What Were The Greatest Structures Of The Dark Ages? | Age Of Light | Timeline 

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It's a bit misleading to say that the Nile-o-meter was an Islamic invention, the Ancient Egyptians had used the same system for thousands of years.

Waldemar has gotten me through quarantine in one piece 10/10 would recommend

Herod's temple is a product of the Classical era long before the Dark Ages

I’m pretty sure the term “The Dark Ages” only applies to Europe. And we see where the “light” was in those times.

Herods Temple was constructed long before the so called Dark Ages began.

Wow someone is finally shining a light on the so called Dark Ages. The presenter guy is absolutely perfect for the task! Thank You to all involved in this production.

This is an excellent documentary and I enjoyed it. HOWEVER, the title misleads. This isn't really about Herod's Temple. It is about Islamic art. Why did the producers use such an obviously disingenuous title. Did they believe Islamic Art couldn't stand on its own merits?

I'm learning a lot in this series, and seeing history in a less linear way than how I was taught. The human story is so amazing and complex!

How Herod's Temple Proves The Dark Ages Weren't So Dark ????? Incredible misleading title

For a documentary about art I’ve learned so much history from this series that I never heard about in school or other historical documentaries.

I am fascinated by the Dark Ages. It's such an interesting time - like a major transitional period.

Doesn't the appearing out of nowhere imply that there was probably art being made in the earliest days, just possibly in forms that didn't survive. Maybe something like fabrics.

The best meme ever created. "I've got this book... well, I've got this other book... you guys need more books..."

What a terrific series this is. And now I have relearned so much that we were never told or were given incorrect historical information. Just TOO MANY ADS.

Just think of the amount of work and hours it took to make all this stuff, especially the mosaics in the dome. And at the time it was done. Amazing.

coming from America the view of these beautifully built pieces of architecture has me in awe . The up keep that it takes to keep the buildings clean and strong after the crazy amount of years shows how much of a treasure they are.

I love this guy! He needs more toys lol I love how he's like a big kid with his maps, getting all excited to go see mosaics and catacombs. I am totally subscribed and I'm watching this again just to get the hosts name 😁

Fascinating and beautiful art and history documentary. However, every time he mentions “Christianity” he says it and everything about it with such disdain. I find it very off putting. That building with the borrowed pillars was incredible. The look down the corridor was something that you could look at for an extended period of time and not be bored with the views. Stunningly beautiful.

I'm so inspired by Walderman's observations and got lost for another hour of time reading the superb comments of so many viewers. I read so many of them aloud to my kids!

The religious message of the Done of the Rock is that if you build on top of the most important site an already established religion and use violence to keep it there, you will pull the wool over many eyes.

I wish you could do a show on the Dark ages in China(relative to Europe and Islam) and what they were achieving at that time in art architecture and innovation.

It's always amazing to me how Waldermar finds himself in the most extraordinary buildings in the world and there's hardly anyone else in the buildings while he's there.

I am astonished at this series of documentaries. STUNNINGLY good all of them!!!!

Waldemar and team: many thanks for a jewel of a documentary series. best wishes to all from Nuuk, Greenland.

Thank you! Absolutely marvelous documentary!

Alfraganus lived in the 9th Century, which is after the period commonly referred to as the Dark Ages, and also after disruption of the Eastern Empire that is sometimes referred to as the Byzantine Dark Ages. His achievements are impressive and important, but actually reinforce that the preceding period had been a Dark Age. For instance, Eratosthenes, a Greek mathematician who also lived in Egypt, had accurately calculated the diameter of the Earth over 1000 years earlier. This is the kind of information that was lost during the chaos of the Dark Ages and was only rediscovered centuries later. Also, the Ancient Egyptians first constructed nilometers for predicting the annual flood over 2000 years earlier.

i like these programs and this guy, the Astrolabe is much older invention, the one he had no doubt was used for that purose, but the name is not Islamic. I think what we should be forwarding is that all these cultures stood upon the shoulders of their predecessors, the waxing and waning if you like. But no matter the culture, all of them came to power through conquest, invasion and blood, Goths, Muslims, Vikings, Vandals, Huns.... but Documentaries are worth watching all the same....only other point i would make is that Cordoba Mosque "For the first time in European architecture, the aesthetics of light were shaping a building" is slightly odd statement considering some of the other buildings he took us through and other extant buildings we know about, surely the Pantheon 126AD or even the Hagia Sophia 537AD etc. But it is a unique interior, almost like a forest of red/white palms trees, so in that respect it is new ....

So I always learned that the Dark Ages we're referring to Christian Europe not the Isamic World. It was a Islamic Golden Age. The Muslims saved what ever ancient Greek knowledge the Christians didn't distroy. The Islamic Golden Age ended after the Mongol Golden Age challenged and vanquished the Muslim World. I still love your videos

The Jewish temple was built in the "Jewish Quarter". The Dome of The Rock was built on a Roman fort. Religions knew how to give each other room at one point in time.

This guy is great! He's made a subject that I thought I had no interest in very interesting! he's a bit eccentric, but that makes it all the more entertaining. He likes to show off that skull ring, too. :)

Excellent elocution of the speaker added to this fascinating subject provided me with a great joy, a USEFUL joy. Thank you. Sincerely.

Waldemar is my new art teacher...love his way of presenting. So clever

Thank you Mr. Januszczak!

Cool how that brazier gives us an insight on how life was like in the umrah bathhouse due to the artwork. The art is key.

Quite remarkable. Unique. You travel around on his shoulder, His squeaky boots make it all real, and his knowledge amazing

One of the best documentaries I saw .taught me so much

5:17 LOL love how the woman walking through doesn’t care they’re shooting

If a lack of quality art is what signifies a 'Dark Age' then we are in one.

Amazing documentary, most informative I have ever seen.

This is really incredible stuff. Thanks you!

Further up the Nile. Is the flood gauge designed over 3000 years earlier by the Egyptians.

I think Herods temple in Jerusalem was beautiful and we haven’t even seen the inside

Gives a whole different outlook on that area. Well done.

I think your channel needs more ads in the videos. Yes more ads we like advertisements. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

When someone shows true passion and knowledge towards a sunject they love I can't help but feel really enveloped in intrigue. I get a dopamine rush pf knowledge.

I can't get my head around why for all western historians foundation and existance of kingdoms on the territory taken from Byzantian Empire between 5th and 11th centuries are not included in the European history? Haven they heard that in the middle of 9th century a new alphabet was created by St. St Cyril and Methodius and later on at the end of the same century in Bulgaria was establish Cyrilic alphabet by their disciples? Nowadays almost 500 million people use Cyrilic script. Isn't that enouigh to be mentioned as one of the greatest achievemnets of so called Dark Ages?

So you filmed inside the holy of holy and never mentioned that you were there inside especially in a cave in Mount Moriah. The artifacts are in front of you and all around you and yet you speak in generalities. When you tell people that your in a gorgeous holy jewel of a building, people get to mesmerized by the building to realize that it's the foundation of the building that is what brings pilgrims to this site not the building. In religious terms the building could be a tent and they would still sacrifice time and money to visit and pray there. The camara work is some of the best I have ever seen of the inside of the Dome Of The Rock. Truly spectacular cinematography!

Wow! This is amazing!

10th time watching, still learning! we need a Waldemar fan club. honest.

I've become a great fan of history with the yrs passing...anyway, I can watch anything, just about, relating to history. Also, what I mainly wanted to relate before watching this episode, was that the Renaissance experts or historians (from the Renaissance itself) on the topic of the so-called Dark Ages which they coined...for no reason other than that there wasn't a revival of the Classical Antiquity as they were experiencing. Those scholars didn't give enough credit to the advances that occurred those centuries earlier.

This is a very enlightening documentary, thank you. I think it is such a shame that people have to disagree just for the sake of it. And quite often from the viewpoint of ignorance.

I can watch these all day!

Dark Ages is about the lack of written history between 400 and 1300 AD. In roman times, between 1100 and 1300 that was the move from sculptures to frescoes. The roman empire left a void behind. Most cultures were off to land grab. Civilizations were not to start elaborating in art till few centuries later. So it is understandable to see some cultures start at 400 AD and some at 600, 800 and 1300 AD. It is important to point out that some cultures were bent on destroying historical privilege of other empires or religions by renaming land marks and thus eradicating historical precedence, or taking literary achievements by translations and destroying the sources. Obviously, no one religion and its seeded parishioners ever thought of preserving historical backgrounds and if any existed were obviously prime incidences. Since the early Pharaohs, experienced masons (builders not the secret society paranoia) were building structures that required certain knowledge and skills. It meant that multicultural masons were always available to trade this skill. This skill must be foreign to the indigenous culture because at times, these high level officials would murder the masons to preserve the secrets of the building or structure. Thus, if there were no people left to exchange this knowledge with other cultures through the epochs, structures would have still been rubble on top of rubble. In essence, the astrolabe is nothing but another forgotten achievement that seems to be deemed as desertian achievement. If that would have been so, people in the vast deserts would have had nothing but sky to study. That didn't happen till the proverbial pillaging and invasions took place.

Why are there so many negative comments on this part of the documentary, truly disgusting. Take history for what it is not how you want to narrate it.

That spiral tower is amazing

The quality of this documentary is amazing.

"For the first time in European architecture, the aesthetics of light were shaping a building." That is a ridiculous statement. All architecture must consider how natural light will penetrate into the structure. I'm a huge fan of Islamic architecture and decoration. However, the Romans had been dematerializing walls for centuries while creating larger and larger column-free spaces. Early Islamic mosques are beautiful, but the return to hypostyle halls actually represents an enormous regression of technology. Think of the church of Santa Sabina, with its enormous nave and clerestory windows. It's all about creating a light-filled space. What about the Basilica Nuovo? Or the Hagia Sophia? The Baths of Diocletian? The Aula Palatina? It would be centuries after the Dark Ages before very large vaults reemerged in Western Architecture. The Ottomans would certainly master the technology to impressive effect. Humans are incredibly resourceful, and the societies that emerged in the Dark Ages strived and succeeded in building impressive buildings with the skills and resources available to them. However, we should be honest about the loss of technology relative to the preceding periods.

1) There is some doubt that the so called Temple Mount was not the site of Solomon's Temple. It was the site of a Roman garrison, however, where the occupying Roman Army camped in Jerusalem.

The wonderous architecture of the "Tartarian Empire"

W J is absolutely amazing, he explains topics well...

Its called the Dark Ages because of what happened in the western roman empire. Of course the rest of the world was quite different, duh!

I wasn't aware that any historian had suggested that The Dark Age of Western Europe was experienced by the Islamic world. In fact, I remember a History teacher saying that if it hadn't been for The Golden Age of Islam, we would not have anything like the information we do on Ancient cultures and knowledge.

Every time he gets some prop out, it makes me smile

Emotive music style with Jeremy Clarkson style narration spouting Saudi funded content. Credibility C, novelty factor D

It's a remarkable documentary! I truly did appreciate it so much. Thanks a lot for sharing! Keep it up!

SuperVisors - loving your sense of humour. Staggering isn't it ? Where do they find the time ?

I love the enthiousiasm of the tour guide. He really brings history to life. Chapeau!

Enthusiasm is no excuse for a lack of serious study.

Astrolabe was invented by by Apollonius of Perga between 220 and 150 BC.

These are pillar bases that have been reconstructed into these open top castles but they were closed at top. At a point or near one. Hmmm. They would lay the stones in a pattern normaly so type of star . And then stand the corner stones. This would make the main shape of the pillar. They would then stack the support pillars and header stones. These would hold the smaller blocks. Each pillar was for purpose and each design was as an indicator of its purpose. Castles usually take up the whole base as a court yard. But can be much smaller. Or larger as well These pillars were ovens grain and waste and water storage. . The flood well takes the most out and a few well built ones are still around today.

Many comments are negative but actually the effort to make this kind of documentary has to be appreciated. Thank you to the producer. The concept of Dark Ages (applied to Europe, under west roman empire) was characterized the entire Middle Ages as a time of intellectual darkness in Europe between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance.

35:24 - so, prior to the dam, how many times did it flood beyond the perfect level? Cause the dam today although it controls water flow it has ruined the fertility brought by the waters, among many other ecological disasters...

why is it that Waldemar's view seems bias, when he describes how the crystals were used as part of dark ages and is spooky....while the ones designed under islamic architecture was awesome. while still suggesting that the later islamic architecture derives heavily from christian architecture.

Informative and fascinating delivered with enticing excitement. I would have liked to have seen an acknowledgement of the ancient Roman/early Christian and Byzantine architectural and decorative influences in the mosque of the rock and a treatment of gender issues in the early wadi baths, though.

great series

…but you actually failed to mention“The Moops” by name, therefore you lose! Based on what you said in the last episode, Islam does not appear to be much unlike Aryan Christianity in its belief about Jesus being lesser than God the Father., and seems to share more in common, in that regard, than it does with catholicism, which worships the Trinity concept. Such a shame that the various religions, which have been so inspired by their reverence for divinity, to create such artistic beauty, and mathematical-engineering brilliance, yet often possess so much animus toward each other (as do certain political ideologies as well), simply because their tribal overlords have leveraged the faithful’s ignorance, in order to get them to do their bidding; using violence and coercion in acquiring material resources for the consolidation their power.

Very inspiring, original, forever,classic architectural structure's

Interesting, but the episode has nothing to do with Herod or Herod’s Temple.

This is a nifty and valuable presentation, but is it the Dark Ages. The Arabs and the Byzantines were literate, and we know a lot about their history. We know very little about western Europe because very little stuff wa written down, hence the name "Dark Ages".

The building that we were looking at was not the 2nd Temple, was the Dome the Rock/Shrine built a thousand years later! 😳😭 I loved this documentary but the title ruins it! It is such an enormous historical mistake it makes me wonder it was named inaccurately just to increase views. HORRIBLE!! THE CINEMATOGRAPHY WAS SO GOOD! 😁❤️ Really, "Herod The Great" didn't build any Jewish Temple but he expanded and improved on whatever was already there. If you think about it Jesus' protest against the money changes in 'God's House' was a criticism of exactly that addition that Harold made because that is where the money changers where in the new Herodian addition. The 1st Temple was distroyed at the beginning of the Babylon Exile and rebuilt at the end of this exile. This initial rebuilding never reached the splendor of the 1st Temple until King Harold 'The Great' renovated the 2nd Temple. It is understandable, I have seen people say King Harold built the 2nd Temple but this is obviously historically wrong by hundreds of years. The easiest way to know that is wrong is that the celebration of Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the 2nd Temple by the Maccabees and that happened after the Babylonian Exile but way before Harod the Great. What he did was make a religiously tremendous building look the part after living with a not so impressive 2nd 2nd temple for something like 400 years! He did not rebuild the 1st Temple, i.e. the 2nd Temple but did a massive renovation on the 2nd Temple. www.britannica.com/topic/Temple-of-Jerusalem One could say that the distruction of the 2nd Temple was long before the [European] Dark Ages. This presenter was not focusing on the 2nd Temple in this documentary. He is focused on the building where the 1st & 2nd Temple used to be, The Shrine/Dome of The Rock. This much more recent building was built during the [European] Dark Age but also during the overlapping time of Muslim Golden Age. I think this presenter is wrong to say that the Dark Aged weren't Dark because the Muslim Golden Age because that designation is discribing European cultural stagnation not Muslim stagnation. They were virtually separate world culturally.

5:54 anyone else like how he says Square!

I hope the Chinese perspectives Japanese & Indian perspectives will feature as apart of this series, as these cultures were also thriving during the English period of 'dark ages' during the medieval period of cultural perspective, bridging the Roman Empire through until the formation of the British Empire, when England, or Britannia ruled the seas & oceans, apparently ;-)

I'd like to thank all the high-profile internationally-renown medieval history academics that despite their busy schedules decided to contribute and enlighten us in the comment section with their inspired, deep and valuable comments.

Does He not know the Greek calculated the circumference and diameter of the earth 1000 years before the Muslims??

With those opening shots, I thought this was a film about the duck ages.

At 21:42 we see a rare example of dark age hitch-hiking.

Hyperbole must be avoided. I am trained in ocean navigation, the use of a sextant for navigation. I doubt the astrolabe was more accurate. There is ten minutes of mathematics after two minutes of sightings. The result is a triangle with 10kilometer sides. I might be inside that but only if I make no mistakes and the enormous book of tables is available, scientific charts areonhand and my compass is true. Five accurate devices are needed to navigate.

That is no longer true. The temple has been found and it's outside the city. This must be an old video.

You know, Waldemar talking about the use of "horseshoe" arches in Islamic design was in the back of my head while looking at the Dome of the Rock. And I'm pretty sure if you look closely, you'll see that the golden portion of the dome is slightly larger than a hemisphere. Which means in cross section, it would be a horseshoe arch. 🤔

Impeccable 💚 The production of this video and the context added to it is pure perfection

This guy see the mechanical calander made by the Romans hundred of years before Islam?

Love this guy and his work but what about the Jews - would be interesting to hear more about their development during the dark ages as well

A great thing that many nations are in there light and grey ages

Strange shift in emphasis. Christians :long on politics short on Art .Islam: Long on Art Short on politics.Look forward to subsequent series!

Hope those Syrian Structures have survived their Syrian Civil War

I love this guy and he knows way more about this topic than any plain old lay person walking down the street! Or someone who watched a movie at one time etc etc etc. Geeze how embarrassing some of these people are.

Want to see all this hosts videos. Will need a child to show me how to use this channel.

The Dome is the 3rd religous bldg on the same site. One on top of the other,

"What a thing to find in an eighth century bathhouse" You think maybe people did a lot of drugs in those bathhouses? I mean, if bathhouses were a normal thing today I'd love to do drugs in one and look at space stuff on the ceiling.