This time lapse shows the sun's position in the sky as far back as ancient times

Ancient Egyptians , the Nabateans , the Shintos of Japan and the Incas in Peru worshiped the sun like a God.

The ancient Greeks thought the Milky Way was actually the milk of Hera , and their constellations, which they called asterisms , help them to do everything from keep time to planning and harvesting to when to sacrifice humans.

When the sun lines up with your palace, it can give the ruler the illusion of control of the heavens.

Shankyo is a series of 13 towers arranged in a straight line on the top of a hill, arranged NS . On both the West and E sides of the hill are observation points where you can observe the sun rising and falling over the towers.

It's thought that Shankyo was not just an astronomical complex or a giant calendar, it also served as a religious and political center.

The earliest radiocarbonarbon data indicating human habitation is 7600 BCE , found at Cerro Sachin in Peru .

They probably couldn't have grown much further than that because of the lack of water in the region.

They eventually ended, and it's not that it wasn't a slow decline either, but more likely they were done in by invaders.