Ancient Myths That Turned Out To Be True

Summary

The video explores how stories once dismissed as myths or exaggerations may preserve memories of real people, places, or events. It also emphasizes that a historical basis does not make every detail of a legend true.

Lake Nyos, Cameroon

Local warnings about deadly lakes resemble the 1986 limnic eruption of Lake Nyos. Carbon dioxide had accumulated under pressure in the lake and was suddenly released, forming a dense cloud that flowed into nearby lowlands. It killed 1,746 people and large numbers of animals.

The video suggests that older stories may have preserved a warning about the danger. Pipes now release gas gradually to reduce the risk of another eruption.

Troy

Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated a site in Turkey that matched the location described in Homer’s Iliad. It contained multiple cities built atop one another, though Schliemann dug through layers and misidentified older gold objects as the treasure of King Priam.

Hittite records refer to a city called Wilusa and a western kingdom called Ahhiyawa, names often compared with Homer’s Ilion and the Achaeans. The broad picture—a real city and a likely conflict involving Greeks—is plausible, but details such as the Trojan Horse remain unconfirmed.

King Midas and Phrygia

Assyrian records mention a Phrygian king named Mitus, possibly connected to the legendary Midas. Phrygia’s capital, Gordion, is archaeologically attested.

A large tomb there contained a richly furnished burial, likely belonging to Midas’s father, Gordias, but no gold objects. The story of Midas may have been amplified by Phrygia’s association with actual gold-bearing river sands.

Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh describes a king of Uruk, a real ancient city with a substantial wall. The Sumerian King List also names Gilgamesh, though its wildly exaggerated reign lengths make it unreliable on its own. Archaeological evidence for a rival king mentioned in related stories lends support to the possibility that Gilgamesh was a historical ruler, though not a superhuman one.

A tablet places his burial beneath a riverbed. A 2003 survey reportedly found structures in the indicated area, but they have not been excavated.

Ebu Gogo and Flores’s small-bodied people

Folklore on the Indonesian island of Flores describes small, hairy cave-dwellers. In 2003, archaeologists found the remains of a very small-bodied human species in a cave on the island, alongside tools and bones of pygmy elephants.

Researchers debate whether the fossils and folklore are genuinely connected. The coincidence is suggestive, but not proof.

Viking voyages to Vinland

Viking stories described a land across the Atlantic. A settlement found in Newfoundland included longhouses and other evidence of Norse activity.

Researchers later used tree rings and a global growth marker associated with a solar event in 993 CE to date cut wood from the site to 1021—centuries before Columbus.

Cities in the Amazon

Early reports of large settlements along the Amazon were long doubted, partly because the region was thought unable to support intensive agriculture. Lidar surveys later revealed extensive settlement features, including mounds, pyramids, canals, dams, and reservoirs.

The video says people also created fertile “black earth” from charcoal, food waste, and pottery. It attributes the later appearance of an empty landscape to epidemics introduced by Europeans, which killed much of the Indigenous population.

The Amazons

Greek stories of female warriors may reflect Scythian societies north of the Black Sea. Archaeologists found women buried with weapons, sometimes bearing battle injuries and associated with horses.

DNA analysis helped establish the sex of some individuals, correcting earlier assumptions that people buried with weapons were men.

Iram, the “Atlantis of the Sands”

Arab traditions and the Quran preserve accounts of a wealthy desert city. NASA radar helped researchers identify old caravan routes converging on a site where archaeologists found a walled trading center with eight towers.

The site’s identification as Iram remains debated. The video says the settlement traded in frankincense and that part of it collapsed into a cavity after groundwater eroded the limestone beneath it.

A land bridge across the Columbia River

Indigenous traditions describe a crossing that once allowed people to travel across the Columbia without boats. Geological evidence indicates that a massive landslide blocked the river, temporarily creating a lake and a dry crossing over the dam.

When the barrier eventually failed, it caused flooding and left the area’s rapids. Dating evidence places the landslide around 1450.

Belshazzar in Babylon

The biblical story of Belshazzar was doubted because surviving king lists named Nabonidus as Babylon’s last king. A cylinder bearing a prayer by Nabonidus names his son Belshazzar.

Further evidence, as presented in the video, indicates that Nabonidus spent years away from the capital while his son governed. This may explain why Belshazzar acted as ruler without appearing in formal king lists—and why the biblical story gives him the third-highest rank rather than the second.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Speaker: One unnamed narrator; no other speaking contributors are identified.
• Sources and traditions discussed: Local Cameroonian lake lore; Homer’s Iliad; Hittite diplomatic tablets; Assyrian royal records; the Sumerian King List and tablets; Flores oral traditions; Viking accounts; archaeological excavations and lidar surveys; tree-ring dating; Scythian burials and DNA testing; the Quran and Arab legends; NASA radar; geological and radiocarbon dating; the biblical account of Belshazzar; and Babylonian cuneiform records.