After toiling for 19 years, Imhotep’s masterpiece was finished. He had succeeded in his mission, creating a magnificent and original tomb from stone … A pyramid that towered over 60 metres high, with sides over 100 metres long, set to contain 850,000 tons of limestone blocks. This engineering marvel still inspires awe today. ibid.
The story of Egypt’s pyramids is one of innovation and mysterious rituals. Backbreaking work and palace intrigue. Legends of the Pharaohs s2e2: Curse of the Pyramids
In the scorching heat of the Egyptian desert a stone mountain rises 100 metres from the sand. This is the Red Pyramid of Dahshur. Over 1.7 million cubic metres of stone. It’s the first flat-sided true pyramid in Egypt: the work of a powerful pharaoh called Snefru … Snefru built not one but three record-breaking pyramids. ibid.
All over the country Snefru recruited civil servants to enforce palace orders. Snefru would need to recruit manpower from the lower ranks, paving the way for a new social class to emerge. ibid.
In Kensington Minnesota 1898 a Swedish immigrant Olof Ohman found a stone with runic inscription. Now this rune stone came to be known as the Kensington Rune Stone, and it became one of the most controversial artefacts in history. The year 1362 is carved on the rune stone along with an inscription of a Viking journey, suggesting that Europeans were here way before Christopher Columbus. But scholars have declared it a hoax. Secrets of the Viking Stone I: Rocks Don’t Lie, Peter Stormare reporting, History 2021
So what does it say? … 8 Goths and 22 Norwegians upon a journey of discovery from Vinland westwards. We had camp by two skerries one day’s journey north from this stone … 1362. Secrets of the Viking Stone II: Skeletons in the Closet
The inscription on the stones speaks of a massacre of ten men, one day’s journey north, which could be where those skeletons were found in the Ashby gravel pit. ibid.
Vinland, west of Greenland, Helga and Ann Ingstad in 1960 a Norwegian couple … used these sagas to navigate around Newfoundland and they eventually found a Viking settlement that was dated to the year around 1,000. This changed everything. ibid.
So what does it say? … 8 Goths and 22 Norwegians upon a journey of discovery from Vinland westwards. We had camp by two skerries one day’s journey north from this stone … 1362. Secrets of the Viking Stone II: Skeletons in the Closet
The inscription on the stones speaks of a massacre of ten men, one day’s journey north, which could be where those skeletons were found in the Ashby gravel pit. ibid.
Vinland, west of Greenland, Helga and & Ann Instad in 1960 a Norwegian couple … used these sagas to navigate around Newfoundland and they eventually found a Viking settlement that was dated to the year around 1,000. This changed everything. ibid.
The Vikings went almost everywhere in Europe … They settled on whatever islands they could find in the north Atlantic. Secrets of the Viking Stone III: Viking Confidential, historian
The fur trade was exactly what would have brought a group of Norsemen to Kensington, Minnesota, in 1362. ibid.
Elroy and I continue to search for an archaeologist who would be willing to hear us out about the Code Stone. Secrets of the Viking Stone IV: One Two Three, Archaeology!
‘The DNA testing worked very well’ … We had a suspicion it might be Native American … Since the skull was Native, we had to figure out a way to get the skull back to the Native Americans. Academics have a hard time believing that the Vikings came to Minnesota, but some are open to the idea L’Anse aux Meadows wasn’t the final stop. ibid. expert
L’Anse aux Meadows: ‘It looks like it had the materials you needed to repair ships: that’s why there’s so many rivets founds there, and also a place where you could make rivets.’ ibid. Dr Anders Winroth
Whoever did this, that’s the person I would like to meet. It’s the last runemaster. Secrets of the Viking Stone V: Don’t Worry, Be Happy, Dr Winroth
There was no doubt that the stone had been found wrapped in tree roots. And all the witnesses who had signed affidavits regarding the age of the tree stated it was at least twenty-five to thirty years old when Olof found the stone. Secrets of the Viking Stone VI: The Discovery
It [stone] was in the ground before he [Olof] even got here. And we’ve proved that. ibid.
According to Scott, the Knights Templar had been using the hooked X for centuries … The hooked X was carved on other rune stones that had been found right here in these United States. ibid.
Just what are the Costa Rican spheres? … We still don’t know why they were carved so perfectly in stone. The UnXplained with William Shatner s1e2: Mysterious Structures, History 2021
A miraculous meteorite falling from the heavens, a priceless gemstone with a deadly curse, and a chunk of sandstone considered so sacred that wars have been fought to protect it. The UnXplained with William Shatner s1e14: Mysterious Stones, History 2021
The holiest and most sacred site in all of Islam … The black stone of Mecca. ibid.
A lion with the head of a man carved from a single piece of rock in the Egyptian desert. No monument on Earth is more recognisable or more puzzling. Treasures Decoded s1e2: The Sphinx, History 2020
At nearly 60 feet high and 240 feet long the Sphinx is the biggest single-stone statue in existence. ibid.
In the autumn of 1898 on a modest farm in Kensington, Minnesota, a Swedish immigrant named Olof Ohman was clearing trees from his farm with the help of his sons. After brushing away the soil they noticed carvings on two sides of the stone: strange symbols no-one could read that resembled old Swedish runes. Holy Grail in America, Channel 5 2009
Baalbek is a very good example that has ... the largest stones in the world ever used for construction. They’re so large so we don’t even know their actual weight. Those stones were somehow quarried, moved five miles, lifted twenty-five, thirty feet in the air and placed together so closely you can’t fit a razor blade or a piece of paper in between them. We have no idea how they did it. We don’t have a crane in the world that can lift weights anywhere near what those things are. Bruce Rux, author Architects of the Underworld
Eden: The original Biblical paradise … A prehistoric structure uncovered in Turkey has rocked the foundations of stone-age anthropology. Could the Bible’s oldest story actually be rooted in reality? Ancient Mysteries s2e8: The Garden of Eden, Channel 5 2017
Rocks protruding from the ground on a mound called Gobekli Tepe. ibid.
A 22-acre site composed entirely of circles built in stone. ibid.
The Inca genius for stone is everywhere, from the steep staircase to the terraced fields ... The cut stone blocks are set without mortar; they are an architectural wonder only matched by the engineering ability that brought them from a quarry eight kilometres away on the other side of the river. Christy Kenneally, The Lost Gods, Channel 4 2005
Britain: A mania for building massive stone structures. Bettany Hughes, Seven Ages of Britain 1066 A.D. – 1350 A.D.