Despite the fact that scientists tirelessly unravel and discover, the mysteries in the history of mankind do not seem to decrease. A lot 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 lifting its curtains, but even billion-dollar research budgets and brilliant researchers still cannot answer some very interesting questions, cannot explain the origin of a people or where an entire state disappeared to.

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 Atlanta Mountains. During a strong earthquake, he went under water in one day. This happened around 9500 BC.

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

2. Was there a Great 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. The story of the flood can be found in other books, in the Jewish Haggadah and Midrash Tankhuma, as well as in the Sumerian myth of Ziusudra. The first surviving Sumerian flood poems date back to the 18th century BC.

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

3. Who built the pyramids?

No matter how modern reconstructors and scientists struggle to solve the riddle of the construction of the pyramids, convincing versions of the method of their construction have not yet been found. Some experts say that the pyramids were built from ready-made blocks hewn out of the rock, others (Joseph Davilowitz) say that the blocks were made at the construction site from a mixture of stone chips and “ geopolymer concrete» based on limestone. The incredible complexity of the process calls into question all hypotheses. The question also remains open about who built the pyramids, slaves or civilian workers, and how many there were.

4. Where did the Mayans go?

The Mayan civilization was one of the most developed, but by the time the conquistadors arrived, only scattered forest tribes remained of the Mayans, underdeveloped and not representing a serious force. They lived in huts and did not build majestic temples and palaces. Where did the Mayans go? The mystery is still not solved. 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 in Mesopotamia there existed a state whose age reaches 6,000 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 in the Sumerian language the words "country" and "mountain" are spelled the same. It also had to be an area with advanced technology - the Sumerians were pioneers in many fields of knowledge, from astronomy to physics. It is speculative, but not yet proven, that this could be in 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's interesting about both of them is that both times America was discovered by mistake (a Scandinavian trader named Bjarni Herjulfsson lost his course due to a storm, and Columbus sailed to India).

There is much less material on the Norman version than on the Columbus version, 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 military chariot appeared in Egypt, which changed the tactics of warfare. Little is known about them. The Hyksos were nomadic tribes, “rulers of the desert highlands,” who invaded Egypt around 1700. BC e. They ruled it for more than 100 years and even founded an entire dynasty of Hyksos kings. The Hyksos were expelled from Egypt only by the founder of the 18th 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 Neanderthals go extinct?

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

Contrary to popular belief that Neanderthals were semi-savage, they were not. This was a fairly developed evolutionary branch; they even knew how to make musical instruments. The 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 they were unnecessary.

None of these versions is yet scientifically legitimized.

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. The Scythians fought with the Sarmatians, Philip and Alexander the Great, with the Goths and Huns. It is believed that after the defeat of the latter, most of the Scythians died, while many became part of the winning army. In history, because of this, there is a lot of confusion with the later definition of the Scythians. Some historians count Chechens and Ossetians among the descendants of the Scythians.

10. Why did Alexander the Great die?

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

11. Did King Arthur exist?

Almost all of us have known King Arthur since childhood. The Arthurian cycle was a bestseller back in the Middle Ages, and in our time it has become one of the cult phenomena popular culture. Some critics argue that all fantasy literature came out of Arthuriana. However, the authenticity of Arthur's existence 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?

There is a lot that is unclear in the story of the European plague pandemic, which literally “decimated” Europe in the Middle Ages. Thus, it was not possible to identify wild rodents known as such, whose habitats would also extend so far to the north. 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 for the same time, as the first pandemic - the Plague of Justinian (531-589)? How did its outbreaks flare up synchronously over very extensive areas of Europe, for example, the plague epidemic in Moscow and London in the middle of the 17th century?

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

By the beginning of the First World War Russian Empire had the world's largest gold reserves, which were estimated at 1 billion 695 million rubles (1311 tons of gold, more than 60 billion dollars at the exchange 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, valued at 650 million. According to one version, it was stolen by the Czechoslovak corps, according to another, it was hidden on the orders of Kolchak himself, according to the third, the funds ended up 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 largest debtor of the order was King Philip IV the Fair of France.

After the trial of the Templars, he discovered that there was not much jewelry 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 where is not known for certain. If you believe the legends, the Templar gold ended up in Nova Scotia - the territory of modern Canada. It is believed that part of it was transported to the Canadian Oak Island, where the descendants of the temple knights hid it in a cache with numerous traps.

15. Where did the 10 tribes of Israel go?

At the end of the 8th century BC, five-sixths of Jews disappeared completely - 10 out of 12 ethnic groups. They have been sought for for 2,500 years, and are sometimes found in the most unexpected places - from India to Europe. Even in Japan they claim their kinship with the lost tribes. There is a religious movement called Makuya, whose representatives claim that the imperial title “Mikado” itself comes from the Hebrew mi gadol (great). None of the versions is official today.

16. Who built Stonehenge?

Mystery megalithic complex Stonehenge has not yet been solved. 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 exactly how Stonehenge was built. During the restoration of the complex, which began in 1901 and was completed only in 1964, the stones were rearranged using cranes, but in the Middle Ages there was no such equipment.

17. How were the monuments built on Easter Island?

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

18. Where was the “cradle” of the Indo-Europeans?

This question still remains open. It was previously believed that the “cradle” of the Indo-Europeans was in India, but linguistic analysis refutes this. Typically, in the region of origin of a language family there are many different languages ​​and dialects of the same family, and India has only one Indo-Aryan branch of languages. In Central and Eastern Europe In contrast, there are hundreds of varieties of Indo-European languages.

The most reliable, although not proven, version is that the ancestral homeland 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 happened main reason barbarian movements. As is usually the case in such cases, scientists talk about the sum of factors. Firstly, about overpopulation in Scandinavia, secondly, about the change climatic conditions(cooling and increasing 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 whose money the revolution in Russia was carried out still remains 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 support came from England, from Wall Street, and even from the Old Believers, who had close business relationships. contacts with English industrialists.

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Interesting events and mysteries in the history of mankind

Here you will find the most interesting articles about the world's mysteries of history, science, and mysticism. The section contains analytical articles about interesting historical events, scientific inventions, great personalities and their lives and deaths.

The section is regularly updated with fresh articles, from which you can learn previously unknown historical facts, secrets and mysteries of famous world events. These are detailed analytical studies based on official documents and scientific developments. In many materials you can find valuable archives of photographs and documents.

All the most interesting things in one place

By reading the articles in this section, you will become acquainted with many interesting facts and the mysteries of history humanity, which is unknown to the general public, and you will be able to show off your erudition in any company. Knowing the details of great events, you will always be in the spotlight and will be able to tell your friends and family a lot of interesting information.

In this section you will find out whether Ivan the Terrible really killed his son, how some people travel through time, where the ghost of Stalin wanders, and much more. The materials contain valuable information not previously published anywhere, as well as archival photographs and documents on the topic of mysterious historical events. The articles highlight the main problems of our time that concern everyone not only in Russia, but also abroad.

Many will be interested to know how intelligence services and fortune tellers helped rulers decide important government issues, why Lenin was hiding in Antarctica, what sensations are hidden in the declassified archives of the Third Reich. You will find out which historical riddles the correct answers have not yet been found and get acquainted with the best hypotheses of experts.

This news feed is for you if you are tired of boring political news, showbiz gossip and disaster reports. Only intellectually useful information, with scientific justifications and proof of hypotheses - there is always something to read on any topic that interests you! Collections with photographs of paintings by great artists, important world inventions, evidence of inexplicable phenomena - all this will give you true aesthetic pleasure and significantly expand your horizons.

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Each of these mysterious stories could be called a detective story. But in detective stories, as you know, all the secrets are revealed by the last page. And in these stories, the solution is still far away, although humanity has been puzzling over some of them for decades. Perhaps we are not destined to find answers for them at all? Or will the veil of secrecy ever be lifted? What do you think?

43 missing Mexican students

In 2014, 43 students from the College of Education from Ayotzinapa went to demonstrate in Iguala, where the mayor's wife was scheduled to speak to residents. The corrupt mayor ordered the police to rid him of this problem. On his orders, the police detained the students, and as a result of the harsh detention, two students and three bystanders died. The remaining students, as we found out, were handed over to the local crime syndicate Guerreros Unidos. The next day, the body of one of the students was found on the street with the skin torn off his face. Later, the remains of two more students were found. Relatives and friends of the students organized mass demonstrations, triggering a full-scale political crisis in the country. The corrupt mayor, his friends and the chief of police tried to escape, but were detained a few weeks later. The provincial governor resigned, and several dozen police officers and officials were arrested. And only one thing remains a mystery - the fate of almost four dozen students is still unknown.

Oak Island Money Pit

Off the coast of Nova Scotia, on Canadian territory, there is a small island - Oak Island, or Oak Island. There is the famous " money pit". According to legend, local residents they found it back in 1795. This is a very deep and complexly constructed mine, in which, according to legend, countless treasures are hidden. Many have tried to get into it - but the design is treacherous, and after the treasure hunter has dug to a certain depth, the mine begins to be intensively filled with water. They say that brave souls found at a depth of 40 meters a stone tablet with the scrawled inscription: “Two million pounds are buried 15 meters deeper.” More than one generation has tried to get the promised treasure out of the hole. Even the future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, during his student years at Harvard, came to Oak Island with a group of friends to try his luck. But the treasure is not given to anyone. And is he there?..

Who was Benjamin Kyle?

In 2004, an unknown man woke up outside a Burger King in Georgia. He had no clothes on, there were no documents with him, but the worst thing was that he didn’t remember anything about himself. That is, absolutely nothing! The police conducted a thorough investigation, but were unable to find any traces: neither missing people with such characteristics, nor relatives who could identify him from a photo. He was soon given the name Benjamin Kyle, under which he continues to live to this day. Without documents or certificates of any education, he could not find a job, but one local businessman, having learned about him from a television program, out of pity, gave him a job as a dishwasher. He still works there now. The efforts of doctors to awaken his memory, and the police to find his previous traces, did not yield results.

Shore of Severed Legs

"Severed Legs Coast" is the name given to a beach on the Pacific Northwest coast British Columbia. It received this terrible name because local residents several times found severed human legs here, shod in sneakers or trainers. From 2007 to the present, 17 of them have been found, with the majority being right-wing. There are several theories explaining why legs wash up on this shore - natural disasters, work serial killer... some even claim that the mafia is destroying the bodies of its victims on this remote beach. But none of these theories looks convincing, and no one knows where the truth is.

"Dancing Death" 1518

One day in the summer of 1518 in Strasbourg, a woman suddenly began dancing in the middle of the street. She danced wildly until she fell from exhaustion. The strangest thing is that gradually others joined her. A week later, 34 people were dancing in the city, and a month later - 400. Many dancers died from overwork and heart attacks. The doctors did not know what to think, and the churchmen also could not exorcise the demons possessing the dancers. In the end, it was decided to leave the dancers alone. The fever gradually subsided, but no one ever knew what caused it. They talked about some special type of epilepsy, about poisoning, and even about a secret, pre-coordinated religious ceremony. But scientists of that time did not find an exact answer.

Signal from aliens

On August 15, 1977, Jerry Eman, who was monitoring signals from space at the volunteer Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Civilizations, picked up a signal at a random radio frequency, clearly coming from deep space, from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. This signal was much stronger than the cosmic noise that Eman was used to hearing on the air. It lasted only 72 seconds and consisted of a completely definite, in the eye of the observer, completely random list of letters and numbers, which, however, was accurately reproduced several times in a row. Eman disciplinedly recorded the sequence and reported it to his colleagues in the search for aliens. However, further listening to this frequency did not yield anything, as did any attempts to catch at least some signal from the constellation Sagittarius. What it was - a prank by completely earthly jokers or an attempt by an extraterrestrial civilization to contact us - no one still knows.

Unknown from Somerton Beach

Here's another perfect murder, the mystery of which has still not been solved. On December 1, 1948, in Australia, on Somerton Beach in southern Adelaide, the body of an unknown man was discovered. There were no documents with him, only a note with two words: “Taman Shud” was found in one of his pockets. It was a line from Omar Khayyam's rubaiyat, meaning "the end." The cause of death of the unknown man could not be determined. The forensic investigator believed that it was a case of poisoning, but could not prove it. Others believed it was a suicide, but this claim was also unsubstantiated. The mysterious case has alarmed not only Australia, but the whole world. They tried to establish the identity of the unknown person in almost all countries of Europe and America, but the efforts of the police were in vain, and the history of Taman Shud remained shrouded in secrecy.

Confederate Treasures

This legend still haunts American treasure hunters - and not only them. According to legend, when the northerners were already close to victory in the Civil War, the treasurer of the Confederate government, George Trenholm, in desperation, decided to deprive the victors of their rightful spoils - the treasury of the southerners. Confederate President Jefferson Davis personally took on this mission. He and his guards left Richmond with a huge cargo of gold, silver and jewelry. No one knows where they went, but when the northerners took Davis prisoner, he had no jewelry with him, and 4 tons of Mexican gold dollars also disappeared without a trace. Davis never revealed the secret of the gold. Some believe that he distributed it to the planters of the South so that they could bury it until better times, others believe that it is buried somewhere in the vicinity of Danville, Virginia. Some believe that the secret society of the Knights of the Golden Circle, who were secretly preparing revenge in the Civil War, put their paws on him. Some even say that the treasure is hidden at the bottom of the lake. Dozens of treasure hunters are still looking for him, but none of them can get to the bottom of either the money or the truth.

Voynich manuscript

The mysterious book, known as the Voynich manuscript, is named after the Polish-born American bookseller Wilfred Voynich, who bought it from an unknown person in 1912. In 1915, having taken a closer look at the find, he told the whole world about it - and since then many have not known peace. According to scientists, the manuscript was written in the 15th-16th centuries in central Europe. The book contains a lot of text, written in neat handwriting, and hundreds of drawings depicting plants, most of which are unknown to modern science. The signs of the zodiac and medicinal herbs are also drawn here, accompanied by text, apparently, of recipes for their use. However, the contents of the text are just speculations of scientists who have not been able to understand it. The reason is simple: the book is written in a language still unknown on Earth, which is also practically indecipherable. Who wrote the Voynich manuscript and why, we may not know even in centuries.

Karst wells of Yamal

In July 2014, an inexplicable explosion was heard in Yamal, as a result of which a huge well appeared in the ground, the width and height of which reached 40 meters! Yamal is not the most populated place on the planet, so no one was injured from the explosion and the appearance of a sinkhole. However, this is strange and potentially dangerous phenomenon required an explanation, and a scientific expedition set off for Yamal. It included everyone who could be useful in studying the strange phenomenon - from geographers to experienced mountain climbers. However, upon arrival, they were unable to understand the reasons and nature of what had happened. Moreover, while the expedition was working, two more similar failures appeared in Yamal in exactly the same way! Until now, scientists have been able to put forward only one version - about periodic explosions natural gas coming to the surface from underground. However, experts consider it unconvincing. The Yamal failures remain a mystery.

Antikythera Mechanism

Discovered by treasure hunters on a sunken ancient Greek ship at the beginning of the twentieth century, this device, which at first seemed like just another artifact, turned out to be, no less, the first analog computer in history! A complex system of bronze disks, made with precision and accuracy unimaginable in those distant times, made it possible to calculate the position of stars and luminaries in the sky, time in accordance with different calendars and the dates of the Olympic Games. According to the results of the analyses, the device was made at the turn of the millennium - about a century before the birth of Christ, 1600 years before the discoveries of Galileo and 1700 before the birth of Isaac Newton. This device was more than a thousand years ahead of its time and still amazes scientists.

Sea people

The Bronze Age, which lasted approximately from the XXXV to the X century BC, was the heyday of several European and Middle Eastern civilizations - Greek, Cretan, Cananese. People developed metallurgy, created impressive architectural monuments, and tools became more complex. It seemed that humanity was moving by leaps and bounds towards prosperity. But everything collapsed within a few years. The civilized peoples of Europe and Asia were attacked by a horde of “people of the sea” - barbarians on countless ships. They burned and destroyed cities and villages, burned food, killed and took people into slavery. After their invasion, ruins remained everywhere. Civilization was thrown back at least a thousand years ago. In once powerful and educated countries, writing disappeared, and many secrets of construction and working with metals were lost. The most mysterious thing is that after the invasion, the “sea people” disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared. Scientists are still wondering who and where this people were from and what their further fate. But there is no clear answer to this question yet.

Murder of the Black Dahlia

Books were written and films were made about this legendary murder, but it was never solved. On January 15, 1947, 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short was found brutally murdered in Los Angeles. Her naked body was subjected to cruel abuse: it was practically cut in half and bore traces of many injuries. At the same time, the body was washed clean and completely devoid of blood. This story was widely circulated by journalists, giving Short the nickname “black dahlia.” Despite an active search, the police were unable to find the killer. The Black Dahlia case is considered one of the oldest unsolved murders in Los Angeles.

Motor ship "Ourang Medan"

In early 1948, the Dutch ship Ourang Medan sent an SOS signal while in the Strait of Mallaka off the coast of Sumatra and Malaysia. According to eyewitnesses, the radio message said that the captain and the entire crew were dead, and it ended with the chilling words: “And I am dying.” The captain of the Silver Star, having heard the distress signal, went in search of the Ourang Medan. Having discovered the ship in the Strait of Malacca, sailors from the Silver Star boarded it and saw that it was indeed full of corpses, and the cause of death was not visible on the bodies. Soon the rescuers noticed suspicious smoke coming from the hold and, just in case, chose to return to their ship. And they did the right thing, because soon the Ourang Medan spontaneously exploded and sank. Of course, because of this, the possibility of an investigation became zero. Why the crew died and the ship exploded is still a mystery.

Baghdad battery

Until recently, it was believed that humanity mastered the production and use of electric current only at the end of the 18th century. However, an artifact found by archaeologists in the region of ancient Mesopotamia in 1936 casts doubt on this conclusion. The device consists of a clay pot in which the battery itself is hidden: an iron core wrapped in copper, which is believed to have been filled with some kind of acid, after which it began to generate electricity. For many years, archaeologists debated whether the devices were actually related to the generation of electricity. In the end, they collected the same primitive products - and managed to generate electric current with their help! So, did they really know how to install electric lighting in ancient Mesopotamia? Since written sources from that era have not survived, this mystery will now probably forever excite scientists.

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Mysterious murders at the Hinterkaifeck farm

In 1922, the mysterious murder of six people committed in the small village of Hinterkaifeck shocked the whole of Germany. And not only because the murders were committed with horrific cruelty.

All the circumstances surrounding this crime were very strange, even mystical, and to this day it remains unsolved.

More than 100 people were questioned during the investigation, but no one was ever arrested. Not a single motive that could somehow explain what happened was identified either.

The maid who worked in the house ran away six months ago, claiming that there were ghosts there. The new girl arrived just a few hours before the murder.

Apparently, the intruder had been on the farm for at least several days - someone was feeding the cows and eating in the kitchen. In addition, neighbors saw smoke coming from the chimney over the weekend. The photo shows the body of one of the dead, found in a barn.

Phoenix Lights

The so-called “Phoenix Lights” are several flying objects that were observed by more than 1,000 people on the night of Thursday, March 13, 1997: in the skies over the states of Arizona and Nevada in the United States and over the state of Sonora in Mexico.

Actually, two strange events happened that night: a triangular formation of luminous objects that moved across the sky, and several motionless lights hovering over the city of Phoenix. However, the latest US Air Force recognized the lights from the A-10 Warthog aircraft - it turned out that at that time military exercises were taking place in southwest Arizona.

Astronaut from Solway Firth

In 1964, the family of Briton Jim Templeton was walking near the Solway Firth. The head of the family decided to take a Kodak photograph of his five-year-old daughter. The Templetons assured that there was no one else in these swampy places except them. And when the photographs were developed, one of them revealed a strange figure peeking out from behind the girl’s back. The analysis showed that the photograph had not been subject to any changes.

Falling body

The Cooper family just moved into their new home in Texas. In honor of the housewarming, a festive table was set, and at the same time we decided to make a few family photos. And when the photographs were developed, a strange figure was revealed on them - it seemed that someone’s body was either hanging or falling from the ceiling. Of course, the Coopers didn’t see anything like this during filming.

Too many hands

Four guys were fooling around, taking pictures in the yard. When the film was developed, it turned out that out of nowhere one extra hand appeared on it (peeking out from behind the back of a guy in a black T-shirt).

"Battle of Los Angeles"

This photograph was published in the Los Angeles Times on February 26, 1942. To this day, conspiracy theorists and ufologists refer to it as evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations visiting Earth. They claim that the photo clearly shows that the beams of the searchlights are falling on the alien flying ship. However, as it turned out, the photo for publication was heavily retouched - this is a standard procedure that almost all published black and white photographs were subjected to for greater effect.

The incident itself, captured in the photo, was called a “misunderstanding” by authorities. The Americans had just survived the Japanese attack, and in general the tension was incredible. Therefore, the military got excited and opened fire on the object, which, most likely, was a harmless weather balloon.

Lights of Hessdalen

In 1907, a group of teachers, students and scientists set up a science camp to study a mysterious phenomenon called the “Lights of Hessdalen”.

Björn Hauge took this photo one clear night using a shutter speed of 30 seconds. Spectral analysis showed that the object should consist of silicon, iron and scandium. This is the most informative, but far from the only photo"The Lights of Hessdalen." Scientists are still scratching their heads as to what it could be.

Time Traveler

This photo was taken in 1941 during the opening ceremony of the South Forks Bridge. The public's attention was attracted by a young man whom many considered a "time traveler" - due to his modern hairstyle, zip-up sweater, printed T-shirt, fashionable glasses and point-and-shoot camera. The whole outfit is clearly not from the 40s. On the left, highlighted in red is a camera that was actually in use at that time.

9/11 attack - South Tower woman

In these two photographs, a woman can be seen standing on the edge of the hole created in the South Tower after a plane crashed into the building. Her name is Edna Clinton and, not surprisingly, she ended up on the list of survivors. How she managed this is beyond comprehension, considering everything that happened in that part of the building.

Skunk monkey

In 2000, a woman who wished to remain anonymous took two photographs of a mysterious creature and sent it to the Sarasota County (Florida) Sheriff. The photographs were accompanied by a letter in which the woman assured that she had taken the photograph strange creature in the backyard of your house. The creature came to her house three nights in a row and stole the apples left on the terrace.

UFO in the painting “Madonna with Saint Giovannino”

The painting “Madonna with Saint Giovannino” belongs to the brush of Domenico Ghirlandai (1449-1494) and is currently in the collection of Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. A mysterious flying object and a man watching it are clearly visible above Mary's right shoulder.

Incident at Lake Falcon

Another meeting with the alleged extraterrestrial civilization occurred at Falcon Lake on May 20, 1967.

A certain Stefan Michalak was relaxing in these places and at some point noticed two descending cigar-shaped objects, one of which landed very close. Michalak claims he saw the door open and heard voices coming from inside.

He tried to speak to the aliens in English, but there was no response. Then he tried to get closer, but came across “invisible glass,” which apparently served as protection for the object.

Suddenly, Michalak was surrounded by a cloud of air so hot that his clothes caught fire. The man received serious burns.

Bonus:

This story happened on the evening of February 11, 1988 in the city of Vsevolozhsk. There was a light knock on the window of the house where a woman who was fond of spiritualism lived with her teenage daughter. Looking out, the woman saw no one. I went out onto the porch - no one. And there were no footprints in the snow under the window either.

The woman was surprised, but didn’t think much of it. And half an hour later there was a bang and part of the glass in the window where the invisible guest was knocking collapsed, forming an almost perfectly round hole.

The next day, at the woman’s request, her Leningrad acquaintance, candidate of technical sciences S.P. Kuzionov, arrived. He examined everything carefully and took several photographs.

When the photograph was developed, the face of a woman appeared on it, peering into the lens. This face seemed unfamiliar to both the housewife and Kuzionov himself.

This list includes the most famous “mysteries of the century,” from stones sliding across the desert to incomprehensible underwater sounds, which 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 amazing archaeological finds of recent decades.

Source of the Nile

This may seem too obvious, but even an answer like “Lake Victoria” was not so easy to get. It took the use of the most modern technologies to obtain a final solution, because the true location of the source of the Nile remained a mystery for a long time.

Why is the temperature of the “solar atmosphere” higher than the surface temperature 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 a flooded

The discovery of the sunken ship in 1985, more than 70 years after the disaster, 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, humanity considered Troy a mythical city and the Trojan War mostly a legend. This was the case until the discovery of the remains by the self-taught German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann ancient city, also called Ilion

"Magic" circles in the Namib Desert

For a long time, people associated this phenomenon with everything from radioactive radiation to space aliens. 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 has not been found since World War II, despite an intensive search around the world. According to the most famous version, he managed to avoid retribution and disappeared somewhere in South America, to which there was numerous evidence that had been circulated in the press for many years. However, in 1999, his corpse was found in an unmarked grave, not far from the bunker where Hitler committed suicide.

“Fish flatulence” instead of Russian submarines

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

Tutankhamun's tomb

A story reminiscent of the “Trojan” was associated with this most “popular” ancient Egyptian pharaoh. Before the discovery of the completely untouched tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in 1922, 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 impenetrable mystery and the subject of much speculation 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 migrating seaweed, which forms the basis of their nutrition.

In what direction does the Earth's core rotate?

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 another. Researchers from the University of Leeds in the UK recently 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 seem stupid to you, but even Charles Darwin tried to answer it. After all, if you think sensibly, in the dark it is impossible to see whether she has turned red, and if you turn on the light, then what happens next will no longer happen in the dark, regardless of the result. Fortunately, German researchers came up with the idea 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 indeed difficult to explain.

Causes of stomach ulcers

For many years, the pharmaceutical industry 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 actually happens in the real world. To explain this phenomenon, the laws of quantum mechanics were required.

Sliding stones

In case you're not aware, in various deserts around the world there are rocks that "glide", meaning they move on their own. After several experiments, this effect received the following explanation: the movement of stones is most likely caused by wind and the presence of ice on the desert surface.