of the city left it forever under unexplained mystical circumstances.
Derinkuyu Underground City, Turkey
Was inhabited: from the 8th century BC to the 10th century AD.
The unique underground city of Derinkuyu is located 40 kilometers from the Göreme National Park, which, along with other cave settlements in Cappadocia, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This is one of the largest and oldest underground cities on our planet. The exact time of its founding is unknown, but various estimates date it to the 2nd-1st millennium BC.
This underground city has about 10 levels and could accommodate approximately 50,000 people and livestock. Derinkuyu was rumored to be the first refuge for early Christians from persecution. Active life continued in the underground city of Derinkuyu until the 8th century. Then the city remained forgotten for many centuries until it was accidentally discovered in 1963.
Scythian Naples, Crimea
Scythian Naples is an ancient lost city, a fortress, the ancient capital of the Scythian kingdom.
At the turn of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the center of the Scythian kingdom moved to Crimea, which became the main territory of the Scythians. During this period, the Scythian kingdom, which previously occupied a vast strip of steppes from the Dnieper to the Don, shrank, limited only to Crimea and the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Bug. By the 3rd century BC, the Scythians in Crimea changed their nomadic lifestyle to a settled one and established settlements and fortified cities that lasted until the 3rd century AD and perished, apparently, as a result of the Gothic invasion.
Timgad (Timgad), Algeria
The ruins of Timgad are located not far from the modern Algerian city of Batna. It was built in 100 AD, during the reign of Emperor Trajan in Rome. The city was meant to be a kind of fortified military camp.
The location was not chosen by chance – the camp was situated at the intersection of six trade routes. By the 3rd century, Timgad, also known as Tamugas, had become a prosperous city.
In 429, the city was attacked by the Vandals, and in 535, it was destroyed and burned by the Berbers of Ores. Partially, Timgad was revived under Byzantine rule, which erected a square-shaped citadel with eight towers on its outskirts (539 AD). In 647, the ancient African city of Timgad was completely destroyed by the Arabs.
Sukhothai in Thailand
There are two cities with this name – the living and the dead. To avoid confusion, the latter is also called the historical city of Sukhothai.
Sukhothai is a medieval Thai city and state in central Thailand, founded in 1238. Its time of power was during the 13th-15th centuries. The Thai kingdom occupied almost all of modern flat and central Thailand, with Sukhothai as its center. It was here that Thai culture originated, which has survived to this day.
In 1438, Ayutthaya captured Sukhothai and incorporated it into its territory (vassal dependence was recognized as early as 1378), thus creating a unique Thai nation.
To this day, numerous temples and a gigantic seated Buddha statue have survived intact.
Ubar, Oman
This city emerged more than 5000 years ago. The fortress of Ubar, or Iram, built around an oasis in the Arabian desert, was one of the richest settlements in modern Oman from the 3rd century BC until the 4th century AD. In Iram, science, alchemy, and military affairs were developed, and trade caravans from Persia, Greece, and Rome flowed into the city for incense and myrrh.
The city of Iram perished long before the writing of the Holy Quran. Mentions of it can be found in Arabic poetry from the pre-Islamic period. According to Islamic traditions, Ubar was destroyed by the will of Allah; however, in the 1980s, archaeologists proposed a more prosaic (and horrifying) version: the city completely collapsed into an underground karst sinkhole, which was the reason for the flourishing oasis in the desert. For many centuries, while careless townspeople were extracting water from underground, the sinkhole grew, and finally, the ground opened up and swallowed Ubar along with all its contents.
Thebes, Egypt
Thebes – the capital of the Egyptian pharaohs. Thebes became the capital of the Egyptian empire during the reign of the only female pharaoh Hatshepsut in 3200 BC.
Despite all the losses and destructions, the ancient city did not disappear without a trace like other monuments of ancient civilizations. The Greeks called it the "hundred-gated Thebes" for its enormous size, unlike their own "seven-gated" Thebes. The ruins of Theban architecture are a whole millennium older than the legendary New Babylon, yet they still inspire admiration. At sunset, just as thousands of years ago, the blazing sun in the turbulent waters of the Nile slowly disappears over the horizon – this is the sun god Amon-Ra going to the realm of the dead, to be reborn in the morning young and powerful. The flourishing ancient Egyptian city of Thebes on the banks of the fertile Nile inspired Homer to write the work "Iliad."
The Egyptian Thebes was destroyed in 663 BC by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, but the ruins of the city remind of its former glory, which any ancient city would envy.
The End.
Beginning:Lost Cities. Part 4