Ancient Tech
Ancient inventions modern engineers still study and cannot always replicate
The Antikythera Mechanism: The 2,000 Year Old Computer Found in a Shipwreck
A corroded lump from a Greek shipwreck turned out to be a geared machine that predicted eclipses. Here is how the Antikythera Mechanism worked.
The Baalbek Trilithon: How Did Anyone Move an 800-Ton Stone?
Three 800-ton blocks form a Roman temple wall in Lebanon, and a nearby quarry hides an even bigger unfinished stone. Here is how movers did it.
Damascus Steel: The Legendary Blade Metal Nobody Has Fully Reproduced
Damascus steel could reportedly split a falling hair and shrug off a blow. The ore that made it is gone, and metallurgy still hasn't fully rebuilt it.
How the Great Pyramid Was Really Built: The Ramps, Labor, and Engineering Behind Giza
No aliens: how paid Egyptian crews quarried, floated, and dragged 2.3 million blocks up ramps to raise the Great Pyramid in about two decades.
Roman Concrete: The Self Healing Seawater Formula That Outlasts Modern Cement
Roman harbors have stood in the surf for two millennia while modern seawalls crumble in decades. A 2023 MIT study finally explained why.
Stonehenge's Impossible Journey: How Neolithic Britain Moved Bluestones 150 Miles
How did Neolithic Britain haul multi-ton bluestones 150 miles from Wales to Stonehenge with no wheels or metal? The quarries, the science, the debate.