The largest and oldest building. The oldest building in the world: where is it located?

How old is architecture? Experts are absolutely sure that the first structures on Earth appeared long before the advent of our era. At the same time, ancient buildings sometimes look simply amazing. The question even arises - who really built the most ancient buildings, fragments of which have survived to this day.

Pyramid of Josser at Saqqara recognized as the most ancient building planets. The building was built by the Egyptians, and it is even known that the ancient architect’s name was Imhotep. The pyramid was built around 2650 BC. This is the first such structure; other Egyptian pyramids arose much later. The height of the building is 62 meters, and the size of the base is 121*109 meters.

Pyramid of Josser at Saqqara

In Europe the oldest is Skara Brae settlement. This is an amazing architectural monument located on the islands of Scotland. The settlement is very well preserved, and allowed scientists to learn the details of the life of ancient people. There are 10 houses that were built around 2500 BC. The ancient dwellings amazed us with their furnishings. Researchers claim that there were covered passages, heating, bathrooms and water supply.

Skara Brae settlement, Scotland

Stonehenge in England- this is not only very ancient building, but also an architectural mystery of all times. The age of the buildings is from 1100 to 3500 BC.

Stonehenge in England

Is a real work ancient architecture. It was built around 1473 BC. The building was created by an incredibly talented architect. The temple is supported by massive columns, its entire appearance is attractive and harmonious.

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt

Famous statue Great Sphinx appeared around 1400 BC. Huge statue 20 meters high and 73 meters long stands on the banks of the Egyptian Nile River. The tombs of the pharaohs are also located here - the Sphinx seems to be guarding their peace.

Great Sphinx statue

IN ancient city Rome preserved Mamertine prison. Its existence dates back to 578 BC. Criminals were kept here, but as it turned out, not all of them were guilty. According to legend, this is where they spent their last days apostles Peter and Paul. The dungeon is located at the base Capitol Hill.

Mamertine Prison, Rome

It is the oldest building in Russia. The years of its construction were from 1475 to 1479. The temple was built by Russian craftsmen under the leadership of the Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti. The building has been well preserved thanks to numerous restorations. Sometimes services are held here today.

Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin

According to experts, architectural structures appeared long before our era. The ancient buildings preserved on our planet are amazing, they amaze the imagination. Let's find out which buildings are the oldest in the world. Structures that have reached us ancient world completely unlike the structures of modern architecture.

Legendary buildings of the ancient world

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Egypt)

Mamertine Prison (Rome)

Pyramid of Josser in Saqara

Great Zimbabwe

The height of the ancient ruins reaches eleven meters. All structures were erected using the dry masonry method - granite slabs are laid in rows. This is surprising, since the standard materials in Africa during that period were wood and clay.

Skara Brae Settlement

The oldest buildings in Russia

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral (Pereyaslavl-Zalessky)

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery (Pskov)

Dormition Princess Monastery

Church of Boris and Gleb (Kideksha village)

Oldest surviving building in the world

The necropolis consists of five megalithic burial mounds dating back to the Neolithic era. As a result of excavations, it turned out that the oldest building of this complex was built in four thousand eight hundred BC. e.

And the most Old city in Russia it is Derbent. The site has a detailed history of them.
Subscribe to our channel in Yandex.Zen

Looking at the well-preserved picturesque ruins, one can only wonder: how people created these masterpieces without having any modern technologies, no machines, no tools. Below is a list of the ten most ancient buildings in the world, the approximate dates of their appearance, which were determined through radiocarbon dating. So…

La Hougue Bie

La Hug Bee - historical monument, located in the parish of Grouville, on the island of Jersey. It is a 20 meter long corridor tomb built around 3500 BC. e.

Sechin Bajo

Sechin Bajo is an ancient stone platform located at the foothills of the Andes, 330 kilometers from the city of Lima, the capital of the Republic of Peru. The find dates back to approximately 3500 BC. BC, was discovered by archaeologists from Germany and Peru in 2008. Is the oldest surviving man-made building ever discovered in the North and South America.

Listoghil is the large central monument at the prehistoric sanctuary of Carrowmore, which is located in County Sligo in the north of Ireland. Dated to around 3500 BC. e.

West Kennet Long Barrow

West Kennet is a Neolithic tomb located 2.5 km east of the megalithic tombs and shrines of Avebury, Wiltshire, England. West Kennet Mound, dating from approximately 3600 BC. BC, was discovered in the seventeenth century by John Aubrey.

Ggantija

Fifth place in the list of the oldest buildings in the world is occupied by Ggantija, a temple complex located on the island of Gozo off the coast of Malta. It consists of two temples surrounded by a wall, the oldest of which, the southern one, dates back to approximately 3600 BC. e.

Knap of Howar

The Knap of Howar is a well-preserved Neolithic structure located on the island of Papa Westray in the Orkney archipelago in northern Scotland. Radiocarbon dating has shown that these are some of the best preserved ancient stone houses in northern Europe. Used around 3700–3100 BC. e.

Wayland's Smithy

Wayland Forge is an ancient Neolithic mound and tomb discovered in 1920. Located next to the Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle in the village of Ashbury, in English county Oxfordshire. The construction dates back to approximately 3590 BC. e.

Mound Saint-Michel (Saint-Michel tumulus)

The Mound of Saint-Michel is the largest ancient burial mound in continental Europe, located a short distance east of the commune of Carnac in the region of Brittany, France. It consists of a mound of earth and stones 125 meters long, 50 meters wide and 10 meters high. According to radiocarbon dating, it was built approximately between 5000 and 3400 BC. BC e. and served as a grave for members of the ruling class.

Bugon Necropolis (Tumulus of Bougon)

Bugon necropolis is a group of five burial mounds located near French city La Mothe-Saint-Eray in the department of Poitou-Charentes. Their discovery in 1840 caused big interest from historians. The oldest structures of this prehistoric site date back to 4800 BC. e.

Barnenez

Barnenes - ancient monument, located near the town of Plouezoc on the Quernelin Peninsula, France. The monument belongs to the Early Neolithic and dates back to 4800 BC. e. Barnenes is considered one of the earliest structures in Europe built from huge blocks of stone, as well as the oldest building in the world. Reaches 72 meters in length, 25 meters in width and 8 m in height.

Share on social media networks

A trip to the most ancient cities on the planet will help you touch the origins of civilization. Visited during summer vacation some of them, you can not only have a good rest, but also learn a lot of interesting information.

1. Maltese megalithic temples, Malta

Maltese temples are the oldest man-made structures on the ground. Scientific research has proven that temples were built a thousand years before construction Egyptian pyramids. Scientists cannot understand how people at that time were able to build such structures without the use of special equipment. After all, many monolithic stone slabs from which temples were built weigh more than fifty tons. There is indirect evidence that the territory of Malta at that time was inhabited by giant people who had no difficulty moving multi-ton monoliths. There is no answer to the question of what kind of civilization existed in this territory, and where the builders of the stone temples went. After all, similar structures have not been discovered anywhere else on Earth. Unfortunately, numerous wars and civil strife that took place on Maltese territory more or less destroyed the ancient buildings, but many of them have survived and are accessible to tourists. UNESCO took prehistoric temples under its protection and included them in the list world heritage. Today they are accessible to tourists.

2. Sardinian Ziggurat, Sardinia

The Sardinian ziggurat was built more than five and a half thousand years ago and was an important religious center. During the Second World War, the ziggurat was thoroughly destroyed, as the defense line passed through this place. But starting in 1954, the Sardinian ziggurat began to be restored and restored. Currently, the prehistoric complex receives numerous groups of tourists from all over the world.

3. Newgrange, Ireland

Newgrange is one of the attractions of Ireland. The oldest building was built between 3100 and 2900 BC. Newgrange is megalithic structure, multi-ton stone slabs were used as building material. The plates were connected to each other without the use of a special solution. The structure has a height of thirteen meters and a diameter of eighty-five meters. Scientists assume that it was used as a calendar, since the structure is strictly oriented to the cardinal points. Perhaps this structure was used to determine the time of sowing and harvesting. Newgrange is located near the River Boyne.

4. Hulbjerg Jættestue, Denmark

The structure was built more than five thousand years ago and was used as a tomb. Scientists archaeologists found the remains of four hundred people in the tomb. The teeth of one of the buried people showed traces of healing. The level of ancient dentistry amazed scientists. Without metal instruments, the doctor managed to place a dental filling of sufficiently high quality.

5. Pyramid of Djoser, Egypt

The oldest one in Egypt was built in 2650 BC. The author of the pyramid, Imhotep, erected it for Pharaoh Djoser as a tomb. The pyramid has a stepped shape, for this reason in the circles of archaeological scientists it is also called the Step Pyramid. The pyramid is very popular among tourists due to its venerable age and unusual shape.

6. Caral, Peru

Karal is a city that existed more than five thousand years ago, it is considered the most ancient urban settlement on American continent. The city arose approximately at the same time as other first world civilizations. Scientists hope to find answers to questions about the emergence of the first civilizations in the city. Currently, seventeen pyramids have been cleared of sand and are accessible to tourists. The reasons for the disappearance of Caral have not yet been established; it is assumed that people left the city in 1600 BC and moved to other more favorable areas of Peru.

7. Treasury of Atreus, Greece

The tomb is located in Mycenae, its estimated age is three thousand two hundred years. The famous archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann made a great contribution to the scientific research of the tomb. During the excavations, it was discovered that all the domed tombs, of which there were nine, had been completely looted, but the earlier tombs, built in the sixteenth century BC, remained intact. Archaeologists discovered the richest burials; the faces of all the people buried in the tomb were covered with masks made of gold. The robes of the buried were also decorated with gold. Scientists have come to the conclusion that the bodies of once reigning dynasties rest in these tombs.

September 12th, 2014

The sensational discovery of a German archaeologist in Anatolia allows us to take a fresh look at the ancient history of human civilization. On a mountainside in southeastern Turkey, not far from the Syrian border, an expedition led by Klaus Schmidt unearthed a magnificent ancient temple, which is 12 thousand years old.

The oldest one found so far places of worship Gobekli Tepe, built in the early Neolithic era, was discovered in the mid-twentieth century. However, scientists became interested in this cultural monument only after massive stone walls and T-shaped columns covered with paintings were found in the 1990s.

It is assumed that total number The number of temples at Göbekli Tepe must have reached 20. Each of the buildings probably marked the ascension of Sirius in the sky at a different time.

The star Sirius first appeared in the earth's sky about 11,300 thousand years ago. In terms of brightness, it ranks fourth right after the Moon, Venus and Jupiter, so it probably made an indelible impression on a person of the early Neolithic era.

Let's study it in more detail...

Photo 2.

Klaus Schmidt, privatdozent at the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, is studying ancient history humanity. When Schmidt began excavations at Gobekli Tepe in 1994, he was sure that these excavations would become the main work of his life. The archaeological complex in this area can be compared to Stonehenge in England, with the only difference being that the ruins in Anatolia are 6 thousand years older.

As a child, Klaus Schmidt haunted caves in his native Germany, hoping to find prehistoric drawings there. Thirty years later, already representing the German Archaeological Institute, he discovered something infinitely more important - a temple complex, almost twice as ancient as all similar structures on the planet.

Photo 3.

“This place is a supernova,” says Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on a windswept hill 55 kilometers north of Turkey's border with Syria. “Already in the first minute after its discovery, I knew that I had two options: either leave here without saying a word to anyone, or spend the rest of my life here, on these excavations.”

Photo 4.

Behind him, the first bends of the Anatolian Plateau open up. Ahead, the Mesopotamian plain stretches hundreds of miles all the way to Baghdad and further south, looking like a sea the color of dust. Directly ahead, hidden behind a hill ledge, are the stone circles of Gobekli Tepe. In those days when people had not yet built permanent dwellings for themselves, did not know how to make a simple clay bowl, and obtained food by hunting and gathering, the inhabitants of South-Eastern Anatolia erected a monumental sanctuary for their gods.

Photo 5.

Compared to Stonehenge - the most famous prehistoric monument in Great Britain - they are not striking in their grandeur of scale. None of the excavated round structures (and there are only a few of them) this moment there are four out of twenty) does not exceed 30 meters in diameter. What makes these finds completely unique are the carvings of boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions on them, as well as the age of the finds themselves. They were created 9.5 thousand years BC. They are 5.5 thousand years old older than the first cities of Mesopotamia and 7 thousand years ago - Stonehenge.

Photo 6.

In Gobekli Tepe, archaeologists discovered a gigantic complex of round buildings and stone pillars with carved reliefs on a hill. Currently, only a small part of the buildings has been excavated, but if you take into account the age of the ruins, it immediately becomes clear that this is a unique archaeological site.

Photo 7.

The ancient ruins of Nevali Keri, which have been located at the bottom of the Ataturk reservoir since 1992, are almost as old as Gobekli Tepe, their age is 10,500 years. But the pillars there are much smaller, and the decoration is more modest. Jericho can compete with the temples of Gobekli Tepe in age, but there are no large sculptures there, no architectural decorations. All other ancient archaeological sites belong to a different era - they arose about 2 thousand years later. The people who created these rounded monuments and stone bas-reliefs, this entire complex, did not even have pottery and did not grow cereal crops. They lived in settlements. But they were hunters, not farmers.

Photo 8.

Judging by the age of the Gobekli Tepe complex, it was in this area that hunters and gatherers switched to a sedentary lifestyle. In Gobekli Tepe, what is most striking is the intellectual abilities of the Stone Age people, their hard work and knowledge of construction. But until now, scientists were confident that the implementation of such gigantic projects as the construction of a temple presupposes a sedentary lifestyle and a high degree of organization.

“It has always been assumed that only complex societies with hierarchical structures could build such monumental structures, and that they only appeared with the advent of agriculture,” says Stanford University anthropology professor Ian Hodder, who has led the excavations since 1993. in Çatalhöyük, the most famous Neolithic settlement in Turkey. – Gobekli changed all ideas. This is a complex structure and dates back to the era before the birth of agriculture. This fact alone places it among the most important archaeological finds over a very long period of time.”

Photo 9.

Place archaeological excavations in Gobekli Tepe was first surveyed in 1963. However, then archaeologists underestimated its importance, and for a long time they did not work there at all. On the hill, in the thickness of which the temple complex is located, there was a field of oats. The peasants continually removed the bulky stones that were in their way from the fields, so the upper part of the temple was destroyed before scientists could examine it.

Based on the excavated areas, we can conclude that people stayed here for a very long time. Near the round building of the sanctuary, several smaller buildings were found, in which, apparently, some kind of ritual meetings took place. But in all these buildings there is not the slightest sign of human habitation.

Excavations have been ongoing for ten years. As a result, only a small part has been cleared so far, but the purpose of Gobekli Tepe for the people who built it remains unclear. Some believe that this place was intended for fertility rituals, and the two tall stones in the center of each circle symbolize a man and a woman.

Photo 10.

But Schmidt is skeptical about the fertility theory. He shares the opinion that Gobekli Tepe could be “the last flowering of a semi-nomadic society, which was about to be destroyed by the advancing era of agriculture.” He points out that if the site remains in near-perfect condition today, it is only because its builders soon buried their creation under tons of earth, as if their wildlife-rich world had lost all its meaning.

“From my point of view, the people who carved them were asking the greatest questions of all,” the scientist continues. – What is the universe? Why are we here? But the fertility symbols that have been found at other Neolithic sites are missing here, and the T-shaped pillars, while clearly semi-human, are asexual. “I think here we are faced with the earliest images of gods,” says Schmidt, stroking one of the largest blocks with his hand. “They have no eyes, no mouths, no faces. But they have arms and they have palms. These are the creators."

Photo 11.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Gobekli Tepe is its last days. The buildings were undoubtedly filled up, and this is what explains their good preservation. All the ancient religious buildings were simply abandoned, abandoned, but the temple on the Anatolian hill was literally buried in the ground. A massive building with monolithic giant pillars covered with magnificent reliefs was covered to the top with stones and soil, so that it literally disappeared underground.

Photo 12.

Although archaeologists liberated only part of Gobekli Tepe from under the embankment, it is already possible to appreciate the extraordinary big sizes sanctuaries It consists of four different temples, surrounded by a low stone fence. Particularly interesting are the T-shaped monoliths with partially preserved reliefs. They depict birds, gazelles, and bulls very naturalistically. Next to the image of a donkey and a snake, you can make out the head of a fox. There are even spiders and a three-dimensional wild boar with a frowning, blunt muzzle.

What the builders of the temple attached great importance the animal world is not surprising in itself. But they depicted wild animals, and this confirms the assumption that the creators of the sanctuary were not settled farmers. Another interesting thing is that in the vicinity of Gobekli Tepe there are all kinds of wild cereals, which were later cultivated as grain crops.

Photo 13.

Perhaps Gobekli Tepe is the missing link in the chain - the connecting element between primitive nomadic hunter-gatherers and sedentary farmers. Production of monolithic stone pillars working with reliefs requires certain professional skills - this requires stonemasons. This means that other people supplied artisan stonemasons with everything necessary for life, that is, they had a society based on the division of labor.

Photo 14.

There are pictograms on some of the pillars. Some archaeologists have suggested that these icons may have influenced sign systems that emerged at a later time, but it is difficult to see whether there is a connection between them. Hieroglyphs were not common in neighboring Mesopotamia, but in Ancient Egypt, that is, far from Gobekli Tepe. In addition, the time interval between Ancient Egypt and the Gobekli Tepe culture is very large.

Photo 15.

The end of the Gobekli Tepe sanctuary occurred at the beginning of the 8th millennium BC. At this time, agriculture spread to neighboring Mesopotamia. The soil in the vicinity of Gobekli Tepe is poor, perhaps for this reason the sanctuary lost its significance. The most important centers formed much further south, on fertile plains and river valleys. At least this may partly explain why people abandoned the temple where their ancestors had worshiped the gods for hundreds of years. They covered the sanctuary with stones and left there forever.

The lessons of Gobekli Tepe encourage us to reconsider the idea of ​​the so-called Neolithic revolution. Until now, historians thought that the transition of nomadic tribes to a sedentary way of life created the preconditions for the construction of large urban centers and huge temples. But the experience of Gobekli Tepe proves that, in all likelihood, it was just the opposite: the very existence of a grandiose sanctuary, where the main rituals took place, encouraged people not to move away from it, but to stay close to the holy place and arrange permanent homes for themselves. This means that first there was a temple, and then a house, a village and a city.

Photo 16.

The mystery of Gobekli Tepe is no less amazing than the secrets of the pyramids, but much older. Scientists can only assume that it was a ritual structure, but it is not known for certain what made the ancient people get together and build such a truly colossal structure.

Among researchers and enthusiasts, a variety of assumptions are emerging: from the mundane to the incredible. Some believe that Gobekli Tepe was not a temple, but only a place where people lived, while others put forward ideas about intervention alien races into the history of the Earth and the construction of this complex by aliens. There are opinions that Gobekli Tepe was the Garden of Eden or a prototype of Noah's Ark.

RUSSIAN HISTORIAN GENNADY KLIMOV BELIEVES, that Gobekli Tepe and similar buildings on Russian territory were built by the same race. He confirms his theory by the fact that in the 9th millennium BC. There was no Black Sea yet and the path from the Russian periglacial steppes to these regions was clear.

We are accustomed to the idea that agriculture appeared first, and then settlements, but Gobekli Tepe globally changes our understanding of ancient people in this matter. Scientists have found that to build such a monumental structure, it was necessary to gather at least 500 people at the same time. That is, all these people lived together.

Photo 17.

Scientists suggest that it was the construction of this temple that played an important role in the process of transition to agriculture, and therefore to the emergence of civilization as we are familiar with it. As soon as the ancient people gathered together and began to live in one place, it became difficult to feed so many workers and pilgrims. And perhaps this is what prompted them to domesticate wild plants and animals.

All conclusions regarding the Gobekli Tepe temple complex are preliminary, since excavations are being carried out only on 5% of its territory. Archaeologists believe that research will continue for about 50 years. The dating of the studied part dates the end of layer III to the 9th millennium BC. e., and its beginning - by the 11th millennium BC. e. or earlier. Layer II dates back to the 8th-9th millennia BC. e.

Photo 18.

Since the complex appeared before the Neolithic revolution, the origin is in this region agriculture and cattle breeding should apparently be attributed to the era after the 9th millennium BC. e. At the same time, the construction is so grandiose building required effort large quantity people and certain social organization. This is not typical for the Mesolithic. According to rough estimates, the production and delivery of columns weighing 10-20 tons from the quarry to the building, which are separated by up to 500 m, in the absence of draft animals, required the efforts of up to 500 people.

In fact, some columns weigh up to 50 tons, so even more people were needed. It is even suggested that slave labor was used in such work, which is also uncharacteristic of hunter-gatherer communities. Such work required systematic effort and a social hierarchy in which many people were subordinate to a single religious or military leader, and the religious leader then had to supervise the rituals. In this case, the very existence of the temple complex so far ago historical era indicates social stratification at a very early stage in the development of Neolithic culture.