1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,840 Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Gibson, joined today as always by trustee 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:21,840 Speaker 1: staff writer Josh Curious like a cat Clark. Okay, how 5 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,959 Speaker 1: are you your favorite moniker? You know, Candice, I was 6 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:28,160 Speaker 1: just just under one year old the first time the 7 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: world almost ended. You want to hear about that. Sure, 8 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:34,680 Speaker 1: So this guy named Marcus Garvey, who was a Jamaican 9 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:39,640 Speaker 1: civil rights leader, entrepreneur and all this, who eventually became 10 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:44,879 Speaker 1: a basically a prophet to Rastafarians, UH famously predicted that 11 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: when two sevens clash, chaos is going to ensue, right, 12 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: So everybody's kind of thinking about this, listening to reggae 13 00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: hanging out right, And July seven, nineteen seventy seven, rolls around, 14 00:00:56,840 --> 00:01:00,280 Speaker 1: and everybody in Jamaica for freaks. Well hold the phone short, 15 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:02,800 Speaker 1: two sets of seven it is, which is why they 16 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,600 Speaker 1: were really really freaked. Yeah, it could have happened anytime 17 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,240 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy seven, I think most people thought. But 18 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:12,280 Speaker 1: when July seventh rolled around, it was like, Yeah, Kingston 19 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:14,279 Speaker 1: literally shut down. No one was out in the street. 20 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:17,399 Speaker 1: Everybody was just kind of hanging back, letting the day pass. 21 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 1: See what happened. Um, nothing did happen, And even if 22 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:23,880 Speaker 1: it had, I wouldn't have been aware because, like I said, 23 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: I was under one. But the next time some sevens 24 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:29,600 Speaker 1: rolled around, I was much more aware, and that wasn't 25 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:33,559 Speaker 1: much happier. Definitely was. But then people thought seven seven 26 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:35,960 Speaker 1: O seven was was a really lucky number. Well, yeah, 27 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:38,320 Speaker 1: it's like it's like hitting the jackpot as far as 28 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: dates go. So how do we celebrate. Well, I'll tell you. 29 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: Even Mongoria and Tony Parker got married and they're the 30 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:47,560 Speaker 1: best reception. It was wonderful. I did. I did? That 31 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: was me and then then I still cha Anyway, Uh, 32 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: something else really monumental happened and that was that. The 33 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:57,840 Speaker 1: New Seven Wonders Foundation announced the new seven Wonders of 34 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: the World. Yeah, which which are pretty good. Um. I 35 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 1: don't know if news the best word for him. I 36 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: know that's not yours, but the the the wonders of 37 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 1: the world that are on this list are actually pretty old, 38 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: like Machu Picchu in Peru, Statue of Christ Redeemer in Brazil. Yeah, 39 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: the one over Rio saying hey, hey, I'm looking out 40 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:19,960 Speaker 1: for you guys, check me out. I'm up here. Um 41 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,120 Speaker 1: cheetz Asa in Mexico. There you go, a great well 42 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:27,359 Speaker 1: of China, the call seem at Rome and the taj Mahal. 43 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: There you go. I think that's seven, isn't it. I 44 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:32,800 Speaker 1: don't know. It sounds like seven to me. Um, But 45 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:35,000 Speaker 1: those are so they're all pretty old, but they're still 46 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,160 Speaker 1: around and they are definitely wondrous. Yeah, and the list 47 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 1: is new. And if seven, seven or seven with a 48 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: bad day for anyone, it probably was Egypt. And Egypt's 49 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:47,840 Speaker 1: Prime Minister even sort of you know, made a public 50 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:51,920 Speaker 1: announcement before the new Seven Wonders Foundation even collected they 51 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,160 Speaker 1: I think almost one hundred million votes cast for the 52 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:59,280 Speaker 1: new list via telephone and internet. He said, essentially, don't 53 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,600 Speaker 1: forget about Ufu. And the Great Pyramid of Coufu was 54 00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:06,519 Speaker 1: the greatest of the great pyramids. It's by far the largest. Um. 55 00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: I'm still holding out for you Egypt. It's still the 56 00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: original seven wonder on in my buck. But um, not 57 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:16,120 Speaker 1: only is it still standing, it's the only one of 58 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:19,720 Speaker 1: the original seven Wonders of the Ancient world still standing. 59 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: And furthermore, on that original list, it was the oldest 60 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: by far, by several hundred years, right, Yeah, and we're 61 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:30,639 Speaker 1: talking about swirling sands and dust winds and blazing heat 62 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:32,760 Speaker 1: in Egypt, and it has stood the test of time, 63 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: and yet it's not on the new list, it's a 64 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 1: runner up. Well, um, do you want to talk about 65 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:42,640 Speaker 1: the ancient the ancient list? The original list that that 66 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:45,680 Speaker 1: that Cufu was rightly on. Yeah, that we had Cufu. 67 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,680 Speaker 1: We had the Mausoleum of Halicarnassis. You love that one, 68 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:52,240 Speaker 1: don't you. I just like saying it, the Colossus of 69 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: Rhodes in the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Yeah, we had the 70 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: statue of Zeus and the Temple of Artemis at a Fesis, 71 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:04,760 Speaker 1: And that's there's one more hanging gardens of Babylon, which actually, 72 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:10,160 Speaker 1: ironically I heard might not have actually existed. Is that 73 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: factor fiction? You know? Anything I do? This is sort 74 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,599 Speaker 1: of a tough question to answer because opposing camps of 75 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:20,719 Speaker 1: scholars hold different points of view about it. And uh, 76 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:23,920 Speaker 1: let me try to debunk this as straightforwardly as I can. First, 77 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:28,080 Speaker 1: of all, gardens organic matter, it would have decomposed even 78 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:31,119 Speaker 1: if they existed. So even if somewhere there's a pile 79 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:34,320 Speaker 1: of rubble, which actually there is that some people reputedly 80 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:37,800 Speaker 1: claim is the ruins of the hanging Guardens of Babylon. 81 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:41,320 Speaker 1: We wouldn't have evidence of the gardens because the plants 82 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 1: and flowers would have long withered. Yeah. Well, the other 83 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:48,279 Speaker 1: thing is the people who actually compose this list of 84 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:51,880 Speaker 1: ancient wonders. We're not sure who the author really is. Yeah, 85 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:55,920 Speaker 1: there's there's three guys who are in the running, Calimachus, 86 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 1: uh Philo, and Herodotus. And what all three were his 87 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: still Koreans, travel writers. What were they? Yeah, that's right, 88 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:05,320 Speaker 1: they had you know, they had day jobs to some 89 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,680 Speaker 1: of them, I think we're we're military men or welders. 90 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:11,600 Speaker 1: But essentially they went around their corner of the world, 91 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: which stretched, you know, sort of from the Middle East 92 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 1: to Egypt to Turkey to Greece. And these wonders were 93 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:21,960 Speaker 1: called the amatta, which translates as things to be seen, 94 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,280 Speaker 1: must see monuments. And the funny thing about the hanging 95 00:05:28,279 --> 00:05:31,360 Speaker 1: Gardens of Babylon is that there are no records anywhere 96 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:34,919 Speaker 1: that it really existed outside of this list. And the 97 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: man who is supposed to have built them, as Nebuchadnezzar, 98 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,719 Speaker 1: and supposedly, as the legend goes, he built them for 99 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,719 Speaker 1: his wife, Amatists, who was a princess from Iran, and 100 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:47,359 Speaker 1: she grew up near the Caspian Sea, so she was 101 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:50,120 Speaker 1: used to seeing a lot of green when she looked 102 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:54,320 Speaker 1: at her window. Not in not not where Nebuch, No, 103 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:56,839 Speaker 1: not in Iraq. That would have been a pretty dry region. 104 00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:58,880 Speaker 1: He didn't want her to feel homesick, so he built 105 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 1: the gardens. But here's where that part of the legend 106 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:04,440 Speaker 1: gets tricky. Nobucad knows. It was a pretty proud man, 107 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:06,520 Speaker 1: to say the least, and he recorded all of his 108 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:10,360 Speaker 1: accomplishments and an ancient form of record keeping called cuneiform. 109 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:14,479 Speaker 1: And there's no mention anywhere in his records about the palace. Yeah, 110 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:17,360 Speaker 1: which seems a little fishy. Yeah, So other scholars say 111 00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:20,240 Speaker 1: perhaps it was a ruler from Ninevah or Assyria who 112 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:23,559 Speaker 1: built them. But here's another part that makes the hanging 113 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:26,359 Speaker 1: gardens battle on so unbelievable, and that is, how on 114 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:30,080 Speaker 1: earth would you have watered gardens that hung as high 115 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: as some people say five stories into the air and 116 00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:36,440 Speaker 1: the dry rock desert. Yeah, because I mean you'd think, 117 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: well you could they just have rain do it right, 118 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:43,280 Speaker 1: But apparently not, because as you said, it's desert, it's desert. 119 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,239 Speaker 1: So some scholars proposed that there was an irrigation system, 120 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 1: pretty sophisticated, built by drawing water from the Euphrates River 121 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:53,599 Speaker 1: and essentially piping it into a giant holding tank, and 122 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:56,159 Speaker 1: then something called I should diff which in my mind 123 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 1: I imagine looks like sort of a hand cranked water 124 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:03,919 Speaker 1: wheel would have lifted the water water to the different strata. 125 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:06,800 Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking in my head. Um it would 126 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:08,800 Speaker 1: have looked like that's how it could have worked. And 127 00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 1: today there's a new sort of innovative gardening in place 128 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:16,239 Speaker 1: called hydroponics, and this is being used around the world 129 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,280 Speaker 1: in different places. Disney's Epcot Center actually is one of 130 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:24,600 Speaker 1: the foremost purveyors of hydroponic gardens. It's not wild, but 131 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:27,320 Speaker 1: they can do amazing things like take a seed and 132 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:29,920 Speaker 1: have it grow into a giant head of lettuce within 133 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 1: four weeks. And it doesn't use soil, right, No, no 134 00:07:33,520 --> 00:07:36,480 Speaker 1: soil at all, just a very nutrient rich solution and 135 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:38,680 Speaker 1: they grow in the air like the gardens would have. 136 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:41,240 Speaker 1: And so this is a great solution for gardening and 137 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:44,240 Speaker 1: cities are in very hot climates. So is there evidence 138 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,240 Speaker 1: that the ancients were aware of hydroponics? A is a 139 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:49,840 Speaker 1: tool that grow crops. They could have been the forebears 140 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,080 Speaker 1: of the process. They could have invented it without even 141 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: realizing it. So, um, rising buckets or hydroponics. Huh, there 142 00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: you have it. So the weird thing about the palace, 143 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:03,600 Speaker 1: if it really did exist, is that it started a 144 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: prophecy among Babylonian rulers and Nebuchadnezzar again I mentioned he 145 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:12,240 Speaker 1: was a pretty proud man. Supposedly, on his other palaces, 146 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:15,440 Speaker 1: he built them with bricks ascribed with the sentiment Nebuchadnezzar, 147 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:18,880 Speaker 1: King of Babylon from seeds c. And when Babylon came 148 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:23,440 Speaker 1: crashing down, someone else, many many centuries later, took out 149 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:28,520 Speaker 1: the crown, and I think you knew who I'm talking about. Yeah, 150 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:32,320 Speaker 1: pretty contentious subject. But supposedly he wanted to rebuild his 151 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:36,240 Speaker 1: palace on the site where Babylon would have stood, and 152 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:40,200 Speaker 1: he inscribed bricks with a very similar sentiment about himself. 153 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:44,240 Speaker 1: And today, uh, the US is actually looking to turn 154 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:46,720 Speaker 1: that palace into a casino, because, as we all know, 155 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:51,079 Speaker 1: Saddama is no longer with us. Wow, well, Babylon's decadence continues. 156 00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:55,200 Speaker 1: There you have it. You can read even more about 157 00:08:55,240 --> 00:08:57,960 Speaker 1: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and whether or not they existed, 158 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:01,839 Speaker 1: as well as the other six sent wonder Brethren and 159 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,200 Speaker 1: how the Seven Wonders your being chient world work on 160 00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 1: how stuff Works for more on this and thousands of 161 00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:12,760 Speaker 1: other topics. Because at how stuff works dot com. Let 162 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:15,480 Speaker 1: us know what you think. Send an email to podcast 163 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:23,439 Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com.