What Actually Happened to the Sphinx's Nose? What was the Real Antikythera Mechanism Used for & More

In today's compilation video, we're looking at: What Actually Happened to the Sphinx's Nose?

For more than four and a half millennia, the Great Sphinx has gazed out over the shifting sands of the Egyptian desert, standing guard before the great pyramids of Giza. Standing 20 metres high and 73 metres long, giant stone statue, bearing the body of a lion and the head of a man, is among the most famous and celebrated relics of the ancient world - and the most enigmatic. For centuries, tourists and historians alike have gazed upon the Great Sphinx and pondered its many mysteries: who built this strange monument? Whose face does it bear? What purpose did it serve? And most baffling of all: what happened to its nose? Today, the Sphinx’s missing nose has become a popular historical punchline, referenced in countless works from the Asterix comics to Disney’s Aladdin. Yet like so much about the Sphinx, the true fate of this vanished appendage is shrouded in historical myth. And before you go to the comments to say “but Simon, everyone knows who broke it off!”, please keep watching, because it’s likely not who you think.

The Real Antikythera Mechanism

In 2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the latest entry in the iconic adventure film series, everyone’s favourite swashbuckling archaeologist/grave robber hunts after the titular dial, a mechanism invented by Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes to predict the appearance of fissures in time, allowing the user to travel between the present and the past…because, sure, why not? But while this fantastical plot element might sound like the product of a particularly drunken session of antiquities-themed Mad Libs, amazingly, it is actually based on a real-life artifact called the Antikythera Mechanism, funny enough. Dating from the 1st century B.C.E, this incredibly sophisticated assembly of bronze gears has baffled archaeologists for over a century, predating the earliest known mechanisms of its kind by more than a millennium. Only in recent years has its true function been determined, revealed to be an ancient form of analogue computer - the oldest on record. This is the story of the most incredible example of ancient mechanical and mathematical genius ever discovered. So let’s dive into it, shall we?

From here we go into How Did the Ancient Romans Make Concrete So Much Better Than Ours?, The Greatest Archaeological Rescue Mission in History, King Tut's Celestial Treasure, and A Guide to Building the Pyramids- How Did They Do It?

0:00 Who Broke Off the Sphinx’s Nose?
12:56 What Did the Real Antikythera Mechanism Do And Who Actually Made It?
32:37 How Did the Ancient Romans Make Concrete So Much Better Than Ours?
43:12 The Greatest Archaeological Rescue Mission in History
59:26 King Tut's Celestial Treasure
1:09:57 A Guide to Building the Pyramids- How Did They Do It?