This Is What Ancient Wonders Really Looked Like

If you traveled back in time to ancient Greece, Rome, or Egypt, you wouldn't recognize a single monument. Time has left behind skeletons of structures that were originally engineered to blind you with color and wealth. Here's what ancient megastructures actually looked like in their prime. Abu Simbel The Pyramids of Giza get all the glory, but Abu Simbel might just be the most impressive feat of engineering in all of ancient Egypt. The Great Pyramids of Giza are great and all, don't get me But Abu Simbel on the western bank of Lake Nasser, right on the edge of Sudan, is an unparalleled marvel of engineering. During the 19th dynasty, when Egypt was ruled by legendary pharaoh Ramses II, twin temples were carved out of the mountainside. This was about 3,200 years ago, so nobody had any jackhammers available. They carved two temples out of the solid rock and then erected huge figures of Ramses and his wife Nefertiti with the smaller sculptures of their children positioned around their feet. Inside the great temple, the bigger of the two structures, sculptures were created to commemorate Ramses' victory at the Battle of Kadesh against the Hittite Empire. If you're curious why such an important structure was built so far away from more famous places like Cairo and Luxor, it was because Egypt was in control of Nubia at the time, and Nubia was a major source of gold for the kingdom, so Ramses needed to secure control of the region. Therefore, he built grand temples to impress upon the people of Nubia that they were now Egyptian and needed to fall in line. The greatest of these was Abu Simbel, which 3,000 years ago was known as the Temple of Ramses, beloved by Amun. Right at the second cataract of the Nile, Ramses ordered two massive temples built, one for himself and one for his queen. The monumental build took nearly 20 years, finally wrapping up around 1244 BC. Egypt would eventually lose control of Nubia and the temple complex fell into decline. By the 6th century BC, hundreds of years before Cleopatra was even born, the temple was already a sad shell of its former self. Historical records show sand was already covering the monumental statues of Ramses up to his knees. Europeans had no idea this place existed until Swiss researcher Johann Ludwig Burckhardt stumbled upon it. The place was so full of sand he couldn't even enter the great temple. That was in 1813. I'd like to show you some illustrations created by David Roberts when he visited the partially excavated site decades later in 1865. This is an illustration of the interior of the great temple. Notice the color. When the temple was first opened, the statues were still covered with paint, which is how the statues on the outside looked originally as well. Here's an illustration of the temple's exterior, with the truly colossal statues of Ramses just chillaxing. Notice the lack of color because the statues were eroded by thousands of years of shifting sands, erasing any pigment. But inside the temple, it seems that color survived. When this structure was originally built, the drab, sandstone-colored figures you see today would have been bright from head to toe. Specifically, red, yellow, blue, and white. How do we know this? Because the four colossal statues still have chemical traces of their original pigments, which allowed scientists to recreate them. I don't think people realize that these statues were also originally dressed to the nines. The statues represent Ramses in his full royal costume, including the traditional headcloth, his false beard, and ceremonial clothing. Every single thing was meticulously painted, making the colossi seem alive. Now here's a little treat for you. It's the first photograph ever taken of Abu Simbel by Maxime Ducamp in 1850. Right now, you're just seeing plain, dusty brown rock, so it's hard to believe that back in the day, these massive statues were covered with brightly colored paint. Which version do you like the most? Should Egypt repaint the temple? Let me know what you think! The Hanging Gardens of Babylon Out of all the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is the only one experts suspect never actually existed. But for a place that might be pure myth, there is a lot of detail about what it looked like, who made it, and what happened to it. According to the legend, it was Nebuchadnezzar II who built the gardens right next to his gorgeous palace, not for himself, but for his wife, Queen Amytis. Amytis was the daughter of King Syaxares of the Median Empire. She grew up in the forested mountain valleys of northwestern Iran, so when she moved to Babylon to strengthen political ties, she missed her homeland. Babylon was much drier and sandier than what she was used to. This information was recorded by the Babylonian priest Berossus in 290 BC. I should mention that Babylon wasn't in the middle of a desert. Even today, the ancient city of Babylon in modern Iraq isn't an inhospitable wasteland. Just take a look at this picture. That is a modern photograph of the city of Babylon snapped by Major Mike Feeney of the US Army. Notice the trees. Yes, it is dry, and yes, it is sandy, but there is still some vegetation, just not nearly as much as in the north. So, Nebuchadnezzar recreated the forest for his wife inside the city. The first written mention of the gardens comes from our pal, Berossus. He described towering stone terraces so big they resembled mountains. Each terrace was planted with a wide variety of plants and flowers, kept alive by a highly advanced irrigation system. A mysterious system of pipes and pumps took water out of the Euphrates River and deposited it on the terraces, creating a lush architectural landscape of living greenery. Other than Berossus, four other ancient historians all described the gardens in the same way, always as a marvel of architecture and horticulture, with stone balconies, vaulted terraces, and a visual effect that made it seem as if the gardens were cascading above the city. When Greek historian Herodotus visited in the 5th century BC, he described a lot of things, but not any hanging gardens. Do you know how many Babylonian texts exist today? Thousands upon thousands. Do you know how many of those texts mention hanging gardens? None of them. Some scholars say they were entirely mythical, while others say they were destroyed around the 1st century AD. Others don't even think they were in Babylon, but built in the city of Nineveh by Assyrian king Sennacherib. Which do you think is correct? The Parthenon. For generations, historians insisted that Greece's Parthenon was built entirely from plain white marble, celebrated worldwide as the ultimate symbol of clean, unadorned, rational beauty. As it turns out, that image is dead wrong. Scientists conducted pigment analysis on the Acropolis and were shocked to discover evidence of ancient color. Big colors too, like blue, red, and black. So why did archaeologists think it was plain white for so long? Because in the 18th century, architects and artists investigating the Acropolis found nothing but pale marble. At the time, science didn't know that pigment disappears over the ages. It can be from erosion, salty air, or a dozen other natural processes. Time really is the ultimate killer. Scientific understanding started to change in the 20th century. In 1988, a team of researchers from British Museum conducted a systemic pigment analysis of sculptures from the Parthenon. Using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and tons of other stuff, the team found a very specific color, Egyptian blue. There was blue on the statues and red ochre traces on pieces of the molding. This was enough to prove the structure had once been colored. Its statues were vibrant and alive, while its moldings were painted dark red. The researchers were even able to date the pigments to the exact time of the building's construction, around 440 BC. Most of the enormous temple was still made from white marble. It was an important part of the building, but it wasn't solid white from top to bottom. The architectural elements were likely highlighted with blue pigment, while the sculptures were made lifelike by coloring their hair, clothing, and accessories. But it was inside the Parthenon where the real beauty could be found. The structure itself was one of the greatest things the Greeks ever built, a testament to the power of man. But inside was a testament to the wisdom of women. Standing at the heart of the Parthenon was a truly titanic model of Athena, made from solid gold and ivory, and surrounded by painted surfaces. When you entered this temple 2,000 years ago, you would have seen the sunlight beaming off Athena, making her glow like a living, breathing goddess. The Colosseum If you lived in Rome at the height of the Roman Empire and walked into the Colosseum on a rainy day to watch a few gladiators kill each other, you wouldn't get wet. You would stay nice and dry, because the Colosseum was topped by a flat attic with huge sockets to hold the enormous retractable awning, known as a velarium. In fact, the Colosseum had the largest velarium in the Roman Empire's history, covering the entirety of the Colosseum's seating area, known as the cavia. And actually it wasn't really for rain, it was more to keep the spectators from boiling alive under the hot Roman sun. In its prime, the Colosseum was unmatched by even modern structures. It was simply awe-inspiring. An elegant oval of arches and columns, its façade white and gold, with polished marble seats inside circling a wooden arena floor covered in a layer of sand. Underneath the floor was a hodgepodge of hidden machinery and elevators, bringing beasts and men from the underlayer into the fighting pit. Today, hardly any of this remains. When you visit Rome, you are visiting a skeleton of the original Colosseum, but it is still spectacular. Walking into the Colosseum on opening night must have been one of the greatest spectacles in human history. That opening night was in 80 AD, April 21st to be exact. The construction began under the reign of Emperor Vespasian, and the arena was inaugurated 11 years later under Emperor Titus. But it wasn't finished completely until 90 AD, when Emperor Domitian finished off the final modifications. Have you ever wondered who actually paid to build the Colosseum? Megaprojects in the ancient world took serious cash, and the funding here had a dark origin. Construction was paid for partly by imperial taxes, but mostly by the massive haul of treasure the Roman legions stole when they sacked the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Jerusalem's holy relics paid for the construction. By the way, Solomon's Temple, the original one, destroyed by the same man who commissioned the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, is up next, so don't go anywhere. The location for the arena was chosen very carefully. Vespasian specifically built it near Emperor Nero's palace complex, the Domus Aurea, as a symbolic gesture to the Roman people. The Romans were still pretty sour about Nero in general, but especially at how he had privatized public land for his own selfish use. Nero took public land and transformed it into the Domus Aurea, which was a sprawling palace complex the likes of which I would compare to Versailles. By building a public entertainment facility on the land that Nero had stolen, Vespasian became hugely popular with the average Joe. When it was complete, the Colosseum impressed from every angle. The exterior blocks were accented with shades of red and white, with the upper galleries painted in more vivid colors to represent the skies. The arches were decorated with bronze shields and magnificent statues. The most prominent color appears to have been red. Restoration work on the upper galleries revealed traces of the original pigment, and everywhere was red, the color of blood. Was it a coincidence, or were the Romans truly that bloodthirsty? The inside was even more glorious. When you see the movies, they show the Colosseum's floor as being covered completely in sand, but it wasn't that drab. Yes, there was a six-inch layer of sand to soak up the blood and help fighters keep their footing, but there were also painted surfaces and polished stone, creating a much more elaborate fighting ring than what you see today in movies or in real life. When Titus inaugurated the arena, it was a celebration of 100 consecutive days of games. These games included your standard gladiatorial combat, but also wild animal hunts and other spectacles that required a lot more complex decoration than a bed of sand. Entire trees would be brought in to recreate forests. Artificial rocks and portable hills created realistic landscapes, and they would often dress up the arena to create settings from mythology. Even standard gladiatorial fights relied heavily on tactical terrain. The open, flat sand pits shown in movies are pure Hollywood fantasy. Arena crews regularly constructed artificial ruins across the floor, forcing fighters to stalk one another, set up ambushes, and rely on genuine combat tactics to survive. Solomon's Temple You've probably heard of the first temple built by King Solomon around 990 BC. You probably also know that there is a lot of debate over what the structure actually looked like, who built it, and how much of the Bible is historically accurate. For example, Jewish tradition holds that King Solomon built his temple at the exact spot where God created Adam. But how in the world is anyone supposed to historically prove that? You can find the detailed narrative for how the temple was built in the Book of Kings. But if you don't have your Bible handy, here's a recap. The temple did not look like any church or Jewish temple still standing today. It wasn't one large room, but rather a sequence of rings within rings, with a central chamber holding the holiest object known to humanity. The Ark of the Covenant It began with the outer court, which was about as far as most people could ever hope to get. The outer court was open to anyone, and was a popular meeting place filled with the bustling noise of civilization. People were having breakfast, meeting, animals were wandering through. It was a happening place. Beyond the outer court was a wall 30 feet high, according to ancient accounts. The only way to get past the wall was through a cedar gate found in bronze. On the other side of that gate was the inner courtyard, specifically reserved for priests and the Levites. The Levites were one of the 12 tribes of Israel, whom God had entrusted with caring for the temple. If you weren't a priest or a Levite, chances are you never entered the true temple. Inside the priest's court was a bronze basin 15 feet across, held up by 12 bronze oxen, representing the 12 tribes. The priests used it to cleanse themselves before rituals. All along the walls were smaller bronze basins called lavers, which were used for rinsing off. The priests would soak themselves in the bronze sea and then rinse off with the lavers. The main sanctuary had stone walls covered from floor to ceiling with cedar boards. These boards were carved with flowers, gourds, palm trees, and terabim. The Bible explicitly says that Solomon covered the entire interior with pure gold, including the floor. The final room, the Holy of Holies, was at the very heart of the temple beyond the altar. After moving through the priest's chamber, a gentle ramp ascended to the altar sanctuary, the top of the temple. Here, in the center of a large chamber about 30 feet on all sides, burned an undying flame. Only once a person had ascended to the altar could they see the final temple building, its entrance flanked by a pair of huge bronze pillars named Boaz and Jakin. This was the sanctuary of the Holy of Holies. 11 golden tablets lined one of the walls, with the other side having 11 golden lamps. In the center was a small golden altar for incense, and behind the altar, a curtain. Only one man was allowed through that curtain into the Holy of Holies, the final room in the first temple. The only one allowed in was the high priest, but not just whenever he felt like it. He was only allowed to enter the Holy of Holies once a year on Yom Kippur. Not even the King of Israel was permitted entry. Why was this chamber so restricted? Because it contained the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark of the Covenant were the tablets of the Ten Commandments handed down to Moses himself. This was the most prized possession of the Jewish people, the tangible contract between them and God. What happened to the Ark of the Covenant is one of the greatest mysteries in history. Some say the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II melted it down into bars of gold, others think it's buried somewhere in Jerusalem, and others think it's in Ethiopia. Angkor Wat Angkor Wat is the crown jewel of Cambodia. It's on their money, it's the one thing every tourist wants to see, and it is pretty magnificent. Built in the early 12th century as a temple and mausoleum dedicated to Vishnu of the Hindu pantheon, it is the largest religious monument ever created. The splendor of this place is hard to describe without seeing it with your own eyes. It covers 162 hectares and is protected by a moat deep enough to at least make the landing uncomfortable. After the civilization who built Angkor collapsed in the 15th century, it was never actually abandoned. You always hear about how Angkor was lost to the jungle, but it wasn't. Buddhist monks maintained it the entire time. It is true a large portion of the city of Angkor was neglected and overrun by the jungle, but Angkor and Angkor Wat are not the same. Angkor is the city, while Wat is the Buddhist word for temple. It's called Angkor's temple. The reason people say Angkor Wat was lost is simply because Europeans didn't know about it until the 19th century when French naturalist Henri Mouhot made it famous in his travel journals. Here's the thing though, just because Buddhist monks maintained the temple for centuries doesn't mean they did a good job. While the structure still stands, it does not look like it did when it was built in the 1100s. King Suryavarman II came to power in what is now Cambodia in 1113. He unified warring factions into a single massive empire that spread out from Cambodia to modern-day Thailand and Vietnam. The new kingdom needed a new temple, and the king wanted to build something that would be the defining act of his rule. On the Angkor plain, which was already home to Khmer cities and temples, he built Angkor Wat on the edge of Tonle Sap Lake. The lake was the perfect place because it was the very source of food for practically the entire empire. The monks would definitely never go hungry. For 37 years, hundreds of master stone carvers made a masterpiece. Every major element was connected to a cosmological meaning. For example, the temple faces west, which in Hindu cosmology is associated with the setting sun, death, and the underworld. Archaeologists believe Suryavarman wanted to be buried here and that he had the temple constructed for the same reason Khufu built the Great Pyramid to have the biggest gravestone in town. He wanted to be buried and worshipped as a god, just as the pharaohs did. Every aspect of the temple has meaning. The moat represents the cosmic ocean that surrounds the mythical Mount Meru in Hindu lore, where the gods live. The outer enclosure walls are meant to be the mountain ranges at the edge of the cosmos. The temple itself has three ascending tiers, with each one meant to represent different levels of existence. The lowest tier, as you can guess, is the underworld. The central one is the earthly realm and the top one is the realm of the divine. One of the temple's most striking features are its towers. It has five huge towers looming above the rest of the complex, four at the corners of the inner sanctum and then one at the very heart. The large central one represents the summit where Brahma, the Zeus of Hinduism so to speak, lives. Even the road has meaning. The path leading into the temple complex is meant to represent the causeway that goes from the mortal world to the afterlife. All of that stuff still exists though, so what did it originally look like? For starters, it was colorful. You may have noticed that this is a recurring theme today. Time has a tendency to graywash everything. Scientists have found microscopic traces of paint that prove Angkor Wat was beautiful in hues of red, orange, and shimmering gold. When you enter the temple today, you're surrounded by monochrome gray stone. If you had entered it 600 years ago, you would have seen a cornucopia of extraordinarily vivid colors. The builders coated the sandstone blocks with a white lead primer, which made the colors they painted over it glow especially bright in the sun. This would have made the entire temple gleam like a jewel. The most striking feature you would have seen 600 years ago were the colorfully painted Apsaras dancers. There are 2,000 of these dancers immortalized as Ba Relief figures. Today they're just drab stone, but before? The Apsaras were painted to be lifelike, but it was more than that. Every single detail was meticulously handled. Their headdresses, jewels, and belts were originally covered with gold leaf. Those five towers I mentioned before were also covered in gilded stucco, and they too gleamed like gold in the sun. Angkor Wat is impressive today, there's no doubt about it, but before, nothing else in Southeast Asia could compare. Petra. The ancient city of Petra stands in present-day Jordan, famous around the world for its incredible architecture and its cameo in Indiana Jones. Today, the city is a rocky ruin in the midst of a desolate landscape. 2,000 years ago, it was a whole different picture. Ancient Petra was a lush garden city. It was home to enormous temples, luxurious villas built in the Roman style, and water fountains everywhere you looked. Founded by the mysterious civilization of the Nabataeans, Petra was the premier marketplace for the Middle East. Caravans traveling from Egypt, Arabia, and the Levant came here to purchase all kinds of exotic goods, like spices. Their stockpile of exotic goods made them a marketplace capital, and being a magnet for caravans meant they got very, very rich. Rich enough to build an ingenious water supply system that brought life to an otherwise difficult landscape. The people who lived in Petra had fresh water to drink, they could bathe whenever they wanted, and they cultivated fruit and made wine. People strolled in the shade of tall trees. Nowadays, it's so dry that when it rains, it causes flash floods and literally kills tourists. Seriously, it happened last year, so please be careful. This lush paradise survived for almost 1,000 years, which is way longer than can be said for just about anywhere. Though to be fair, its peak was between 100 BC and 100 AD, when up to 30,000 people lived here. Although it's famous today for its red rocks, 2,000 years ago, those sandstone facades were more brilliantly colored, just like everywhere else in the ancient world. So what happened? The end began with the loss of economic power. The first century AD saw the rise of seafaring technology, which made marine trade a lot easier. As you can imagine, it's a lot faster to bring goods from India to Arabia by ship along the Red Sea than by trudging over land. Then, when the Roman Empire smashed the Nabataean kingdom and annexed their territory, the place went into a death spiral. After the Galilee earthquake of 363, Petra was on borrowed time. By 746, everyone was gone. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus is one of the saddest ruins you'll ever see. There are a few upright pillars, a lot of slabs of stone sitting in the grass, but it's a pretty pitiful sight. But if you had stood in the same spot and looked at the same structure 2,400 years ago, you would have seen one of the most magnificent, most spectacular temples ever constructed. It was a beast of a structure. Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder said it had 127 columns. It stood 65 feet tall and was decorated with all of your favorite scenes and characters from Greek mythology. Inside was as lavish as the Pope's secret apartment where he keeps all the jewels. It was indeed fit for a goddess, the goddess Artemis specifically. Royals came from all over the known world to pay homage by offering coins and treasure. There's a good reason the temple is on the list of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Just listen to what feels like the first Yelp review in history for a tourist site. After seeing the Temple of Artemis for the first time, the poet Antipater of Sidon wrote, when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, I said, lo, apart from Olympus, the sun never looked on art so grand. That's a five-star review if I've ever heard one. But if it was so amazing, what happened to it? You're not going to believe it, but on the exact same day that Alexander the Great was born, a lunatic known only as Herostratus went into the Temple of Artemis and set fire to its wooden roof, reducing the fantastic structure to ashes. The historian Plutarch took notice of the weird coincidence and wrote that the temple burnt because Artemis was busy with the birth of Alexander. There had been an earlier temple, not quite as grand but still impressive. It was built by the first Athenian colonists who moved into what is now Turkey and founded the city of Ephesus around 1000 BC. That initial temple was washed away by a storm. Two centuries later, the Lydian king Croesus built an even bigger and even better temple, which he dedicated to the Greek goddess of the hunt. Ancient historian Herodotus wrote that construction took more than 100 years, though he was notorious for exaggerating. After the Temple of Croesus burned down, a third and final version was built in 323 BC, which was the same year Alexander the Great died, and it lasted 600 years. What do you suppose happened to the last version of this legendary temple? The Christians got a hold of it. In the 5th century BC, the Archbishop of Constantinople reportedly destroyed the structure and used its stones for building material. If you could add one ancient structure to the list of the seven ancient wonders, which one would it be? Let me know in the comments. Be sure to subscribe if you haven't already, and I'll see you soon. Bye!