Top 30 Historical Mysteries That Have Been SOLVED

it's story that's been told and retold by Poets and actors for thousands of years welcome to watch Mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the most head-scratching questions in history that after years of mystery have largely been answered as for their use after the drought scientist in the mid1 1990s thinks he's figured it out number 30 the palding light since the 1960s an unusual light has caught the attention of many people in and around paing Michigan it's black it's pitch black there's nothing there its inexplicable nature and seemingly nightly recurrence evoked new chapter of folklore people came up with paranormal and Supernatural explanations such as the ghost of railway Breakman who was killed by train by train train conductor and it was his lantern that was swinging in 2010 students at Michigan Tech University hit the road in an effort to find the truth about the ping light they located the light origin area along US Highway 45 using telescope and scientific methods they reached non-s supernatural conclusion about what the palding light really is car headlights it turned out the strange visual phenomenon was an optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions and terrain A+ it's just like the twinkling of the Stars except of course you're dealing with something that's actually larger and closer to you number 29 the atakama skeleton the Timeless question about the possible existence of extraterrestrial beings has come up countless times often often sparked by UFO sightings and natural human curiosity in 2003 the discovery of an abnormal mini skeleton in ch's atakama desert brought the question back into the spotlight and it has 10 ribs when humans are supposed to have 12 ribs with an irregular head shape and Rib count this was true anomaly many people couldn't help but jump to the conclusion that the skeleton might be of alien origin in 2018 however DNA analysis revealed that the skeleton was actually human human fetus but they're definitely still in human being the small skeletons extremely rare and atypical appearance was due to mutations associated with bone diseases while the overarching question about alien life persisted after that analysis The Mystery of the Atacama skeleton was solved number 28 crop circles in Wilshire England massive intricate patterns engraved in the ground naturally evoke questions there are few places like Wilshire England when it comes to the abundance of crop circles but how did they get there the mystifying figures started appearing in the area in the 1970s in wheat barley and corn fields in the following decade the mystery grew in 1991 though light was finally shed on the subject when did you start making crop circles well the late '70s about 1978 most of the crop circles in the area were not caused by UFO Landings as some had theorized it's just bit of fun and mean it it's flat and corn they were the work of two men who admitted to crafting the patterns with tools debunking any otherw worldly explanations at least for these specific crop circles we wanted to make the eupo societies think that eupo had landed you see number 27 crystal skulls Indiana Jones embarks on journey to find magical Crystal Skull in the franchise's fourth film unbelievable the object represents fascinating cultural phenomenon that started in the 19th century crystal skulls surfaced in different parts of the the world raising questions about their Origins people claimed they dated back to ancient Mesoamerican civilizations but today mainstream scientists argue they are all modern Creations some believed the skulls possessed mystical Powers as depicted in Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the Crystal Skull studies in the late 1990s and early 2000s made things Crystal Clear these skulls are nowhere near as old as previously claimed the ancient Mayan crystal skulls were in fact modern pieces research concluded they were crafted during the 19th century they still belong in museum though I'm really interested in them as as The Fakes that they are number 26 the herculanum Scrolls one might think the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE would have burned set of ancient Scrolls to crisp and well it kind of did but not exactly the Greek philosophical texts known as the herculanum papy were uncovered in the 18th century and unsurprisingly were in poor condition intuned in volcanic ash for hundreds of years these Papyrus Scrolls were carbonized but intact deciphering these surviving Scrolls is challenging as unrolling them could destroy them despite their charred and fragile state hope wasn't lost historic breakthrough came in 2023 when University of Nebraska computer science student Luke farer used artificial intelligence to detect the first word from these ancient Scrolls during an organized vvus challenge 15 Columns of text in ancient Greek seen for the first time in almost 2,000 years since then AI has AED researchers in deciphering several passages from these damaged but not destroyed texts the new technology will now help to decipher hundreds of Scrolls number 25 the lost city of hiiki there's been considerable speculation about the locations and reasons behind historical Lost Cities the ancient Greek city of haliki is an extraordinary example of one such City with answers to those question questions in 373 BCE it disappeared overnight the cause we now know was that an earthquake and tsunami destroyed and submerged the city according to ancient texts hiiki and all of its people were swept to the Bottom of the Sea never to be seen again for over 2,370 years Kiki's exact whereabouts remained unknown however in 2001 the lost city was rediscovered beneath lagoon excavations and Analysis unveiled alignments with historical accounts of the city's demise this glaze is typical of the time when hiiki disappeared evidence supporting the identification of this site as haliki became even more convincing about 11 years later when archaeologists Unearthed ancient artifacts Dora and Steven had done it the papers said it all number 24 the downfall of the NASA civilization the driving force behind the end of the ancient NASA Society is just one of the many Mysteries surrounding the civilization that resided in modern-day Peru strong evidence exists about NASA people's methods in creating the nasca lines but plenty of mystery remains when it comes to their meaning and purpose the lines and shapes cover an area that stretches for hundreds of square miles the water irrigation purposes of pukio which are ancient underground aqueducts is another NASA mystery that was unraveled perhaps an even bigger question associated with this ancient civilization is what led to its decline studies during the 2000s determined that deforestation was the princip cause forests had been cut down by the NASA cutting down trees likely for agricultural purposes ended up being detrimental to the ecosystem and eventually the NASA people for the naasa it Mark the beginning of the end number 23 Martin borman's whereabouts Hitler's private secretary Martin Borman was sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes and crimes against humanity after the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945 Borman was the project goete making making sure the fur's name remained clean but he was nowhere to be found for decades to follow his whereabouts remained mystery and caused plenty of speculation multiple reported sightings and rumors elicited theory that Borman had fled abroad some claimed that they had escaped Justice by crossing the Atlantic in submarines other early reports suggested he was dead the true answer was mystery years later organizations such as the CIA and the West German government conducted searches for Borman but to no avail his buried body was finally discovered in 1972 and forensic analysis corroborated the initial reports of his death in 1945 in 1973 the case of Martin bourman was officially closed number 22 iy the Iceman tourists in the ery Alps on the Austrian Italian border opened the door to new historical mystery when they found frozen body in 1991 they have no idea the importance of what they've stumbled upon subsequent scientific analyses determined that the iceman called uty has been preserved in the ice for around 5,300 years researchers of course had loads of questions and were able to answer many including his gender age clothing belongings the circumstances of his death and even his last meal he had wild Ibex meat in his stomach so he's clearly hunting for part of his sustenance they also theorized about how he looked in 2023 new DNA analysis revealed more ACC accurate picture of physical appearance concluding that he had darker skin and less hair than previously thought thanks to extensive research iy is considered one of the most well-studied ancient mummies of all time his death on the mountain would ultimately take him much farther than he could ever have imagined number 21 Roman concrete at the origin of their success Innovation with the creation of revolutionary new material concrete how ancient Roman buildings could stand for so long remained puzzle for long time we're talking about concrete structures that have withstood the test of time thousands of years worth of time studies starting in the 2010s began to tackle the mystery behind this impressive architectural and Engineering feat scientists concluded that lime clasps were crucial ingredient in ancient concrete mix Roman concrete is mixture of lime sand water of course Aggregates basically it's modern concrete these white chunks were previously misunderstood they fun as self-healing mechanisms preventing cracks in the concrete from worsening over time not only did this reveal the secret behind the remarkable durability of Roman constructions like the pantheon it also provided deeper insight into Advanced Materials and techniques used by early Roman Engineers concrete definitely represents revolution in Roman construction number 20 King tutt's tomb this simple tomb is unlike any other Royal tomb in the valley young man named Tuton common ruled in ancient Egypt between 1332 and 1323 BC you may have heard of him by the early 20th century experts theorized that Tuten common was buried in the Valley of the Kings alongside other pharaohs but the location of his tomb remained elusive by 1912 it was believed that every tomb had been accounted for except for King tuts so where the heck was it enter Howard Carter who hit the jackpot in 1922 over 5,000 Priceless artist facts including golden statues in the burial chamber the pharaoh's mummy wearing golden death mask was placed inside coffin made of more than 200 lb of solid gold unlike other Royal Graves which had been cut into the valley slopes TTS was dug into the ground and hidden by debris Carter's work unveiled not only the location of King tutt's tomb but also why no one else had been able to find it number 19 the Connecticut vampire the greater New England area suffered vampire Panic back in the 19th century and this was exemplified through the burial of jb55 this code name was spelled out in brass tax on the man's coffin and his skull and femurs were placed in the shape of traditional skull and crossbones decapitating body and arranging its bones in such way was historic method of burying suspected vampires so did we have real genuine one on our hands of course not there were set of circumstances that were interpreted as vampire attacks and people acted on the belief that that these were vampire attacks the vampire never existed DNA test done in 2019 identified this vampire as John Barber aged 55 hence jb55 Barber had most likely died of tuberculosis which gives people vampiric symptoms like pale skin red eyes and bloody mouth you better hold on tight Spiderman Mony number 18 Blood Falls Antarctica contains startling image Blood Falls is bit of an obsession for lot of people mean there's nothing else like this on Earth well the whole continent is pretty darn startling but we're talking specifically about blood falls found in southern Antarctica in the Taylor Glacier is small Cascade of what looks like deep red blood this was discovered by the glaciers namesake Thomas Griffith Taylor in 1911 of course no one genuine believed it was blood yet no one knew what it actually was for long time the leading theory was that red algae was responsible for the distinct color the red color is similar to in the Grand Canyon if you've been to the Grand Canyon you'll notice that lot of the rocks are dyed dark red color and that's because there's iron in those rocks and that iron oxidizes or rusts however recent analysis has proven that the bold red comes from the presence of iron oxide the iron salts inside the subglacial water oxidize eyes when they reach the surface changing the liquid from clear to Red number 17 ancient Viking code there's lot to find fascinating about Vikings including their system of writing like many ancient texts the yoten vitler rare Norse Code which dates back to the 12th or 13th century left experts puzzled for years it wasn't until 2014 that yonas nordby at the University of Oslo figured it out the yoten vitler had popped up on many Rune St but the one from which nordby was able to decipher it which he calls his Rosetta Stone was located at Bergen Warf Norway what made these runes so hard to crack was that they were coated likely owing to their use as an educational tool there's nothing juicy in the writings but cracking an ancient code is still incredibly exciting number 16 the star child skull during all my years of researching UFOs the one artifact that keeps coming up is the star child skull I've never held the star child skull in my hand but know that it was found in the 1930s in cave in northern Mexico by teenage girl it's amazing how often conditions and diseases are misattributed to the supernatural we've seen it with the Connecticut vampire and we see it again with the so-called star child the distinct skull of the star child was obtained by paranormal author Lloyd piie who asserted that it belonged to human alien hybrid this news captured our Collective imaginations but it's really an unfortunate labeling of tragic reality tests done in the late '90s and early 2000s proved that the skull belonged to young human male sorry Believers no aliens here furthermore Yale neurologist Steven Nolla attributed the cranial deformations to hydris condition in which cerebros spinal fluid accumulates in the brain and enlarges the head number 15 the Lost Army of kambes serving as the second king of kings of the keid Empire cises II ruled from 530 to 522 BC Legend has it that in 524 kambi sent massive Army against the Oracle of Amun in the siwa Oasis however the Army was accosted by devastating Sandstorm and all 50,000 men were lost for long time the veracity of this tale was questioned as its primary source was the Greek historian Herodotus who has been known to shall we say dramatize certain events for the Persians this must have been huge burden the logistics make it virtually certain that cis's Army could not have been as vast as Herod said but in 2009 archaeologists Angelo and Alfredo castillion found human remains and Persian belongings near the siwa Oasis finally lending Credence to the story many have searched for this Army but all have searched along the Oasis route the Oasis of dla farafra aala then across the desert up to siwa we worked on different hypothesis since these Oasis were under the Egyptian rule however it is important to note that some experts doubt the findings of the castillon number 14 The Flying Dutchman you've probably heard of The Flying Dutchman as it's been featured extensively in art television and film including the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise that's the Flying Dutch it doesn't look like much this is an alleged ghost ship that inspired many tall tale with the legend dating back to the 18th century it's said that the Flying Dutchman floats above the water and contains crew of cursed and Undead Sailors reports of the ship even stretched into the 20th century and that's because optical illusions are Timeless yep The Flying Dutchman is not one ship but the result of an optical illusion called Morana essentially some ships on the distant Horizon look like they're floating owing to how light travel through different layers of air when there is what's known as an inversion layer in the atmosphere typically the temperature of the air gets cooler as you go from the ground upwards but when there's an inversion layer the air near the ground is coolest and there's warm air above it number 13 the city of Troy and speaking of Legends it doesn't get much bigger than the Trojan War favorite subject of ancient Greek literature the Trojan War details the invasion of Troy by the aans many scholars debate the history of the war itself and for long time they debated the location of Troy as well most thought it was merely place of Legend but that Viewpoint changed thanks to Heinrich schleman and Frank Calbert in 1871 the archaeologists began excavations in present day histar Turkey and discovered not one city but nine schan with his interest in Homer was not the first in this area Frank Calvert British expatriate had been living in the area from 18 45 onward he grew up in this area and gradually amassed tremendous amount of textual evidence for where Troy lay each city was built on the ruins of the last resulting in numerous distinct layers labeled by Roman numerals it's now widely believed that Troy 6 is the one depicted in the Greek myth history can never confirm if Homer's Heroes ever lived nor whether the legendary Trojan Horse ever existed but thanks to Modern archaeology the city in which Homer placed his Heroes the lost city of Troy is lost no more number 12 the Easter Island heads the moai as their properly known are some of the most recognizable monuments in the world populating Easter Island in Polynesia the moai were carved in volcanic crater called ranu Raku the moai are considered to be no more than perhaps thousand years old however it has been established that some of them penetrate down into the ground by great amount of feet to reveal the rest of the body not just the oversized head and the amount of patternation suggests that they are infinitely older than thousand years they were then transported to the Outer Perimeter of the island where they rested on platforms called AO we don't really know how the natives moved the statues and for long time we didn't know why they chose the sites they did well that particular question was solved in 2019 by researchers at Binghamton University they discovered that the aoo were placed near sources of fresh drinking water because that's where communities were inclined to settle it's not dramatic but it sure is practical scientists are continually uncovering more of this history but it is already clear that this was remarkably complex society of which the moai were only one part number 11 the classic Maya collapse in the span of human history the Maya collapse wasn't all that long ago with the last City falling to Spanish settlers in 1697 but another major collapse occurred earlier with most of the major Maya cities being abandoned between the 7th and 9th centuries the reason for this is one of History's Greatest unanswered questions well it was until 2012 turns out number of factors went into the collapse as it so often does they set up the city on the most fertile agricultural lands down on the bottomlands that the river had carved out and made fertile over the centuries by doing so they were basically cutting off their own food supply they weren't able to farm the best lands they were then obliged to cut down the forest on the slopes and doing so that caused erosion as they had to cut back even higher up the Maya greatly deforested the surrounding area which exacerbated an ongoing drought and killed all agriculture in the region furthermore trade routes had changed from land to seea impacting local economies and forcing relocation from the southern lowlands to the northern Yucatan number 10 the fate of the Franklin Expedition Captain Sir John Franklin's Arctic exploration expedition was lost after leaving England in 1845 Franklin was searching for shortcut from Europe to Asia through the Northwest Passage his ships were caught in the crushing Arctic ice and abandon off King William Island over the years many other ships set out to see if they could find out what happened to the doomed crew part of human skull and think it's it's one of pregnant men like it's related to pregnant men some part of the skull is broken but this the top part while some Clues were found including grave sites of some of the men who had been aboard it was only at the end of the 20th century that we began to get answers about what had caused Franklin and his team so much trouble unfortunately we discovered that many of the crew members did not die quickly but rather succumb to diseases like scurvy and even lead poisoning after becoming icebound and sadly the rumors of cannibalism were also proved to be true the previous actions of the British crew had been erratic even dangerous after all they had been eating each other number nine mysterious notes in The Odyssey Homer's epic Greek poem The Odyssey has become known known as one of the most important pieces in the history of literature while there are many things that we still don't know about the story's creation an extra layer of mystery was added when copy was found with unintelligible notes in the margin the copy belonged to the University of Chicago library and was Venetian Edition from 1504 the library created contest to see if anyone could crack the code and Italian computer engineer Daniela MTI figured it out with help from colleague Julia chetta turns out the notes were written in French shorthand and dated from in the 19th century number eight King Richard II third's death while his legacy has lived on through Shakespeare King Richard III of England was the final English king to perish in battle in fact his death during the Battle of Bosworth field is often used to Mark the end of the Middle Ages it was here in the Midlands on the battlefield at Bosworth during the War of the Roses that he fell the Hunchback so-called villain King was cut down on the pointy end of his successor's sword but his remains were lost and only uncovered in 2012 during an archaeological excavation of Lester the position of the spine in the grave was interesting there was very noticeable curve in it and that's not something that can occur just by accident that's not something that can happen just by squashing the skeleton into the grave the following year the body was identified as belonging to Richard II ladies and gentlemen it is the academic conclusion of the University of Leicester that Beyond Reasonable Doubt the individual exhumed at gray fries in September 2012 is indeed Richard III the last plantagenet king of England he had suffered 11 wounds most of which were on his skull which suggests that he lost his helmet in battle leading to his demise number seven the sailing Stones known as sailing stones or moving rocks observers have long noticed the enigmatic phenomenon of these objects that seemingly move on their own leaving trails in their wake the most famous example is found at racetrack pla in California's Death Valley National Park many experiments have been undertaken in an attempt to understand understand how these large objects move and we now seem to have an answer when ice breakup takes place when the ice begins to melt just enough under the light breezes that ice big ice sheets Drive the rocks in front of them and just plow them along the bottom of this shallow pond on cold nights thin sheets of ice develop under them and then float and are able to be moved by the wind which propels the Rocks as fast as 5 per minute rocks move through combination of shallow Pond ice light breezes and sun to set them in motion number six the face on Mars between the arandis crater and the Bamber crater in the Sidonia region of Mars spacecraft Viking 1 captured an image in 1976 that has fueled speculation for decades that's because it looked for all intents and purposes like there was face on the red planet while people wanted to use this as evidence of an alien civilization the actual explanation is banal one I'm not going to have that thing in my house scientists have agreed that the face is essentially an optical illusion and that it's only present based on the angle from which you view it and how well lit it is number five the location of the USS Indianapolis the sinking of the USS Indianapolis is among the greatest tragedies that the American Navy has ever experienced torpedoed by Japanese submarine in 1945 during mission to deliver parts of the nuclear weapon little boy there were only 316 survivors from crew of 1,195 and looked back at that time and she was up on her bow going down in 12 minutes the ship was gone the wreck remained unfound despite several expeditions to locate it but in 2016 new information was revealed that gave us better clue of where it might be and in 2017 team funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen finally found the well preserved remains of the ship new images both haunting and revealing that's an unbelievable amount of damage from that torpedo show the devastation caused by two Japanese Torpedoes that hammered the USS Indianapolis on July 30th 1945 while in route to the Philippines number four how the pyramids were built the Egyptian pyramids are one of Earth's most widely recognizable landmarks many secrets about these magnificent structures remain built to withstand eternity they seem in no hurry to reveal them but for many years people wondered how they were possibly built without modern technology was it aliens well probably not it had already been known that the Egyptians likely used wooden sleds to drag large objects across the sand but researchers at the University of Amsterdam added probable solution to make this even easier they established that by wedding sand and only slightly it would create the perfect amount of friction to carry very heavy objects easily wetting with the right amount of water makes it remarkably slick team of 10 workers can easily pull one tonon sled but people always seem to forget that Egyptians had animals like donkeys and cattle around to help too another ancient Egyptian mystery that has more clear-cut answer is the hieroglyphs that seemingly depict modern helicopters turns out these are product of the stone being reused for more than one image number three what caused the tungus event in remote area of Russia in 1908 massive explosion took place that flattened tens of millions of trees and produced an estimated 185 times more energy than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima millions of pine trees larches and birches are destroyed by the pressure wave and the fires shock wave circles the world leaving its mark on seismographs everywhere but no one can understand where it has come from it inevitably left many wondering what it caused it for decades people have speculated that it might have been an asteroid comet clash of matter and antimatter or even an alien spaceship Landing the night sky was illuminated for weeks after and people were able to read their newspapers in the middle of the night from London to Asia but in 2013 it was essentially confirmed that it was in fact meteor when team from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine analyzed Rock samples of meteoric origin from the site researchers studied microscopic fragments of decayed vegetation dating back to the time of the event and discovered mineral combinations perfectly consistent with other meteorite impact sites like the ,000-year-old meteor crater in Arizona number two the Bermuda Triangle while some of the other mysteries on our list may not be commonly known to the general public nearly everyone's heard of the Bermuda Triangle for many years people have wondered about the evils at work here that seemingly make boats sink and planes fall from the sky ships that have shown up absolutely empty no sign of any Str struggle and yet the crew is just vanished but the explanation is simple and unexciting while some may imagine the triangle as small and specific area it's actually huge and not well-defined region that is heavily trafficked by sea and by air Bermuda is surrounded by network of reef like stunning Reef they come right to the surface and when ships encounter those they literally break them apart if you go back in time to your old Wooden Ships and stuff like that those ships had no chance in fact your cruise ship may have sailed right through it without you noticing yes plenty of accidents have occurred there but they largely have logical explanations before we continue be sure to subscribe to our Channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos you have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them if you're on your phone make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications number one Anastasia's Escape in 198 the Russian imperial Romanov family was executed by communist revolutionaries but for years rumors persisted that Zar Nicholas II's youngest daughter Anastasia somehow survived and escaped so whether sympathetic God had rescued one of them it's it's not beyond the Realms of of possibility it didn't help that several women throughout history have impersonated the supposedly missing princess the genetic testing proved beyond all reasonable doubt that Anna Anderson was not Anastasia Romanov the whole thing was fabricated whoever she was she certainly wasn't wasn't member of the Russian royal family these speculations were fueled when the romanov's grave was found in 1991 and two bodies were seemingly missing but by 2007 another grave site had been found nearby and DNA evidence conclusively proved that all members of the family are accounted for it's sad ending to The Tale for those who preferred to hold out hope of her survival but the DNA evidence makes it clear that's what really happened on the night when Russia's longest live Dynasty came to its abrupt and bloody end what answer to historical mystery are you most skeptical about let us know in the comments no trace of the soldiers has ever been found until now did you enjoy this video check out these other clips from watch Mojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos