 One of the greatest cities of antiquity has just been unearthed by archaeologists in Israel, named In Asur. The stunning discovery has been described as a cosmopolitan wonderland by the researchers, and it is thought to have been home to up to 10,000 people during the period we refer to as the early Bronze Age. The planned city was occupied over 5,000 years ago, and this place is another essential piece of the puzzle in our understanding of the past as we attempt to piece together an accurate overview of the historical past. The director of excavation, Dr. Yazak Paz, made the following remarks in a recent interview regarding the discovery. In this city we have a planned settlement with a whole net of streets and alleys and squares, and drainage installations. We also have storage installation in the city, and this type of structural thinking and city planning is only found in major centers of trade, so this place was a major part of the Bronze Period civilization's effort to establish a civilized society. The Bronze Period as we know it is a strange time in history, only now are we beginning to understand that what took place in Santorini led to the Bronze Period collapse and indeed traumatized our people as a cataclysmic event unfolded. Later Plato would remember these happenings, which during Plato's life were written in ancient text and studied at the Great Library in the world at Alexandria. Remembered as the Atlantis myth, this was the Bronze Age collapse. The ancient city was discovered during a proposed highway interchange project just 30 miles outside Tel Aviv. The researchers of the discovery are adamant and explicit in their wording. This dramatically changes our understanding of the Bronze Age people and society at the time in general. According to the Hindustan times in which the researchers also remarked, the remains of residential buildings, diverse facilities, and the public buildings are an indication of the organized society and the social hierarchy that existed at the time. Among the finds in the city and remember these are early excavations. They have unearthed strange figurines. These tiny figures have the strange facial features that we see in other artifacts recovered from the Iraqi region and dating to the same period as that of the Mesopotamian Empire, leading the researchers to seriously suggest that there may have been a link and indeed the Mesopotamian Empire may have reached further than previously thought. Incredibly, the archaeologists representing the Israeli antiquities authority have also announced that unearthed the 5000 year old city, there is an earlier settlement dating to an astonishing 7,000 years old and that these city dwellings were established near two ancient springs in the area that attracted people from far and wide to the region. The Times of Israel reports the finding as a Bronze Age megalopolis and the largest settlement of its kind ever unearthed in the region. Make no mistake guys, this place is generating a lot of hype and excitement for a reason. It seems they knew of the site in the 1950s when indicated the existence of the archaeological site. Excavation co-director Dr. Yazek Paz told the Times of Israel on Sunday, we knew it was something big, but we hadn't realized the size or magnitude of this city. We are completely blown away by this. The 5000 year old temple uncovered in the city is being held as the most important building ever discovered in the region and which consists of long pavement blocks in the temple's entryway which is leading to a large ritual basin carved out of a single 10 foot long block of stone weighing many tons and a row of column bases that would have supported the ceiling of the temple's great hall. The closest quarry is a half mile away and again we are confronted with megalithic features that are a mystery to us to how they moved giant blocks of stone weighing in excess of thousands of pounds. Not an impossible task but certainly one in which a collective effort by a working society would have been undertaken. A highly significant effort that we can later compare to some of the early Roman cities. A highly thought out and well planned organized society that fell victim to the collapse of the Bronze Age period. The city of N. Asur had a complex governance for the time and represents the emergence of urbanization in the region some 5000 years ago. Under most of the 5000 year old city they are remnants of an almost equally large settlement from 2000 years earlier. Due to a long professional debate over terminology among archaeologists one would not call the 7000 year old settlement a city rather a large village. But for all intents and purposes the earliest settlement also exhibits monumental building, public and private spaces and a complex society as illustrated through areas for public ritual including a multi-tiered mausoleum like burial chamber. Due to the area's humidity no organic remains were preserved and we will never really know what these people wore or ate. They probably looked a lot like us and were mostly farmers of the fertile black earth in the area or according to animal bone finds herders of pigs sheep goats and cattle. There are also indications of specialized trades such as pottery or flint napping. Located next to a central trade route the ancient settlements will soon be recovered to make way for the olden routes asphalt highway descendant but thanks to high tech documentation for the archaeologists the research into our very distant past has only just begun. That is all for the moment guys and we will be back just shortly with more news and findings regarding our historical past. In the meantime guys save our playlist to stay up to date with all the latest from the Lost History channel. Share our videos with your friends who may be interested in the content. Watch our older videos and catch up on items that we have covered that you may not have seen. We need your viewership guys and in return we will continue to create this type of awesome content. Comments below and as always thank you for watching.