There are many intriguing cultural leftovers from our past civilizations. I will discuss some of them. Alexander the Great discovered many ideas that we still use today. With the help of 35,000 Greeks and Macedonians Alexander managed to conquer and create his own empire from Greece to the borders of India. While on his journey he came up with the idea of getting on a horse from the left side. He found out that if you try to get on it from the right, your sword would be in the way. This idea is very practical, today we don't carry swords but we do still carry on the tradition of getting on a horse from the left.One more idea that Alexander used in his days of battle was using the l ...view middle of the document...
Our Greek ancestors discovered this design and it highly contributes to today's damns and bridges. Both the ideas' of columns and arches add not only support to today's structures but they also add beauty.Greece contributed to our education as well. We inherited math and science from them. And many letters and sounds from today's English alphabet came from them, also. The sound "th" makes comes from Greece. Their letter for that is "q", but it doesn't really look like our letters. We also get the sound "a" as in the word, "father" from them. Their letter for that sound is, " a ", which looks a lot like today's "A". We inherited the way we write from our Greek ancestors too. We write from left to right, from top to bottom. In the Hebrew language they write from right to left and open books from the left side.One more leftover from our past that we still use today is concrete. We inherited concrete from our Roman ancestors. The Romans discovered that by mixing sand, lime, brick, stone and water they had a material that, when dry, was just as strong as rock but significantly lighter and just as durable.There are many other things we got from our great ancestors that we still use today. Some of the things we use may not be the exact replica of the ancient invention but generally; it's the same idea.In the 9th century China invented the many lane highway. They were the first to come up with the idea to widen the roads so many vehicles could travel on it. China also invented toilet paper.Heron, the great inventor of Alexandria invented many things. He invented what is thought of as the first steam engine in 50AD. He called it an aeolipile, or "wind ball". His design was a sealed caldron of water placed over a heat source. As the water boiled, steam rose into the pipes and into a hollow sphere. The steam escaped from two bent tubes on the ball, resulting in rotation of the ball. Heron didn't consider this invention as a very useful one. He just thought of it as a toy at the time. Who knew we'd be using his original idea today. Heron also invented the basis of the fire engine that we use today.There are lots of other inventions that we got from our ancestors. High-rise buildings came from Yemen, some even still stand today. The Romans invented hamburgers and streetlights. And addresses were first seen in the great city of Venice.One of the greatest inherited traditions of our past is the Olympics. The very first Olympics were held in Olympia in 776 BC, in honor of Zeus. The time in between two Olympic games was called an Olympiad. In the beginning the games lasted only one day and comprised of only one event, but gradually more events were added resulting in the games lasting for 5 days. In total the Olympic games consisted of 10 events: running, the pentathlon, jumping, discus, javelin or known to the Greeks as, "ekebolon", wrestling, boxing, chariot racing, and horse racing. All Greeks who were free citizens and hadn't murdered anyone had the right...
