10 oldest buildings in the world
The oldest buildings on Earth serve as a memory for modern man of those who erected them many centuries ago.
Most of the structures are built from huge slabs of stone, many of them located in areas that are currently not inhabited. Despite persistent research, their age has also been determined only approximately.
Modern people, looking at such buildings and structures, only wonder how in ancient times without improvised tools it was possible to create such things.
The following article presents a list of the 10 most ancient buildings in the world, which help to learn what life was like for people thousands of years ago.
10. Royal Tomb (Sweden)
The Royal Tomb in Sweden was discovered by an archaeologist named Hallström Gustav during excavations since 1931. The structure is located 320 meters off the coast of the eastern coast of the province of Scania.
Researchers estimate that the structure was erected in the Bronze Age, at least 3,000 years ago. After the discovery of the Royal Tomb and the restoration of the interior, a variety of images have been seen on its walls, such as of ships, birds, animals and fish.
Naveta des Tudons (Spain).
The tomb is located in the city of Minorca, which is located in Spain. Scientists believe that its age is more than 3200 years. The tomb was used for its intended purpose from 1200 to 750 BC.
The form is quite interesting, it looks like an inverted boat, the material for its construction were stone blocks. The burial place was found in 1975 century, there were found the remains of more than a hundred people and their things, such as bracelets made of bronze, buttons made of ceramics.
Today, the tomb can be visited by anyone, it is open and is one of the main attractions of the city of Minorca.
8. Treasury of Atreus (Greece)
This place also has another name – “Tomb of Agamemnon”, it is located in the city of Mycenae in Greece. The treasury is believed to be built more than 3250 years ago, during the Bronze Age. It is one of the most impressive monuments of ancient architecture of monumental size. Earlier the treasury also had the largest and widest dome among the greatest structures in the world.
7. Caral (Peru)
Caral is the oldest settlement in Peru. Its area was about 60 hectares and on it was built a large number of pyramids. People inhabited the city more than 4,600 years ago.
During the archaeological excavations, scientists have found many musical instruments, jewelry made of stone, household items, but did not find weapons. Because of this, researchers believed that the population of the city, which lived there from 2600 BC to 2000 AD, was peaceful enough and engaged in trade without waging wars.
6. Pyramid of Djoser (Egypt)
The pyramid is the oldest extant stone building in the world. It was built by Imhotep to bury the Egyptian pharaoh Djoser about 2650 BC. The height of the structure is more than 60 meters and its dimensions are 125*115 meters.
The pyramid is a six-story building that is perfectly preserved to this day, only slightly covered with sand. It was the first pyramid in ancient Egypt and served as a prototype for the construction of others.
The core of the construction consists of limestone blocks. The tomb was built not only for the pharaoh, but also for all members of his family, archaeologists found 11 burial chambers, the body of Djoser was not found. The tomb was subjected to numerous robberies in ancient times.
5. Hulbjerg Jættestue (Denmark)
The tomb is located on the island of Langeland, located in Denmark. The structure was built over 5000 years ago of 13 stone blocks, which fit together tightly. During archaeological excavations in the tomb were found the remains of at least 400 people.
Scientists were interested in the teeth of one of the buried, they were clearly treated. The level of the ancient “dentists” amazed modern researchers, as the filling in the tooth was very well inserted.
4. newgrange (Ireland)
Newgrange is a corridor tomb located in Ireland. Scientists date its origin to 2500 BC. The structure is about 40-45 km from Dublin. The height of the structure is more than 13 meters, and a diameter of about 85 meters. The tomb chamber is entered by a corridor 19 metres long.
Inside the tomb was a ritual bowl, in its walls were punched niches that are decorated with stone carvings, all preserved to this day. It was discovered in 1699, but full-scale research began in 1962.
3. Monte d’Accoddi (Italy)
The oldest temple is located in Sardinia, was built over 5000 years ago. By the Bronze Age the structure had been abandoned; before that period it served as a place for religious ceremonies.
During World War II, the temple was severely damaged, since the 1950s it began to be restored, is now a tourist attraction.
2. Knap of Howar (Scotland).
The house of stone is located in Scotland and is at least 5500 years old and belongs to the Neolithic Age. It is considered one of the oldest stone houses in Northern Europe that have survived.
The structure was a farmhouse which consisted of two buildings adjacent to each other, it had low doorways, no windows, and light entered the house through a smoke hole in the roof. Today, what remains of the stone homestead are the walls, items of stone furniture, such as stoves, beds, and shelves for belongings.
1. Megalithic Temples of Malta
Maltese temples were erected at least a thousand years before the Egyptian pyramids were built. Most of the monolithic stone slabs that make up the structure weighed more than 50 tons.
Researchers have still not solved the mystery of how it was built without special equipment. No similar structures have been found anywhere in the world, so scientists have also been unable to figure out what civilization built the temples and where it disappeared to.
7 most ancient structures of the world, which are connected with unsolvable riddles and unsolved mysteries
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Until now, amazing constructions, which number more than a thousand years, have been found on our planet. Especially impressive are those findings whose origin is still unraveled, starting with the materials from which they were erected, the technology of creation, incomprehensible and bizarre architectural forms, and ending with mysterious inscriptions and incredible images painted by our ingenious ancestors on stone blocks.
1. Bru-na-Boin Valley burial mound complex (Ireland)
One of the central burial mounds at Bru-na-Boine Royal Cemetery, Ireland.| Photo: tripadvisor.fr.
Just 40 kilometers from Dublin, Ireland, a large prehistoric complex called the “Royal Cemetery of Bru-na-Boin” consisting of 40 necropolises has been discovered. So far burials have been found on an area of 10 square kilometers, but according to scientists it is not the limit. The oldest building is more than 5 thousand years old and it is much older than many well-known sites in the world, and Newgrange is not just the largest and oldest in Europe funerary mausoleum, but also a real temple.
The entrance to Newgrange and the mysterious corridor leading to the tomb and the altar (Royal Cemetery of Bru-na-Boin, Ireland). | Photo: zen.yandex.ru.
This mystery was solved most recently when they found the altar at the end of a 19-meter corridor, illuminated by the rays of the sun once a year – the day of the winter solstice. In the remaining 39 megalithic structures there are no less mysteries and riddles, which still have to be solved, because such large-scale excavations require quite a lot of time for scientific research.
2. “Jug Valley” in the suburbs of Phongsavan, Laos
More than 500 carved stone vessels have already been found in the territory of the present-day Laos (South Asia).| Photo: ru.depositphotos.com
Not far from the city of Phongsavan (Laos) on the undeveloped territory is a unique place called the Valley of Jugs. On its expanse have been found amazing stone structures in the form of jugs of gigantic size. Some pieces reach a height of 3.5 m. with a diameter of more than one and a half meters, weighing 6 tons. A total of just over 500 strange stupas have been found in the valley, and scientists are still debating about their origin. The only thing they managed to establish is the age of unusual stone formations – about 2.5 thousand years.
“Photo: gazeta.spb.ru / Live Science.
The rest is shrouded in mystery, which gives rise to the most incredible legends, ranging from bowls for the giants who lived in ancient times in this valley and ending with funerary structures, in which the ancient inhabitants cremated the dead. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the jugs are carved from stone, which does not exist in this area and never has been, and the finishing of the edges, ornaments and drawings depicted on the walls and lids of some objects indicate that they were not made here.
3. Carved columns of the ancient temples in Shravanabelagola (India)
The carved columns of Shravanabelagola are one of the most beautiful and mysterious creations that have survived to this day (India). | Photo: zhiznteatr.mirtesen.ru.
Although the temples themselves are the main attraction of the Indian town of Shravanabelagola, it was the columns that made them so famous. It is hard to imagine, but in this city, craftsmen who lived about 1.5 thousand years ago could carve from stone giant with incredible forms of columns, which had a smooth surface, decorated with a variety of motifs and patterns.
Impressive creations of ancient architects, which even now are difficult to surpass (Shravanabelagol, India. | Photo: indoman-info.ru.
So no wonder that millions of travelers go to such distant lands to see with their own eyes the beauty and grandeur of temples, unique decorative elements filigree carved from rough stone and elegant columns, which even in our time can be done only with high-precision machines. Until now the secret of technology and skill, with the help of which the ancient masters, having neither chisels, nor machines, nor special equipment managed to create such a carved miracle, is still not revealed.
4. “Fairy Houses” in Sardinia (Italy)
“Fairy houses” are the most amazing megalithic stone structures found in Italy.| Photo: orangesmile.com.
On the land of Italy there is a huge number of world famous monuments of architecture, but the amazing stone structures found mainly in Sardinia, called “Houses of fairies” (Domus de Janas), are considered the most mysterious and unexplored. Their tiny outlines with small windows and doorways really do look more like a fairy house than a full-fledged dwelling, because to inhabit at least one person the room must be twice as big. At the moment about 2.8 thousand such amazing structures, solid age which ranges from 4 to 6 thousand years, have been found.
“Fairy houses” in Sardinia do not have the same outline and for many centuries are considered to be magical structures (Domus de Janas, Italy.| Photo: mir-i-mi.ucoz.ru.
In addition to their diminutive size, they have several other oddities that scientists still cannot explain. Not only have they been carved in huge boulders or steep cliffs in an unknown way (at that time it was difficult to do), but their walls display incomprehensible symbols, which are never repeated in any of the found buildings, just as no identical form of the “Fairy House” has been found. Now these fabulous buildings, sometimes called the “House of Fairies” have become a tourist attraction, so going on a trip to these magical places, the authors of Novate.Ru advise to take something beautiful or tasty with a camera, because the legends revered in these places, require to leave gifts for each of the fairies living in strange stone dwellings.
5. Polygonal masonry in “Cities of the Gods” in India, Japan, Egypt and Peru
Ancient “Cities of the Gods” are located in several countries around the world at once, these sites are still considered one of the major mysteries of ancient civilizations that have survived to this day. And the main attraction is not considered to be the found cities, but the masonry walls – the so-called Inca polygonal masonry, which were used to create fortifications and entire settlements.
The walls, made by the Incas several thousand years ago, are still in perfect condition (Ollantaytambo, Peru). | Photo: travelask.ru.
There are still a huge number of illogical and unbelievable versions, none of which has ever been confirmed. The most fantastic are the assumptions that such masonry was performed by alien nano-robots who built these cities, and the version that ancient people created these walls from molten lava at a time when the mass began to solidify and became like plasticine.
In India and Japan you can also find examples of such robust masonry that can withstand even the most powerful earthquakes. | Photo: mir-i-mi.ucoz.ru.
Due to the fact that the mystery has not been solved, even more interest among tourists, who are trying to see such a grandiose buildings, created without any mortar, standing for more than a millennium, withstanding all the natural and man-made disasters.
Interesting: the Inca polygonal masonry is stacked without any mortar, stone blocks of irregular shape and fit together so that it is difficult to stick even a needle through. And not only the density of masonry is surprising, but also the massiveness of the blocks of stone and their unsymmetry, because it is difficult to lift such weight of stone without equipment, not to mention the fact that the rocks were stacked as tightly as possible. The technology of creating Inca polygonal masonry is considered many times more complicated than building the pyramids.
6. Skara Brae settlement in Skyle Bay, Scotland
The ancient site of Skara Bray on the territory of Skyl Bay is the largest in Europe today (Scotland)| photo: incomartour.com.ua.
On the shore of the Bay of Skyle, located in Scotland. discovered an ancient settlement, which was established in 3180 BC. The ancient complex “en:Bay of Skaill” includes 8 megalithic sites, combined into blocks, which are made and arranged in a special way and is the largest settlement among similar structures in Europe.
Skaara Bay is one of the oldest well-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe (Orkney Islands, Scotland. | Photo: ru.newsner.com.
Scientists are still undecided as to what this finding means and whether the discovered object is only the oldest settlement. The unique site, called “Scottish Pompeii”, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts millions of tourists.
7. Tomb of Gavrinis in the Gulf of Morbihan (France)
The corridor tomb of Gavrinis found in the Gulf of Morbihan dates back to the Neolithic period. | Photo: tripadvisor.fr
A megalithic mausoleum has been discovered on the uninhabited island of Gavrinis in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany. Scientists believe that its creation fell on the period 4500-3500 years BC, because that’s when this piece of land was connected with the mainland. The fact that the tomb was built in a corridor type is the most surprising, as such structures are located far from water and, as a rule, on high hills.
The richly decorated walls inside the mausoleum are the largest monument of megalithic art in Europe.| Photo: patrimoine-environnement.fr
Inside the tomb, researchers have discovered symbols and patterns carved in stone, whose meaning has largely been deciphered, but in the depths of the structure remain unique plates, forcing scientists to still puzzle over their motives. However that may be, the discovered mausoleum with its richly decorated galleries and corridors is the most significant European monument of megalithic art.
In the world there is a huge number of ancient structures, which are perfectly preserved to this day, but, as a rule, they are devoted to the gods or the famous rulers of the men. Although among them you can find and a few amazing objects, still striking for its beauty and grandeur, which were built and in honor of the fairer sex.
