Anyextee | Ancient Egypt

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A stone at the top of Machu Picchu is tilted about 13 degrees. The city sits at about 13 degrees south. It's the Intihuatana, the hitching post of the sun, carved from bedrock. On the equinox, twice a year, the sun passes nearly straight overhead and the stone casts almost no shadow. The standard account says the city was used for about 80 years. But precision like this doesn't come from 80 years. It comes from generations of sky-watching. Some call it an observatory, others a sacred sunstone. Indigenous traditions hold a third view: the deepest knowledge comes from inner experience. A calendar in stone or a coincidence? I lean calendar. Tell me which way you lean.

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Egypt's legendary lost labyrinth is finally being excavated, and I went down into the trench. It sits at Hawara, beside an ancient pharaoh's pyramid. The Greek historian Herodotus described 3,000 rooms, 1,500 above ground and 1,500 below. For centuries people hauled its stones away, so most assumed nothing was left. This season the team dug 4 meters down and reached the temple's foundation. I asked the lead archaeologist if Flinders Petrie, who dug here before him, got this far. He said, this is the first time we are seeing it since it was buried. Most of Egypt's major discoveries were dug up over a century ago. This one is happening right now. Follow for the dirt. What do you hope they find down there?

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Göbekli Tepe in south eastern Turkey is older than writing by at least 6,000 years. It's nearly 12,000 years old. I stood among its giant T-shaped stone pillars, each weighing tons, set into the bedrock. They were built during a time of no farms, no villages, and before pottery. The stone is carved with foxes, vultures, scorpions and snakes. But there's no writing to tell us what it means. It's like trying to decode a religion without the scripture. Just the stained glass windows. It is one of several Tas Tepeler sites, and only a fraction of Göbekli Tepe has been dug up so far. What do you see in the vulture stone?