Western Baray. Ten amazing evidence of high technology of antiquity (26 photos). Al Naslaa Stone in Saudi Arabia

Skeptics say that in the past there were no civilizations with advanced technologies and incredible structures. They try to explain every strange artifact or trace of the past from their point of view - they say, this was made by hand, and this is a natural formation.

However, there is such convincing evidence of the presence of time immemorial developed civilizations, that even the most convinced skeptics and rational scientists cannot refute them.

This archaeological site called Sahasralinga is located on the Shalmala River in the Indian state of Karnataka. When summer comes and the water level in the river drops, hundreds of pilgrims come here.

It got its name thanks to the numerous (sahasra = thousands) “Lingas” - stone carvings of the most varied shapes and sizes, carved on stones.

When the river level drops, various mysterious stone figures carved in time immemorial are exposed from under the water. For example, this is an amazing education. Will you claim that it is made by hand?

2. Barabar Caves

Barabar is the general name for a group of caves located in the Indian state of Bihar, near the city of Gaya. Officially, they were created in the 3rd century BC, again, from the point of view of historians, by hand. Whether this is so, judge for yourself.

In our opinion, making such a structure from hard stone - with high ceilings, with such smooth walls, with seams that a razor blade cannot penetrate - is very difficult these days.

3. Southern Stone Baalbek

Baalbek – ancient city, located in Lebanon. It has many different attractions. But what surprises most of all is the Temple of Jupiter with multi-ton marble columns and the Southern Stone - an evenly hewn block weighing 1,500 tons.

Who and how could have made such a monolith in time immemorial and for what purposes - science does not know the answers to this question.

4. Baray Reservoir

Western Baray is an artificially created reservoir in Angkor (Cambodia). The dimensions of the reservoir are 8 km by 2.1 km, and the depth is 5 meters. It was created in time immemorial. The accuracy of the boundaries of the reservoir and the enormity of the work performed are striking - it is believed that it was built by the ancient Khmers.

Nearby are no less amazing temple complexes– Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, the layout of which is striking in its precision. Modern scientists cannot explain what technologies the builders of the past used.

Here is what Y. Iwasaki, director of the Geological Research Institute in Osaka, Japan, writes:

“Starting from 1906, a group of French restorers worked in Angkor. In the 50s French specialists tried to lift the stones back up the steep embankment. But since the angle of the steep embankment is 40º, after the first 5 m high step was built, the embankment collapsed. Eventually the French abandoned the idea of following historical techniques and installed a concrete wall inside the pyramid to preserve the earthworks. Today we do not know how the ancient Khmers could build such high and steep embankments.”

5. Coombe-Mayo Aqueduct

Cumbe Mayo is located near the Peruvian city of Cajamarca at an altitude of about 3.3 km above sea level. There are leftovers here ancient aqueduct, which was clearly not made by hand. It is known that it was built even before the advent of the Inca Empire.

Interestingly, the name Cumbe Mayo comes from the Quechua expression kumpi mayu, which means “well-made water channel.” It is unknown what kind of civilization created it, but it is believed to have happened around 1500 AD.

The Coombe Mayo Aqueduct is considered one of the most ancient structures in South America.

Its length is about 10 kilometers. Moreover, if there were rocks along the ancient path for water, then unknown builders cut a tunnel right through them. Check out the incredible photos and videos of this structure below.

6. Peruvian cities of Sacsayhuaman and Ollantaytambo

Sacsayhuaman and Ollantaytambo are the remains of ancient structures in the region of Cusco (Peru), in the territory of a huge archaeological park. The area of this park is 5000 square meters, but most of it was buried under an avalanche many years ago.

It is believed that these cities were built by the Incas using the most primitive tools. However, the huge stones of the fortress, tightly fitted to each other, as well as the even traces of cutting stones in both ancient cities, are surprising. The Incas themselves were amazed at the grandeur of these buildings.

The Peruvian Inca historian Garcilaso de la Vega wrote about the Sacsayhuaman fortress: “It amazes with the size of the stone blocks of which it consists; anyone who has not seen this himself will not believe that something can be built from such stones; they inspire horror in those who look at them carefully.”

Look for yourself at its remains and at the blocks from Ollantaytambo and see for yourself that creating something like this by hand, without help high technology, is simply impossible.

7. Moonstone in Peru

Here, in the Cusco region, in the same archaeological park, there is a curious attraction - a stone called Killarumiyoc. This is a Quechua word that literally means "Moonstone". It is believed that this is a sacred place.

People come here for rituals, meditation and cleansing of the soul. Pay attention to its unusual, perfectly symmetrical shape and the incredible quality of finishing.

8. Al Naslaa Stone in Saudi Arabia

This famous cut stone called Al Naslaa is located in the Tabuk province in Saudi Arabia. A perfectly straight cutting line surprises all researchers - the surfaces on both sides are perfectly smooth.

Who exactly cut this stone and how remains a mystery. Scientists are sure that nature did its best here - they say, this is a perfectly straight line - this is a consequence of weathering. But this version seems untenable - there are no similar formations in nature.

9. Ishi-no-Hoden Stone

Near the Japanese city of Takasago there is the famous huge megalith Ishi-no-Hoden. Its weight is about 600 tons. It is known that it was created before our era. The stone is a local landmark - and looking at its photographs and ancient drawings, you understand why it is so popular.

10. Pyramid of Mikerin

The Pyramid of Mykerinus (or Menkaure) is located in Giza and is one of the Great Pyramids. Moreover, it is the lowest among them - only 66 m in height (twice smaller than a pyramid Cheops). But she strikes the imagination no less than her famous neighbors.

Huge monolithic blocks were used to build the pyramid; one of them weighed about 200 tons. It still remains a mystery how it was delivered to the construction site. The quality of finishing of the blocks outside and inside the pyramid, as well as the carefully crafted tunnels and internal chambers, is also surprising.

A mysterious basalt sarcophagus was discovered in this pyramid in the 19th century, which it was decided to send to England. But on the way, the ship encountered a storm and sank off the coast of Spain.

However, this is still not a complete list of amazing sights, looking at which you want to rewrite the history books. And we will definitely talk about them in other publications on this topic.

Man-made "reservoir".

A baray is a man-made reservoir surrounded by dams, the practicality of which was combined with redemptive symbolism: the distribution of water by the monarch guaranteed the continuation of life on Khmer land and confirmed the very divine essence of the ruler, who was identified with Indra.

During the decline of the Khmer Empire, the institution of the monarchy perished, and with it the system it organized, part of the work of which was to support the barai. The barais stopped being cleaned, they became swamped, the water became unfit for drinking, and due to the lack of a channel, malarial mosquitoes began to breed in the waters of the barais.

The barai has a sacred meaning: if the entire temple complex is a model of the Universe in the center with Mount Meru, then the reservoirs surrounding the temple (barai) are the personification of the universal Ocean. At the same time, they had a direct irrigation purpose.

Baray Indratataka is one of the first examples of Khmer hydraulic structures.

The largest barays are located near Angkor - East and West Baray. They have rectangular shapes measuring 8x2.4 and 7.5x1.8 kilometers, respectively. The Eastern Baray was supposedly 3 meters deep and held 37.2 million cubic meters of water.

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Excerpt characterizing Barai

Silence continued for several seconds while the young man positioned himself on the step. Only in the back rows of people squeezing into one place were groans, groans, tremors and the tramp of moving feet heard.
Rastopchin, waiting for him to stop at the indicated place, frowned and rubbed his face with his hand.
- Guys! - said Rastopchin in a metallic ringing voice, - this man, Vereshchagin, is the same scoundrel from whom Moscow perished.
A young man in a fox sheepskin coat stood in a submissive pose, clasping his hands together in front of his stomach and bending slightly. His emaciated, hopeless expression, disfigured by his shaved head, was downcast. At the first words of the count, he slowly raised his head and looked down at the count, as if wanting to tell him something or at least meet his gaze. But Rastopchin did not look at him. On the young man’s long thin neck, like a rope, the vein behind the ear became tense and turned blue, and suddenly his face turned red.
All eyes were fixed on him. He looked at the crowd, and, as if encouraged by the expression that he read on the faces of the people, he smiled sadly and timidly and, again lowering his head, adjusted his feet on the step.
“He betrayed his tsar and his fatherland, he handed himself over to Bonaparte, he alone of all Russians disgraced the name of the Russian, and Moscow is perishing from him,” said Rastopchin in an even, sharp voice; but suddenly he quickly looked down at Vereshchagin, who continued to stand in the same submissive pose. As if this look had exploded him, he, raising his hand, almost shouted, turning to the people: “Deal with him with your judgment!” I'm giving it to you!

Nearby are no less amazing temple complexes - Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. Pay attention to the precision of the layout of these complexes.

The temples of Angkor are amazing, such as the Baphuon Temple.

But these are not the only mysteries of Angkor. Here is what Y. Iwasaki, director of the Geological Research Institute in Osaka, Japan, writes:

"Starting in 1906, a group of French restorers worked at Angkor, who, while working in Borobudur (Indonesia), had the opportunity to develop a new method of conservation. This method, called anastolosis, consisted of an attempt to use historical building materials during reconstruction using original technologies. This method was successfully used in the 30s. XX century.

During the restoration of Bafhuon the same principle was to be applied. In the 50s French specialists tried to lift the stones back up the steep embankment. But since the angle of the steep embankment is 40º, after the first 5 m high step was built, the embankment collapsed. A second attempt was made, but with the same result. Eventually the French abandoned the idea of following historical techniques and installed a concrete wall inside the pyramid to preserve the earthworks. Today we do not know how the ancient Khmers could build such high and steep embankments."

Sra Srang, the largest body of water in Angkor, makes a strong impression not only at dawn, when the sun colors its waters and stones in crimson tones. In the light of day, the artificial lake, seemingly huge, forces the inquisitive mind to look for answers to many questions regarding the art of the chosen ones, brought to the highest degree of perfection. Such an ode to irrigation may seem too pompous, but the efforts of numerous research groups, working for many years to study the phenomenon of the irrigation system of the Khmer Empire, have not yet led to solving the main mystery. Today, no one can confidently answer how and why this system worked without pumps and lifting devices, sensors and actuators, computer software and local networks. Just a few minutes' drive along excellent new road towards the Siem Reap airport they will lead to where, despite centuries, destruction and disasters, part of it continues to serve the descendants of the brilliant builders a thousand years after its creation.

Even at the very end of the dry season, when the water moves away from the dam several tens of meters, the view of this man-made sea is stunning. Its ramparts are up to 100 meters wide at the base, and their height rises in the west to 20 meters. Now the reservoir is barely two-thirds full, but even this volume of water is difficult to comprehend. Surrounded by green forests, Western Baray stretches from horizon to horizon. In its center, a little to the right observation deck the main gateway, West Mebon sways in the waves, Bakheng Hill rises to the right, and further, to the east, one can see through the haze of Phnom Bok and a dark strip of forest on the slopes of the Kulen Mountains.

The current depth of the reservoir allows the accumulation of up to 80 million cubic meters of moisture. At the beginning of the 11th century, this figure, apparently, could have been almost twice as much. For many years it was filled only with rain, but after the construction of a dam in the area of the Ta Nei temple, some of the water from the Siem Reap River began to flow here again. Some researchers believe that baray was navigable. Up the Siem Reap River, which was incomparably fuller at that time, ships and barges from the Tonle Sap and even sea vessels from the Mekong Delta came here through a system of canals. Just eight hundred meters from the western gate of Angkor Wat were sea gate empires. These assumptions are still awaiting researchers, but the use of Western Baray as naval base seaplanes is an indisputable fact, since it was from here that Viktor Viktorovich Golubev flew over the Angkor region. Over the course of several months in 1932, he took aerial photographs of the territory of the archaeological park, which made it possible to confirm a number of brilliant hypotheses of the Russian scientist.

Judging by the ruins of the West Mebon Temple, which marks the exact geometric center of the reservoir, its construction should have been completed no later than the first quarter of the 11th century. Baray entered into existing irrigation system and replaced the ditches surrounding Yashodharapura on the eastern border. The traces of canals and land roads, the remains of buildings found near the Western Baray dam, structural elements, fragments of tiles, ceramics and copper products, examined from Golubev’s photographs, led to the conclusion that this region was densely populated even before the construction of the reservoir. This is confirmed by the texts of an accidentally discovered stele dating back to 713. According to the epigraphic inscription, Queen Jayadevi, the widow of King Jayavarman I, established the boundaries of the rice plots here that she granted to her subjects.

The ruins of the Ak Yom Temple suggest that at least one of the important sanctuaries sank under water or was buried under the thickness of the outer ramparts of Western Baray. The Sdok Kak Thoma stele, which tells the story of a family of clerics in the service of the Khmer kings from 802 to 1052, reports that Jayavarman II, between the construction of Hariharalaya and Mahendraparvata:

"...founded the city of Amarendrapur and its priest settled there to serve the king."

Georges Quedes suggested that Ak Yom, during the study of which the remains of a fence and buildings in the pre-Angkorian style were found, was the central temple of Amarendrapura. For its speedy construction, materials from even more ancient buildings were reused.

Today, Western Baray, in addition to its enduring role as a major hydraulic structure and historical monument, is also favorite place recreation local population. The magnificent sandy bottom, gently sloping shore, and clear water attract hundreds of Khmer families here. It's noisy and fun here most of the year.

It makes sense to combine an excursion here with a visit to the Ak Yom Temple, a boat or land trip to the West Mebon Temple, as well as a stunning interesting trip to a silkworm farm.