6 intriguing mysteries of world history that still excite the minds of scientists

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

We live in an era when everything seems to be easy to find a scientific explanation. History has been studied up and down. Most of the terrible diseases that exterminated entire communities of our ancestors have become curable. Technological progress is striding across the planet by leaps and bounds. At the same time, there are a number of mysteries of history. Scientists have been struggling to solve them for decades, and some of them cannot be called anything other than mysticism. While the researchers break their spears and argue to the point of hoarseness, the truth stubbornly remains in the shadows. Discover six of the most intriguing historical mysteries …

Throughout the history of mankind, there have been events for which it was very difficult to find a reasonable explanation. The twentieth century brought with it extraordinary technological progress. The development of science has reached such heights that it seems that there should not have been a single dark spot in history. However, there are many unsolved mysteries that thrill and drive even the greatest minds crazy.

# 6. "Maria Celeste"

Mary Celeste is perhaps the most famous maritime mystery. This is the second most popular vessel after the Flying Dutchman. True, unlike the latter, "Maria Celeste" actually exists. The mystical story of this brigantine is absolutely real, and therefore much more frightening.

In early November 1872, the ship left the harbor in New York and headed for the shores of Genoa. On board were eight sailors and a captain with his wife and daughter. Exactly one month later, he was found drifting and abandoned. The sailors of the British ship "Dei Gratia" stumbled upon him, which in Latin means "The Grace of God".

The brigantine's sails were raised, there were neither living nor dead on board. No signs of disaster, crash, struggle were found. There was no lifeboat, but why did the crew and passengers need to leave the ship for no apparent reason? The situation is simply beyond human comprehension!

It is natural for a person to think out where nothing is clear. It happened this time too. People said that the ship was haunted from the very beginning. It was originally called "Amazon", but after a series of setbacks (including the sudden illness and death of its first captain and a collision with another ship in the English Channel) it was given a new name.

As you can see from its sad end, this did not help the ship. No one was able to explain why it was necessary to leave the safe ship. There were even versions that a sea monster was involved here. There is no scientific explanation for the circumstances of what happened to "Maria Celesta".

# 5 Tunguska explosion

Most people are aware of the Tunguska explosion that occurred in 1908 as a result of a meteorite fall. The fireball had a diameter of almost one hundred meters. This tremendous disaster destroyed about two thousand square kilometers of taiga and knocked down about eighty million trees in Siberia.

This phenomenon has been classified by scientists as the largest collision between two astronomical objects, such as an asteroid and Earth, in the entire period of human history. Sounds incredible. However, there is one small snag … for some reason no one noticed this. No trace of the huge extraterrestrial object has ever been found.

The lack of a crater is also puzzling. Experts speculate that the object fell from the sky and exploded over the forest before the collision. An imperfect solution to a really unexpected problem … Scientists believe that perhaps it was not a meteorite, but a comet. After all, the latter are composed of ice, not stone. This can serve as a possible explanation for the absence of traces of any alien rocks.

Scientific discussions on this matter are still ongoing and there is no consensus. This does not prevent all and sundry from inventing alternative theories that explain what happened. Some of these versions are quite exotic. They range from complex pseudoscientific reasoning to completely wild ones, where the reason is an alien ship accident.

Probably, we will never be able to clarify this issue again. We are not destined to find out the true reasons for what exactly caused the Tunguska catastrophe.

#4. Sleeping sickness

Sleeping sickness (or African trypanosomiasis) is not a well-known disease, but lethargic encephalitis strikes fear into the hearts of experts. This mysterious condition is rare these days, but between 1916 and 1930 there was an outbreak of this mysterious disease that spread from Europe. As a result, half a million people were injured. By all accounts, about a third of them died.

So what is this strange phenomenon? At first, the doctors did not have a single diagnosis. Later, they began to explain this by some strange neuropsychiatric behavior and an irresistible lethargic drowsiness, which causes a state like a coma, as well as muscle rigidity.

This muscle stiffness was a particularly worrying symptom, as even those who survived were severely affected. Although sometimes they are still able to speak limitedly, move their eyes and even laugh, they usually look like living statues. These people can remain completely motionless for hours, days, weeks, or even years.

Today there are few such cases, but the so-called "sleeping sickness" has left its mark on history …

# 3. Dyatlov pass incident

In 1959, the bodies of nine tourists were found in the ice of the "Dead Mountain" in the Northern Urals. A fitting name - after all, this eerie find is known as the incident at the Dyatlov Pass, which was so named in honor of the leader of the group, Igor Dyatlov.

The death of the Dyatlov group is one of the largest and most mysterious tragedies in the history of tourism and extreme sports. There are about a hundred versions of the incident, but none of them has been confirmed to this day. Only hypotheses of the strange and inexplicable death of nine travelers.

On the night of February 2, a blizzard hit the place where the group slept. For some reason, the tent turned out to be cut from the inside; there is no reasonable explanation for this fact. People ran out into the freezing cold without outerwear. The first pair of victims found lay in their underwear in strange positions. Other members of the group had varying degrees of injury severity. Some had broken ribs and skulls. Burnt hands. One young man had his tongue removed. The most frightening thing is that on the spot there were only traces of the members of the group, no traces of the attacker or attackers. The most intriguing thing is that the clothes of the tourists had a high level of radiation.

What happened that fateful night? There are still no intelligible explanations. Scientists are leaning towards the version of an avalanche or infrasound. The version with a sudden avalanche does not stand up to criticism. Infrasound seems much more believable (this is a phenomenon when the wind interacts with the topography, creating a barely audible rumble that can cause strong feelings of nausea, panic, fear, chills, nervousness, rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath), but it also does not explain very many circumstances of death groups.

# 2. Voynich manuscript

The incomprehensible fantastic Voynich manuscript looks like a prop from some Hollywood movie. In fact, it is absolutely real. This mysterious manuscript was discovered in Rome by a book expert from Poland Wilfried Voynich. This is a relatively small and perfectly designed book. This strange and unusual item is found at Yale University. The manuscript contains two hundred and forty parchment pages and measures approximately 20 by 16 centimeters.

What is written on these mysterious pages? The text is written in an unknown incomprehensible language. The book is full of stunning illustrations that wouldn't seem out of place in a Studio Ghibli release. There are soaring castles, disembodied heads, flowers that have no analogues on Earth, strange creatures that look like jellyfish, and many naked women bathing in the water.

In 2009, the text of the manuscript was subjected to radiocarbon analysis and it was determined that the parchment dates back to the 15th century, making this codex medieval. When Voynich discovered the manuscript, it had a letter with it stating that it was once the property of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II. For many years, various scientists have tried to understand this mystery, put forward a variety of versions. With an enviable frequency, various experts claim that they have unraveled the Voynich manuscript code.

Despite this, until now, no one has figured out what this book really means. The more people research, the stranger it gets …

#1. Mysterious Disappearance at Flannan Lighthouse

Few things are more terrifying than a lighthouse. And this is just a very apt place for an eerie secret. People disappear sometimes. But when they disappear without a trace, leaving no traces, not even a hint of a reason, then a new legend and mystical story is born. The passions of some transcendental forces are raging in it, and versions about aliens are sure to be present. The mysterious story of the similar disappearance of the three lighthouse keepers from the Flannan Islands is about this. This story contains all the trappings of a mystical mystery: a stopped clock, an untouched lunch and the absence of traces of blood.

In 1990, a helicopter crew landed on Eileen More, part of the Flannan Islands in Scotland. There they expected to meet experienced lighthouse keepers: Thomas Marshall, James Ducat and Donald MacArthur. However, the men were nowhere to be seen. It seemed that they simply evaporated, leaving no trace. An overturned chair was found inside the lighthouse. The table was set, the food was not touched, the clock was not ticking. The ship's log showed that there was a terrible storm on the island, although this was not reported anywhere in the area.

The logical conclusion was made that the watchmen were carried away by the sea when they were engaged in their duties in difficult conditions, but is that so? There are other, more terrible versions of unnatural forces. Some people argue that Eileen More has a certain negative aura that makes people behave inappropriately. The lack of specific answers helps to build many mystical versions and raises more questions than answers …

History keeps many exciting secrets, some scientists manage to unravel, read about it in our other article. what secrets of the ancient civilization of the Nabataeans are kept by a lonely castle in the desert.