221 World’s Strange & Unsolved Mysteries

This world’s most-famous painting was painted sometime between 1503 and 1519, by the Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect and engineer Leonardo da Vinci. The sitter’s mysterious smile and her unproven identity have made the painting a source of ongoing investigation and fascination. Much speculation and debate regarding the identity of the portrait’s sitter led to […]

The Moai Statues of Easter Island lies 2,300 miles west of South America. The first settlement happened during AD 800 to 1200. The Rapa Nui carved and erected some 900 Moai Statues across the island. The stone blocks were carved into head-and-torso figures, averaging 13 ft, weighing 14 tons. The island’s ecosystem was wrecked mainly

What happened to the ten people who had sailed aboard the Mary Celeste on November 7, 1872. Theories have ranged from mutiny to pirates to sea monsters to killer waterspouts. The ship had set sail with seven crewmen. On December 5, the crew of the British Brig Dei Gratia spotted Mary Celeste. On a search,

Images from the Microscopic Imager on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity show unusual cookie-dough-looking clump of Martian soil, which hints at a watery past or a major crater-causing impact. Each individual spherule is up to about 3 mm in diameter. Scientists are not sure exactly what the spherules are. One idea is that these represent

The Lusca and St. Augustine Phenomena are vicious, half-shark, half-octopus man-eaters believed to have inspired terror amongst fishermen and scuba divers in the blue holes of the Bahamas for decades. These ferocious octo-sharks have been described as being 75-200 ft in length, with razor sharp teeth and an array of octopus-like multi-suckered tentacles. Oceanographers suggest

In May 1955, an unknown businessman claimed to have witnessed three, bipedal, quasi-reptilian entities congregating by the side of the road. The strange being stood between 3-4 ft tall, with leathery skin, and webbed hands and feet. Its most distinguishing characteristic was its frog-like head, which the man claimed bore deep wrinkles in place of

There was an island called Ferdinandea between Sicily and Tunisia in 1831. It was formed of volcanic material. It was in a strategical position for any naval power. When the tug-of-war for sovereignty between four powerful nations began, the island had sunk back into the sea, unable to withstand the ocean waves. Since 1863, Ferdinandea

Atlantis is a legendary ‘Lost Island’ subcontinent often idealised as an advanced, utopian society holding wisdom that could bring world peace. It was thought of as a fictional place mentioned in a fable by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. In 1881, Ignatius Donnelly first propagated the theory that most of the accomplishments of the ancient

The Longyou Caves or The Longyou Grottoes are a series of large artificial sandstone caverns located at Phoenix Hill, Zhejiang province, China. They were first discovered in 1992, and 24 caves have been found to date. The Grottoes are thought to date back at least 2,000 years, but there are no records of the existence

The Loch Ness Monster is an aquatic being said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. It is often described as being large in size with a serpentine head and neck and one or more humps protruding from the water. A monk was the first person who claimed to have seen Nessie in

It is the longest document extant in the Etruscan language, with about 1330 words. It is the only existing linen book dated to the first half of the second century BC. The inscription consists of 12 parallel columns. The single large textile had been cut into horizontal strips to form bandages for the mummy. Columns

The Inca Empire spanned the distance of northern Ecuador to central Chile, comprising 100 different ethnic groups, in the Andes region during the 12th century A.D. The Inca religion centred on a pantheon of gods: Inti, a creator-god named Viracocha, and Apu Illapu, the Rain-god. Impressive shrines built throughout the kingdom, included a massive Sun

The Ica Stones are composed of andesite. They vary in sizes having the depictions of dinosaurs, flowers, fish, or living animals of various sorts. Others appear to depict scenes which would be anachronistic in pre-Columbian art. In 1960, Javier Cabrera Darquea collected and popularised these stones which he purchased from a farmer. Later, the farmer

The Hook Island Sea Monster is a gigantic, tadpole-like 30 ft long monster, supposedly encountered by Le Serrec in Stonehaven Bay, Hook Island, Queensland on December 12, 1964. A large wound was visible on the right side of the tail which might have caused the animal to take rest in the shallow bay. But Le

The Holy Grail is most commonly identified as the cup that Jesus drank from, at the Last Supper and the one which received blood flowing from Christ’s side at the Crucifixion. It was brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea. The search for the Grail became the holiest of quests as it signified the pursuit