From Paul Revere's midnight ride, to the Sphinx's missing nose, here are 9 lies you
were told in history class that were more based on legend than truth.
9.
Pyramids of Giza
What most of us have been told is that we have fully explored the ancient Pyramids at
Giza.
They are one of the most well-known monuments in the world, and are one of the few ancient
wonders that still exists.
There have been countless documentaries, and other specials focused on the pyramids, the
meaning they had for the Egyptians, and most importantly, how they were built.
The truth is that to this day there is still no one consensus agreed upon by archaeologists
or historians of any kind as to exactly how they were constructed.
However, despite the fact that we are no closer to being sure how they did it, most people
assume that we have fully explored the pyramids at Giza and are now making our theories based
on that evidence.
Unfortunately, while modern archeology continues to provide us with new insight, there is actually
much to discover still.
The Pyramids at Giza have many secret passageways, and rooms, some of which we only just recently
discovered exist for sure, and others that we could only guess at the existence of in
the past.
Finding our way into these rooms could be quite a challenge, as it might not be possible
to enter many of them without doing damage to the interior – something the Egyptian
authorities want to avoid.
One French architect who has extensively studied the pyramids believes there could be multiple
hidden chambers remaining that are very large, which could mean untold mysteries still await
us inside the Great Pyramids at Giza.
8.
Wall Street Suicides
Supposedly, the Wall Street crash of 1929 was so bad that numerous bankers, brokers
and others working in the financial district suddenly found themselves penniless.
Out of desperation, they all started jumping out of windows, creating a mass suicide hysteria.
This is more or less a myth.
The suicide rate for New York in the months following the crash actually went down which,
appears to be a common occurrence after a tragic event.
Several prominent figures did commit suicide during that time, but it wasn't by jumping
out windows.
In fact, between October 1929 when the crash happened, and the end of the year, only two
such suicides were recorded on Wall Street.
7.
The Midnight Ride Of Paul Revere
In the middle of the night from April 18 to 19, 1775, Paul Revere made history by riding
through the Massachusetts countryside shouting "The British are coming!
The British are coming!", a ride immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The
Midnight Ride of Paul Revere."
While a very famous poem, it is not actually entirely accurate.
Revere did indeed ride to warn the colonists that the Redcoats were moving on rebel forces
in Lexington, Massachusetts, but he didn't ride alone.
A man named William Dawes went by a different route, meeting Revere later in the night,
along with Dr. Samuel Prescott.
As they rode, other riders set off with the news, so there may have been up to forty men
going through the countryside on horseback by the night's end.
Revere didn't shout "The British are coming!"
Probably no one did.
If they did say it, they might have just whispered it.
British patrols were about, and many of the colonists still identified as British so secrecy
was a priority.
Instead, Revere and the other riders went door to door, saying "The Regulars are coming
out."
While Longfellow immortalized one character as saving the day, Revere actually was part
of an old system of alerts that New Englanders had been using for years called "alarm and
muster."
It meant news spread quickly by word of mouth, and also by drumbeat and horn-blat and bell
ringing.
When families heard the alarm, they knew to arm and gather, something they did whenever
there was an emergency.
Of course, that doesn't make for a dramatic story like "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,"
which has since gone on to become an American legend.
6.
Library Of Alexandria
The stories you've heard are that the destruction of the Library of Alexandria was one of the
greatest tragedies of the ancient world.
It was suddenly and quickly consumed by a great fire.
The library had stood for centuries, a bastion of learning where we stored knowledge for
the future, and then one day, the city was overrun and the unthinkable happened.
The invaders ordered the library destroyed and it was burned to the ground.
Very little was saved and much of the accumulated knowledge of the ancient world was lost forever.
Many people think of the story as a sad commentary on how humans often value power and money
over knowledge.
However, the truth of that matter is that the popular story about the Library of Alexandria
is totally false.
While the library was eventually ordered destroyed by invaders, this was hardly the Library's
first brush with danger.
For the long years it stood, the Library was subjected to multiple fires, due in part to
the volatile nature of the world's borders at the time, and how often people were at
war.
However, historians believe that even more than war, it was budget cutbacks that slowly
destroyed the library over time.
As different leaders ended up in charge of the city over the years, they tended to care
less and less about the upkeep of the library or the pursuit of important knowledge.
By the time the library was finally destroyed, most of what was kept in the library were
some spiritual texts and little else – the rest had long ago been sent to other libraries
in the ancient world where they would be better cared for.
Or they had already been lost or destroyed in some way over the previous years.
5.
Giants on Easter Island
You have probably heard before of the famous heads, also known as Moai, that show up all
over Easter Island.
The statues are enormous constructions of extremely heavy rock and weigh tons, and yet
the ancient people managed to move them incredibly long distances to place them on the shore,
and all over the island, without any advanced technology at all.
For the longest time the prevailing wisdom was that we simply had no idea at all how
they managed to do it.
Some people took this as proof that it must have been advanced technology of some sort,
instead of primitive tools.
Of course, once people started theorizing about them using things beyond primitive tools,
it wasn't long before conspiracy theorists were suggesting it was the work of ancient
alien visitors.
However, a recent study by interested archeologists has yielded strong evidence as to how they
actually did it, and it didn't require any advanced technology at all.
The experts who have been studying the statues believe that they were designed on purpose
so they could be moved long distances.
They theorized that the large bellies and the oddly proportioned base now buried under
the earth, allowed people to easily push the statue into a state of imbalance, and then
rock it back and forth, almost walking it across the ground to where they wanted it
to go.
While this may sound rather absurd, the archeologists were able to confirm their theory in real
time.
They successfully had 18 people move a five ton replica of one of the statues several
hundred meters in a short space of time, using only ropes.
While we can't say for sure this is exactly how they did it, as we weren't there to
witness it, it's clear that the task could be performed without advanced technology.
4.
Betsy Ross created the American Flag
The legend of Betsy Ross designing the first American flag was one of the main things I
was told in elementary school.
But the truth is that there is no historical evidence to suggest that Ross or any other
person was solely responsible for creating the flag design with the 13 stars arranged
in a circle.
It should be noted that during her time Ross herself never claimed responsibility for this
feat.
According to Betsy, her contributions involved selecting a five-pointed star over a six-pointed
one because they were easier to make.
The concept of Ross creating the flag came 35 years after her death, courtesy of her
grandson, William Canby.
He had quite a great story to tell that was supposedly passed down through the family.
It was all about how Washington himself came into Ross' store one day and she impressed
him by showing how easily a five-pointed star could be made, so he commissioned Betsy Ross
to create the entire flag.
It was a very appealing story, but Canby didn't have any evidence to support it.
However, he did come out with it during the Centennial Celebrations.
People were eager to learn about the first patriots of this country so the story gained
a lot of publicity.
Many of them preferred this personal version of the story over the truth, whatever that
might have been.
3.
The 4th of July
Every year, Americans celebrate Independence Day on July 4th, the day the Founding Fathers
signed the Declaration of Independence.
But this is politics – nothing gets solved in just one day.
July 4th, 1776 is actually the date when the declaration was ratified.
The process actually started on July 1st when the Second Continental Congress convened in
Philadelphia.
The next few days were spent going over the original draft of the declaration written
by Thomas Jefferson.
Eventually, the declaration was signed by August 2nd…mostly.
Five delegates actually signed at a later date and two never signed at all.
2.
Napoleon' Soldiers Shot the Sphinx's Nose
The Sphinx has not had its nose for a very long time, and while it is definitely a great
historical loss, the reason is different depending on who you ask.
The popular story goes that Napoleon and his men were on a tour of conquest heading through
Egypt, when they decided to camp by the great pyramids for a while.
While they were there they decided to practice their soldiering skills, and someone got it
into their head that they should do some cannon fire aiming practice.
Considering there weren't a lot of other good targets around, they decided that the
Sphinx's face would be perfect for the job.
It was their target practice that destroyed the Sphinx's nose.
However, while Napoleon did stop by Egypt, the story about his men and the Sphinx is
entirely false.
We know the story is not true because artistic drawings dated well before the time of Napoleon
already showed the Sphinx clearly missing his nose.
While there is no historical consensus as of yet, some sources claim that it happened
many centuries ago when Egyptians were praying to the Sphinx for a better harvest.
A Muslim was offended because they were praying to a Sphinx instead of God, so he vandalized
the nose of the Sphinx to spite its face, and was punished with death for his actions.
There are plenty of legends to go around.
1.
Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth
All of those that have bravely climbed Mount Everest were not climbing the world's highest
mountain after all, according to scientists.
The Himalayan mountain is actually beaten by Chimborazo, in Ecuador.
All of this is just a technicality.
Everest still wins on the traditional metrics: it's nearly 9,000m above sea level, thousands
more than any of its closest rivals.
But it's not actually the furthest up, or the closest to space.
Ecuador's mountain beats Everest because of the Earth's funny shape.
Everest wins when measured from sea level.
But if instead you measure out from the center of the Earth, Chimborazo wins easily – and
Everest wouldn't even get into the top 20 mountains.
The results come because the Earth isn't a perfect sphere, but a squashed one that
is flattened at the top and bottom and bulges out slightly in the middle.
That shape gives an advantage to any mountains that happen to lie along the equator.
And Chimborazo is a perfect example.
It's very close to the Earth's bulging middle, while Everest is about a third of
the way towards the top.
Thanks for watching!
Any other lies you can remember from history class?
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