Genius Schliemann truly was. Today he is regarded as one of the greatest archaeologists who ever lived. They were the work of the earliest civilisation known to mankind. Who the builders were, their achievements, and why they vanished are mysteries that have long perplexed scholars. No official systematic census has yet been carried out on these monuments, but at least 50,000 of them are known throughout western Europe alone.
Thousands more stand across mainland and island south-east Asia and still more in Australia.