Quote:Perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vivid history, the Great Wall of China actually consists of numerous walls and fortifications, many running parallel to each other. Originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang (c. 259-210 B.C.) in the third century B.C. as a means of preventing incursions from barbarian nomads into the Chinese Empire, the wall is one of the most extensive construction projects ever completed. The best-known and best-preserved section of the Great Wall was built in the 14th through 17th centuries A.D., during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Though the Great Wall never effectively prevented invaders from entering China, it came to function more as a psychological barrier between Chinese civilization and the world, and remains a powerful symbol of the country’s enduring strength.

Quote:The Nazca lines are considered as the most important and most famous geoglyphs ever discovered on our planet. The mysterious lines, geometric shapes and animals are found in the Nazca desert in Southern Peru, and are believed to have been created by the Nazca people for an unknown reason sometime between 200 B.C. and 500 A.D. At Nazca, scholars have identified over 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures and 70 animal and plant designs, also called biomorphs. The largest figure found at Nazca stretches about 200 meters across. According to legend, the mysterious Inca creator god Viracocha commissioned the Nazca Lines and glyphs in the past.

Viracocha was one of the most important deities in the Inca pantheon and seen as the creator of all things or the substance from which all things are created, and intimately associated with the sea. One of the most intriguing designs of Nazca is the one which represents a Spider. Phyllis Pitluga, a senior astronomer at the Adler Planetarium and a protégé of Reiche, performed computer-aided studies of star alignments. She asserted the giant spider figure is an anamorphic diagram of the constellation Orion. According to some claims, scientists from the University of Dresden researched the Nazca lines, measuring the magnetic field and electric conductivity. According to these claims, the results of the research performed by scholars of the University of Dresden showed that electric conductivity was 8000 higher on the Nazca lines than next to them.

Quote:Researchers believe the Geoglyphs found in Kazakhstan could be evidence of a long-lost 8,000-year-old Civilization. According to recently released satellite images from NASA, there are dozens of giant geometric figures of squares, lines, crosses, and circles, some of them approximately 200 meters in size, which, just as those found at Nazca, are only visible from the air. These are the ‘Nazca lines’ of Kazakhstan. Even though the discovery was made some eight years ago thanks to popular software ‘Google Earth’ when Russian archeologist Dmitriy Dey found them, since then, several experts in the field have helped expand the research into these mysterious geometric figures. There are over 260 geoglyphs that have been discovered so far with the oldest one being around 8,000 years old, and most of them can be found near a Neolithic village of the area. The largest of them is a giant square composed of 101 raised mounds. Their exact purpose remains a profound mystery.

Quote:Just as the geoglyphs at Nazca and Kazakhstan, the mysterious, intricate designs found in the ‘black’ desert have fascinated researchers ever since their discovery. The mysterious wheel-shaped geoglyphs in Jordan could date back as far as 6500 BC according to archeological studies. This means that these geoglyphs are at least 6,000 years older compared to the more famous ‘Nazca lines’ in Peru. While researchers are still not one hundred percent certain as to what their exact purpose was, they believe the enigmatic ‘wheels’ which were drawn into the black desert of Jordan could have been used as celestial observatories and even burial grounds.

Just as the Nazca lines in Peru, the mysterious geoglyphs in Jordan can only be appreciated from the air. Researchers still cannot explain why these giant wheels were built to be almost invisible from the ground. According to archeological study, the mysterious geoglyphs in the Jordanian desert demonstrate accurate geometric patterns which extend up to several kilometers. No one has been able to understand how ancient mankind created these figures over 8000 years ago, a time which according to mainstream scholars, people were not evolved enough to create such geometric patterns. 8000 years ago the climate of the Middle East was much wetter and the surrounding landscape was different from what we see today.

Quote:There are literally thousands of different goddesses in world mythology, but perhaps the oldest is the fertility goddess. Hundreds of female effigies (known as the Venus figurines) can be found scattered around Europe and parts of Asia, dating from 35,000 BCE to 16,000 BCE (see images 1 – 7).

But with no written text to explain what they were used for, what chance do we have of deciphering their role in prehistory? Has their ritual significance been lost to the annals of time? Perhaps not. Some scholars believe it is possible to gain an understanding of their function by examining the functions of more recent artefacts.

It is possible to trace a connection between the prehistoric figurines and later statues which arose in the Neolithic and Bronze Age era. By studying the effigies of fertility goddess throughout history, four classic poses seem to emerge depicting their role.

1. Breast offering pose (figure 1, 4, 12, 16); where she holds her hands around her bosom which suggested her function as a goddess of nourishment and fertility.

2. Upward arms stretch (figure 2, 11, 13, 17, 18); the figurine seems to reach to the heavens, signifying a celestial connection. This pose also accentuates her breasts which suggest a fertility function.

3. Seated pose (8, 10, 14, 15); typically found throughout the Neolithic (when humans adopted a domestic lifestyle). These figurines were often found in homes, suggesting a matriarchal figure who was revered by the villagers.

4. Voluptuous torso (3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 15, 19); the most common pose throughout history, small heads, wide hips, and legs which taper to a point. These figurines typically exaggerate the abdomen, hips, breasts, thighs, or vulva. In contrast, their arms and feet are often absent. This suggests they represent the tribal values of womanhood (nourishment, sexuality and propagation).

Recorded history began around 5500 years ago, where the earliest decipherable language emerged from Mesopotamia (cuneiform) and ancient Egypt (hieroglyphics). These civilisations have offered historians a significant insight into their mythology via the language they left us on clay tablets and painted artefacts.

One artifact in particular has made an appearance in many cultures throughout Eurasia, featuring heavily in their mythology. She is the goddess figurine of love, sex and fertility. In Sumeria she was known as Inanna (figure 12), in Akkad as Ishtar (figure 17), in ancient Egypt as Hathor (figure 19), and in Hellenistic Babylon as Astarte (figure 20).

Her dominion was widespread throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean. She was also depicted as a warrior goddess, wielding a strong political influence as a diplomat. In some Ugaritic texts she is said to have calmed the thunder-god Baal, averting him from the murder of his fellow deities.

This love goddess was associated with the moon, where she was said to give life as the moon waxed, and then diminish it as the moon waned. The light and dark aspects of her power are related to a story about her and her lover Tammuz, who annually descends to the underworld and is resurrected again by the love goddess. This lunar mythology illustrates her connection to the lunar cycles which rhythmically alter the fertility of the land.

In Mesopotamia she was called “Mother of the Fruitful Breast”, ‘Queen of Heaven’, ‘Mother of Deities’, etc. Her pervasive mythology throughout Eurasia likens her to a powerful protective deity who protected the village and made the lands and its people healthy and fertile. She truly was an all mother, or at any rate a principal of fertility that guaranteed the long-term survival of the group.

Could it be that this goddess was active in our social consciousness as early as the Stone Age? All the Bronze Age icons mirror earlier poses from Venus figurines of the Paleolithic era (2 – 13, 7 – 19, 1 – 16). If this were the case, then this Earth Goddess figure would have been the first deity ever to enter mans consciousness.

What’s more impressive is that she would have been worshipped for over 30,000 years before the advent of any other Gods. It wasn’t until the late Neolithic that we saw the arrival of divine beings like Tiamat (Mesopotamia) and Ra (Ancient Egypt).

This would make her the most ancient of all the gods, a legend who has been venerated longer than any other deity including Yahweh (who has only been worshipped for a sixth of her entire reign).

Quote:Baalbek is the name of an archeological site in Lebanon. It is a gigantic megalithic platform, and its true age remains a mystery to archaeologists and researchers who can only speculate about the true origin of this megalithic ancient site. It is located east of Lebanon, 86 kilometers northeast of the city of Beirut, in the valley of Beqaa, near the border with Syria. It is considered to be a very sacred place, since the temple was built on top op a ruin mound, so even before Greek ad Roman times, this majestic place was considered to be holy.

Mainstream archaeology has different points of view when it comes to the exact age of the site. According to conventional archaeologists it was a Phoenician sanctuary dedicated to the god Baal, it was a Greek City called Heliopolis (City of the Sun) and since the time of Emperor Augustus, it was a Roman colony. The truth is, the exact age remains a mystery, but some researchers consider this ancient megalithic site as being at least 12.000 years old but could possibly be over 20,000 years old.

Quote:According to many people that have visited the Temple of Seti in Abydos and even archaeologists who have researched the temple, claim that these hieroglyphs actually depict modern day flying machines such as helicopters, airplanes, and even submarines. Is this Pareidolia, or did ancient Egyptians just get lucky when they carved these hieroglyphs?

This ancient temple built by Seti I, and his son Ramses II, has been the center of attention for many researchers in the field of archaeology and ufology. The image above firsts thought to be a fake, was proven to be the real deal and present today on a heavy stone slab that supports the ceiling of this amazing temple. Even though some of us would love for these ancient hieroglyphs to depict actual modern day machines, most archaeologists claim that this is the result of Palimpsest, where Egyptologists actually identified overlapping of the hieroglyphics in the above image.

The original glyph’s were “erased” and replaced by a new set of hieroglyphics which turned out to be these strange looking figures which according to researchers, accidentally resemble modern day machines. Take notices that this theory has not been accepted by all archaeologists equally Most researchers still believe that these hieroglyphs are still a mystery and that a acceptable scientific conclusion is needed. The Abydos temple honored numerous deities, including Isis, Horus, Set, Amun-Re, Re-Horakhty, and Ptah.

Quote:This unique ancient city is considered as one of the most important ancient underground cities ever discovered on the planet. Why? Because it wasn’t only a temporary shelter, but people called this underground city home, thousands of years ago. Researchers have now discovered that unlike other underground cities across the planet, people who lived in the underground city in Cappadocia lived there permanently and not temporary as it was believed earlier. This underground city, not to be confused with Derinkuyu, was discovered by Turkish construction workers during an urban development project. The massive underground city was found when construction workers started digging the area in order to prepare the terrain for new buildings.

Quote:Since 2009, researchers have studied the remains of an ancient village in an excavation site called Tel Burna, located 20 km southwest of Jerusalem, an area which was once a strategic border region between ancient Israel and the Philistines from the west. The ancient city of Libnah played notable roles in several passages of the Old Testament. Moses and the Israelites visited this ancient city during the Exodus. (33: 20-21) Joshua and the Israelite army conquered Libnah during the conquest of the Promised Land (Joshua 10: 29-30), after which the city was given to the descendants of Aaron and the priests (Joshua 21:13). According to 2 Chronicles 21: 9-10, the Edomites and the inhabitants of Libnah revolted against Joram, the wicked king of Judah.

The archaeological remains exposed in Tel Burna support the theory of the discovery of Libnah as both geographic, survey and excavation data seamlessly integrate into what we know was a frontier town in the Iron Age according to leading researchers of the project.

The artifacts discovered at the site, including grains, stamps, figurines and ceramic vessels originate from the ninth and eighth centuries BC, a period known as the Iron Age. This time period coincides closely with the historical accounts of the Bible and stories of the city of Libnah.

Quote:The body, which had been completely mummified in the ice, was determined to be that of a man in his mid-forties, a slight individual around 1.65 metres (5 ft 5 in) tall and weighing approximately 50 kilograms (110 lb.) in life, who had lived between 3359 and 3105 BCE, making him over 5,000 years old and the oldest known preserved specimen of a human in Europe. The body was also covered in a total of 61 tattoos arranged in 19 groups of ornate black lines along his back and legs. It was even determined that the mummy had the remains of two meals within its stomach and intestinal tract, one consisting of chamois meat and the other of deer meat and herb bread, as well as a bit of ibex meat, with the last meal being consumed as soon as 2 hours before the man’s inexplicable death. It was also found that the individual had suffered from an intestinal parasite called whipworm.

The discovery of what would come to be known variously as Ötzi, the Iceman, and the Similaun Man, would go on to become a baffling conundrum for those who studied it, who used increasingly sophisticated techniques and technology to try to come to some understanding of this enigmatic individual’s identity, life, and indeed how he had died out there in the middle of nowhere. Over the years it was speculated that he had been a high altitude sheep herder, a hunter, a copper smelter, a shaman, a soldier, or even a chieftain based on his copper axe, which would have been an item of great prestige in his time. His death was blamed on everything from a hunting accident, to being the victim of a battle or ritual sacrifice, to exposure to the harsh elements. Indeed the cause of death was long popularly thought to have been exposure, but subsequent findings such as bruises and cuts to the hands, evidence of blunt trauma to the head, and signs of arrowheads that had been removed before death and even one still lodged within his shoulder, as well as signs of a pierced artery, made things more complicated. These signs of violence suggested that rather than simply succumbing to the elements as had been long thought, the Iceman may have been brutally murdered or killed in some sort of battle, although it is also unclear if he had died at that spot up in the mountains or had been brought there later. However, even to this day no one is quite sure who the Iceman was, what his lineage is, what had brought him all the way up into the mountains, or how he died. Even in the face of continued research he remains an enigma, and one of the most baffling archeological mysteries of recent times.

Quote:Dolmens, menhirs, and cromlechs are mysterious rock structures spread throughout the world which have kept the secrets of their origin and purpose for many millennia.

Similar structures can be seen in Russia, Ukraine, Abkhazia, England, France, Italy, Ireland, Spain, India, Iraq, Syria, Korea, Japan, North America, and North Africa.

Official science determines that the megalithic structures are 3 000 – 5 000 years old (Copper or Bronze Age), but many researchers believe that some stone structures are more than 10 000 years old and belong to the Neolithic Age.

Quote:Monoliths (aka menhirs or obelisks) are upright stones that have been used to create impressive structures around the world. These great monuments can appear on their own, or as part of a group (e.g. stone circles, temples, tombs etc).

The erection of these monoliths mainly took place in the Neolithic, later continuing into the Bronze Age. They were typically hewn from the land and raised on sacred sites that our ancestors deemed worthy of honouring. Their size varied considerably, but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top.

A number of ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the “Unfinished Obelisk” found partly hewn from its quarry at Aswan. Had it have been erected, it would have been the tallest megalith in the world! These obelisks are now dispersed around the world, and fewer than half of them remain in Egypt.

It was said that many of the ancient obelisks were used to mark the passing of a royal personages (e.g. the Karnack Obelisk is associated with King Thutmose I, and the Stellae of Axum with the Queen of Sheba). Even the Great Menhir of Er-Grah is built next to an ancient tomb suggesting it is a grave marker worthy of a significant hero or king from the Neolithic era.

It is also said the pyramids and obelisks might have been inspired by previously overlooked astronomical phenomena connected with sunrise and sunset: the zodiacal light and sun pillars respectively.

Quote:On November 8, 1898, a Swedish immigrant farmer, Olof Ohman, and his ten-year-old son say they found a Scandinavian runestone, dated 1362, wedged in the roots of a tree in rural Minnesota.

El Fuerte the Fortress

Quote:Not far away from Samaipata, one of the most important archeological monuments of pre-Columbian time in Bolivia can be found: El Fuerte (The Fortress). This archeological place has been declared Cultural Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO. This mysterious place has been given many hypothetical explanations for its origins. It is supposed that El Fuerte is the work of the Amazonian pre-Incan ‘Chané’ culture, and later on was used as an advanced city by the Incas and finally by the Spanish colonists that turned El Fuerte into a fortress.

El Fuerte is the largest carved stone in the world. This archaeological monument reaches a height of 1.949 metres above sea level and is on the ridge of a hill of a sandy rock where ancient cultures sculptured figures but emphasized snakes and pumas, as well as waterways and wells, triangular and rectangular seats, vaulted niches, among other details.

Quote:The Sajama lines were discovered by explorers in the 1920’s and are believed to date back to around 900 BC. Their true origin ad purpose remains a profound mystery.

Quote:Located near the Pisco Bay, at the Paracas peninsular of central-east Chile, this mysterious formation is perfectly aligned north and south and can even be seen around 12 miles from the sea. In the vicinity, researchers have discovered remains of pottery, which has led them to believe that the Paracas Candelabra is in fact the work of the Pre-Incan ‘Paracas’ People. The true meaning and purpose remain a widely debated subject among experts.

While the Paracas candelabra can also be seen from the sky, it’s not as visible as the Nazca lines which are located around 160 kilometers to the southwest. Researchers believe that the Nazca lines and the Paracas Candelabra are NOT related at all. Until today, the exact meaning and purpose of this intricate design remain a mystery.

Quote:Locally known as „El Gigante de Tarapacá,” the mysterious figure was created in the Lluta style, which according to researchers, tends to have long and narrow legs, combined with a square head.

The giant figure located near the eastern slope of Cerro Unita is the largest humanoid geoglyph on the planet with a length of eighty-six meters making it thirty-one meters longer than the Cerne Abbas Giant.

While many cannot agree as to what the mysterious figure actually is, there are some researchers who suggest that the Atacama Giant is a representation of a Pre-Inca Shaman, which is believed to have been depicted holding a bag and arrow.

According to experts, the square-shaped head is, in fact, a representation of a jaguar mask and the robot-like (or Alien) similarity is purely coincidental. Researchers estimate that the mysterious figure was created sometime between 800 and 1400 AD.

The mysterious ‘antennas’ seen sticking out from the head of the Atacama Giant are believed to be representations of ‘magical rays’ and are believed to have been used by the ancients as an astronomical calendar that helped them predict seasons and rainfall.

Even though many people disagree, there are some who believe that the Atacama Giant is one of the largest and oldest representations of Alien Beings that visited Earth in the distant past. Ancient Alien theorists suggest that the mysterious and anomalous shape of the Atacama Giant is proof of Ancient Extraterrestrial visitations and that the Atacama Giant does not represent an Ancient Shaman, but the beings that came down from heaven in the distant past.

Quote:Located near the town of Boca do Acre in Brazil, countless geoglyphs have surfaced due to the rapid deforestation of the Amazonian jungles. The new discoveries in the Amazon ave forced mainstream scholars to rethink everything they knew about pre-Colombian civilizations.

Due to rapid rates of deforestation, particularly in the Southwestern parts of the Amazon, thousands of previously unknown shapes have been discovered, visible from the air, or satellite images. The mysterious squares, circles, rectangles and interlinking lines are the ultimate evidence of the existence of a previously unknown civilization in the Amazon, one that might have numbered over 100,000 inhabitants during its peak.

Even though the first images indicating the presence of mysterious geoglyphs surfaced during the 1970’s, it wasn’t until 2006, when archeologists started using Google Earth that the number of geoglyphs became apparent. Their true purpose remains a mystery, however, their intricate design and quantity indicates that the ancient culture that created them was extremely advanced, most likely creating them as links between towns.

Visiting Boca do Acre via Google Earth, you will notice hundreds of intricate geometric patterns that according to archeologists, indicate the remains of deep earthworks most likely related to a pre-Columbian civilization that most likely inhabited the region sometime around 1000 AD.

Quote:Located near Blythe, Riverside County in California, USA, there are quite a few examples of huge human like geoglyphs created in the past. Around 22 km from Blythe, there are approximately 60 humanoid figures carved into the surface. The largest of them is a figure of approximately 53 meters in length, researchers believe the mysterious geoglyphs were created by Native American Quechan (Yuma) and Mojave peoples, representing the only collective group of humanoid figures so far discovered on our planet.

The mysterious figures were discovered around 1932 and are believed to have been created around 1000 AD if not older. Just as many other geoglyphs in South America, the Blythe Intaglios were created by the careful removal of darker soil, revealing a lighter substrate located underneath. Researchers believe they represent figures of Yuman Mythology.