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00:00 Welcome to Mojo Plays and today we're counting down our picks for the 10 real-life places
00:10 Assassin's Creed recreated.
00:12 We're looking at landmarks and locations that either no longer exist or are completely unrecognizable
00:18 today.
00:19 Before we begin, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring
00:24 the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:28 Cathedral of the Holy Cross - Assassin's Creed
00:35 The biggest landmark in Acre is this almost unreasonably large Crusader church, which
00:40 poses one of the hardest platforming challenges in the game.
00:44 But the history of this landmark is complex and enigmatic.
00:48 There was a vast church built by Crusaders in the city that was destroyed in 1291, 100
00:54 years after the game takes place.
00:56 And nobody knows what the church was called or even what it looked like, since our records
01:01 of it only pertain to its ruins, which stood in the city for hundreds of years.
01:05 Eventually, a new church was built on the site, the Church of St. Andrew, which still
01:10 exists today.
01:12 However, the representation of the church in Assassin's Creed is wrong, since in real
01:17 life it was built a little too early to utilize the Gothic architectural style it has in the
01:22 game.
01:29 Heracleion - Assassin's Creed Origins
01:36 Though Alexandria is the biggest city you visit in Origins, Heracleion is where Cleopatra
01:42 makes her base.
01:43 Directly east of Alexandria, along the banks of the Mediterranean, the city was in a precarious
01:48 position because it was built on the mouth of the River Nile.
01:51 Earthquakes and flooding eventually sank it into the sea, where the city remained famously
01:57 lost until its rediscovery in the year 2000.
02:00 It's already suffering from major flooding when Origins takes place, but is still occupied
02:05 when Cleopatra plots to oust her brother and, allied with Caesar, take the throne of Egypt
02:10 back for herself.
02:16 The Devil's Acre - Assassin's Creed Syndicate
02:24 In the second half of the 19th century, slum clearance efforts began in the UK, with the
02:30 capital's major slums being largely demolished.
02:33 One of the more notorious slums was the Devil's Acre, located in the heart of the otherwise
02:38 extremely affluent area of Westminster.
02:41 It's the same part of London where you'll find Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament.
02:46 It was a particular concern of Charles Dickens, though by the 1870s it had been mostly destroyed.
02:53 You can visit the Devil's Acre and many other slums in Assassin's Creed Syndicate.
02:58 There's even a mission where Jacob Fry takes Marianne d'Azraeli, wife of British Prime
03:02 Minister Benjamin d'Azraeli, on a tour of the dangerous slum at her request.
03:12 Notre Dame de Paris - Assassin's Creed Unity
03:20 This world-famous cathedral does still exist, but if you go today, it's not the same as
03:26 it was in Unity's version in 2014.
03:29 That's because almost five years after the game released, a major fire broke out in the
03:34 building.
03:35 Major restoration work soon began, and interestingly, the research Ubisoft conducted for Unity was
03:42 offered as help.
03:43 It might take decades to repair Notre Dame, but until then, Unity's loving recreation
03:48 of the building can be enjoyed by all.
03:51 Other Parisian landmarks that appear in Unity include the Tuileries Palace next to the Louvre,
03:56 which was burned down a hundred years after the game takes place, as well as the Bastille,
04:02 destroyed in 1790.
04:04 It's actually a major anachronism that the Bastille remains in the game throughout, since
04:08 it was destroyed so early in the revolution.
04:16 Prison Hulks - Assassin's Creed Syndicate
04:25 The British Empire made use of prison hulks for centuries, in both its colonies and back
04:30 in England.
04:31 These were ships that usually had their masts and sails removed so that they couldn't be
04:35 sailed anywhere, but could be moored and used to house convicts.
04:40 One notorious hulk was HMS Jersey, used in New York in the 18th century and visited by
04:45 Connor in Assassin's Creed III.
04:48 But two more historic hulks appear in Syndicate's Jack the Ripper DLC, moored in Deptford on
04:53 the River Thames.
04:55 Though we can safely say that in real life, it's doubtful that these old ships were being
04:59 used as a secret hideout for Jack the Ripper and his gang.
05:09 New York City - Assassin's Creed Rogue
05:16 Like Notre Dame, New York City of course still exists.
05:20 But it certainly doesn't look the way it looks in Rogue, or even the way it looks in Assassin's
05:24 Creed III.
05:25 When Connor visits the Big Apple, he arrives shortly after the 1776 Great Fire of New York,
05:32 where about a quarter of the city burned to the ground.
05:35 Rogue took us over 20 years back in time, to see New York when it was still a British
05:39 colony and relatively peaceful, during the Seven Years War.
05:44 One notable landmark is Trinity Church, which was destroyed in the fire, but is still standing
05:49 proud in Rogue.
05:51 The third iteration of this church went on to be the tallest building in America for
05:55 over 20 years.
06:02 Derinkuyu Underground City - Assassin's Creed Revelations
06:10 This actually isn't the only underground city found in Cappadocia in Turkey, but it is the
06:15 largest and most elaborate, potentially once being home to 20,000 people.
06:21 Used to protect large groups from hostile armies, the cities were occupied sporadically
06:26 over the last 2,800 years, not abandoned until the 1920s.
06:31 The city Ezio visits in Revelations isn't one-to-one with Derinkuyu, since instead of
06:36 narrow tunnels and small rooms, Ezio finds himself in a vast chamber occupied by Templars
06:42 and what remains of the Byzantines.
06:45 The tunnels do still exist and are now tourist attractions, but gone are the days when tens
06:50 of thousands of people could thrive underground.
07:01 The Statue of Zeus at Olympia - Assassin's Creed Origins
07:11 Hopefully one day, all of the seven wonders of the ancient world will be recreated in
07:16 Assassin's Creed, but we currently only have three of them, and one of those, the Great
07:21 Pyramid of Giza, still exists.
07:23 But in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, if you journey to Elise, you'll eventually find this famous
07:28 temple and its enormous Statue of Zeus.
07:31 Though the most impressive statue of Zeus in the game is the one in Cephalonia at the
07:35 beginning, that statue didn't actually exist, while the one in Olympia certainly did.
07:41 It stood from the 5th century BC to the 6th century AD, over 1,000 years before being
07:48 destroyed.
07:49 Though, interestingly, scholars still aren't sure what really happened to it.
07:54 The Great Library of Alexandria - Assassin's Creed Origins
08:07 One of the greatest losses of human knowledge and learning was the destruction of the Great
08:12 Library of Alexandria.
08:14 Interestingly, it's not clear how it was actually destroyed.
08:19 We know at least part of it was burned down by Caesar in the 1st century BC, but it wasn't
08:24 in fact rebuilt.
08:26 But it eventually declined completely.
08:28 We don't know where the scrolls it housed ended up, and it's certainly been gone from
08:33 Alexandria for over 1,000 years, with some records suggesting it was finally destroyed
08:38 by Muslims in the 7th century.
08:40 But in Assassin's Creed Origins, the library is still a landmark and a major center of
08:45 learning in the Mediterranean.
08:47 We can also go and see the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was another of the Seven Wonders of
08:53 the Ancient World until its ruin in the 14th century.
09:01 Baghdad - Assassin's Creed Mirage
09:07 Like New York, Baghdad still exists today, and remains the capital city of Iraq.
09:13 But Baghdad has been destroyed so many times over the centuries that almost none of the
09:18 architecture seen in Mirage still exists.
09:21 It was almost entirely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, during
09:26 a 13-day siege in which the city was razed and its occupants murdered.
09:31 The entirety of the round city, which in Mirage is the heart of the city and where the royal
09:35 palace is found, has been completely lost.
09:39 Ubisoft went to painstaking lengths to try and recreate Baghdad as it would have been
09:44 at the height of the Islamic Golden Age.
09:51 Let us know in the comments which of these lost landmarks is your favorite to explore.
10:03 Thanks for watching!
10:15 (dramatic music)