13 Mysteries Of Life That Some People Claim Are "The Biggest Unsolved Mysteries In Human History"
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Recently, redditor u/InsertBurnsHere asked, "What is the biggest unsolved mystery in human history?" From peculiarities of nature to puzzling parts of history and everything in between, here are 13 fascinating unsolved mysteries they shared:
1."The Antikythera mechanism is pretty wild. Dated to at least 60 BC, possibly as old as 200 BC, it's as complex as clockworks that didn't show up until at least a thousand years later. It's just such a strange technological anomaly. Who made it? What else did they make and why haven't we found more stuff as advanced?"
The Antikythera mechanism is a device that was found in a Greek shipwreck. It was once dubbed "an ancient Greek computer." The mechanism is incredibly complex and was used to track the positions of the sun, stars, and planets with a fairly impressive level of accuracy. It was especially technologically advanced for it's time and, while researchers have some idea how to use it, there are more unanswered questions surrounding it than there are answers. You can read more about it here.
2."The Monarch Butterfly migrates to Mexico and back every year. During the year there are a full four generations of butterflies that live and die during the journey. Upon returning back from Mexico, the butterfly manages to find the same trees it's relative started out at despite never having been there."
3."The Voynich Manuscript. It's a huge book written in an unknown language that's never been translated or decoded. It has diagrams of plant species that don't exist, too. Some people believe it's meant to document medicinal or magical information, while others believe the book is part of an ancient version of a game, like Dungeons and Dragons."
You can read more about it here.
4."In Australia in 2011, someone broke into a TV station and spent four hours flushing $100,000 down the toilet. His identity and the reason he did it is a mystery."
In Melbourne, an unidentified man spent five hours shoving $100,000 cash into a trash can in a bathroom stall in the Channel Nine TV station building. About a week later, a plumber was called in because a pipe was clogged. He was shocked to discover thousands of dollars worth of cash were what was clogging it. To this day, who did it and why they did it remains a mystery. You can read more about it here.
5."The Lead Mask Mystery of Brazil. In 1966, the bodies of two electronic repair men — Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana — were found on Vintém Hill in Rio de Janeiro. They had lead eye masks on — the kind meant to protect from radiation— and wore suits and waterproof coats. They were found with towels and an empty bottle by their bodies. Strangest of all, they had a notebook page that mysteriously read “4:30 p.m. be at the determined place. '6:30 p.m. swallow capsules, after effect, protect metals, wait for mask signal.' in Portuguese."
6."The 'Monkey Man' of Delhi. In the early 2000s, there was supposedly a creature called the 'Monkey Man' who attacked people living in Delhi. He was about five feet tall, had a monkey-like face, and terrorized people from midnight to around four in the morning. People were so terrified of him that they stopped sleeping at night so they could protect themselves. We still don't know whether it was real or just a rumor that people started believing."
According to The Guardian, 'the Monkey Man' attacked about 20 people within a five-day period, scratching and injuring them. Some claimed he had iron claws and teeth, while others specified that he wore roller blades. Bites left by the creature on its victims suggested that it was an animal and not a human. While police were involved, not much is known about what exactly this creature is, or if it actually ever existed. You can read more about it here.
7."An active one in the archaeology world is the exact time frame of when humans first settled in the Americas. The date keeps getting pushed back with more controversial discoveries that then just turn to evidence as they pile up. It’s a fascinating story to see unfold."
8."We like to think we understand the universe and that physics is a well grounded discipline — and in some ways, it is. However we have no idea what dark matter or dark energy is and yet we think it makes up 27% and 68% of the universe respectively."
"We still don’t understand gravity that well, either. We don't exactly know what it is, but moreso how it behaves. Our understanding of physics is still in its infancy."
9."The Indus Valley script. There was a huge civilization in northern India and Pakistan around 3300 to 1300 BC called the Indus Valley Civilization. It is thought that they invented writing independently, something only done about five or six times in history. But to this day, with all the thousands of inscriptions we have and all the documented contact with other civilizations, we haven’t deciphered their writing. There’s no known Rosetta Stone, no known descendant scripts, no known documentation of the language other than what is written in the Indus Valley script."
"But the biggest mystery isn’t how to read the script or what it says, but the question of whether we’ll ever be able to know. Is it even possible to decipher a language we know absolutely nothing about?"
You can read more about it here.
10."The one that always gets me is the murder of Missy Bevers. She was killed in the early morning at a church that she taught yoga at. Security footage from the church showed the murderer roaming the halls of the church all night, but that’s not what’s weird. What’s weird is that the murderer was dressed head to toe in police riot gear. It is the weirdest and eeriest video footage and is just unsettling. There’s lots of theories, but her murder has never been solved and I believe there hasn’t even been a real suspect in the case."
You can read more about the case here.
You can watch the video for yourself here:
11.Who blew up the Georgia Guide Stones. The monument was made up of four 16-foot high panels that acted as a sundial, an astronomical calendar, and were inscribed with "guidance for living in an age of reason" in eight different languages. There's a lot of mystery surrounding the stones, including why they're there and who is behind them. The Guide Stones were erected in 1980, though the person — or people — who commissioned them remained anonymous, simply using the pseudonym R.C. Christian. Both the messages on it and the monument itself were very controversial — some considered it to be satanic, while others jokingly called it "America's Stonehenge." On July 7, 2022, it was mysterious blown up in the early hours of the morning. Despite security footage, the culprit is unknown.
Suggested by: u/Gopackgo78
You can read more about it here.
(1/4) The GBI is releasing additional surveillance video that shows an unknown person leaving an explosive device at the Georgia Guidestones. The video is unclear, but agents are still actively working to identify the person leaving the scene after the explosion.
12."The Disappearance of Asha Degree. Nine-year-old Asha Degree disappeared from her home in Shelby, North Carolinao on Valentine's Day 2000. She went to bed the night before, and when her mother went to wake her up in the morning, Asha was gone. She was seen walking along Highway 18 at around 4:00 in the morning. Several passing motorists saw her and when one turned around and began to approach her, she left the roadside and ran into a wooded area. It was a cold night and the witness said there was a storm raging when he saw her, she wasn't wearing a jacket or socks. A year after she vanished, a construction worker found her book bag in a wooded area. It was wrapped in a plastic bag."
You can read more about her case here.
13.And finally, "The intruiging Chechém and Chaka trees. They're found in parts of Central America. The Chechém tree's bark has a poison that's so strong, just touching the bark (or its sap, of course) will give you a blistering rash. The cure to this exact poison lies in its sister tree, the Chaka. What's really strange is that the two trees are always found right next to each other in nature."
"There is a Mayan myth that comes with these trees that they are from two brothers that fought each other over the love of a woman, but they ended up killing each other, and the woman — Nicte-Ha — died of heartbreak. One of the brothers, Kinich, was kind and caring, and thus became the Chaka tree. The other brother, Tizic, was cold-hearted and arrogant, and became the Chechem tree. The fact that these trees are right next to each other in nature, and provide exactly opposite effects, is pretty wild."
You can read more about the trees here.
Do you know of a mysterious happening like these? If so, tell us about it in the comments below!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length, clarity, and/or accuracy.
