!!!Ancient World

by
members of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

Humankind hasn't yet gained the ability of time travel despite all the
achievements in science and technology. All our information about the
past can only be based on ancient texts, folklore, artefacts, historical
evidence and architectural monuments. Unfortunately, our knowledge is
often incomplete as there are several questions on mystery which usually
remain unanswered.

In Cappadocia there are a lot of huge fortresses and even entirely
walled towns, created right in the massif of soft rock. One of them is
Uchisar that was carved in a 60-meters high rock. This giant refuge
could host more than 2500 people, but who was the first to inhabit this
area and when it all happened is still unknown. According to certain
sources, the cave-dwelling settlements were established in Cappadocia in
the 1st century by Christians who fled the persecution. There are even
several devotees of a longer history of these cave fortresses, some of
them were able to find their connection to the Bronze Age!

One more famous town inside a rock is Petra in Jordan. One can endlessly
admire its marvellous architectural creations lost in the labyrinth of
cliffs. But considering the fact that only 15% of the territory of this
unique monument was examined, imagine how many undisclosed secrets this
in-rock oasis conceals.

[{Image src='01_Ancient.jpg' caption='Petra, Jordan\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

Moai are giant monolithic human figures located on Easter Island that
still bring up the question of why they were created and who were the
creatures they represented. Theirs longish heads don't look much like
the head of Homo sapiens. The boldest guesses are based on the
assumption that aliens descended on the island due to a broken
spaceship. In order to kill time while the spaceship was being repaired,
they amused themselves by creating these statues... Of course, thinking
rationally, one cannot take this version seriously. But on the other
hand, any other version is as far from reality as this one, because no
scientifically proven evidence is still provided.

[{Image src='02_Ancient.jpg' caption='Moai Statues, Easter Island, Chile\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='626'}]

The name of an ancient city Tikal in Guatemala can be interpreted as
meaning "the place of the spirits' voices" in the Maya language. It is a
place where the representatives of an ancient civilization built the
majestic pyramids for the purposes of connecting with spirits, deities,
the universe or... We don't know.

The giant temple complex of Angkor-Wat in Cambodia is the world's
largest cult construction designed for the burial of royal family
members. It looks so immense and wonderful that the idea of its divine
origin seems to be quite natural. According to a local legend, the
construction of Angkor-Wat was ordered by Precha Ket Mealea, the son of
Hindu deity Indra, who is supposed to have visited the celestial palace
of his father. But even if these constructions have more prosaic
origins, still they have not revealed all their secrets, as well as the
burial pyramids in Egypt.

[{Image src='03_Ancient.jpg' caption='Ta Prohm temple, Angkor, Cambodia\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='606'}]

Our knowledge of Parthenon in Athens or the Coliseum in Rome is
relatively full, but we can witness only those ruins that have remained
till nowadays. We cannot look at and assess the initial meaning of these
legendary monuments in the way their contemporaries could.

[{Image src='04_Ancient.jpg' caption='Parthenon, Athens, Greece\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='592'}]

Still, we should be happy that we can observe these and many other
monuments, even in this state. The age of one civilization was replaced
by another one, which, in its turn, would mysteriously disappear
later... And now we can take a virtual walk around the monuments created
by ancient people, get an inch closer to their secrets and think about
the fluidity of time.

\\ \\
[16 panoramas of Ancient World|Geography/Stories/Crossborder_issues/ancient-world]

[{SET customtitle='Ancient World (AP)'}]












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