This list includes the most famous "mysteries of the century", from stones sliding through the desert to incomprehensible underwater sounds that people still managed to solve.

Richard III's grave found

The remains of Richard III, the last English king to die in battle, have been discovered under a car park in the British city of Leicester. It was one of the most striking archaeological finds of recent decades.

Source of the Nile

This may seem too obvious, but even a response like "Lake Victoria" was not that easy to get. It took the most modern technology to get the final clue, because the true location of the source of the Nile for a long time remained a mystery.

Why is the temperature of the "solar atmosphere" higher than the temperature of the surface of the Sun

The answer sounds too scientific, however, one way or another, the mystery was solved in 2009 thanks to a study by a group of European scientists. They managed to find an explanation for the fact that the temperature of the solar "atmosphere" reaches several million degrees Celsius, while the surface of the sun is much "colder" - only 5 thousand degrees Celsius. The answer is that it is the magnetic field that is the source of energy that causes solar flares and coronal plasma ejections.

Finding the flooded

The discovery in 1985, more than 70 years after the disaster, of a sunken ship was completely accidental and can only be explained by the greatest luck of the researchers.

Loch Ness monster

After decades of countless controversy and speculation, the photographer behind the world famous original image loch ness monster, admitted recently that it was a hoax.

Troy

For centuries, mankind considered Troy a mythical city and the Trojan War mostly a legend. This was before the discovery of the remains by the German self-taught archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann ancient city, also called Ilion

"Magic" circles in the Namib Desert

For a long time, people have associated this phenomenon with anything from radioactive radiation to space alien camps. Only relatively recent studies have led to the final conclusion that the "culprits" of such a long intrigue are ... termites! (However, there are other explanations that we wrote about earlier)

The fate of Martin Bormann

One of the top leaders of the Nazi Reich was not located after World War II, despite intensive searches around the world. According to the most famous version, he managed to avoid retribution and hide somewhere in South America, to which there were numerous testimonies that were exaggerated in the press for many years. However, in 1999 his corpse was found in an unmarked grave near the bunker where Hitler committed suicide.

"Fish flatulence" instead of Russian submarines

In the 1980s, Swedish sailors discovered underwater sounds of unknown origin. Many experts attributed them to Russian submarines threatening the free world. The answer caused an explosion of ... laughter - the source of mystical underwater sounds turned out to be the release of digestive gases from clusters of fish. The Swedes were subsequently awarded the so-called. Shnobel Prize.

Tomb of Tutankhamun

With this most "popular" ancient Egyptian pharaoh, a story reminiscent of the "Trojan" was connected. Until the discovery in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings of the completely untouched tomb of Tutankhamen, it was the subject of countless legends and hoaxes.

Eternal Roar

When researchers from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration discovered in the summer of 1997 in the southern part Pacific Ocean a low-frequency sound of unknown origin, at first its origin was attributed to some mysterious, incredibly large and loud animal. Later, however, most scientists agreed that this roar (The Bloop) was caused by the movement of ice masses.

Why do corals pulsate

The pulsation of coral colonies remained an unassailable mystery and the subject of much conjecture for several decades of the last century. This movement could not be explained by any pressing need. In the end, scientists were able to establish that in this way the corals maintain a low oxygen content in the surrounding waters and thereby attract a certain type of migratory algae, which forms the basis of their diet.

In what direction is the Earth's core spinning?

For a very long time, scientists could not understand how the solid inner core of our planet rotates in one direction, while the liquid outer core rotates in the other. Researchers from the University of the British city of Leeds have finally found the answer: the reason lies in the "equally opposite" interaction of near-Earth magnetic fields.

Do women blush in the dark

This question may sound stupid to you, but even Charles Darwin tried to get an answer to it. After all, if you think sensibly, in the dark it is impossible to see if she blushed, and if you turn on the light, then what happens next will no longer take place in the dark, regardless of the result. Fortunately, German researchers have thought of using special cameras that react to thermal radiation to put an end to painful doubts. Yes, women blush in the dark, how!

Antikythera mechanism

The fact that this ancient Greek "computer" was probably used for navigation purposes was known for a very long time (since the device was discovered precisely among the wreckage of a ship). But the fact that a device of a comparable level of complexity was next built by people only a thousand years later is true hard to explain.

Causes of stomach ulcers

For many years, the pharmaceutical industry has made very good money selling anti-stress drugs to treat stomach ulcers. This continued until Australian scientists discovered that ulcers are often caused by a bacterial factor and are very easily cured.

The nature of absolutely black bodies is inexplicable within the framework of classical physics

Classical physics states that an ideal black body in a state of thermal equilibrium will radiate an infinite amount of energy. This is inconsistent with what is actually happening in real world. To explain this phenomenon, the laws of quantum mechanics were required.

sliding stones

If you don't know, there are rocks in different deserts around the world that "slide", that is, move on their own. After several experiments, this effect was explained as follows: the movement of the stones, in all likelihood, is caused by the wind and the presence of ice on the desert surface.

Despite the fact that scientists tirelessly unravel and discover, in the history of mankind, secrets, as if, do not decrease. Lots of mysteries and unsolved mysteries remains in the history of our civilization.

Science is applying more and more modern methods and technologies, history is gradually opening its curtains, but even billions of research budgets and brilliant researchers still cannot answer some very interesting questions, cannot explain the origin of a people or where the whole state has disappeared.

1. Was there Atlantis?

Atlantis - the most famous of the legendary continents ancient world. Plato wrote about it in detail. She was mentioned in their writings by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Posidonius, Strabo and Proclus. According to Plato, the island was located to the west of the Pillars of Hercules, opposite the mountains of Atlanta. During a strong earthquake, he went under water in one day. It happened around 9500 BC.

Atlantis has been searched all over the world, from Gibraltar to Peru and Brazil, but to date there is not a single scientifically based theory of its location.

2. Was there a global flood?

The Flood is mentioned not only in the canonical books of the Bible, but also in the later apocrypha. For example, in the Book of Enoch. There is a story about the flood in other books, in the Jewish Haggadah and Midrash Tanchuma, as well as in the Sumerian myth of Ziusudra. The first Sumerian flood poems that have come down to us date back to XVIII century BC.

There are references to the transgressions of the sea in the myths of all cultures, but was there really a flood? Historians cannot yet give a definite answer. However, it is known, for example, that around 5600 BC. in the Mediterranean there was a real flood, when due to earthquakes the level of the Black Sea rose by 140 meters, it increased by 1.5 times, the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov appeared. Perhaps, for the inhabitants of those places, this was the “global flood”.

3. Who built the pyramids?

No matter how modern reenactors and scientists struggle to solve the riddle of the construction of the pyramids, convincing versions of the way they were built have not yet been found. Some experts say that the pyramids were built from ready-made blocks hewn in the rock, others (Joseph Davilowitz) say that the blocks were already made at the construction site from a mixture of crushed stone and “geopolymer concrete” based on limestone. The incredible complexity of the process casts doubt on all hypotheses. The question of who built the pyramids, slaves or civilian workers, and how many there were, also remains open.

4. Where did the Maya go?

The Mayan civilization was one of the most developed, but by the time the conquistadors arrived, only scattered forest tribes remained from the Mayans, underdeveloped and not representing a serious force. They lived in huts and did not build majestic temples with palaces. Where did the Maya go? The mystery is still unsolved. There are many versions, from epidemic and war to alien intervention, but none of them is proven.

5. Who were the Sumerians?

The world community learned about the Sumerians only in the middle of the 19th century, when scientists proved that there was a state in Mesopotamia, whose age reaches 6000 years. It was from him that Babylon and Assyria inherited their culture.

It is still unknown where the Sumerians came to Mesopotamia. It is assumed that this was a mountainous region, since the words "country" and "mountain" are spelled the same in the Sumerian language. It also had to be an area with advanced technology - the Sumerians were pioneers in many fields of knowledge, from astronomy to physics. Presumably, but not yet proven, that this could be the south of India.

6. Did the Vikings discover America?

The Norman version of the discovery of America is being voiced more and more often, but the Columbus version is still the official one. What is interesting about both of them is that both times America was discovered by mistake (a Scandinavian merchant named Bjarni Herjulfsson was thrown off course due to a storm, and Columbus sailed to India).

There is much less material on the Norman version than on the Columbus one, and not all of them are considered authentic, which greatly undermines its credibility.

7. Who were the Hyksos?

They are called "shepherd kings". It was during their reign that a two-wheeled war chariot appeared in Egypt, which changed the tactics of warfare. Little is known about them. The Hyksos are nomadic tribes, "rulers of the desert highlands", who invaded Egypt around 1700. BC e. They ruled it for over 100 years and even founded a whole dynasty of Hyksos kings. The Hyksos were expelled from Egypt only by the founder of the XVIII dynasty Ahmose I in 1587 BC. e. The question of who exactly the Hyksos were, where they came from and where they disappeared remains open.

8. Why did the Neanderthals die out?

The human and Neanderthal genomes are approximately 99.5% identical, but this does not mean that we are descended from Neanderthals. With monkeys, we have a genome similarity of 98%.

Contrary to popular belief that Neanderthals were semi-wild, they were not. It was a fairly advanced evolutionary branch, they even knew how to make musical instruments. Versions of their disappearance are as follows: 1) Assimilation; 2) Cro-Magnon genocide; 3) The Ice Age, which they did not survive because they did not know how to make clothes as unnecessary.

None of these versions is yet scientifically validated.

9. Where did the Scythians disappear to?

It is believed that Scythia was the first state to disappear as a result of the Great Migration of Nations. The Scythians fought with the Sarmatians, Philip and Alexander the Great, with the Goths and Huns. It is believed that after the defeat by the latter, most of the Scythians died, while many became part of the victorious army. In history, because of this, there is a lot of confusion with the late definition of the Scythians. Some historians rank Chechens and Ossetians among the descendants of the Scythians.

10. What did Alexander the Great die of?

We still do not know where Alexander the Great is buried. This significantly reduces the chances of finding out main riddle- why he died in the prime of his life, at the age of 32. The Persians, whom he mercilessly defeated, claimed that the commander was punished by heaven for desecrating the grave of King Cyrus. The Macedonians who returned home said that the great commander died of drunkenness and debauchery (sources brought us information about his 360 concubines). Roman historians believed that he was poisoned with some kind of Asian slow-acting poison. According to the most common version, Alexander died of malaria. She does not explain why she delivered such a "single blow".

11. Did King Arthur exist?

Almost all of us know King Arthur from childhood. The Arthurian cycle was a bestseller in the Middle Ages, and in our time has become one of the cult phenomena of mass culture. Some critics argue that all fantasy literature came out of Arthuriana. However, the reliability of the existence of Arthur as a separate historical figure has not yet been proven. Probably, the real prototype of Arthur had a different name, or it is a collective image of several prototypes.

12. Why did the plague "mow down" Europe?

In the history of the European plague pandemic, which literally “mowed down” Europe in the Middle Ages, there is a lot of incomprehensible. So, wild rodents, known as such, whose ranges would also extend so far to the north, could not be established. There is no answer to the question of why the Black Death pandemic struck Europe in the same sequence and over the same territories, and at the same time as the first pandemic - the Plague of Justinian (531-589)? How did its centers flare up synchronously over very extended territories of Europe, for example, plague epidemics in Moscow and London in the middle of the 17th century?

13. Where did the gold of the royal family go?

By the start of World War I Russian empire had the largest gold reserves in the world, which was estimated at 1 billion 695 million rubles (1311 tons of gold, more than 60 billion dollars at the rate of the 2000s).

The fate of most of the gold reserves of tsarist Russia is still unknown ("Kolchak's gold"). This was approximately 490 tons of pure gold in bars and coins worth 650 million. According to one version, the Czechoslovak corps stole it, according to another, it was hidden on the orders of Kolchak himself, according to the third, the funds settled in European banks.

14. Where did the Templar gold go?

The countless treasures of the Templars are still legendary. According to the historian Lozinsky, the chief treasurer of the order was the chief treasurer of France, and the king of France, Philip IV the Handsome, was the largest debtor of the order.

After the trial of the Templars, he discovered that there were not so many jewels and gold in the treasuries. Where the Templar gold went is a mystery. It is known that the surviving Templars transported part of the accumulated treasures on ships, but it is not known for certain where. According to the legends, the Templar gold ended up in Nova Scotia - the territory of modern Canada. Some of it is believed to have been transported to Canada's Oak Island, where the descendants of the Knights of the Temple hid it in a trap-filled cache.

15. Where did the 10 tribes of Israel go?

At the end of the 8th century BC, five-sixths of the Jews completely disappeared - 10 out of 12 ethno-forming genera. They have been searched for for 2500 years, and are sometimes found in the most unexpected places - from India to Europe. Even Japan claims to be related to the Lost Tribes. There is a religious movement Makuya, whose representatives claim that the imperial title "Mikado" itself comes from the Jewish mi gadol (great). None of the versions to date is not official.

16. Who built Stonehenge?

Mystery megalithic complex Stonehenge has not yet been unraveled. According to one version, it was built by the Druids, according to another - by the Celts, according to the third - by the ancient Britons, according to the fourth - by Merlin himself. There are those who claim that Stonehenge is a hoax and was built in modern times.

It is also unknown how exactly Stonehenge was built. During the restoration of the complex, which began in 1901 and was completed only in 1964, the stones were moved using cranes, but in the Middle Ages there was no such technique.

17. How were the monuments built on Easter Island?

Among researchers, the most widely accepted theory is that the moai on Easter Island were erected by settlers from the Polynesian islands in the 11th century. How they did it is still unknown. Thor Heyerdahl's experiments were only partially successful. His method of transportation was not suitable for multi-meter colossi weighing 50 tons or more. The Norwegian scientist also failed to explain how caps weighing up to two tons were put on the Maoi.

18. Where was the "cradle" of the Indo-Europeans?

This question is still open. It used to be believed that the "cradle" of the Indo-Europeans was in India, but linguistic analysis refutes this. As a rule, in the region of origin of any language family there are many different languages ​​and dialects of the same family, and in India there is only one Indo-Aryan branch of languages. In Central and Eastern Europe, by contrast, there are hundreds of varieties of Indo-European languages.

The most reliable, although not proven, is the version that the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans was the Volga and Black Sea lands, where archaeologists recorded the Yamnaya culture.

19. What caused the Great Migration of Europe?

The Great Migration destroyed the ancient world, building the Middle Ages on its ruins. Despite many versions, it is still not clear what has become main reason barbarian movements. As is usually the case in such cases, scientists talk about the sum of the factors. Firstly, about overpopulation in Scandinavia, and secondly, about the change climatic conditions(cooling and increased humidity), finally, about a shift in social strata - the tribal elite that came to power was interested in profit. The best target was the Roman Empire.

20. Who sponsored the Bolsheviks?

The question of who financed the revolution in Russia is still debatable. For a long time, the main version was that the German General Staff played the first role in financing, but today more and more historians are inclined to believe that there was support from both England and Wall Street, and even from the Old Believers, who had close business contacts with British industrialists.

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Science and technology are developing incredibly fast - we fly into space, land on other planets and come close to solving the mystery eternal life. However, the world still has something to surprise a person with. Some of the mystical oddities presented below have been frightening and baffling scientists for more than a dozen years - and there is not the slightest sign that they will ever be resolved.

Yeti

A legendary creature seen by many hunters in the mountains. Yeti, Bigfoot, Bigfoot - what is it? A missed step in evolution? Mirage?

Sounds of Taos

In the small town of Taos, New Mexico, residents often hear a strange, inexplicable sound. It is described as the operation of a diesel engine - but, and this is the strangest thing, no electronic devices can fix it. For audio technology, sound simply does not exist, but ordinary people hear it very well.

Voynich manuscript

This strange manuscript was written in a language that could not be deciphered for many centuries, moreover, professional linguistic analysis showed that the pages of the manuscript contain real language, and not some kind of abracadabra. In addition, the drawings show strange creatures and strange plants that simply do not exist in nature.

Jack the Ripper

You must have heard the story of a maniac who killed 11 women. The riddle of this psychopath was never solved, although all the best minds of that time fought over it.

Bermuda Triangle

The end points of the triangle are Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Ships and planes disappeared here, but scientists still do not understand the reasons.

Tamam Shud

Back in December 1948, an unknown man was found dead in the suburbs of the small town of Adelaide, Australia. In his pocket, the police found a piece of paper with the inscription Tamam Shud - this is a part of Omar Khayyam's rubaiyat, which can be translated as "The End". The identity of the man could not be established by any state in the world.

Zodiac

And another maniac, never found by the authorities. This madman liked to send encrypted letters to the police - most of the messages have not been deciphered to this day.

rongorongo

Easter Island, where mysterious monuments were found, contains another mystery - a set of Rongorongo glyphs. Scientists from many countries fought over the decoding of ancient symbols, but without the slightest result.

Loch Ness monster

For centuries, people have heard the story of Loch Ness. Something definitely lives here that we have not yet seen - that's just it is not possible to catch it.

Shroud of Turin

A piece of cloth with an imprint of (allegedly) the face of Jesus Christ. Scientists, in principle, admit the possibility that the face of a dead person could indeed be imprinted on cotton - but they cannot make any exact statements about the identity of the deceased.

Atlantis

Most of the scientific community agrees in a single thought - Atlantis was just an allegory in the mouth of Plato, describing an ideal state. And yet, the search for a sunken civilization does not stop.

wow

Technician Jerry Ehman was working on a project at Wesleyan University in Ohio when he received a strong signal directly from space - more precisely, from the constellation Sagittarius. The transmission went on for 72 seconds and received the name WOW (an analogue of the Russian “Wow!”). Unfortunately, the second time the signal was not repeated.

D.B. cooper

The perfect crime that baffled all US criminalists. D.B. Cooper hijacked the plane and demanded a $200,000 ransom and several parachutes. The authorities decided to cooperate. Having received everything necessary, the criminal jumped out of the plane - he was never seen again.

The miracle happened, despite the fact that the body of a woman who called herself the Russian princess Anastasia was cremated according to her will. The researcher James Lowell, already known to us, made a startling statement: he discovered Anna Anderson's body tissue preserved by medical means! Lowell's statement created a real storm among both "Anastasians" and "anti-Anastasians". A key appeared, with the help of which, in the end, it was possible to get closer to the truth ... Where was the research carried out? Of course, where the belonging of the bone remains of the Russian imperial family was determined. And here's the conclusion...

In the myths and traditions of the peoples who have inhabited Kamchatka since time immemorial, one can often find references to a certain valley in which all living things die - the real Valley of Death. True, according to the hunters, there is actually a place in the area of ​​the Geysernaya River where, for some unknown reason, animals die instantly. The hunters found this area, all covered with the corpses of animals, by chance ... Running up a little later, the hunters saw the valley with amazement. Not far from them lay a dead hare, next to them were dead huskies, in the valley there were many other dead animals: wolverines, bears, birds, foxes and field mice ...

Overcoming the almost unbearable pressure of water at a depth of 235 meters, reaching 23 atmospheres, John Rosier, a 27-year-old diver, was the first to approach the Edinburgh hull. Gathering himself, Rosier forced himself to take the first step. He did not know how much time had passed - it seemed to him an eternity, when suddenly a hand touched the sharp corner of a metal box. Its walls were so corroded by sea water that the diver easily, as if through paper, put his fingers inside the box. No, it was not shells, but massive rectangular bars. For a moment, the joy of the find made Rosier forget about everything except the heavy bars of gold...

The President got up, dressed hastily and, taking a candle, went downstairs from his bedroom, located on the second floor. As he walked up the stairs and corridors, Lincoln noticed that for some reason there was no light anywhere. It was also dark on the first floor, although weeping and groans were heard more distinctly here than upstairs. However, oddly enough, no one was anywhere. Lighting his way with a candle, the president walked through a whole suite of rooms - crying was heard everywhere, but there were no people anywhere. Abraham Lincoln felt uneasy - where are the servants, assistants, guards ?! In the end, he made his way to the east wing of the White House and, exhausted, pushed open the heavy door...

- Look, son, what is written in this book: “Whoever opens the grave of Tamerlane will release the spirit of war. And there will be a battle so bloody and terrible, which the world has not seen forever and ever. Kayumov went cold. More than once, the expedition, which arrived on the orders of Stalin himself, heard about this. Although, they whispered more and more behind their backs ... June 17 - Ulugbek's tomb was opened, they made sure that it was he. The head was cut off, and it is known that the great astronomer was executed allegedly for apostasy. Scientists sighed more calmly - Ulugbek's find gave hope that the remains of Tamerlane would soon be found ...

The artist was never in a hurry to finish his works, because incompleteness is an essential quality of life. To finish means to kill! The slowness of Leonardo was the talk of the town, he could make 2-3 strokes and leave the city for many days, for example, to improve the valleys of Lombardy or was engaged in the creation of an apparatus for walking on water. Almost every one of his significant works is "work in progress". He was the first painter to dissect corpses in order to understand the location and structure of muscles... in the center of the great city, in the cemetery of the monastery of Sant'Orsolo, they found the grave of Lisa Gherardini...

But Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky was the last "freely called out to the kingdom" ruler, that is, a democratically elected tsar! May 19, 1606 in Moscow on Red Square. The time was terrible. Two days ago, at 4 am on May 17, crowds of Muscovites broke into the Kremlin, killed the Poles who occupied it. Boyar Valuev shot at the hated False Dmitry I, who was immediately cut down with swords. For three days the body of Grishka Otrepyev lay stinking on Red Square. Someone even put a theatrical mask on the naked false ruler, apparently hinting at the fact that this king adored theatrical games, considered by the people to be diabolical ...

1911, August 21 - the masterpiece was stolen. The thief did not seek to resell the painting on the "black market", he was one of the employees of the Louvre, a famous Italian mirror maker. His name was Vincenzo Perugia. He did not want to cause any harm to the picture, but tried to take it to his homeland - out of patriotic motives. While trying to sell the painting to a Florentine antique dealer, he was arrested. So after more than two years, the painting returned to the museum. During all this time, "La Gioconda" did not leave the covers of newspapers and magazines of various countries. So the canvas became the subject of a kind of artistic cult all over the world ...

The secrets of the history of our world are full of unknown and undisclosed secrets that remain a mystery to us. The secrets of history attract us with their unchanging past, great personalities, disappeared ancient cities and civilizations, mysterious finds...
| © Unknown world

As soon as sometimes a person does not call himself? And the king of nature, and the crown of creation, and Homo sapiens. But is it really so? Both on the planet Earth and in the Cosmos there is a lot of unexplored secret and mysterious things. Man cannot unravel the secrets of nature, riddles ancient civilizations to comprehend inexplicable and mystical phenomena. And I want to know everything!

Twins are a truly amazing phenomenon, especially when you consider that there are twins not only in the flesh, but also ghostly. And sometimes they arise not only spontaneously, but also deliberately, according to someone's will, and then the boundaries of being a ghost and a being in the flesh literally disappear.

Each of us at least once! heard about monsters living in the depths of some reservoirs. The most famous of them, of course, is the mysterious animal from the Scottish Loch Ness. But it also has its own mysterious underwater creatures, encounters with which do not bode well. Some consider them to be relic lizards or fish preserved from ancient times, others - a play of the imagination or a consequence of natural anomalies. But what are these monsters really?

Along the pages of Slavic epics and legends, in addition to gods and heroes, dozens of amazing creatures roam freely, no less interesting. But we know much less about them.

Probably, many have heard about the miraculous weeping and bleeding icons. There are many legends about their miraculous acquisition and renewal. But there are icons that have very strange properties. Sometimes this is the work of human hands, and sometimes it is very difficult to explain the "anomaly".

Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is one of the oldest monasteries in the world. For centuries, legends have been told about him. But the most mysterious of them is about the cursed treasure of the black prince Mafawa, which to this day haunts treasure hunters.

At all times in Russia, people treated icons with reverence. In almost every house, holy images hung in the most honorable place - in the red corner. In trouble and illness, they turned to them for help. There are many cases when icons helped to overcome adversity. However, studying the healing power of icons, scientists discovered that the impact of some of them can be ... dangerous for humans.

Even those who do not particularly like forest walks know that the swamp is a dead place.
True, mushroom pickers and hunters are not embarrassed. After all, it is in the swampy area that there are many berries and mushrooms, and hunting there brings rich trophies. The Tikhvin swamps on the Veps Upland, north of St. Petersburg, are especially notorious.