5. MACHU PICCHU (Peru): The Lost City of the Incas
Machu Picchu (“Old Peak”) is a pre-Columbian Inca city located at
2,430 m (7,970 ft) altitude on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba
Valley in Peru, near Cusco. Machu Picchu is probably the most familiar
symbol of the Inca Empire. It is often referred to as “The Lost City of
the Incas”. The site was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1983
when it was described as “an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a
unique testimony to the Inca civilization”.
Machu Picchu was constructed around 1450, at the height of the Inca
empire, and was abandoned less than 100 years later, as the empire
collapsed under Spanish conquest. Although the citadel is located only
about 50 miles from Cusco, the Inca capital, it was never found and
destroyed by the Spanish, as were many other Inca sites. Over the
centuries, the surrounding jungle grew to enshroud the site, and few
knew of its existence. In 1911, Yale historian and explorer Hiram
Bingham brought the “lost” city to the world’s attention. Bingham and
others hypothesized that the citadel was the traditional birthplace of
the Inca people or the spiritual center of the “virgins of the sun,”
while curators of a recent exhibit have speculated that Machu Picchu was
a royal retreat.
4. ANGKOR (Cambodia): Contains the world’s largest religious monument
Angkor served as the seat of the Khmer empire that flourished from
approximately the 9th century to the 15th century A.D. More precisely,
the Angkorian period may be defined as the period from 802 A.D., when
the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself the “universal
monarch” and “god-king” of Cambodia, until 1431 A.D., when Thai invaders
sacked the Khmer capital, causing its population to migrate south to
the area of Phnom Penh.
The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland to the
north of the Great Lake (Tonle Sap) and south of the Kulen Hills, near
modern day Siem Reap (13°24′N, 103°51′E), and are a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand,
ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered
through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the
world’s largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor
have been restored, and together they comprise the most significant
site of Khmer architecture. Visitor numbers approach one million
annually.
In 2007 an international team of researchers using satellite
photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been
the largest preindustrial city in the world with an urban sprawl of
1,150 square miles. The closest rival to Angkor, the Mayan city of Tikal
in Guatemala, was roughly 50 square miles in total size.
3. MEMPHIS (Egypt): ancient capital of Egypt
Memphis was the ancient capital of the first nome of Lower Egypt, and
of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 2200 BC
and later for shorter periods during the New Kingdom, and an
administrative centre throughout ancient history. Its Ancient Egyptian
name was Ineb Hedj (“The White Walls”). The name “Memphis” is the Greek
deformation of the Egyptian name of Pepi I’s (6th dynasty) pyramid,
Men-nefer, which became Menfe in Coptic. According to Herodotus, the
city was founded around 3100 BC by Menes, who united the two kingdoms of
Egypt.
Estimates of population size differ widely. According to T.
Chandlerm, Memphis had some 30,000 inhabitants and was by far the
largest settlement worldwide from the time of its foundation until
around 2250 BC and from 1557 to 1400 BC. Memphis reached a peak of
prestige under the 6th Dynasty as a centre of the cult of Ptah. It
declined briefly after the 18th Dynasty with the rise of Thebes and was
revived under the Persian satraps before falling firmly into second
place following the foundation of Alexandria. Under the Roman Empire,
Alexandria remained the most important city and Memphis remained the
second city of Egypt until the establishment of Fustat (or Fostat) in
641. It was then largely abandoned and became a source of stone for the
surrounding settlements. It was still an imposing set of ruins in the
12th century but soon became little more than an expanse of low ruins
and scattered stone. The remains of the temple of Ptah and of Apis have
been uncovered at the site as well as a few statues, including two
four-metre ones in alabaster of Ramesses II. The Saqqara necropolis is
close to Memphis.
2. PETRA: stone structures carved into rocks
Petra (“Rock”) lies on the slope of Mount Hor (Jordan) in a basin
among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba),
the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is
famous for having many stone structures carved into the rock. The
long-hidden site was revealed to the Western world by the Swiss explorer
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. It was famously described as “a
rose-red city half as old as time” in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet
by John William Burgon. Burgon had not actually visited Petra, which
remained accessible only to Europeans accompanied by local guides with
armed escorts until after World War I. The site was designated as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 when it was described as “one of the
most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage.”
Enclosed by towering rocks and watered by a perennial stream, Petra
not only possessed the advantages of a fortress but controlled the main
commercial routes which passed through it to Gaza in the west, to Bosra
and Damascus in the north, to Aqaba and Leuce Come on the Red Sea, and
across the desert to the Persian Gulf. Petra’s decline came rapidly
under Roman rule, in large part due to the revision of sea-based trade
routes. In 363 an earthquake destroyed buildings and crippled the vital
water management system. The ruins of Petra were an object of curiosity
in the Middle Ages and were visited by the Sultan Baibars of Egypt
towards the close of the 13th century. The first European to describe
them was Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812.
1. PALMYRA (Syria): the Bride of the Desert
Palmyra was in the ancient times an important city of central Syria.
It has long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian
desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert. The earliest
documented mention of the city by its pre-Semitic name Tadmor, Tadmur or
Tudmur, is recorded in Babylonian tablets found in Mari. Though the
ancient site fell into disuse after the 16th century, it is still known
as Tadmor and there is a small newer settlement next to the ruins of the
same name.
In the mid-first century, Palmyra, a wealthy and elegant city located
along the caravan routes linking Persia with the Mediterranean ports of
Roman Syria and Phoenicia, came under Roman control. During the
following period of great prosperity, the Arab citizens of Palmyra
adopted customs and modes of dress from both the Iranian Parthian world
to the east and the Graeco-Roman west. Tadmor is mentioned in the Hebrew
Bible (Second Book of Chronicles 8:4) as a desert city built by the
King Solomon of Judea, the son of David. Palmyra was made part of the
Roman province of Syria during the reign of Tiberius (14–37). It
steadily grew in importance as a trade route linking Persia, India,
China, and the Roman empire. In 634 the first Muslims arrived in
Palmyra. The city was taken by the Muslim Arabs under Khalid ibn Walid
in 636. In the 6th century, Fakhreddine al Maany castle was built on top
of a mountain overlooking the oasis. The castle was surrounded by a
moat, with access only available through a drawbridge. The city of
Palmyra was kept intact. After year 800, people started abandoning the
city.
source : http://top5s.net/index.php/2011/08/top-5-most-amazing-lost-cities/
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