The first Constitution in the world and a complex that's older than the Egyptian pyramids: 10 facts about Ukraine that you can be proud of. Photo

Ukraine is a unique country with a thousand-year history that is worth fighting for. The Zaporozhian Sich is considered one of the world's first democracies, and Pylyp Orlyk's Constitution was the first in Europe to prove the possibility of a parliamentary democratic republic.

OBOZ.UA has collected 10 facts about Ukraine that we should be proud of.

1. The stone grave near Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region, over the Molochna River is an isolated complex of large stone blocks up to 12 meters high, which is of natural origin. This place was used by ancient people as a sanctuary, it is older than the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge. More than three thousand rock paintings from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age and later are concentrated there.

Currently, this territory is temporarily occupied by the Russian terrorist army.

2. The UNESCO World Heritage List includes eight sites from Ukraine. These are:

- the historic center of Lviv;

- The historic center of Odesa;

- St. Sophia Cathedral and related monastery buildings, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, and the Church of the Savior on Berestovo;

- ancient beech forests in the Carpathians;

- the residence of the Metropolitans of Bukovyna and Dalmatia in Chernivtsi;

- the ancient city of Chersonesos Tavriya;

- a number of wooden churches: St. George's in Drohobych, the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Matkiv, the Holy Trinity in Zhovkva and the Descent of the Holy Spirit in the village of Potelych in Lviv region, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Nyzhniy Verbizh and the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Rohatyn in Ivano-Frankivsk region, Archangel Michael in the village of Uzhok, and the Ascension of the Lord in the village of Yasinia in Zakarpattia region;

- the point of the geodesic arc of Struve (Katerynivka village in Khmelnytskyi region).

3. On April 5, 1710, on the day he was elected hetman, Pylyp Orlyk proclaimed the"Constitution of the Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporozhian Army." Although it did not enter into legal force (the document was drawn up in a foreign country, and its authors were unable to return to the country), Orlyk's Constitution can be considered the first in the world. In the United States, the constitution was adopted in 1787, and in France and Poland - only in 1791.

4. Ukrainian inventors gave the world the helicopter (Igor Sikorsky), bloodless blood test (Anatolii Malykhin), and 14 years before the invention of the machine, the first X-ray of a skeleton (Ivan Pului), the kinescope (Yosyp Tymchenko), the electric tram (Fedir Pirotskyi), and more.

5. Only six monasteries in the world have the status of Lavra. Three of them are located in Ukraine. These are the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (the capital of the country), the Pochayiv Lavra (Ternopil region), and the Sviatohirsk Lavra (Donetsk region).

6. Destroyed by the occupation forces at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian An-225 Mriya aircraft set 462 aviation records, including more than 240 world records. It was designed at the Kyiv Mechanical Plant and was originally intended to transport spacecraft. This aircraft carried the heaviest cargo in the history of aviation - 253.8 tons.

7. In the eleventh century, Kyiv was the largest city in Europe, about 50 times larger than London and 10 times larger than Paris.

8. The person immortalized by the largest number of monuments in the world is our prophet, thinker, writer and artist Taras Shevchenko. There are 1384 monuments to Shevchenko in 35 countries.

9. The Ostroh Academy is the first higher education institution in Eastern Europe and the oldest Ukrainian scientific and educational institution. It was founded by Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozkyi in 1576.

By the way, in modern Ukraine, the percentage of the population with higher education is higher than the European average.

10. One of the most famous Christmas songs in the world is "Shchedryk" by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. The world knows it as Carol of the Bells or Ring Christmas Bells.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA told you more about Ivan Pului, our outstanding compatriot who made discoveries in various scientific fields. You can find the material here.

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