Here are 10 more unsolved mysteries of the world. Also check out our previous list of Top 10 Modern Unsolved Mysteries of the World.
Marlovian Theory
The Marlovian Theory, which began as early as 1895, holds that the plays traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare were actually written by Christopher Marlowe. Christopher Marlowe was an English poet and playwright of Elizabethan era. He was born in the same year as Shakespeare was born and mysteriously died early. The Marlovian Theory theorizes thatChristopher Marlowe faked his death in 1593 instead of being killed by his patron. It is believed that he was facing imminent death for heresy charges and faked his death to save himself. The first licensed work from Shakespeare, “Venus and Adonis”, was issued on April 4, 1593, just a month before Marlowe’s death. William Shakespeare’s first record of being an actor only appeared on December 1594. Some believe that both seemed to have discernably similar writing style. Whatever really happened at that fateful night in 1593 may never fully be understood. Those who follow the Marlovian Theory believe it to be the only way thatChristopher Marlowe could have continued to live freely and pursue his continued love of writing.
Contents of the Great Library of Alexandria
Great Library of Alexandria was destroyed in a Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 B.C. Countless texts and documents were reduced to indiscernible ash. It was one of the largest library in the world and was charged with collecting all of world’s knowledge. Alexandria was an international hub for trade as well as the leading producer of papyrus and books. Alexandriahad two ports for trades and books were pulled off every single ship that came into the ports. They kept the original texts and made copies to send back to their owners. Books were also donated by travellers from all over the world. The library was also a research institution and home to a host of international scholars. The library was filled with works on mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural sciences and other subjects. It is now impossible to determine the collection’s size and content with any certainty. It is considered one of humanity’s greatest losses.
S.S. Ourang Medan
In June of 1947, two American vessels sailing the Strait of Malaca in Indonesian waters received a distress call from a Dutch a merchant ship, Ourang Medan. Message read, “All officers including captain are dead lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead,” followed by a final transmission “I die.” One of the American ship, SS Silver Star attempted to hail the ship, but to no avail. When they boarded the ship, they found the deck littered with corpses. The entire crew was dead, including a dog aboard the ship. The bodies of the crew all showed signs of being frozen in terror at the moment of death. Their facial expressions horrified, teeth bared, eyes pointing at the sky. They had no visible signs of trauma. While trying to haul the ship to port, the ship caught on fire. The ship finally exploded and sank. This whole story could be a hoax as there is no evidence of official registration of the ship (or perhaps the ship was never registered due to the nature of its activities). Theories of illegal smuggling of nerve gas or hazardous chemical in the cargo to carbon monoxide poisoning and paranormal phenomenon have been suggested to reason the death of its crew.
Egyptian Tomb in the Grand Canyon
In April of 1909 the Phoenix Gazette ran a story for two days about Egyptian artifacts supposedly found in the Grand Canyon. This story spanned several pages. According to the story, under the direction of professor S.A. Jordan, the Smithsonian Institute is now prosecuting the most thorough explorations, which will be continued until the last link in the chain has been forged. About 1480 feet below the surface, the long main passage has been delved into, to find another mammoth chamber from which radiates scores of passageways, like the spokes of a wheel. Several hundred rooms were discovered, reached by passageways running from the main passage, one of them having been explored for 854 feet and another 634 feet. They found war weapons, copper instruments sharp edged and hard as steel, indicating the high state of civilization reached by these strange people. There was also a tomb in which mummies were found is one of the largest chambers. There were several other notable artifacts that resembled Egyptian in origin. If this was true, it would support the theory of Pre-Columbian Trans-Oceanic Contact Hypotheses. Archeologists from Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. have completely denied of any such finds in 1909 on recent enquiries.
Devil’s Footprints
On February 7 and 8, 1855, the people of Devonshire in England awoke to find strangefootprints throughout their small town. They were surprised to discover tracks of some strange and mysterious biped animal. The foot-prints were seen in all kinds of inaccessible places – on the tops of houses and narrow walls, in gardens and courtyards enclosed by high walls and palings, rivers, through tunnel walls as well as in open fields. Foot prints closely resembled that of a donkey’s shoe, measuring 1.5 to 2.5 inches across and 8 inches in advance of each other. The creature seems to have approached the doors of several houses and then to have retreated. There has been a similar recorded sighting by Captain Sir James Clark Ross in the Kerguelen Island of South Pole in 1840. Captain reported of finding no animals and simply tracks resembling that of donkey’s. The men eventually gave up looking for the creature as it passed over a large area of rocks and the tracks were lost. Nearly 154 years later similar footprints were encountered in Woolsery, North Devon in England in March of 2009.
Oh-My-God Particle
The Oh-My-God particle detected over Dugway Proving Ground, Utah in 1991 was probably a proton traveling at almost the speed of light (99.99%). It allegedly carried the same kinetic energy as a baseball traveling at 90 kmph. Most cosmic ray particles are of low energy and arise locally from solar flares. Another more energetic class of cosmic particles are thought to originate from elsewhere in the galaxy. They probably come from supernovae. Then there are extragalactic cosmic rays, which are of the Oh-My-God variety, with energy levels exceeding 1015 eV and rarely even 1020 eV are more formally known as ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. These particles travel very close to the speed of light and must have had a heck of a kick to attain such speeds. It is “proposed” that extragalactic cosmic rays are spun up in supermassive black holes. Furthermore, they estimate that nearly all extragalactic cosmic rays that reach Earth come from Centaurus A. It is unclear who or what sent these particles on course to earth.
Lead Masks Case
The Lead Masks Case refers to the discovery of the bodies of two electronic technicians in Brazil in 1966. The bodies were found in a field wearing impermeable coats and lead masks (usually used to protect against radiation). Even stranger was the discovery of a small notebook beside their bodies with signs and numbers, and a letter in which was written: “16:30 be at the agreed place. 18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for the mask sign”. A waitress who was the last to see them alive said that one of them looked very nervous and kept glancing at his watch. There were no obvious injuries on the bodies. This area was considered to be an UFO hotspot and people reported they had seen a UFO flying over the spot around the time of their death. Autopsies failed to lend any answers. They had a water bottle and its receipt with them to return those bottles, so suicide probably was ruled out. There simply was no cause that could be found as to why these men died.
Oak Island (Money Pit)
Among the 360 small islands south of Nova Scotia, Canada is Oak Island. Oak island’s history tells of an impenetrable cache of treasure located in a vault known as the Money Pit. Attempts to retrieve the bounty since 1700’s have been fruitless and many have died in their attempts to do so. The pit was first discovered in 1795 by a young man named Daniel McInnis. Above it, hanging from the limb of a large oak was an old pulley system. On excavation together with his friends he found layer of flagstones and further down a man-made shaft. Tired from their efforts, they decided to cease work. In 1803, owners of Onslow Company continued excavation. At 90 feet they found a flat stone bearing an indecipherable inscription and beneath that possibly a wooden chest. They decided to discontinue for the evening, but in the morning the whole shaft was flooded and they were forced to discontinue. From then until now the ownership of the island has changed hands many times. Over a dozen attempts to re-excavate the pit by several in search for the fabled treasure has resulted in the shafts flooding at a certain depth. Critics argue that there is no treasure and that the apparent pit is a natural phenomenon. Artifacts found during excavations include a cipher stone, a perfectly triangular stone, Christian cross, heart-shaped stone, free masonic symbols and a piece of gold chain.
Out-of-Place Artifacts
Out-of-place artifacts are objects that are found in archeological sites and are predated to a time long before modern discovery of the technology used by them. Three of the following are fascinating.
Antikythera Mechanism
The Antikythera Mechanism is believed to be an ancient mechanical calculator designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. It has been dated to about 150-100 BC. Other machines using technology with such complexity would not appear until the 18th century. While intense research is finally answering the question of what this mechanism did, we actually have no idea how people back then were able to accomplish a technological feat so complex.
Baghdad Battery
The Baghdad Battery was discovered in the village of Khuyut Rabbou’a (near Baghdad in Iraq) in 1936. These artifacts came to wider attention in 1938 when German director of the National Museum of Iraq, found the objects in the museum’s collections. In 1940, he published a paper speculating them to be galvanic cells, perhaps used for electroplating gold onto silver objects. The artifacts consist of 5 inch tall spherical flat-bottomed terracotta jars (with 1.5 inch wide mouth). It contained a copper cylinder made of a rolled-up copper sheet, which houses a single iron rod. At the top, the iron rod is isolated from the copper by asphalt plugs and it all fit snugly inside the opening of the jar. On the 29th episode MythBusters’ (aired on March 23, 2005), Baghdad battery myth was put to the test. Ten Baghdad batteries were made and lemon juice was chosen as the electrolyte to activate the electrochemical reaction between the copper and iron. When all of the batteries were linked together in series, they produced upwards of 4 volts. The major question remains is “What were they really used for?”
Quimbaya Airplanes
Pictured above is one of about dozen golden Quimbaya airplanes found in Colombia. They were made by the Quimbaya civilization, dated around 1000 A.D. Proponents of ancient astronaut theories claim them to represent modern airplanes, and therefore to be out-of-place artifacts. These figurines measures 2 to 3 inches each. Archeologists describe them as depicting birds, lizards, amphibians and insects that were abundant in the region that have been highly stylized. In 1994, three Germans, Algund Eenboom, Peter Belting and Conrad Lubbers created simplified radio-controlled scale models of these objects that actually flew.
Spontaneous Human Combustion
Spontaneous human combustion is the alleged mysterious process in which a person simply bursts into flames for no apparent reason. Further, these flames appear to be localized to the victim and seem to have a very high temperature. Flames incinerate most of the body, but leave objects in close proximity to the victims relatively unscathed. Dr. John Bentley is alleged to have died of spontaneous combustion in Pennsylvania in 1966. The spot where the body lay was burnt, but the rest of the room, was left untouched by flames. Only the bottom of his one leg remained that helped in his identification. In another case, Mrs. M. H. Reeser of Florida apparently died of spontaneous combustion in 1951. The only things remained was her skull that shrunk to the size of an orange. Crematorium specialists say they cannot duplicate the complete destruction of bones in such a short period of time. One theory is ball lightning which could produce similar results, but locations of these victims seems to elude this possibility. Does the body have chemical reactions that science has yet to discover?
