The biggest mysteries of mankind. Yellow balloons from Cuba. Causes of stomach ulcers


There are still many in the world unsolved mysteries, despite all the development of science, technology, as well as numerous studies. Although it would seem that there should already be logical explanations for these mysterious things, as before, people can only guess what they are facing.

1. The rumble of Taos


In the small American town of Taos, you can often hear an incomprehensible hum that can be compared to the distant sound of a diesel engine. Although the sound can be perfectly heard with the naked ear, various sound devices are unable to capture it. Until now, no one knows where this sound comes from.

2. Voynich Manuscript


The Voynich manuscript was written in an incomprehensible language that people have been trying to decipher to no avail for centuries. The only thing that is clear in the manuscript is the drawings (but they also look like something unearthly).

3. Jack the Ripper


The name Jack the Ripper can be found in many series and films related to serial killers. He killed 11 women in east London in the late 1800s, but his identity was never revealed. Most of the victims of the maniac were prostitutes, whose bodies were mutilated beyond recognition, and their throats were cut.

4 Bermuda Triangle


Legendary Bermuda Triangle can be found between Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Pilots often say that their instruments fail in this place, and numerous ships have disappeared without a trace here. Although there are many theories, from bubbles of gas emanating from the bottom to aliens, no one knows what is behind the strange phenomena.

5. Letters of the Zodiac


During the 1960s and 1970s, a criminal was operating in the San Francisco Bay Area who became known as the Zodiac Killer through cryptic encrypted letters he sent to the police and the press. Despite the fact that one of the four letters was deciphered (any maniac or psychopath would envy its contents), the other three still remain a mystery.

6. Rongorongo


On the mysterious Easter Island, where the famous moai stand, a set of hieroglyphs was discovered, which was named Rongorongo. These symbols have never been deciphered, although they may contain clues as to who and why the huge stone heads all over the island.

7 Loch Ness Monster


For centuries people have heard about the monster of Loch Ness and how it is unlike any other creature. There have been many sightings of Nessie over the years, and a number of photos and videos have been taken. Even today, some argue, the monster exists and swims underwater.

8. Stonehenge


Stonehenge is one of the most famous and fascinating ancient structures in the world. The biggest mystery about it is not how it was created, but why.

9 Lost Atlantis


Whether Atlantis ever existed is still debated. But Plato was firmly convinced of its existence and mentioned Atlantis in his writings. But, according to a number of historians, today mysterious island together with magnificent city plunged into the depths of the ocean and no one has found them so far.

10. Aliens


UFO sightings all over the world. People have been wondering for centuries that humanity cannot be alone in an infinite universe. Although some claimed they were abducted, there is no evidence for this.

11. Signal "Wow!"


When Jerry Eyman worked on the SETI project at the Ohio University radio telescope, he never expected to be able to pick up a real signal coming from deep space. His equipment recorded a 72-second signal from the constellation Sagittarius. But since then no one has been able to catch him again.

12. D.B. cooper


When D.B. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 in 1971, he received a ransom of $ 200,000. After that, he jumped out of the plane with a parachute. He was never found.

13. Nazca geoglyphs


The Nazca civilization created some of the most spectacular geoglyphs on Earth. The desert plateau features giant lines depicting spiders, monkeys, sharks, killer whales, flowers, and simply abstract patterns. Their accuracy is incredible, especially considering that the drawings can only be seen from an airplane, which the Nazca could not have done.

14. SS Ourang Medan


The Dutch case cargo ship Ourang Medan or "The Man from Medan" in Malaysia is perhaps one of the most fascinating and mind-boggling mysteries that has ever existed in the history of navigation. It all started with an SOS message in 1947 that said, “The captain and all officers lie dead in the cockpit and on the bridge. Maybe the whole team is dead." Further, the telegraph operator reported that he, too, was dying. When the Silver Star came to the rescue, it turned out that indeed the entire crew was dead for no apparent reason.

15. Ayud aluminum wedge


Back in 1974, a group of workers in Romania discovered three different objects while excavating a trench at a depth of 10 meters. Two of the objects were prehistoric elephant bones 2.5 million years old. The third object stunned everyone - it was an aluminum wedge that was found along with ancient bones.

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 mythical city, and the Trojan War is 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 known 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 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 Tutankhamen

With this most "popular" ancient Egyptian pharaoh, a story reminiscent of the "Trojan" was associated. 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 a low-frequency sound of unknown origin in the South Pacific in the summer of 1997, 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 "equiopposite" 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 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 the 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.

What to do if the level of adrenaline in the blood drops rapidly? “Sit on a motorcycle or take a parachute jumping course,” the “sporty-minded” citizens will say.

But what about those who skipped physical education classes in an ice cream parlor in elementary school, those who associate the word “sport” with tedious torture? "Then horror!" - Action fans will shout. Hmm ... well, I don’t believe in computer special effects, especially since no movie can replace real impressions. Moreover, there are so many in the world entertaining places beckoning with their beautiful horror!

Underworld of Paris

Many tourists who have fallen into are trying to penetrate his heart. The waves of bustling Montparnasse throw travelers onto the left bank of the Seine, after which you can look into the Notre Dame Cathedral, and then walk along the Seine embankment to Concorde Square and go straight from there for a walk along the Champs Elysees, which lead to Arc de Triomphe. This path has been traveled by millions of feet in the hope that Paris will steal their souls forever and reveal its own in return. But it is much more interesting to penetrate into the belly of this old romantic city.

In the Montparnasse cemetery, among the graves of the greats of this world, an inconspicuous house was lost. This is the secret door in the dungeon that separates the world of the dead from the world of the living. The dilapidated steps promise an exhilarating tour of the Parisian catacombs. Initially, they were dug to extract stone for the construction of buildings.

However, in the 18th century, Parisians felt the tickle of death. There were no free burial places left in the city, so it was decided to move the remains from the cemeteries to the catacombs. Bones were stacked against one wall, skulls against another. Perhaps someone will cry out: “blasphemy!”. Maybe, but people don't change. This confirms the fact that many who happened to visit the underground kingdom of Paris did not miss the opportunity to take a bone or a shard as a souvenir.

Death in Venice

Most Beautiful places hide the darkest secrets. Who would have thought that a mourning shroud was hidden among romantic dresses in the closet of old Venice. While people were bathing in the carnival rampage in Piazza San Marco, people exhausted by the disease were dying on the nearby island of Poveglia.

Even in the early Middle Ages, the world began to eat the rotten fruits of the plague, there were more and more infected people, panic settled in every home. Everyone who was touched by the hand of the Black Death was taken away to while away last days to Poveglia. The sick did not have time to bury, so the bodies were simply burned. Century after century, the earth absorbed blood and ashes. Now 160,000 lost souls are flying over the island.

The story doesn't end there. In 1922, a psychiatric hospital was opened on Poveglia. It is unlikely that anyone here has been cured. The patients were haunted by screaming ghosts, causing them to lose their last bits of sanity.

On the sly, the chief physician of the hospital conducted experiments on the unfortunate with illegal drugs and, without ceremony, did a lobotomy with a drill and a hammer. In the end, the Venetian Mengele went crazy himself. He took his own life by throwing himself off the highest tower.

Now the place is deserted locals stay away from the island, and the room still has hospital beds and wreckage of medical devices.

witchcraft mexico

Mexico is simply created for lovers of mysticism and devilry. There is a place in Mexico City where you can meet real witches. This is the city market of Sonora. Local sorceresses predict the fate of everyone here, and in the meantime they sell their potions. If someone has not had time to buy a couple of liters of snake blood or a few dried hummingbirds, welcome.

Traveling around Mexico is not for the faint of heart, and it’s better not to get to the place of Guanojuato at all for people with an unstable psyche. When the cemetery in the area could no longer accommodate the dead, the city authorities decided to reburial. Imagine the surprise when mummified bodies were found in the bowels of the earth instead of bones. Mexican soils are so dry that they do not decompose tissue! Especially for these finds, a museum of mummies was opened, which functions to this day. About each exhibit, you can say: "Hmm, well preserved!".

Mexicans have a special relationship with death. Mournful funeral rites are alien to this people. Instead, on November 1 and 2, people participate in a lavish carnival, preparing the favorite dishes of dead ancestors, baking sugar biscuits in the shape of shards, and making colorful figurines in the form of female skeletons, affectionately called Katrina.

Killer Island

On southwest coast Brazil is located picturesque island. There you just want to spend a couple of weeks unhurriedly communicating with nature. But nature does not want that, and this place is forbidden for a person. The indigenous inhabitants of the island, the spear-headed snakes, do not allow outsiders into their territory, and any encroachment is punishable by death.

Reptile venom acts with lightning speed, excruciating pain affects the entire body. Only one outcome is possible - death. You can't avoid being bitten. Scientists have calculated the density of the “population” of the island and made amazing conclusions: there are from one to five snakes per square meter. Therefore, a meeting with deadly reptiles is inevitable.

Visiting Count Dracula

high in Carpathian mountains, not far from the Romanian town of Brasov, stands the impregnable Bran Palace, which has exchanged the eighth hundred years. It is popularly known as Dracula's Castle. Historians agree that the "Transylvanian vampire" is just a figment of the imagination of the Irish science fiction writer Bram Stoker. But no one denies the existence of a real prototype of the famous bloodsucker.

According to one version, Bram Stoker wrote off the image of Dracula from the harsh Count Vlad the Impaler, who ruled Wallachia (modern Romania) in the 15th century. The country did not know a ruler more bloody than Tepes. As a child, he passed the test of a Turkish prison and avenged his lost childhood all his life. All Turkish soldiers who fell into the arms of the count were waiting for inevitable retribution.

The cruel ruler slew the enemies to the stake, for which he received the nickname Tepes, which in Romanian means "spearer". However, Bran Castle was not permanent place residence of Vlad. Some scientists believe that he stayed here several times for the night, others suggest that the count never appeared in the palace in his entire life.

Nevertheless, they go to Transylvania for a terrible and beautiful fairy tale, which reads: "In the backyard of Dracula's castle, an ancient well holds the heart of a vampire, and the 60-meter rock on which Bran rises hides many underground passages twisted into an intricate labyrinth."

Dutch torture

Today, The Hague has the status of the most "fair" city in Europe, since it is here that the UN International Court of Justice is located.

But it was not always so. In dark times, no one thought to write the Declaration of Human Rights, but the instructions for torture were learned by heart by the executioners of The Hague. They did not stand on ceremony with the criminals and knocked out testimony with a bone breaker. The organs of intractable lawbreakers were cut out and preserved, the skull was dissected, and the heads were mummified.

You can feel yourself in the shoes of a medieval intruder in the Hague Museum of Torture (“Gate of Prisoners”). All devices are so frightening that, under the fear of their use, you involuntarily confess to crimes that you did not even commit.

The guide offers the most persistent visitors to experience the deadly weapons for themselves, not in full force, of course. True, there are not many volunteers. Most people are not able to pass even half of the halls, and especially impressionable ones even faint.

black hollow

Each country has its own gripping sad myth that personifies the people living in it. Bloody horror stories are not in the spirit of China. If something happens there, then it is a quiet nightmare behind seven locks.

Heichju is famous for its mysterious and anomalous power. People call this place none other than "Death Valley" or "Black Bamboo Hollow". Here, at the foot of the mountains, an unhurried river flows, wrapped in dense fog. The hollow attracts into its bosom, promising magnificent views, and in order to admire them, some paid with their lives. The thick haze of Heichju seems to dissolve people in itself. Planes fall into this black abyss for no apparent reason, and the missing are not found.

The anomalous zone rebelled in 1950. In just a year, more than a hundred people were lost here, and crashed passenger Boeing. None of the crew reported that the plane was crashing. The most interesting thing is that during the study of the vessel no technical problems were found. After 12 years, the hollow swallowed up an entire exploration group. Only the leader managed to escape. The man says that the fog filled the valley abruptly, but dissipated after a few minutes ... along with all the members of the expedition.

Despite the infamy of Black Bamboo Hollow, Lately tourists from all over the world come here. Now the Chinese are organizing colorful holidays there, selling trinkets and souvenirs; no one has been missing for a long time. Who knows, perhaps the hollow has so far sunk into a pleasant slumber, like a sleeping Vesuvius.


Many people like to solve all sorts of riddles. And especially attract those of them that have not yet been solved. Ciphers, riddles and coded public messages tease us with their intrigue: why is this message encrypted? what great secrets can it hide in itself?

There are a great many such mysteries, but we decided - in the spirit of the times - to compile some Top 10 mysteries of the world that have not yet been solved.


In the first place, of course, is the Voynich manuscript. Named after the Polish-American antiquarian bookseller Wilfrid M. Voynich, who purchased it in 1912, the Voynich Manuscript is a detailed book, quite thick at 240 pages, written in a completely unknown language.


Unknown so far! And there is not even any suggestion what kind of language it might be. Its pages are also filled with colorful drawings and strange diagrams, depictions of incredible events, and plants that do not resemble any known species, which only add to the intrigue of a document that cannot be deciphered. The author of the manuscript is unknown, but radiocarbon analysis, as well as several examinations, showed that its pages were made somewhere between 1404 and 1438. The manuscript has been called "The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World".


In second place is Kryptos, a mysterious cipher-covered sculpture., created by artist Jim Sanborn, located in front of the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, USA. It is so mysterious that even the CIA itself could not fully decipher its code.


The sculpture contains four ciphers, and although three of them have been deciphered, the fourth one has not yet been deciphered. In 2006, Sanborn gave a hint that the first cipher contained clues to the fourth, and in 2010 revealed another one: the characters 64-69 NYPVTT in the fourth part mean the word "Berlin".


In third place is the Bale cipher. The Bale Cipher is a set of three ciphers that purportedly reveal the location of one of the greatest buried treasures in American history: many thousands of pounds of gold, silver and precious stones. The treasure was originally mined by a mysterious man named Thomas Jefferson Bale in 1818 during a gold mining operation in Colorado.


Of the three encryptions, only the second was decoded. Interestingly, it seems that the key to the cipher is the American Declaration of Independence - amazing fact, given that Bale's name is the same as the author of the Declaration.

The deciphered text pointed to the area where the treasure was located: Bedford County, Virginia, but its exact location appears to be encrypted in one of the remaining ciphers. Today, treasure hunters scour the (often illegally) hills of Bedford County for this untold treasure.


In fourth place is the Phaistos disc. The Phaistos Disc Mystery is like an Indiana Jones story. Discovered by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in 1908 in ruins Minoan palace in Festa, the disc is still one of the most famous riddles in archeology. It is made of baked clay and contains mysterious symbols, which may represent an unknown form of hieroglyphs. It is believed that it was made somewhere in the II millennium BC.


Some scholars believe that these hieroglyphs are reminiscent of the characters for "Linear A" and "Linear B" writing, in other words, written languages ​​that were once used in ancient Crete.


Then what is the problem? That "Linear A" is indecipherable.


In fifth place is the encryption from Chaboro. It is actually the 18th century Shepherd's Monument in Staffordshire, England. If you look at it from afar, you can mistake it for a sculptural reproduction of the famous painting by Nicolas Poussin "The Arcadian Shepherds". But as soon as you look closer, a strange sequence of letters immediately becomes noticeable: DOUOSVAVVM, a code that has not been deciphered for more than two and a half centuries. Although the author of this cipher remains unknown, some believe that this code may be a clue left by the Knights Templar regarding the location of the Holy Grail.

Many of the greatest minds of our world have tried to decipher this code and failed, including Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin.


In sixth place is the so-called Tamam Shud case. Considered one of Australia's biggest mysteries, the Tamam Shud case revolves around an unidentified man who was found dead in December 1948 on Somerton Beach in the Australian city of Adelaide. Apart from the fact that the man was never identified, the matter became even more mysterious when a tiny piece of paper with the words "Tamam Shud" was found in a secret pocket sewn into the man's trousers. This phrase translates as "finished" or "completed" and is used on the last page of Omar Khayyam's collection of poems "Rubaiyat". In addition to this mystery, a copy of the Rubaiyat was soon found, which contained a strange cipher, supposedly left by the dead man himself.

Due to the content of the poems of Omar Khayyam, many believe that this message was a posthumous note of some kind, but it still remains unsolved, as well as the case itself.


In seventh place is not an object - a signal. One summer night in 1977, Jerry Eman, a volunteer for the SETI program (a widespread program for searching for signals from extraterrestrial intelligence), became perhaps the first person to receive a message from another planet. Jerry Eman was scanning radio waves from deep space in the hope of accidentally stumbling upon a signal bearing the hallmarks of an intelligent race when he noticed a jump in his measurements. And stumbled. The signal lasted 72 seconds, the longest possible sample duration allowed by Jerry Eman's equipment and scanning range. It was loud and seemed to be coming from a place no human had ever been: from the constellation Sagittarius, from a point near a star called Tau Sagittarii, 120 light-years from Earth.

Jerry Eman wrote the word "Wow!" on the original printout of the signal, which is why it was called "Wow! Signal". All attempts to catch the signal again failed, leading to much debate about the nature of its origin and its meaning.


In eighth place is the so-called "Letters of the Zodiac", but this has nothing to do with the signs of the zodiac. The Zodiac Letters is a series of four encrypted letters believed to have been written by the notorious Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized the people of San Francisco in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Letters are written with icons, partly resembling letters, partly runes. There is no separation of words from each other.

The letters were probably written as a way to tease journalists and the police, and although one letter (or rather, three fragments of it) was deciphered, the other three remain unsolved. The deciphered message suggests that in three months the Zodiac from a ready-made Aztec priest became a victim of his own addiction to homicide, tearfully begging to help him stop killing people (by putting him, for example, in a gas chamber). Also, Starliper's transcript ends with the sentence "My name is Lee Allen". By the way, the identity of the Zodiac himself has also never been established, the killer is not caught, although the murders of the Zodiac have not been identified since the 70s.


In ninth place are the waystones of Georgia. The Georgia Waystones, sometimes referred to as the "American Stonehenge", is a granite monument erected in Elbert County, Georgia in 1979. The stones contain engravings in eight languages ​​- English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Russian - and each contains ten "new" commandments for the "Age of Reason". They look like four steles, practically connected in a cross with a pillar in the middle and covered on top with a "cap" of a small square slab.


Well, what's the mystery here, most will ask. The monument does not contain any encrypted messages! Yes, it does not. Its purpose and origin remain a mystery. It was erected by a man whose identity has never been definitely established, and who was hiding behind the pseudonym R.C. Christian. Where he got these commandments from is also unknown, for no sources contain anything like that.


Of these ten commandments, the first is perhaps the most controversial: "Keep the number of mankind below 500 million in eternal balance with wildlife." Many believe that this is a calling to reduce the human population to the specified number, and critics of the Waystones even demanded their destruction. Some fans of conspiracy theories even believe that they were created by the "Secret Society of Lucifer", calling for a new world order.

There is a version that these giant "letters" were also installed taking into account some astronomical considerations - hence, in fact, the name: "American Stonehenge".


In tenth place are Rongo-rongo boards. These mysterious wooden tablets with the writings of the inhabitants of Easter Island. It is currently not clear whether each character represents a single word or syllable. To date, only about 25 "plates" have been preserved in museums around the world. Traditionally, they are numbered with letters of the Latin alphabet, which, however, is not the only way to designate "tables", among which there is one wand, two inscriptions on the breast decoration of the reimiro, as well as an inscription on the snuffbox and on the tangata manu figure.

The "tablets" were discovered in 1864 by Bishop E. Ayro, who claimed that these tablets were in almost every Aboriginal home, but the islanders could hardly read them. Two years later, almost all the tablets that E. Eiro saw died: either from his own hands, or during civil strife. It is believed that they were written in the Rapanui language. The last Rapanuian who knew Rongo-Rongo, Vike, died in 1866.

Since then, scientists from all over the world have been trying to decipher rongo-rongo. A significant contribution to the study was made by T. Bartel, Yu. V. Knorozov and N. A. Butinov, I. K. Fedorova and many others. However, there is no consensus even on the definition of the type of writing, let alone specific readings. The well-known theorist of grammar I. Gelb believed that this was not writing, but only magical drawings, arguing that his signs are so similar to each other, differing only in minor details, that an attempt to differentiate them encounters enormous difficulties.

Butinov and Knorozov prove that this is by no means a pictography, but a morphemic-syllabic writing. New Zealand researcher S.R. Fisher (in a 1997 monograph) believes that the tablets "for the most part reproduce the magical formula of fertilization, fixed in the later version of the creation of the world, and are built on the repetition of the producing formula: agent X combined with agent Y and gave birth to object (s) Z". According to the ironic characterization of linguists K.I. and I.K. Pozdnyakov, "it turns out a leapfrog, in which everyone copulates in the most incredible combinations."

People have been struggling with the mysteries of the past for centuries, but they still remain unsolved. Mysterious artifacts, mysterious personalities and mysteries of history - no matter how annoying, but apparently no one will ever know the explanation for these facts.

Geoglyphs of Nazca

A geoglyph is a giant pattern on the earth's surface. In Nazca, such figures depict either geometric figures or silhouettes of animals. They seem to be scratched on stony soil and from the height of human growth are only an intricacies of yellow lines. Only by rising into the air, you can see their true outlines. And then a fifty-meter spider appears to the eyes, then a condor with a wingspan of 120 meters, then a lizard 180 meters long.
The age of geoglyphs lends itself only to approximate dating. Archaeological research showed that they were created in different time. The latest dates back to the 1st century AD, the most ancient - the 6th century BC.

Mummies from peat bogs

In the peat bogs and swamps of Denmark, Germany, Holland, England and Ireland, people found well-preserved human mummies. About the first find made in Germany, it is said: "In the summer of 1640, a dead man was dug up in the swamps of Schalholtingen." Only a few of the swamp mummies found are so well preserved that they can be exhibited in museums. All the bodies show signs of violent death: strangulation marks, broken bones, slashed throats, and sometimes all together. On the body of the so-called "man from Lindow" traces of blows were found, his skull was pierced with an axe. The executioners tightened the veins of the unfortunate animal around the neck, after which they cut the throat. Under the long braids of the young "woman from Elling" on the back of the head was found a deeply depressed inverted letter V. A teenager of 10-14 years old, who was taken from a swamp near Kayhausen in Lower Saxony, was tied up so skillfully that he could not even move.
It is still unclear whether it was an execution or a sacrifice. Why were these people treated so cruelly? Archaeologists believe that the swamps served as a place of ritual actions, because since ancient times they were known as sacred. However, this mystery, apparently, will remain unsolved.

Easter Island idols

These grandiose stone sculptures, moai, the enigmatic remains of a little-known ancient civilization, are different from those found on other Pacific islands. The inhabitants of Easter themselves have long forgotten about their purpose. Saw them for the first time Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen, who landed on this island on Easter Day.
In 1955 Thor Heyerdahl managed to raise one of the statues in 12 days with the help of the inhabitants of the island. Armed with beams, the workers lifted one side of the statue and placed stones from below. Then they lifted the statue a little higher and placed stones again. The operation was repeated until the sculpture stood upright. But Heyerdahl could not explain how the "hats" weighing several tons were put on the statues.

Popess Joanna

According to medieval biographers, Popess Joanna was born in 882. Hungry for knowledge, she went to Athens. In those days, theological education was not available to women, so she pretended to be a young man and took the name John the Englishman. When Joanna arrived in Rome, she was immediately noticed for her learning, piety, and beauty. Having become a cardinal, after the death of Pope Leo IV, she was appointed his successor. From the outside, she seemed absolutely worthy of her dignity, but suddenly, during the festive procession of John, right on the road, she gave birth to a child and soon died.
A kind of confirmation of this story is the fact that from about 1000. and for almost five centuries, the sex of each elect to the papacy was checked.
The veracity of the story of a female pope, repeated since the 13th century, was first challenged in the 15th century. Beginning in the middle of the 16th century, historians no longer doubted the fiction of this story. The legend probably arose in mockery of pornocracy - the period of female domination in the pope's court, from John X to John XII (919-963). A similar phenomenon was also noted under Pope Alexander VI Borgia (1492-1503), who appointed his mistress Giulia Farnese to the post of chief treasurer (accountant-auditor) of the curia, and her younger brother Alessandro Farnese, without a spiritual order, a little later, in 1493 , at the age of 25 he received the post of cardinal treasurer of the curia and at the same time bishop of three dioceses at once; moreover, it was this cardinal who subsequently (through two popes) occupied the papal throne under the name of Paul III (1534-1549). An interesting fact is also known related to the military campaign of Alexander VI during the civil strife with the Sforza family, when his youngest daughter Lucrezia Borgia was in loco parentis, that is, “in the place of the parent” - she occupied the throne of St. Peter in the absence of her father by his own appointment .

Tomb of Genghis Khan

It is still unknown where the grave of Genghis Khan is located. This, one of the greatest mysteries of human civilization, no one has been able to unravel for the past eight hundred years. The burial place attracts not only with its historical value, but also with countless riches buried in the ground along with the deceased. According to the most conservative estimates, taking into account the historical value, the cost of precious stones, gold coins, expensive dishes, skillfully made weapons is estimated at no less than two billion dollars. Kush is quite decent and deserves to devote years and even decades to the search for the grave of Genghis Khan.
After the death of Genghis Khan, his body was returned to Mongolia, apparently to the place of his birth in the territory of modern Khentii aimag; he was buried, as is supposed, somewhere near the river Onon. According to both Marco Polo and Rashid ad-Din, the funeral escort killed anyone they met along the way. The slaves who performed the burial were put to the sword, and then the soldiers who executed them were also killed. The mausoleum of Genghis Khan in Ejen-Khoro is a memorial that is not the place of his burial. According to one of the folklore versions, a river bed was laid over his grave so that this place could not be found. According to other legends, many horses were driven over his grave, trees were planted there.

Origin of the Basques

Basques are one of the most amazing riddles stories: their language has nothing to do with others European languages. In addition, genetic studies have established the uniqueness of the people we are considering. Basques are the people who have the highest proportion of negative Rh factor in their blood among all Europeans (25 percent) and one of the highest proportions of type O blood (55 percent). There is a very sharp genetic difference between representatives of this ethnic group and other peoples, especially in Spain.
Most scientists agree that the Basques are the indigenous inhabitants of Europe, directly descended from the Cro-Magnons, who came to European lands from Africa 35 thousand years ago and remained there. The Cro-Magnons probably did not participate in any subsequent migrations of peoples, since archaeologists have not found a single piece of evidence that allows us to talk about a change in the population in this area throughout the entire time, until the appearance of the Romans. This means that all those people who today call themselves Europeans are just children compared to the Basques. Amazing, isn't it?

Time Travelers

Is time travel possible? Science does not give a definite answer. But the world has accumulated a lot of, to put it mildly, strange facts that no one can explain. Here are some of them.

This photograph was taken in 1941 at the opening of the South Fork Bridge in British Columbia, Canada. A man who clearly stands out from the crowd with his extraordinary appearance got into the frame. Short haircut, dark glasses, wide-necked knitted sweater over a T-shirt with some kind of symbolism, a massive camera in his hands. Agree, the appearance is quite familiar to our days, but not for the early 40s! And he really stands out from the rest. This photo was investigated. Found a participant in these events. But he couldn't remember the man at all.

Swiss Watches

This item, found in a Ming Dynasty tomb, has puzzled researchers. The tomb was opened in 2008 in the Guangxi region (China) during the filming of a documentary. To the surprise of archaeologists and journalists. in the burial were found ... a Swiss watch!
“When we were removing the soil, a piece of rock suddenly bounced off the surface of the coffin and hit the floor with a metallic sound,” said Jiang Yan, a former curator of the Guangxi Museum who participated in the excavation. We have picked up the item. It turned out to be a ring. But, having cleared it from the ground, we were shocked - a miniature dial was found on its surface.

Inside the ring was an engraved inscription "Swiss" (Switzerland). The Ming Dynasty ruled China until 1644. The fact that in the 17th century they could create such a miniature mechanism is out of the question. But Chinese experts claim that the tomb has never been opened over the past 400 years.

Ancient computer?

On the remote peninsula of Kamchatka, 200 km from the village of Tigil, St. Petersburg University of Archeology discovered strange fossils.
According to archaeologist Yuri Golubev, the discovery surprised scientists by its nature, it is able to change the course of history. This is not the first time ancient artifacts have been found in this region. But this find is special. Analysis has shown that the mechanism is made of metal parts that seem to combine to form a mechanism that could be something like a clock or a computer. The most amazing thing is that all the pieces have been dated at 400 million years.

Voynich manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript is a mysterious, undeciphered book written in the 15th century (1404–1438) by an unknown author in an unknown language using an unknown alphabet. The thickness of the book is 5 cm, it contains about 240 pages, measuring 16.2 by 23.5 cm. During its existence, the manuscript was intensively studied by many professional cryptographers, including those recognized all over the world, and none of them managed to decipher a single word . There is a theory that this book is just a collection of meaningless random characters that make no sense, but there are those who believe that the manuscript is a ciphered message.

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper is the nickname of an unknown serial killer (or killers) active in the Whitechapel area of ​​London in the second half of 1888. His victims were prostitutes from poor neighborhoods, mostly middle-aged, whose throats were slit by the killer before opening the abdominal cavity. The cutting out of some organs from the bodies of the victims was explained by the assumption that the killer had some knowledge of anatomy or surgery. However, all the names, the exact number of victims, as well as the identity of Jack the Ripper are still a mystery.

crystal skulls

The riddle of fossil crystal skulls (from rock crystal) has long been trying to solve by experts in various fields of science. Where could they come from? Who was able to create them? What were they for and who did they serve?
A total of 13 crystal skulls are known, and according to some sources, even 21. They are kept in museums and private collections. These are very accurate copies of human skulls and mask portraits made of quartz. They were found in Central America and Tibet. All these amazing objects were made in ancient times, but the skill of their execution testifies to the highest level of technical knowledge that the ancestors of modern mankind possessed.

ancient aircraft

The Incas and other peoples of the Americas of the pre-Columbian era left behind a lot of very curious mysterious little things. Some of them have been called "ancient planes" - these are small gold figurines that are very reminiscent of modern aircraft. Initially thought to be animal or insect figurines, it was later revealed that they had strange details that looked more like fighter jet parts: wings, tail stabilizer, and even a landing gear. It has been suggested that these models are copies of real aircraft. The version that these figurines are just an artistic representation of bees, flying fish or other earthly creatures with wings.

Phaistos Disc

The mystery of the Phaistos Disc, a round-shaped clay tablet found by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in 1908 in the Minoan Palace, also remains unsolved.
The Phaistos disk is made of baked clay and contains mysterious symbols that may represent an unknown language. It is believed that this language was developed sometime in the second millennium BC. Some scholars believe that the hieroglyphs resemble symbols once used in ancient Crete. However, this does not provide a clue to their decryption. Today, the disc remains one of the most famous puzzles in archeology.

Case of Taman Shud

"Taman Shud" or "The Case of the Mysterious Somerton Man" is a still unsolved criminal case following the discovery of the body of an unknown man on December 1, 1948 at 6:30 am on Somerton Beach in the Australian city of Adelaide.
Despite the fact that the best policemen of the whole world were involved in the identification of the person who died from barbiturate poisoning or sleeping pills, it was not possible to establish who the unknown person was ...
In addition, a piece of paper discovered with the deceased (in a secret pocket of his trousers) caused a great resonance, torn from a very rare copy of the book by Omar Khayyam, on which only two words were written - “Taman Shud”.
After persistent searches, the police managed to find one of the copies of the book with Khayyam's poems and with the last page torn out. On the back of the book were several words written in pencil that looked like a cipher.
All numerous attempts to understand the inscriptions were in vain. Thus, the Taman Shud case remains one of the most intricate and mysterious cases still unsolved by the police.