Unearthing Ancient Secrets

We are surrounded

by extraordinary feats of engineering,

constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible.

Without engineering, there'd be no modern world.

Gigantic cities, amazing infrastructure,

and ingenious inventions.

Engineering is the key to turn dreams into reality.

To reach these dizzying heights,

today's technology relies on breakthroughs

made by ancient engineers.

It's mind boggling how they did this.

How did early civilizations build on such a scale?

They raised the bar for construction

in a way that no one thought possible.

The sheer engineering ability

that is in itself impressive.

By defying the known laws of physics

and daring to dream big,

they constructed wonders of the world

from gigantic pyramids

to awe inspiring temples and mighty fortresses.

All with the simplest of tools.

Can you imagine the skills people would have needed

to build like this?

Now, it's possible to unearth

the secrets of the first engineers.

They managed to construct edifices

that has survived the ravages of time.

And reveal how their genius laid the foundations

for everything we build today.

Since the planet's very first buildings were created,

pioneering engineers and architects

have been united by a single driving force, religion.

Divine inspiration has led

to groundbreaking construction techniques,

pushing the limits of engineering.

Great temples built to honor the gods

and it continues to this day.

Religion is still an incredibly important part

of the modern world.

Many are minimalist in design

like India's Lotus Temple constructed in under 10 years.

Sheathed in pure white marble,

27 blooming petals cover the structure.

But in the ancient world,

temples were often far more elaborate

built over decades or even centuries.

Nothing really compares with the grandeur

and the splendor of the ancient temples.

It's a building that all

the ancient cultures have in common.

No expense was spared

as engineers sought to create ever greater wonders.

Primitive tools and technology were not enough

to hold back their ambition.

They achieved breathtaking buildings,

each with its own story to tell.

But one stands out from the rest,

hidden deep in the Cambodian jungle,

a temple to eclipse all others,

Angkor Wat.

A 900 year old complex

rising from the flood plain of the Mekong River.

It is one of the largest

religious structures in the world.

A vast monument covering more than 400 acres.

You can't really fail to be impressed by Angkor Wat.

And when you walk through the corridors,

it's an incredible experience.

Stone shrines ascend one upon the other,

as if reaching for the heavens, endless hallways carved

with some of the longest reliefs in the world,

and at its center a magnificent structure

as tall as the Sydney Opera House.

It's a home fit for the gods.

But Angkor Wat is about more than sheer scale.

It's also a masterpiece of craftsmanship,

sculptural decoration, and of course, engineering.

The temple is accurately oriented to the setting sun

and 18 further astronomical alignments

appear to be built into its fabric.

This precision stone masonry not only honoring the gods,

but also imperative for the temple stability.

Constructed in a monsoon plagued swamp land.

This would have been an astonishing challenge

to get this thing built in a way that just didn't sink in.

It was completed in just 30 years.

In comparison, some of the great medieval cathedrals

took over a century to build.

Angkor Wat was constructed on a completely different scale

and still stands many centuries later.

Even today, it's an incredible building.

Many claim the power of the gods

must have inspired such engineering genius

to produce the peak of temple construction.

And Angkor Wat is still shrouded in mystery.

How did an early society with little technology

build these colossal structures?

Today, we have modern building tools and techniques

that really help engineers and designers

push the boundaries of creativity

when designing and building places of worship,

but really nothing compares to those ancient buildings.

And what exactly

was this ancient wonder designed to do?

We have many ideas,

but we're always making best guesses on the basis

of what archeological evidence there is to date.

Was it purely a house of worship

or did it serve another more mysterious function?

To fully understand its secrets and engineering,

we need to look further back

to what could be the very first temple.

A divine design built by a civilization

thought to have no metal tools,

no formal society, or even a written language.

How could such a primitive culture

build a monumental temple to the gods?

In 1963, a survey of Southeastern Turkey

revealed broken slabs of limestone scattered on a hill.

Initially, they were assumed to be the remains

of an abandoned medieval cemetery.

But 30 years later, German archeologist Klaus Schmidt

decided to investigate

the stone littered hilltop for himself.

He immediately tweaked what he was looking at

and he realized that this was an earlier site

and this had to be highly significant.

Buried beneath the surface,

Schmidt unearths something extraordinary, Gobekli Tepe,

gigantic carved stones, crafted and arranged in circles.

Radiocarbon dating produced astonishing results.

The site was around 11,000 years old,

built just after the end of the last ice age.

It coincides with the dates we have

for the very beginning of farming

More than 5,000 years

before the invention of the wheel,

somehow these elusive peoples overcame

immense engineering challenges

to produce giant stone monuments in a sprawling complex,

including T-shaped monoliths

ranging from 7 to 18 feet in height.

This is a massive undertaking

to put together these kinds of shrines.

The size of these stones is extraordinary,

higher than our head height.

They have to be chopped out of the limestone bedrock.

They have to be prized out and then they have to be dragged

to the place of construction.

And there, they have to be carefully carved.

An operation that would have required

hundreds of people

with only simple stone aged tools at their disposal.

We're looking at quite a remarkable

engineering feat to do this.

So was this mysterious place a home

or an ancient holy site?

Clues may lie on the stones themselves.

Many of these stones are carved in intricate detail

including mammal-like creatures,

bird-like creatures, lizard type creatures.

And in the center, there's two large T-shaped stones.

We also see that they have human forms

and we can see their hands and their arms represented.

These carvings may depict the bodies

of stylized people or their mysterious deities.

It's led some experts to believe

this must have been a place of worship.

Archeologists have argued that Gobekli

is some kind of ritual site.

It's highly unlikely that this was a permanent settlement.

It seems early prehistoric communities

thought the best way to keep the gods happy

was to build and decorate monuments in their honor,

but surely lifting these stones

required some kind of engineering technology?

Even today, it would present a challenge,

but it would have been infinitely harder

before the invention of the wheel

and another engineering breakthrough, the pulley.

A mechanism designed to make it easier to move heavy loads,

a pulley can have the force needed in lifting,

effectively doubling the weight a single person can lift.

Add multiple pullies, and the figure keeps on rising.

Onboard a 17th century ship,

a single deck hand could use a pulley system

to haul up a sail weighing several times his own weight.

And in the industrial era,

machines developed ever greater lifting power.

Combined with engines and hydraulics,

the biggest cranes still use the physics of the pulley

to move insanely heavy objects.

Cranes are an incredibly important tool

in modern construction.

There are very few structures that I can think of

that wouldn't require a crane for some reason.

Crane technology has got more and more powerful,

so we can lift higher, faster,

heavier weights than ever before.