There is nothing that the rational mind cannot understand, or so believes mankind. Challenging the finest of scientific developments and the logical minds, stand there few mysteries of the world that remain unsolved. Thousands of generations have lost sleep, trying to decipher them, but they stand adamant and promise to ruin another few generations’ sleep. While the strive for solving the jigsaw continues, let us take a moment and wonder at the Top 10 World’s Greatest Unsolved Mysteries.
10. Bermuda Triangle
BAM! The first thing that crops up in our heads when the phrase “unsolved mystery” is mentioned is the (in) famous Bermuda Triangle. Also christened as ‘The Death Triangle’, ‘The Hoodoo Sea’, ‘The Graveyard of The Atlantic’ and ‘Devil’s Triangle’, is notoriously known for swallowing up numerous ships and aircraft. Located on a water stretch between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rice, the death triangle is said to be a result of various phenomenon like methane gas bubbles, fluctuations in the electromagnetic activities, underwater rock formations, bad weather, extra terrestrial invaders and even human error. Although there’s no proper answer to this riddle now, hoping that the coming inventions would help us get one.
9. Shroud or Printed Cloth?
The Shroud of Turin has been subjected to many intense debates. According to believers, a sheet of linen that was used to cover Jesus Christ after his crucification bears His imprint and marks of resurrection. However, a few scientists consider the shroud to be a hoax. To this day tireless efforts are made to detect the authenticity or falsity of the same. For the first time in 40 years, Pope Francis had exhibited the shroud on television claiming it “speaks to our heart”. Amidst the hullabaloo arises the question, ‘Did the shroud really cover Jesus of Nazareth?’ Only time will tell.
8. Where did Amelia Earhart disappear?
An aviation pioneer and author, Amelia Earhart was the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Known for her solo flights across the Pacific from Honolulu to Oakland, California and from Mexico to the City of Newark, she had also aspired to go on a world flight and was on the last leg of her dream journey on July 2 1937 with Fred Noonan, the second aviator when she ‘disappeared’. The repeated failures in Earhart’s dream journey dint deter her from chasing her world flight dream. Apparently, a radio operator in the Howland Island located in the Central Pacific Ocean had heard the last radio signal message from Earhart during the unfortunate flight. A whopping $4 million was reportedly spent on air and sea search operations by the then U.S Government, but all in vain. Reasons such as ‘crash & sink theory’, fuel exhaustion, equipment failure were cited for her mysterious disappearance. While shocking revelations such as Earhart was spying on the Japanese; that she & Noonan’s aircraft had crashed into the island of Saipen which was under the Japanese occupation thus resulting in their capture and finally execution, have sparked controversies. The aviatrix was declared dead in absentia in 1939.
7. Mystic Monsters.
These creatures are believed to have scared the daylights out of people who claim that they have seen them. The Loch Ness Monster topping the list gets its name from a place Loch Ness situated in the Scottish Highlands, nick named “Nessie” out of affection. The water monster is believed to be a huge, black long-necked creature which is 1000 feet deep and 24 miles long! :O Nessie is assumed to belong to a “long surviving Plesiosaurs clan” who has featured in numerous newspapers, magazines, movies making her a crypto zoological star. On the flip side, there is no dearth of reports declaring Nessie to be a folklore character; nothing more than a modern myth and even to be hoax. Nessie isn’t the only one who has caught our attention. Champ – the Lake Champlain Monster, the Flathead lake monster among others continue to baffle us with their mysterious ways. It’s not just the aquatic creatures that bewilder us; there are controversial reports of transcendental beings existing on land too! ‘Sasquatch’ being the most famous one, more commonly known as BIGFOOT is suspected to be an ape-like creature spotted in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot who is an omnivore and is nocturnal has come across as a larger version of a male gorilla bearing a height between 6.6-9.8 ft and weighing around 230 kgs and is said to be covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair. Foot prints measuring as long as 24 inches and 8 inches wide have apparently been spotted, now you know why he’s called BIGFOOT! Surreal, isn’t it? No wonder Bigfoot’s existence has been declared a case of misidentification and is even accused to be hoax. Yeti, another ape-like creature is said to be moving around in the Himalayan region. Also called the ‘Abominable Snowman’ is described as a creature looking something similar to Bigfoot. In spite of inspiring film makers to churn out movies like The Snow Creature (1954), Snowbeast (1977), Chill out, Scooby-doo! (2007), Yeti: Curse of the Snow demon (2008), Rage of Yeti (2011) amongst many others; scientists remain skeptical about its existence due to lack of proper evidence. Curious case of cryptid creatures I say!
6. HOW were the Pyramids built?!
This list is incomplete without the mention of the great pyramids. Pyramids, one of the most ancient structures of the world (they are approximately 3000 years old!) which boasts of mind-blowing architectural accuracy, is said to be the burial tombs of the Egyptian royalty. A structure that has its outer surfaces in a triangular shape and coincide on a single point at the top, having a base which is either trilateral, bilateral or of any polygon shape, is said to be a supernatural/ paranormal property. It has been a subject of study among scientists, archaeologists, historians, scholars, physicists and others for centuries. Rumors such as the pyramids were artificial mountains which would shelter the royals during natural disasters; also believed to be a store house of arms and ammunition; stories of the pyramids being filled with gold and jewels are afloat. The pyramids remain mystical because nobody has answers to questions like, how old are the pyramids? Who built the pyramids? Are there any secrets hidden inside them? We all await an answer.
5. E.T- a myth or reality?
It’s a sin to exclude them when talk of unsolved mysteries. A constant subject of study, discussion, debates et al since ages, the extraterrestrial or aliens often provoke us to question if at all we are alone in the universe. The residents of other planets are often blamed for any unexplained phenomenon; aliens are accused of kidnapping people; the Bermuda Triangle mystery is speculated to have an alien hand. Extraterrestrials have caught the imagination of many a film makers, quite a few turning out to be blockbusters. Relevant to the aliens mystery is another teaser i.e. sightings of UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects). UFOs are said to be alien air crafts that aren’t readily recognized, is said to be in a shape of a huge disc. Many UFOs sightings have happened in the past with vague and weird descriptions. A few scientists believe in the possibility of their existence while a few condemn it calling it hoax or a figment of one’s imagination. While people continue to research about it, at the moment there is no exact answer to it.
Gut feeling, sixth sense, instinct, feeling and inner voice; call it what you want, everybody is blessed with this aspect of nature. Though one cannot exactly tell what it is, but we are sure as hell that it is there and will be present when we summon it. Intuition is defined as “ability to acquire representation or knowledge about things, apparently without reasoning”. It is this intuition that helps us decide often without any rational justification and it turns out to benefit us. Many incidents are reported where decisions were made using the sixth sense and later turned out that they were right. Labeled as mere coincidence by a few, while others said that humans were gifted with the unique ability to get knowledge or make decisions without conscious realization. We all live in a mystical world, probably because there exists a little mysticism inside us.
3. Is the world doomed?
The sands of time are running out for the earth and not even our superheroes can save us. *Sigh* The Mayans had predicted that life on earth will no more exist since a series of cataclysmic events would destroy the planet on Friday, 21st December 2012. Apparently, this apocalypse was predicted 5,125 years ago and there were hardly any chances for this to be proved wrong. However, archaeologists have reported that the Mayans never predicted that 2012 to be the end of the world, it is just that the largest grand cycle of the Mayan overturns and a new one starts. This isn’t the first time that the last day was predicted. From the biblical era to the present times, our death was predicted. Guess we’ll see many such prophecies before we meet our end.
2. Who came first?
You must have come across this poll at least once in your lifetime. So who came first? Was it the chicken or the egg? This trick question is favourite of all times. With no evidence and lack of sure shot theories; this is one of the unsolved mysteries of all times. Another similar dilemma is whether woman came first or did man? No amount of research, mythological stories or folklore has helped us to get an answer to this knotty question. Some questions are best left unanswered.
1. We can’t find it… Mom finds it easily. HOW?!
Son: Mom where’s my blue t-shirt? Mom: It’s in the second shelf of the cupboard. Son: But mom I can’t find it! *Mom walks into the room, reaches out to the second shelf and emerges with the blue t-shirt*. This mystery undoubtedly takes the entire cake. People claim that when they are looking for something very keenly they fail to find it but when they ask their mothers to find it, the object magically appears and then the mother finds it. I’m sure no amount of scientific reasoning and research will help us get to this one. Cheers to our moms!