20 - The Turin Shroud
The Turin Shroud, a mysterious Christ-like face miraculously imprinted on a linen cloth, has puzzled experts for hundreds of years. Since being discovered in the middle-ages, it has been claimed that the face is an imprint left from being used to cover the body of Jesus after his crucifixion.
While some doubt its origins, scientists have been unable to fully explain the origins of the shroud or how the image came to be. Since 1958, the Catholic Church has accepted the strange shroud as a genuine article, and with no other answer, could this be the only remaining image of Christ?
19 - The Fall of the Mayans
While pyramids where being built in Egypt and mathematics were being discovered in Greece, a little known civilization were doing the exact same thing in America. The Mayans, who lived in modern-day Mexico, built great cities of stone with populations of thousands, studied the stars and created their own writing, an advanced civilization that could have rivalled Europe.
But, suddenly, the Mayans vanished without a trace, leaving only their abandoned cities. Some believe that they were visited by aliens, pointing to their strange art and calendars, others that a great disaster occurred, but it is all unknown now. Their cities today are only visited by tourists and weeds.
18 - The Phaistos Disc
The Minoans were ancient Greeks living around the island of Crete thousands of years ago, rich and powerful traders. They left behind them writing, pottery, metal working and a number of unexplained mysteries, including the Phaistos Disc, discovered a hundred years ago.
The Disc is a wheel covered in a form of writing which has eluded deciphering ever since its discovery, made up of strange representations of men and beasts, different from other Minoan writing. Its use and meaning can only be guessed at, but it is clear from its size and design that it was a hugely important object.
17 – Wow!
On the 15th of August, 1977, Jerry Ehman was working for Ohio State University's 'Big Ear' project, which picked up radio waves from deep space, when something very strange happened. Usually, all that the Big Ear would hear was random background radiation from space, but that day something else was heard: for a full 72 seconds, a clear message was picked up, from a position in space.
Jerry printed out the readings and from his excited notes, the 'Wow!' signal was named. Ever since, scientists have tried to explain or find the signal again, with no success, but the clarity of the broadcast have led many to believe that it was a message from intelligent life.16 - The Voynich Manuscript
One of the strangest mysteries on our list is The Voynich Manuscript, a book that has been a complete mystery ever since it was found, despite being studied for over 500 years by experts both ancient and modern.
The book is 240 pages of bizarre writing and images, showing plants, animals and star systems. The language is not based on any known, the plants and animals aren't found on earth, and everyone that has studied it, from WW2 code-breakers to the NSA, have been stumped. Theories for it include otherworldly influence due to its completely alien content.15 - The Beale ciphers
$63 million of buried treasure laying hidden in Virginia? No wonder these strange texts are still examined today. The story goes that a mysterious man left three coded messages with a bar-man which tell the location of a massive store of gold, jewels and silver and then disappeared forever.
To this day, only one of the three texts has been decoded, which gives the general area of Bedford County, while the remaining two remain unknown. Treasure hunters have tried, and failed, to find the loot for the last 150 years, but the search continues…
14 - The Gilgo Beach Killer
A modern day Jack the Ripper, the Gilgo Beach Killer has been eluding police for over 20 years, hunting women via the internet and then dumping their bodies along Long Island, usually concealed in burlap sacks.
The scariest bit? Some believe that as the killer seems to be able to elude police due to his knowledge of their investigation, that he may actually be one of them or at least have ties to the police force. The killer even left haunting voice messages to the daughter of one of his victims with the girl's cell-phone, and is at large to this day.
13 - Death of Poe
Edgar Allen Poe was the famous American horror writer who's death became stranger than his fiction. Poe mysteriously vanished from his New York home for a whole week despite search parties, before emerging in Baltimore in great distress.
He wore the clothes of another man, was haggard and filthy and babbled without making any sense. After being taken to a doctor, he died soon afterwards without being able to explain what had happened to him or how he came to be. Many have tried to explain this bizarre behaviour, but no answer has ever been found.
12 - The Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac mysteries, those strange letters sent to the press from a serial killer, have sparked endless debate, study and even a David Fincher movie since the murderer began taunting the police in 1969.
The man sent cryptic clues and messages in a strange code of his own in notes that remain largely unsolved, boasting about the deaths of over forty people. While in the film the killer was identified and caught via the notes, in reality no-one was ever caught and today remains an open case with police investigators working for the California justice system.
11 - The mystery of MH370
A more modern mystery, the disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370 is all the more strange for its complete disappearance in an age of satellites and GPS. The flight lost contact with air control and began a mysterious deviation from its planned route for several hundred of miles before vanishing completely without trace.
The flight, with its hundreds of passengers, was never heard from again, or any wreckage found. While speculation has continued ever since, with hijackers, mechanical fault and rogue pilots being considered, it seems no one answer will ever be clear.
10 - The Siberian sink-holes
After a massive unexplained eruption in the remote region of Russia that sent rock hundreds of miles, a strange crater appeared in Siberia. No stranger to bizarre, unexplained occurrences, this icy wilderness became the focus of international speculation and scientific study.
Explanations have covered everything from underground gas deposits, strikes from meteorites and even illegal Russian government activity, but with the frigid conditions and difficulty in study, the Siberian sink-holes will be a mystery for time to come in the area known in Russian as “The end of the world”.
9 - The Hoard of Saddle Ridge
In what must be a dream come true for anyone, a Californian couple found a hidden collection of treasure right in their backyard. The man and wife, who wisely chose to remain anonymous, live in an area that was part of the Gold Rush in the 1850's and while walking on a trail on their property spotted an old rusted can. To their amazement they opened it to find a stash of coins that were worth, in the 1800's, nearly $28,000. Today, they are worth ... $10 million.
The origins of the stash, the largest ever found in America, are a mystery. Theories go that it was a hidden bank theft, a gold miner's lost fortune or even Jesse James' private hold. With no original owner likely to claim it, the couple are the luckiest walkers in California.
8 – Stonehenge
One of the most iconic of the world's ancient wonders can be summed up in one word: Why? Why did ancient Britons drag rock from Wales without the use of a wheel hundreds of miles? Why did they choose that specific place? Why the connection with the solar calender? As the builders left no clue in writing to their decision, the answer will never be known.
The 'How' of Stonehenge is equally fascinating, created as it was no advanced tools and requiring a huge group of people co-ordinated in building this seemingly useless, but impressive, piece of famous architecture7 - Georgia Guide-stones
These impressive granite stones are strangest because of their relatively recent construction: in the 1980's a building firm was contracted by an unknown individual, or individuals, to build a monument covered with bizarre guidelines in various ancient languages. With the creator still unknown, many have guessed that they may be slightly darker than just a regular art piece.
The stones have various messages such as controlling human population and prizing truth and beauty, leading some to believe they may be from a secret order or society. In fact, they were defaced a number of times by people claiming that they wouldn't follow the stones and instead followed Christ.
6 – Rongorongo
Rongorongo is another strange writing system, found on ancient relics from Easter Island. Most famous for the stone head statues which also hold secret messages, the writing system was stranger due to the fact that the residents of the island of the time couldn't agree on how they were read.
The writing system was similar to the hieroglyphics of Egypt, with pictures representing words or phrases. Hundreds of years of study in trying to understand Rongorongo have only lead to confusion. While some believe that they hold the key to understanding the collapse of civilization on the island, they will remain a mystery perhaps forever.5 - Christie's Lost Week
In 1926, Agatha Christie was one of the most famous writers in Britain. How she managed to vanish for ten whole days then, is a story fit for one of her novels. She simply left her home one night, and reappeared in a hotel many miles away after a period of ten days.
What is remarkable is that during this time, thousands of police and members of the public searched for her, newspapers from London to New York featured her on their front pages, and all that was found was an abandoned car belonging to her overlooking a mine. Later on, after her emerging at a small hotel, she could give no explanation for her whereabouts or what happened to her.4 - The Kryptos Code
Standing in front of the CIA is a modern-day mystery made of stone that can be visited today, the Kryptos Code. The unknown text has stood undiscovered for over thirty years, with only three parts coming to light.
Recently, the creator has begun to release small hints to understand his work, but with the NSA, the CIA and top computer scientists failing to complete the puzzle, the Kryptos remains as an open challenge to anyone brave enough to try. The three parts which have been cracked refer to strange messages about light, but without the elusive final piece in the jigsaw, little sense can be made of the stone.
3 - Shugborough inscription
O U O S V A VV : these eight simple letters, carved into a marble statue, have puzzled experts for hundreds of years. Found on a monument in a park in England, no explanation has ever been accepted for the Shugborough inscription.
A leading theory is that the code points to the location of a holy relic, perhaps even the Holy Grail itself, due to the creators involvement in shady secret societies. The code appears in books related to the hunt for the grail, and made an entrance in Dan Brown's famous mystery book 'The Da Vinci Code'
2 - The Hum
The Hum is the name applied to an unexplained background noise which is barely perceptible in the Mexican town of Taos. The Hum has been said to sound like a car engine, but the tiny town, despite the noise continuing for many decades has never been able to find the source.
Some have even be said to be driven mad trying to explain it, and many reports have been written about it. Theories range from secret government projects to migrating animals and even alien interference, but no single cause has ever been discovered to explain the mysterious noise.
1 - Jack the Ripper
Finally, perhaps the most famous mystery of all time. In foggy Victorian East-End London, a killer roamed, preying on the many prostitutes that worked there. Up to nine young woman were found, mutilated, with organs removed. The term 'Ripper' may be a little off here, as Jack seemed to work with a surgeon's precision and skill, carefully making incisions with steel tools after death.
Despite the fact that he operated in the open and sent the police mocking letters, his identity was never found. Popular theories state that he moved to America to continue his beastly work, or that he was a member of the English Royal Family. Researchers continue to attempt to find Jack to this very day.For More Posts Go To Main Blog
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