Troy Story: How 5 ancient cities were lost and found again
Richard Bevan reveals the real stories behind the world’s lost cities - how they fell, how they were found, and why their myths continue to fascinate in Sky HISTORY’s Troy Story.
Image: Sky HISTORY's Troy Story explores how the lost city of Troy was found again | Shutterstock.com
The following guest article was authored by Richard Bevan, a screenwriter who has written for television, radio and stage. As a specialist in history, Richard uncovers how these ancient cities were lost to time, only to be rediscovered centuries later.
150 years ago a maverick millionaire German businessman and gentleman archaeologist called Heinrich Schliemann announced to the world the re-discovery of the lost city of Troy. Sky HISTORY’s fascinating program Troy Story explores the legend and myth behind one of history’s greatest cities and helps unpick fantasy from fact.
But how is it possible to lose an entire city anyway? Here are some of the more famous lost cities, how they were lost, and how they were found.
1. Angkor
Between the 9th and 15th century a city of approximately one million people with hundreds of Hindu temples rose from the jungles of the Khmer people in modern day Cambodia. This made Angkor an ancient mega city on par with Ancient Rome at its height, or comparable in size and influence to London in 1800.
Just as its rise was gradual over centuries, Angkor’s decline took place over many decades and from a combination of factors.
Angkor was the capital of a huge empire that was constantly facing invasion from rival powers. These raids culminated in a brutal sacking of the city in 1431. But the civil society that had kept the city’s vast population in thrall had already been eroded by the replacement of Hinduism by Buddhism with all the political, social, and economic turmoil this produced. Finally, climate change during the 14th and 15th century brought erratic floods and droughts. Infrastructure failed, hunger emerged, disease struck, and the population scattered. The jungle relentlessly took over the city in the following centuries.
So how was Angkor’s glory rediscovered? A city is truly only the sum of its people. Without them, it’s just buildings in the mist. Angkor was never truly 'lost' except to European eyes. Local farmers were happy to point out the jungle-shrouded ruins to passing Portuguese, French, and German explorers down the centuries. At the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, those European explorers finally began clearing the jungle and 'discovering' the city. Even now, satellite tech and new ground soundings are 'finding' more to add to the tale.
2. Petra
Founded over 2,700 years ago in what is now modern day Jordan, the red sandstone city of Petra was carved into mountain passes where rainwater accumulated in the arid desert. Never more than 20,000 residents, it served a series of nomadic Arab tribal peoples as an administrative and commercial hub in the lucrative incense trade.
Petra’s importance waned with the emergence of sea trading routes. A final blow happened with the 363 Galilee earthquakes, which destroyed much of the city carved into the mountain passes. Without aqueducts and the water management nurtured for centuries, the city handed itself back to the desert.
The city was first described to Europeans by a Swiss traveller in 1812, but waited a further hundred years before real archeologically excavations were undertaken. Once again, another 'lost' city available to anyone willing to ask a local farmer.
3. Tikal
In Guatemala, South America, the classic stepped pyramids of the Mayan civilisation dominate what remains of Tikal. Population estimates run from 10,000 to over 100,000 but over it’s 500 years of existence, it was likely all these numbers and more.
Tikal’s disappearance into time coincides with the Classic Mayan Collapse between the 7th and 9th century. There are dozens of theories about this period that saw most Mayan city-states decline and sometimes disappear, but it was likely a combination of a number of factors overwhelming the local populous. Climate change, deforestation, disease, rivalry, drought, and poor leadership all likely played a part in Tikal’s abandonment to the rainforest.
By the time the conquistadors passed through the area in 1525, the city was lost to everyone except the local farmers. And with its remote location it wasn’t until 1848 that Europeans, following the rumours of earlier explorers of a lost city of white palaces towering over the jungle, began to map and record the city.
4. Machu Picchu
Between 1420 and 1530 a thriving community of approximately 750 staff and religious retainers, built and maintained a citadel for the Inca Emperor at the top of the world in the Andes mountain range of modern day Peru.
Only settled for a few decades, its disappearance was contemporaneous to the advent of the Spanish conquest of the New World and the resulting spread of Smallpox. Without constant care, the undergrowth soon coated the neat terraces and thick stone walls of the fortress city.
In 1902, a Peruvian explorer, spurred on by stories of the complex, fought through the overgrowth to uncover the stone of the citadel. But it wasn’t until 1911 when an American explorer, looking for the capital of the Neo-Inca state, was taken to the city by a villager, that Machu Picchu was considered 'found'. It would appear that it’s not just local farmers and villagers who don’t count, but anyone not 'Western'.
5. Pompeii
Most lost cities decline and are slowly overtaken by the elements after decades of neglect. Not Pompeii. One day in 79 AD, it went from being a vibrant, noisy, bustling Roman city of about 15,000 residents just outside of modern day Naples Italy, to … nothing. Not a man, woman, or child remained. No building stood. No bird sang. The entire city was buried under 20 feet of pumice and volcanic ash from the eruption of Vesuvius. Those that hadn’t escaped, would find themselves (or their shapes in any case) immortalised in plaster for tourists to contemplate.
In time the volcanic ash became fertile and the land was put into use as farms, and so it would remain until the 16th century when a bit of pre-archaeological excavation took place. But wasn’t until the 18th century and the arrival of the gentlemen archaeologists that Pompeii can truly be judged 'found'. And being gentlemen, much of what was found was hidden from the general public’s view. After-all, if you wouldn’t want your wife or servant to see it, why would you allow it to be seen by the uneducated masses?
Troy Story
Sky HISTORY’s brilliant show Troy Story about the discovery of the lost city of Troy is a timely exploration of the legend and myths not just of Troy but of all lost cities that fire the imagination.
These cities have had 750 or 1 million inhabitants, stood for half a millennium or only decades, and either gradually disappeared or ended abruptly overnight.
But if I was looking for a lost city today, I’d start by asking the farmers about any piles of worked stone they have to plant around, or pop into the local tavern to ask for a guide to areas of interest in the jungle, because 'lost' only means we don’t know anything about it.
