The Worlds Most Famous Unsolved Mysteries

The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy was shot once in the back and once in head while riding with his wife Jacqueline in a Presidential motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested 45 minutes after the shots were fired. After hours of interrogation, in which none of the proper procedures were followed, he was accused of murder. He was killed by Jack Ruby in the garage of the police building on November 24 in front of hundreds of journalists. On November 29, President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination. It was headed by Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the United States, and found that Oswald was the lone shooter and that he did it from the sixth floor of the Schoolbook Depository Building with an Italian Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.

Jack the Ripper

One of the oldest unsolved murder cases in the world, Jack the Ripper instilled fear into the heart of Victorian London and still captures our imagination today. Between August and November 1888, five prostitutes were murdered in Whitechapel, an area in the East End of London. Everything about the murders seems to be shrouded in mystery, from the identity of the killer to the letters that were sent to the police. Even the number of victims is under scrutiny. It is generally accepted that there were five victims of Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper had a real effect on, not only the rest of London, but also the entire British Empire. The legend played on the fears that poverty, crime, disease and social unrest were at their doorstep, and Jack the Ripper became the personification of all these evils.

The Mystery of Stonehenge

Built in three sections over 6,400 years by the Neolithic inhabitants of Salisbury Plain in Southern England, Stonehenge has captivated visitors for thousands of years. The site contains 30 sarcens (upright stones) weighing 26 tons and 30 lintels (horizontal top stones). Each stone weighs 6 tons and was carved from bluestone from a location several miles away. The Neolithic builders were able to create a monumental that has perplexed humanity for thousands of years using only stone tools, and without using draft animals. Even after all these years, nobody really knows why Stonehenge was built. The other mysteries surrounding Stonehenge are its construction and the significance of the giant blue stones used. As a result of the recent discovery, a new theory has emerged, one that states that Stonehenge was a place to celebrate the lives of the dead.

The Lost Island of Atlantis

One of the oldest mysteries in the world, the legend of Atlantis has mystified humanity since ancient times. According to the Greek philosopher Plato, Atlantis was a large island somewhere west of the Pillars of Hercules (the Rock of Gibraltar) and the home of an incredibly advanced civilization known as the Atlanteans. Plato described Atlantis as a place of immense beauty with a palace compound in the center of three ringed canals. He said that every king that inherited the palace would add to it, trying to surpass his predecessor and by doing so they made it a palace that surpassed any other in both beauty and wealth. The Atlanteans themselves were blessed with wealth but at the same they were incredibly ambitious, constantly seeking power. Atlantis is said to have met its end when it was hit by a giant earthquake and swallowed by the sea. But is any of this the truth or is the story of Atlantis just a myth?

The Riddle of the Sphinx

When one thinks of the Sphinx, they immediately think of the Great Sphinx at Giza, but the Sphinx was a powerful symbol in Greece, Phoenicia and Syria as well. In fact Riddle of the Sphinx originates in Greek legend. According to the ancient Greeks, if a man crossed its path the Sphinx would ask, “What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three in the evening?” If they couldn’t answer, the Sphinx would devour them; however, if they answered correctly, the Sphinx would destroy itself. The only person said to survive an encounter with the Sphinx was the Greek hero Oedipus who answered “man.” Despite the riddle being solved, the Great Sphinx still poses many questions. How old is it? Who built it? And what was the purpose of the passageways?

Lost cities found beneath sands of the Sahara

Ruins from a long-lost civilization have been revealed beneath the desert sands of the Sahara. Evidence of the advanced Garamantes civilization had remained mostly undocumented due to the strict regime of Colonel Gaddafi, but now due to recent events in Libya archaeologists have a chance to finally investigate in full the secrets of this long lost ancient culture. “It is like someone coming to England and suddenly discovered all the medieval castles,” said Proffessor David Mattingly. “These settlements had been unremarked and unrecorded under the Gaddafi regime.”

Mysterious skull discovered in Peru

An elongated skull found in the city of Andahuaylillas has managed to baffle anthropologists. The skull possesses a number of unusual features including an elongated cranium, enlarged eye sockets and a set of adult teeth despite the fact that the skull appears to belong to an infant. A group of anthropologists who visited the site to view the skull allegedly concluded that it wasn’t even human while others have suggested that it could be the product of an ancient technique known as “cradle boarding” in which the child’s skull was elongated from an early age.

Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch)

Bigfoot is world-famous for spooking the bejesus out of hikers and hunters in North America and Scientists consider Sasquatch to be the result of folklore, misidentification and a whole lot of hoaxes. However, many people still believe these humanoid creatures exist around the world, just like the Yeti of the Himalayas. One of the most infamous unexplained mysteries in the world today, Bigfoot has been described as an ape-like creature, some 6-10 feet tall, weighing more than 500 pounds, and covered in dark brown or reddish hair. Witnesses give him large eyes, a heavy brow ridge and a crested head, much like a male gorilla. Footprints allegedly belonging to Bigfoot are 24 inches long.

Black Dahlia

She was known as the “Black Dahlia”. She had jet black hair and preferred black dresses and lingerie. Those who knew her best said she had a tattoo of an exotic flower on her inner thigh. She wanted desperately to be a Hollywood actress, but her fame would not come from the movies. It would come from her death, a murder which has gone unsolved for 60 years. On a cold morning in January 1947, the nude, mutilated body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was discovered in a vacant lot in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles. What made the murder so unique was the barbaric nature of the crime. The Black Dahlia’s body had been neatly severed in half, gutted and drained of blood. Author Lawrence P. Scherb put the unusual crime into perspective: “Her face had been very brutally cut from ear to ear in a grin. Her throat had been cut and she had been mutilated sexually. Basically, she was the worst case of a sex crime in the history of Los Angeles County.”

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10 Mysteries With A Logical Explanation

10 Mars Face

The Cydonian region on Mars attracted a great deal of attention because one of the hills in that region looked remarkably man made. The region was first imaged in detail by the Viking 1 orbiter, which was launched in 1975. Several images were taken by the Viking, including one taken in 1976 showing that one of the Cydonian mesas had the appearance of face. Scientists dismissed the face as a trick of light and shadow, but then a second image also showed the face at a different sun-angle. This caught the attention of organizations interested in extraterrestrial intelligence, and some talk show hosts who believed the Face was a long-lost Martian civilization. Most scientists still held the belief that the face was just a consequence of viewing conditions. In 2003, when the European space agency launched Mars Express, it was able to combine data from a high resolution stereo camera and create a 3D representation of the “Face on Mars”. The most recent image (bottom) I think would silence even the most faithful believers. The image shows a remnant massif, thought to have formed from landslides and an early form of debris apron formation, but no face in sight.

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Ica Stones

The Ica Stones are stones which were discovered in a cave in Peru. The cave was never identified. The Stones have engravings on them such as Aztec men fighting dinosaurs, extinct fish, open heart surgery and other things that show an advanced civilization. A farmer was arrested for selling these stones to tourists, when he admitted to making them himself. To get that ancient look, he says he left the stones in his chicken coop, and let the chickens do the rest. Others have also made and sold Ica Stones. There is no evidence of a civilization in that area, no ruins, bones or anything.

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Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste was a ship discovered floating in the sea minus its crew. Stories range from finding meals, still hot and ready to eat, to the ship being found abandoned but with no personal items taken, with strange circular burns on the deck – indicating alien abduction. The truth is much more boring. The ship that discovered the May Celeste saw signs that the crew had left in a hurry. The also noted the ship was making strange noises. The captain probably thought his ship was sinking, so he left with the crew.

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Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle is a triangular area in the Atlantic ocean where a large amount of ships and planes have crashed, or disappeared, without a trace. However, many of the ships and planes that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle were not actually in the Bermuda Triangle. Also, the amount of disappearances and crashes are not unusual for an area that size. The story of the Bermuda Triangle has developed due to media hysteria and authors wanting to be published.

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Mayan Long Count Calendar

The only mysterious thing here is the Mayans themselves, and how did they come up with the calendar. The calendar looks like this , 12.18.16.2.6, though this isn’t todays date. The end number counts up one day, when it reaches a certain number it will reset to zero and the number next to it will count up one. It ends on the year 2012, so people predict the world will end too. The world isn’t going to end. Think of the Mayan calendar as a odometer, when the numbers reach zero, they will start counting up from one again. No mystery.

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Loch Ness Monster

The monster of Loch Ness, allegedly a plesiosaur which is all that is left of the dinosaur period. There have been sonar’s which have seen ‘something’, photographs etc. to support the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. What there hasn’t been, is a lot of common sense. The Loch Ness monster story has been around for more then 1500 years. That is one very old monster. Of course, it could have bred, but that would mean a family of monsters. How come with that many monsters there is no definite proof? A clear photograph that can’t be argued with? A carcass? But there is nothing except a lot of tourism.

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Bigfoot

Bigfoot is a prehistoric ape like animal. It is tall, hairy and has big feet. As with the Loch Ness Monster, there are only (hard to see) photographs and questionable footprints to prove its existence. Just like the Loch Ness Monster, there is no actual proof of the existence of Bigfoot. No scat, no bones, no artifacts. Nothing, except a lot of sightings. Ultimately, he is probably a figment of a few wild imaginations.

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Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin is supposedly the cloth that was used to wrap Jesus after his death. The face of Jesus was miraculously imposed onto the cloth. Some blood, type AB was found on the cloth. Firstly, the AB type blood was found on the tape that was used to lift fibrils on the shroud and not on the shroud itself. Secondly, it could be anyone’s blood, from anyone who ever handled the shroud. Lastly, dried old blood is black and the stains on the shroud are red. One theory is that a male model was painted and wrapped in the shroud to create the figure of Christ. Vermillion paint was splashed on the models wrists, feet and body to create the blood. Analyzing the shroud has shown 2 common paint pigments used in the 14th century.

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Astrology

Astrology is the practice of examining the stars to tell us about our future. People born at a certain time of month have certain star signs, for example, Leo, born in July/August. Where some daily star signs might be accurate, this is coincidence. There isn’t any way a lot of old, probably dead stars can tell us about the future. Daily Star Signs are kept vague enough that they could apply to anything. For example, “You will meet someone new today”, we meet some one new every day, at the shop, the bus driver, in any day you will meet some one new.

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Incorruptible Corpse

Incorruptible Corpses are corpses that have been ‘preserved without embalming or any other artificial means’. The most famous is St. Bernadette Soubirous (above), who died in 1879. Her face and hands are made out of wax. The wax was added because her face was emaciated when she was first dug up. Other incorruptible corpses give off a sweet odor, similar to embalming fluid. Others still are due to how they were buried, in alkaline soil, with a lack of oxygen and bacteria and worms.

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Mysterious Persian rock with great story...!

To the north of the ancient city Persepolis in Iran is a strange rockcalled Naqsh - I - Rustam. The construction of the rock is amazing , andit is strange that people managed to shape this. has huge doors thatare on the walls of rock . There total of 4 inputs that generate huge crosses are known as Persian Crosses .

It is perfectly carved on the walls . Through the portals , you will see a small curvature , where the king is was in the sarcophagus of , but now they are licensed , of course. The Rock is also known as the Persian Empire and emperors was Xerxes , the Darius and Cyrus . External isalso sculptured with figures of people and horses , and the oldestinscription ever recorded bearing the name of Iran . Today is a tourist attraction and a great way to experience the old Persian history and culture . Something that can remind the Persian Empire is the beautifulcave city in Georgia that actually was a monastery .

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Baalbeck (Baalbek)

Introduction

Baalbeck is a city in eastern Lebanon famous chiefly for its magnificent, excellently preserved Roman temple ruins. It was a flourishing Phoenician town when
the Greeks occupied it in 331 B.C. They renamed it "Heliopolis" (City of the Sun) .
It became a Roman colony under the Emperor Augustus in 16 B.C..On its acropolis, over the course of the next three centuries, the Romans constructed a monumental ensemble of three temples, three coutyards, and an enclosing wall built of some of the most gigantic stones ever crafted by man. Some tourists believe that the construction can only be attributed to extra-terrestial artwork .

At the southern entrance of Baalbeck is a quarry where the stones used in the temples were cut. A huge block, considered the largest hewn stone in the world, still sits where it was cut almost 2,000 years ago. Called the "Stone of the Pregnant Woman", it is 21.5m x 4.8m x 4.2meters in size and weighs an estimated 1,000 tons.

Stone of the Pregnant Woman

The Temples In History

For centuries the temples of Baalbeck lay under meters of rubble, obscured by medieval fortifications. But even in ruin the site attracted the admiration of visitors and its historical importance was recognized.

The first survey and restoration work at Baalbeck was begun by the German Archaeological Mission in 1898. In 1922 French scholars undertook extensive research and restoration of the temples, work which was continued by the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities.

Baalbeck's temples were built on an ancient tell that goes back at least to the end of the third millennium B.C. Little is known about the site during this period, but there is evidence that in the course of the 1rst millennium B.C. an enclosed court was built on the ancient tell. An altar was set in the center of this court in the tradition of the biblical Semitic high places.

During the Hellenistic period (333-64 B.C.) the Greeks identified the god of Baalbeck with the sun god and the city was called Heliopolis or City of the Sun. At this time the ancient enclosed court was enlarged and a podium was erected on its western side to support a temple of classical form. Although the temple was never built, some huge construction from the Hellenistic project can still be seen. And it was over the ancient court that the Romans placed the present Great Court of the Temple of Jupiter.

Aerial view of the Acropolis

The temple was begun in the last quarter of the 1rst century B.C., and was nearing completion in the final years of Nero's reign (37-68 A.D.). the Great Court Complex of the temple of Jupiter, with its porticoes, exedrae, altars and basins, was built in the 2nd century A.D. Construction of the so-called temple of Bacchus was also started about this time.

The Propylaea and the Hexagonal Court of the Jupiter temple were added in the 3rd century under the Severan Dynasty (193-235 A.D.) and work was presumably completed in the mid-3rd century. The small circular structure known as the Temple of Venus, was probably finished at this time as well.

When Christianity was declared an official religion of the Roman Empire in 313 A.D., Byzantine Emperor Constantine officially closed the Baalbeck temples. At the end of the 4th century, the Emperor Theodosius tore down the altars of Jupiter's Great Court and built a basilica using the temple's stones and architectural elements. The remnants of the three apses of this basilica, originally oriented to the west, can still be seen in the upper part of the stairway of the Temple of Jupiter.

After the Arab conquest in 636 the temples were transformed into a fortress, or qal'a, a term still applied to the Acropolis today.

During the next centuries Baalbeck fell successively to the Omayyad, Abbasid, Toulounid, Fatimid and Ayyoubid dynasties. Sacked by the Mongols about 1260, Baalbeck later enjoyed a period of calm and prosperity under Mamluke rule.

The temple complex of Baalbeck is made up of the Jupiter Temple and the Bacchus Temple adjacent to it. A short distance away is the circular structure known as the Temple of Venus. Only part of the staircase remains of a fourth temple dedicated to Mercury, on Kheikh Abdallah hill.

Temple of Jupiter

The first view the visitor has of Baalbeck is the six Corinthian columns of the Great Temple (or "Jupiter Temple") thrusting 22 meters into the skyline. Built on a podium seven meters above the Court, these six columns and the entablature on top give an idea of the vast scale of the original structure.

The complex of the Great Temple has four sections: the monumental entrance or Propylaea, the Hexagonal Court, the Great Court and finally the Temple itself, where the six famous columns stand.

The Temple of Jupiter is one of the most impressive Temples in Baalbeck.
It measures 88x48 meters and stands on a podium 13 meters above the surrounding terrain and 7 meters above the courtyard. It is reached by a monumental stairway.

Originally surrounded by 54 external columns, most of these now lie in fragments on the ground. The six standing columns are joined by an entablature decorated with a frieze of bulls and lions' heads connected by garlands.

The Podium is built with some of the largest stone blocks ever hewn. On the west side of the podium is the "Trilithon", a celebrated group of three enormous stones weighing about 800 tons each.

 The Trylithon

It was decided to furnish the temple with a monumental extension of the podium which, according to Phoenician tradition, had to consist of no more than three layers of stone. The fact remains that this decision initiated the cutting, transporting and lifting of the largest and heaviest stones of all times. Not only had a wall of 13 meters in height to be composed of three ranges of stones, but in the interest of appearance the middle blocks were made of a length four times their height. Adding to this a depth equal to the height of the stones, they had to be of a volume of up to 400 cubic meters per block, corresponding to a weight of almost 1000 tons. Technically, the builders of Baalbeck proved that they could do it, since three such blocks of the middle layer are in place, but in terms of time they did not succeed - the podium remained incomplete. Nevertheless, so awe-inspiring were those blocks to all beholders ever after, that Baalbeck was known for a long time primarily as the site of the three stones, the trilithon.

Stone Technology of the Ancients

Everybody who has traveled to Egypt, Mesopotamia, South America and many ancient places has seen it: the astonishing craftsmanship of these ancient stoneworkers. The precision fit of large stone blocks is eminent in both the Old and New World. It is hardly imaginable, that all of this should have been done by pure manual work alone. This very interesting link, Ancient Stone Technology, also  includes theories of Professor Davidovits from the Geopolymer Institute in France.
In short, his theory is that the 2 million blocks of limestone that make up the core of the pyramid of Chufu (Cheops), have not been cut into shape, but the limestone was solved in water, brought to the building place in small portions and then the blocks were cast in situ.  Even more interesting are his ideas on the precision-fit Inca walls: He puts forward a technique to soften the stone by use of acid plant extracts!
Another interesting website is STONE TECHNOLOGY. The ancient Egyptians were masters in working with stone. These pages document photographic evidence, historical research and contemporary debates on stone technology. Topics include predynastic stonewares, straight saws, circular saws, tube drilling and lathes - Photos, Research Papers and Newsgroup Debate Summaries.

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Unfinished Obelisk

Location: Aswan Egypt Height: 41.75 meters Weight: 1185 tons Base: 4.2 meters Red granite

This 3000 years old obelisk in the Aswan quarry shows us an amazing feat of technology and archaeologists have learned much about the techniques of stone-cutting from examining this abandoned monument and from the tools which have been left behind (it developed a flaw during quarrying and was never completed, left to lie still attached to the living rock.)

If it had been extracted and erected as originally conceived, the Unfinished Obelisk would have stood 41.75 m (137 feet) tall and weighed 1,185 tons, dwarfing all others  (the largest survivor, the Lateran obelisk in Rome, rises 105 feet and weighs "only" 455 tons.)

Unfinished Obelisk. The granite quarries of ancient Aswan lay beside the Nile, thus providing easy access to boats for transporting this prized building stone to sites downstream. A crack in the granite stopped the cutting of what would have been an enormous obelisk (estimated at more than 40 meters high). Now the abandoned partially carved obelisk gives us information about how ancient stonecutters worked.

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