10 ancient structures so strange you’d swear aliens built them
Human history is full of ideas and creations that feel almost too advanced for their time. Buildings and structures too. We’re talking about giant stones carved with impossible precision, buildings aligned with the stars, and monuments so mysterious and scientifically significant that they make modern engineers, architects and astrophysicists scratch their heads red raw. Archaeologists keep coming up with theories as to how these things were made, but somehow they never feel quite enough. So, inevitably, over time, some folk have reached for more extraordinary explanations. If (and we emphasise the word ‘if’ here) – say – aliens were ever dabbling in ancient architecture… Well, these ten might just be their ever greatest hits… (Pictures: Getty Images/Metro)
The Kailasa Temple, India
This really rather spectacular Hindu temple at Ellora in India was carved in the 8th century from a single solid mountain of volcanic rock. Workers removed an estimated – get this – 200,000 tonnes of stone from the top down, creating a freestanding structure jam-packed with sculptures, columns and shrines. It’s so precise it looks like it was assembled piece by piece by a very patient God (Picture: Getty Images)
The Kailasa Temple, India
No one knows how long it took to create this eyebrow-raising temple. Or what tools those that created the thing used. But even with modern machinery, it’d be a real challenge. The legend says it was built overnight by divine command. With a little help from some grey fellas…? Probably not, but we’re open minded, aren’t we? (Picture: Getty Images)
The Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt
Built around 2560 BCE, the beyond Iconic Great Pyramid of Giza once gleamed with polished white limestone and stood as the tallest structure on Earth for nearly 4,000 years. Each side aligns almost perfectly with true north, and the specificity of its 2.3 million blocks is genuinely mind blowing. Some stones weigh over 70 tonnes, yet the joints are tighter than modern brickwork (Picture: Getty Images)
The Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt
Plenty have tried, but no one can quite explain how Bronze Age builders managed to create the pyramids so incredibly well with copper chisels and wooden sleds. Which is where the rumours about how maybe they didn’t started. Maybe someone gave them a few pointers on load distribution and cosmic geometry before vanishing off into the desert night inside a silver disc. Just a thought (Picture: Getty Images)
Puma Punku, Bolivia
Part of the ancient Tiwanaku complex, Puma Punku is an enormous puzzle made of stone. Gigantic blocks lie scattered across the site, each cut with sharp right angles and smooth holes that look like machine work. Some weigh over 100 tonnes, yet they were fitted together with astonishing precision considering it dates all the way back to 500 CE (Picture: Getty Images)
Puma Punku, Bolivia
No one knows exactly how these enormous slabs were carved or who it was that moved them. A feat made all the trickier given that they sit some 12,000 feet above sea level. The craftsmanship looks industrial, not ancient. Are we looking at clever ancient skill here? Or the handiwork of some kind of intergalactic building firm? Yeah, it’s the first one, isn’t one? Still, an extra-terrestrial building site is still a rather pleasing concept (Picture: Getty Images)
Stonehenge, England
Those massive standing stones on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, have long baffled everyone from druids to data scientists. Built around 2500 BCE, the bluestones were somehow hauled all the way east from quarries in Wales, more than 150 miles away, long before wheels or cranes were things. Its layout lines up precisely with the midsummer sunrise and winter solstice too. And that’s by no means a coincidence (Picture: Getty Images)
Stonehenge, England
For a bunch of Neolithic farmers and proto-stonemasons, it’s an impressively large, precise and specifically-sourced cosmic calendar to create. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t. Or that a friendly 4ft green surveyor with huge black eyes popped by with a protractor and some teleporting tractor beams, of course. But you can’t argue that Stonehenge isn’t something of a puzzler (Picture: Getty Images)
Machu Picchu, Peru
Perched high up in the awe-inspiring Andes mountains, this Inca citadel seems to grow out of the mountain itself. Built back in the 15th century, its stones slot together so neatly you couldn’t fit a sheet of paper between them. The terraces, temples and stairways are genuinely earthquake-proof and perfectly aligned to the sun’s movement (Picture: Getty Images)
Machu Picchu, Peru
It’s hard for some folk to believe that ropes, ramps and sheer willpower produced something so elegant and exact. Well, that and a lot of manpower. Or could it be alienpower? Only if aliens ever built a luxury getaway with panoramic views, it’s tempting to imagine that it’d end up looking a fair bit like this (Picture: Getty Images)
The Moai of Easter Island, Chile
Hundreds of huge stone figures stare silently across a remote Pacific island, some standing over 30 feet tall. Carved between 1250 and 1500 CE, each ‘Moai’ represents an ancestor, yet the real mystery lies in how they were transported. The island had few trees, no wheels and very little manpower (Picture: Getty Images)
The Moai of Easter Island, Chile
Local legend claims that the statues walked into place through spiritual energy. Others wonder if they were gently levitated by visitors with advanced lifting gear. The truth is no doubt more humble, but no less impressive; it’s an incredible feat for an isolated community in the middle of nowhere (Picture: Getty Images)
Sacsayhuamán, Peru
Overlooking Cusco in Peru, this impressive and complex fortress of colossal interlocking stones is a masterpiece of Incan engineering. Some blocks – incredibly – weigh more than 300 tonnes, shaped into intricate polygons that fit together without a drop of mortar. The walls have survived centuries of earthquakes without shifting an inch. If only all modern construction adhered to such standards, eh? (Picture: Getty Images)
Sacsayhuamán, Peru
How those responsible for the building of Sacsayhuamán managed such accuracy with simple hand tools is anyone’s guess. Unless, of course, they had access to some otherworldly stone-cutting technology. A bit of anti-gravity would certainly have helped in lieu of cement (Picture: Getty Images)
Göbekli Tepe, Turkey
Hidden beneath the mountain foothills of southeastern Türkiye, this site turned archaeology on its head. Dating back to around 9600 BCE, it’s more than twice as old as Stonehenge. Its towering T-shaped pillars are carved with foxes, snakes and vultures, all arranged in mysterious circles. It’s quite remarkable. Considering its age, it’s beyond amazing (Picture: Getty Images)
Göbekli Tepe, Turkey
Put simply – this thing just shouldn’t exist. Humans weren’t supposed to build anything this complex before farming or writing. So who drew up the plans? Maybe early hunter-gatherers weren’t alone when inspiration struck. Then again maybe they had subcontractors up in the skies above to call upon for assistance and knowledge (Picture: Getty Images)
The Yonaguni Monument, Japan
We’re going underwater for our penultimate pick here. Discovered by a diver in only 1986, this vast underwater structure near Okinawa features stepped terraces, columns and straight-edged platforms. Some say it’s a natural rock formation shaped by tectonic forces. Others insist it’s a sunken city that predates all known civilisation. What everyone can agree on is that it’s a real headscratcher and no one really knows all that much about what it is or how it got there (Picture: Getty Images)
The Yonaguni Monument, Japan
If this thing is man-made, it’s at least 10,000 years old, which would pretty much rewrite history for that part of the world. If it’s natural, it’s the most conveniently geometric accident ever formed. Either way, The Yonaguni Monument wouldn’t look out of place on another planet. And – who knows? – maybe there’s a good reason for that (Picture: Getty Images)
Teotihuacán, Mexico
Once one of the largest cities on Earth, Teotihuacán flourished and bustled more than 1,500 years ago, long before the Aztecs arrived. Its vast Avenue of the Dead is lined with pyramids that align perfectly with celestial patterns and the cardinal directions. Not unlike the similarly be-pyramided Valley of the Dead over in Ancient Egypt (Picture: Getty Images)
Teotihuacán, Mexico
No one knows who built it, or why the city was abandoned. The design is so mathematical that some think its creators had to be working from some kind of a cosmic map. Maybe those on the ground weren’t just looking up at the stars, but working from original blueprints gifted to them from another galaxy. Or maybe they were just good at building pyramids back then (Picture: Getty Images)
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