Another 10 Unsolved Mysteries

Building on the immense success of our previous unsolved mysteries lists, we present a third edition. These are unsolved puzzles that continue to resist any definitive explanation. Think you have the solution? Let us know in the comments! And if you haven't yet seen our earlier two lists (which you should check out before questioning why some mysteries aren’t included here), they are:

Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries Another 10 Unsolved Mysteries

10. The Vile Vortices

The twelve Vile Vortices are mysterious zones spread across the globe, believed to share qualities similar to those of the Bermuda Triangle. Five of these areas lie near the Tropic of Capricorn, another five near the Tropic of Cancer, with one located at each of the Poles. Together, they form the vertices of an icosahedron. Among these areas is the Bermuda Triangle, as well as the Devil’s Triangle (or Devil’s Sea). The Devil’s Triangle is often linked to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the pioneering American aviator, author, and women’s rights advocate who vanished over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island while attempting a global flight in 1937. The image above highlights the vortices in a different color.

The Frederick Valentich Disappearance occurred on October 21, 1978, when 20-year-old Frederick Valentich vanished under mysterious circumstances while flying a Cessna 182L light aircraft over the Bass Strait to King Island, Australia. Before his disappearance, Valentich reported encountering an unidentified craft that appeared to be matching his plane's speed and hovered above him. No trace of Valentich or his plane was ever found. Just before his final communication, plumber Roy Manifold, who had set up a time-lapse camera on the shoreline to capture the sunset, developed his pictures to reveal a fast-moving object emerging from the water. The timestamp of the photos, around 6:47 pm (18:47 hrs), was about 20 minutes before Valentich's distress call. Moments before communication ceased, Valentich was heard saying, “My intentions are – ah – to go to King Island – ah – Melbourne. That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again (open microphone for two seconds). It is hovering and it’s not an aircraft.”

The Oak Island Money Pit stands as the site of the world's longest ongoing search for a hidden treasure. For centuries, treasure hunters have ventured to Nova Scotia, attempting to unearth a treasure that is safeguarded by a series of sophisticated traps. While numerous strange man-made artifacts have been found in the pit, the treasure itself remains elusive. Speculation about who created this mysterious Money Pit and for what purpose ranges from pirates to the Knights Templar, or even Francis Bacon. There have been numerous theories about the pit's origin and the treasure it might hold. Oak platforms were discovered at intervals of 10 feet, and evidence of pick scrapes on the walls and loose, less compacted dirt has been observed. At a depth of 90 feet, a flood tunnel was identified, lined with flat stones. Some believe the Oak Island pit was designed to conceal treasure far more unusual than gold or silver. In his 1953 book *The Oak Island Enigma: A History and Inquiry Into the Origin of the Money Pit*, Penn Leary proposed that English philosopher Francis Bacon used the pit to hide documents that would prove he was the true author of William Shakespeare's works. The image above shows the Money Pit as it exists today. A detailed article about the Oak Island Money Pit is available here.

The Ararat anomaly is a mysterious formation captured in photographs of the snowfields near the summit of Mount Ararat in Turkey. Some adherents of Biblical literalism claim it to be the remains of Noah's Ark. Situated at around 15,500 feet on the northwest corner of the Western Plateau of Mount Ararat, the anomaly was first photographed during a U.S. Air Force aerial reconnaissance mission in 1949. Given the area’s location on the former Turkish/Soviet border, it was considered of military significance, leading to the classification of the photographs as 'secret.' Subsequent images were taken in 1956, 1973, 1976, 1990, and 1992 by aircraft and satellites. Six frames from the 1949 footage were declassified under the Freedom of Information Act. A later joint research project between Insight Magazine and Space Imaging (now GeoEye) utilized the IKONOS satellite to capture the anomaly on August 5 and September 13, 2000. The region has also been photographed by France’s SPOT satellite in 1989, NASA's Landsat in the 1970s, and NASA’s Space Shuttle in 1994.

Among the numerous instances of Spontaneous Human Combustion, there is one lesser-known case involving a woman who tragically burst into flames in front of witnesses. On Wednesday, September 15, 1982, at approximately 4 p.m., Jeannie Saffin, aged 61, spontaneously ignited while seated in a wooden Windsor chair in the kitchen of her home in Edmonton, London, England. Her father, 82-year-old Jack Saffin, was sitting nearby and saw a flash of light in his peripheral vision. Turning to ask Jeannie if she had noticed it, he was horrified to see her engulfed in flames, especially around her face and hands. Jeannie did not cry out or move, but sat calmly with her hands in her lap. Jack rushed to pull her toward the sink, suffering burns on his own hands in the process, as he tried to extinguish the flames with water. Jeannie lapsed into a coma and passed away eight days later. The police officer who investigated the incident concluded that no explanation could be found for Jeannie's combustion. There were no signs of burning or charring anywhere else in the room, other than on Jeannie’s body. The image above is taken from a different case of Spontaneous Human Combustion, as no photos of Jeannie Saffin’s incident exist. You can read a more in-depth article on spontaneous human combustion here.

From July 25 to September 23, 2001, the southern Indian state of Kerala experienced an unusual phenomenon: sporadic red rain. During these heavy downpours, the rain appeared red, leaving stains on clothing that resembled blood. Other colors, including yellow, green, and black rain, were also reported. According to locals, the first instance of colored rain was preceded by a loud thunderclap and a flash of light, followed by trees shedding shriveled, grey ‘burnt’ leaves. Additionally, there were reports of shriveled leaves and the sudden appearance or disappearance of wells in the area. A government-commissioned study concluded that the colored rain was caused by airborne spores from a locally abundant terrestrial alga. However, in early 2006, the colored rains gained international attention after media speculated that the particles could be extraterrestrial cells. The true origin of the rain remains a mystery despite global investigations into its cause.

On May 26, 1828, a teenage boy appeared in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany, carrying a letter addressed to a captain of the 6th cavalry regiment. The letter was written by an anonymous author who stated that the boy had been entrusted into his care as an infant on October 7, 1812, and had been kept secluded, never stepping outside the house. The letter indicated that the boy, now a young man, desired to become a cavalryman, and the captain was urged to either take him in or hang him. Hauser claimed to have spent his entire life in solitary confinement, locked away in a tiny 2×1×1.5 meter cell, with only a straw bed and a wooden horse as his sole toy. The first person he ever encountered, Hauser said, was a mysterious man who visited him before his release, always careful to conceal his face. Rumors circulated, possibly as early as 1829, suggesting that Kaspar Hauser was actually the hereditary prince of Baden, born on September 29, 1812, and who had died shortly after birth. The story alleged that this prince had been secretly swapped with a dying infant, and 16 years later, Hauser appeared in Nuremberg. Hauser’s life came to an end when he was fatally stabbed in the chest, an injury that some believed was self-inflicted. He claimed that the man who had kept him captive as an infant was responsible for the attack.

In 2002, the University of Münster conducted an analysis of hair and body cells from items believed to have belonged to Kaspar Hauser. The DNA samples were compared to a segment of DNA from Astrid von Medinger, a descendant of Stéphanie de Beauharnais, who would have been Kaspar Hauser’s mother if he had indeed been the hereditary prince of Baden. While the DNA sequences were not identical, the differences observed were not significant enough to rule out a possible relationship, suggesting that a mutation could have accounted for the deviation.

The Man in the Iron Mask (died November 1703) was a mysterious prisoner who spent many years confined in various jails, including the infamous Bastille and the Château d'If, during the reign of King Louis XIV of France. His identity became a subject of intense speculation, largely because no one ever saw his face, which was always concealed behind a mask made of black velvet cloth. Over time, the mask was described as an iron one. The first known records of this prisoner date back to 1669, when a letter from Louis XIV’s minister, Louvois, instructed the governor of the Pignerol prison to take custody of a prisoner named Eustache Dauger. Louvois emphasized that Dauger should be confined in a special cell with multiple doors to prevent anyone from overhearing. The prisoner was also warned that if he spoke about anything beyond his basic needs, he would be killed. Saint-Mars, the prison governor, was ordered to see Dauger only once a day to deliver food and attend to other necessities. Dauger spent the rest of his life in prison, with his true identity kept hidden. After his death, all his belongings were destroyed. Various theories about his identity circulated at the time, including that he was a Marshal of France, Richard Cromwell (son of Oliver Cromwell), or François de Vendôme, the Duc de Beaufort. In later years, philosophers like Voltaire proposed additional theories about the enigmatic man in the mask.

The sailing stones are a fascinating geological phenomenon found in the Racetrack Playa, a dry lake bed in Death Valley National Park, California. These stones slowly travel across the desert surface, leaving behind visible trails, without any human or animal intervention. Although the stones' movement has never been directly observed or captured on film, they are not exclusive to the Racetrack Playa. Similar rock movements have been reported in other dry lake beds within the region. However, the Racetrack Playa stands out due to the frequency and length of the tracks. The stones move only once every two to three years, and their trails typically last three to four years. Stones with rough undersides create straight, striated tracks, while those with smooth bottoms leave more erratic paths. Occasionally, stones flip over, revealing a different edge and leaving behind a new set of tracks.

Over the years, numerous explanations for the movement of the sailing stones have been proposed, ranging from the supernatural to highly complex scientific theories. Geologists generally lean towards the idea that strong winds, particularly when the mud is wet, play a significant role in the movement of the stones. However, some stones weigh as much as a human, and many researchers, like geologist George M. Stanley, who published a paper on the phenomenon in 1955, argue that these heavy stones would be too difficult to move with the area's wind alone.

The Wow! signal was a powerful, narrowband radio transmission detected by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977, while he was working on the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project at the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University. The signal displayed the typical characteristics of a potential extraterrestrial or non-solar origin. It lasted for 72 seconds, the exact duration that Big Ear could observe any given point in the sky due to the Earth’s rotation. Despite extensive searches, the signal has never been detected again. This event has been a major topic of discussion in media reports on SETI’s findings. The Big Ear telescope used the Earth’s rotation to scan the sky, meaning any extraterrestrial signal would last precisely 72 seconds, with a gradual rise and fall in intensity. The signal's shape and duration made it a strong candidate for being of extraterrestrial origin. The signal was received from a region of the sky in the constellation Sagittarius, about 2.5 degrees south of the star Chi-1 Sagittarii.

This article is distributed under the GFDL license, as it includes excerpts sourced from Wikipedia.