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Top ten ancient engineering achievements

TEN ANCIENT ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENTS

The Colosseum 
Where: Rome
Date built: aD 70–80
It took an estimated 100,000 cube mtr
of travertine stone to build the largest amphitheatre in the Roman empire, accommodating 50,000 spectators.


Saksaywaman
Where: Peru
Date built: 15th century Ad
Scientists still don’t know how the Inca transported the massive boulders used to construct this huge walled complex in Cusco.


Aqueduct of Segovia
Where: Spain
Date built: 1st century aD it may have been constructed by the romans 2,000 years ago, but this 167arch masterpiece still carries water from the river Frio to the town of
Segovia today.


Great Pyramid Of Giza
Where: Egypt
Date built: c 2500BC
the tallest man-made structure on earth for 3,800 years, construction of the pyramid of Khufu took 100,000 workmen up to 20 years.


Stonehenge
Where: England
Date built: From c 2500BC
Our prehistoric ancestors may have transported 82 huge stones more than 200km from the Preseli Mountains of west Wales to this giant astrological observatory.


Mohenjo-daro
Where: Pakistan
Date built: 2600bc
this city boasted thousands of mortared brick buildings, a street plan designed to a grid and sewage systems that wouldn’t be matched in many parts of europe until the 20th century.


Great Wall of china
Where: China
Date built: Begun in c 220bc
At nearly 9,000km long – and, at points, rising to almost 1km above sea level – it’s little wonder that the Great Wall of China is arguably the most iconic of all manmade constructions.


Teotihuacan
Where: Mexico
Date built: 100BC–Ad 250
This Aztec metropolis was, for centuries, the largest city in the americas, and home to the third-tallest pyramid in the world, the pyramid of the sun.


Leshan Giant Buddha
Where: China
Date built: Begun in Ad 713
It took thousands of workers more than 90 years to complete this, the largest carved stone buddhist in the world, standing some 71m tall.


Antikythera Mechanism 
Where: Greece
Date built: 2nd century Bc Arguably the most complex device from the ancient world, the Antikythera Mechanism is a mechanical ‘computer’ that tracks the cycles of the solar system.
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