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From phantom ships to vanished civilizations, history is filled with puzzling enigmas that have finally been solved! Join us as we count down our picks for the greatest historical mysteries that once baffled experts but have now been explained. Our countdown includes the truth about Anastasia, what really happened at Tunguska, how the pyramids were built, and more!
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00:00Scientists and astronomers have observed more than 3,000 comets.
00:05Not one has emitted anything close to the WOW signal.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the best questions and conundrums posed throughout history that have finally been resolved.
00:17It's a story that's been told and retold by poets and actors for thousands of years.
00:24But is it real?
00:27Number 30. Roman Concrete.
00:29At the origin of their success, innovation.
00:32With the creation of a revolutionary new material, concrete.
00:36One of the most impressive aspects of the ancient Roman Empire is the architecture.
00:40Several buildings from that era are still standing, serving as a testament to the skill and materials used.
00:46However, their durability left modern researchers with one question.
00:50Why do those structures remain when newer ones have crumbled?
00:53For years, experts have tried to understand what made them so sound,
00:57and the answer was finally confirmed in 2023.
01:00The credit goes to volcanic ash and lime clasts, the former of which kept cracks from spreading, and the latter repairing them.
01:07Roman concrete is a mixture of lime, sand, water, of course, aggregates.
01:12Basically, it's modern concrete.
01:14With this information in mind, some modern American architects have been able to craft their own version of Roman concrete,
01:20which has helped cut costs and reduce environmental damage.
01:24Now, this amazing material, Roman concrete, it has the great advantage that can be made by semi-skilled people.
01:32Number 29. The Atacama Skeleton
01:35The quest to discover extraterrestrial life has led to plenty of historical discoveries being misinterpreted.
01:41One of the most infamous was the finding of a 6-inch corpse in Chile in 2003.
01:46And it has 10 ribs when humans are supposed to have 12 ribs.
01:50Its small stature, missing ribs, and elongated head led to immediate claims of it being proof of an alien race.
01:56However, experts were not so sure.
01:58After extensive research and DNA analysis, it was estimated in 2018 that the body was that of a premature fetus
02:06exhibiting signs of various genetic disorders like scoliosis and dwarfism.
02:10While those findings have been questioned by others conducting similar research, as of 2025,
02:16no other studies have been put forward or accepted, leading many to accept the 2018 findings as the truth.
02:22But they're definitely still in a human being.
02:25Number 28. The Great Wall of China
02:27A structure this vast and ancient is bound to have plenty of mysteries.
02:32The Great Wall of China is no exception.
02:34This is the biggest man-made structure on the planet.
02:39But the only way to really see just how vast it is
02:42is from 500 miles above the Earth.
02:48Many assumed it was built as one large project, but had no idea how it came to be.
02:52Smaller walls and structures had been constructed by various states
02:56using natural materials as far back as 221 BC.
03:00Slowly, the different pieces were put together to form one long barrier.
03:04Each dynasty contributed to the wall's impressive stature across a period of thousands of years,
03:09from extending it to reinforcing it with modern-day materials.
03:12Learning this has opened the world's eyes to how one of its most iconic landmarks came to be.
03:17And it'll be interesting to see how it's improved going forward.
03:20And over a thousand years later, the Ming Dynasty would take things even further,
03:26creating the monument we see today.
03:28Number 27. The Nazca Civilization
03:31The lines and shapes cover an area that stretches for hundreds of square miles.
03:35They aren't the first culture to have been lost,
03:37but their extinction mystified historians for years.
03:40Despite the Nazca Civilization's advancements,
03:42they were seemingly wiped out with little explanation.
03:45For some time, it was believed they met their fate by hurricane.
03:49That only scratched the surface of the truth.
03:51While the natural disaster may have been the final blow,
03:54it was made worse by deforestation in the area.
03:57The forests had been cut down by the Nazca.
04:00The trees were crucial in keeping the zone safe from various erosions.
04:04Without them, the people living there were left high and dry after the El Nino event.
04:09Literally.
04:09Not only does this revelation answer questions about the past,
04:13it also serves as a warning for those in the present
04:15who are potentially repeating the same mistakes.
04:18For the Nazca, it marked the beginning of the end.
04:22Number 26. The Lost City of Heliki
04:24You'd think a whole metropolis vanishing as far back as 373 BC
04:28would have no chance of being found.
04:30According to ancient texts,
04:32Heliki and all of its people were swept to the bottom of the sea,
04:36never to be seen again.
04:37After an earthquake caused a subsequent tsunami,
04:40the city of Heliki and everyone inside it sank into the ground,
04:43never to be seen again.
04:45Until 2001.
04:47Though multiple investigations had taken place in the years prior,
04:50it wasn't until the 21st century that real strides were made.
04:54That year, the municipality was found in the depths of a lagoon,
04:57bringing the millennia-long search to a close.
05:00This glaze is typical of the time when Heliki disappeared.
05:03Multiple excavations have brought forth various artifacts,
05:06some dating back to Heliki's inception.
05:09Each discovery has allowed experts to learn more about the settlement and time period,
05:13and there's no telling what will be uncovered next.
05:15Dora and Steven had done it.
05:18The papers said it all.
05:19Number 25. The Wow Signal
05:21Those disappointed in the findings of the Atacama skeleton findings
05:25may not like hearing this either.
05:26In 1977, the Wow Signal made waves among the theorist community.
05:31The signal is on the precise frequency scientists predict
05:34extraterrestrials could use for communication.
05:38It's called the hydrogen line.
05:40The radio signal picked up that day certainly was strange.
05:44It seemed to come from a constellation and lasted for over a minute.
05:48Many believe it was a communication attempt from another civilization among the stars.
05:52And it came in on a wavelength that SETI believes an intelligent civilization might choose.
05:57In 2024, a new solution was presented providing more insight into the phenomenon.
06:03Experts have posited that the transmission was the result of a massive collapsed star
06:07colliding with hydrogen gas, resulting in a sound so loud it was picked up by radio waves.
06:12While this is still being investigated,
06:14it's the biggest stride made so far in this decades-long mystery.
06:17Since the Wow Signal, we've heard nothing.
06:20We've searched in more detail, with better telescopes, more systematically.
06:26By no means exhaustively, by the way.
06:29I think we could do much more.
06:30Number 24.
06:31The Ivory Man's True Identity
06:33Scientific advancements have allowed us to re-examine archaeological mysteries
06:37and uncover seemingly small secrets that rewrite history entirely.
06:41When a human skeleton was found buried in a lavish grave among ivory artifacts in the Spanish
06:46megalithic site Tolos de Montelirio in 2008, it was assumed to be a man.
06:51That assertion wasn't questioned until the body's tooth enamel was analyzed,
06:55leading to a shocking discovery, that the ivory man was actually a woman.
07:00Then, another fancy grave containing female remains was found.
07:03This made it clear to researchers that women had more power back then than originally thought,
07:08contradicting much of what had been believed about ancient gender roles.
07:12Number 23.
07:13The Wiltshire Crop Circles
07:14Sorry, but this one isn't aliens either.
07:17It's just a bit of fun, and I mean, it's flattened corn.
07:21There have been thousands of cases of crop circles being created,
07:24but some of the most well-known have been found in or near Wiltshire, England.
07:27The occurrences date back decades, and in some cases,
07:31witnesses even claimed to have seen UFOs in the area.
07:34Many assumed the designs were the work of aliens or supernatural creatures.
07:38In 1991, two jokesters, Doug Bauer and Dave Chorley,
07:42admitted to creating hundreds of the crop circles,
07:45even recreating the process on camera to prove it.
07:48When did you start making crop circles?
07:49Well, the late 70s, about 1978.
07:52After they demonstrated their technique,
07:54even more circles began appearing all over the world,
07:57likely the work of copycats.
07:59We wanted to make the UFO society think that a UFO had landed, you see.
08:02Number 22, Ătzi the Iceman.
08:04Finding him was only half the battle.
08:07Though the discovery of Ătzi in 1991 was in itself a historical feat,
08:11experts were not close to uncovering all the secrets he had to offer.
08:15They have no idea the importance of what they've stumbled upon.
08:19Given that he was a mummified corpse,
08:21people were left to their own devices in reimagining him.
08:24Many assumed that his complexion had darkened thanks to the preservation process,
08:28so their depictions of him had fairer features.
08:30DNA testing carried out in 2023 revealed that he was likely darker-skinned,
08:35throwing people's previous misconceptions to the wayside.
08:38It was also found that the Iceman was probably bald.
08:42The team also found DNA fragments from the microbe that causes Lyme disease,
08:49making Ătzi the earliest known case.
08:52The findings serve as a lesson that even the most concrete beliefs
08:55can be overturned with more evidence.
08:57But his death on the mountain would ultimately take him much farther
09:01than he could ever have imagined.
09:03Number 21.
09:05The Herculaneum Papyrii.
09:06Mount Vesuvius exploding in 79 AD led to the destruction of much of the region of Campania
09:12and the knowledge in it.
09:13One of the biggest losses was the Herculaneum Papyrii,
09:16a collection of over 1,800 scrolls containing the works of prominent philosophers,
09:21which were believed to be too damaged to read.
09:24Entombed in volcanic ash for hundreds of years,
09:27these papyrus scrolls were carbonized, but intact.
09:30It seemed that their secrets were lost forever,
09:32until the 21st century rolled around.
09:35With it came the use of digital unrolling methods rather than physical,
09:38and soon, the Vesuvius Challenge was born.
09:41Fifteen columns of text in ancient Greek,
09:44seen for the first time in almost 2,000 years.
09:47It offered a cash prize for deciphering the texts,
09:50and in 2023, the first word was revealed.
09:53There's no telling what philosophical and historical insight will gain
09:56as the unraveling continues.
10:02A young man named Tutankhamun ruled ancient Egypt between 1332 and 1323 BC.
10:16You may have heard of him.
10:16By the early 20th century,
10:19experts theorized that Tutankhamun was buried in the Valley of the Kings alongside other pharaohs,
10:24but the location of his tomb remained elusive.
10:27By 1912, it was believed that every tomb had been accounted for,
10:31except for King Tut's.
10:33So where the heck was it?
10:34Enter Howard Carter, who hit the jackpot in 1922.
10:38Over 5,000 priceless artifacts, including golden statues.
10:45In the burial chamber, the pharaoh's mummy, wearing a golden death mask,
10:50was placed inside a coffin made of more than 200 pounds of solid gold.
10:56Unlike other royal graves, which had been cut into the valley slopes,
11:00Tut's was dug into the ground and hidden by debris.
11:03Carter's work unveiled not only the location of King Tut's tomb,
11:06but also why no one else had been able to find it.
11:10Number 19.
11:11The Connecticut Vampire
11:12The greater New England area suffered a vampire panic back in the 19th century,
11:18and this was exemplified through the burial of JB55.
11:21This codename was spelled out in brass tacks on the man's coffin,
11:25and his skull and femurs were placed in the shape of a traditional skull and crossbones.
11:29Decapitating a body and arranging its bones in such a way
11:33was a historic method of burying suspected vampires.
11:37So did we have a real genuine one on our hands?
11:40Of course not.
11:41There were a set of circumstances that were interpreted as vampire attacks,
11:46and people acted on the belief that these were vampire attacks.
11:50The vampire never existed.
11:53A DNA test done in 2019 identified this vampire as John Barber, aged 55.
11:58Hence, JB55.
12:01Barber had most likely died of tuberculosis,
12:04which gives people vampiric symptoms like pale skin, red eyes, and a bloody mouth.
12:09You better hold on tight, spider monkey.
12:12Number 18.
12:13Blood Falls
12:14Antarctica contains a startling image.
12:17Blood Falls is a bit of an obsession for a lot of people.
12:22I mean, there's nothing else like this on Earth.
12:23Well, the whole continent is pretty darn startling,
12:26but we're talking specifically about Blood Falls.
12:29Found in southern Antarctica in the Taylor Glacier
12:31is a small cascade of what looks like deep red blood.
12:35This was discovered by the glacier's namesake, Thomas Griffith Taylor, in 1911.
12:39Of course, no one genuinely believed it was blood.
12:43Yet, no one knew what it actually was.
12:45For a long time, the leading theory was that red algae was responsible for the distinct color.
12:50The red color is similar to in the Grand Canyon.
12:53If you've been to the Grand Canyon,
12:55you'll notice that a lot of the rocks are dyed a dark red color.
12:58And that's because there's iron in those rocks, and that iron oxidizes or rusts.
13:02However, recent analysis has proven that the bold red comes from the presence of iron oxide.
13:08The iron salts inside the subglacial water oxidize when they reach the surface,
13:13changing the liquid from clear to red.
13:16Number 17. Ancient Viking Code
13:18There's a lot to find fascinating about Vikings, including their system of writing.
13:23Like many ancient texts, the Jotunvittler, a rare Norse code,
13:28which dates back to the 12th or 13th century, left experts puzzled for years.
13:33It wasn't until 2014 that K. Jonas Nordby at the University of Oslo figured it out.
13:38The Jotunvittler had popped up on many rune sticks,
13:41but the one from which Nordby was able to decipher it,
13:44which he calls his Rosetta Stone, was located at Bergen Wharf, Norway.
13:49What made these runes so hard to crack was that they were coded,
13:53likely owing to their use as an educational tool.
13:56There's nothing juicy in the writings,
13:58but cracking an ancient code is still incredibly exciting.
14:01Number 16. The Starchild Skull
14:04During all my years of researching UFOs,
14:07the one artifact that keeps coming up is the Starchild Skull.
14:11I've never held the Starchild Skull in my hand,
14:15but I know that it was found in the 1930s in a cave in northern Mexico by a teenage girl.
14:20It's amazing how often conditions and diseases are misattributed to the supernatural.
14:25We've seen it with the Connecticut vampire,
14:27and we see it again with the so-called Starchild.
14:30The distinct skull of the Starchild was obtained by paranormal author Lloyd Pye,
14:34who asserted that it belonged to a human-alien hybrid.
14:38This news captured our collective imaginations,
14:41but it's really an unfortunate labeling of a tragic reality.
14:45Tests done in the late 90s and early 2000s proved that the skull belonged to a young human male.
14:51Sorry, believers. No aliens here.
14:53Furthermore, Yale neurologist Stephen Novella attributed the cranial deformations to hydrocephalus,
14:59a condition in which cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain and enlarges the head.
15:04Number 15. The Lost Army of Cambyses
15:08Serving as the second king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire,
15:12Cambyses II ruled from 530 to 522 BC.
15:17Legend has it that in 524,
15:19Cambyses sent a massive army against the Oracle of Amun in the Siwa Oasis.
15:24However, the army was accosted by a devastating sandstorm and all 50,000 men were lost.
15:29For a long time, the veracity of this tale was questioned,
15:33as its primary source was the Greek historian Herodotus,
15:36who has been known to, shall we say, dramatize certain events.
15:41For the Persians, this must have been a huge burden.
15:44The logistics make it virtually certain that Cambyses' army could not have been as vast as Herodotus said.
15:50But in 2009, archaeologists Angelo and Alfredo Castiglione found human remains and Persian belongings near the Siwa Oasis,
15:58finally lending credence to the story.
16:01Many have searched for this army, but all have searched along the oasis route,
16:05the oasis of Dakla, Farafra, Aindala, then across the desert up to Siwa.
16:11We worked on a different hypothesis, since these oasis were under the Egyptian rule.
16:15However, it is important to note that some experts doubt the findings of the Castigliones.
16:21Number 14. The Flying Dutchman
16:23You've probably heard of The Flying Dutchman,
16:26as it's been featured extensively in art, television, and film,
16:30including the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
16:32This is an alleged ghost ship that inspired many a tall tale,
16:43with the legend dating back to the 18th century.
16:45It's said that The Flying Dutchman floats above the water,
16:49and contains a crew of cursed and undead sailors.
16:52Reports of the ship even stretched into the 20th century,
16:55and that's because optical illusions are timeless.
16:59Yup, The Flying Dutchman is not one ship.
17:02But the result of an optical illusion called Fata Morgana.
17:05Essentially, some ships on the distant horizon look like they're floating,
17:09owing to how light travels through different layers of air.
17:12When there is what's known as an inversion layer in the atmosphere,
17:16typically, the temperature of the air gets cooler as you go from the ground upwards.
17:20But when there's an inversion layer,
17:21the air near the ground is coolest, and there's warm air above it.
17:25Number 13. The City of Troy
17:27And speaking of legends, it doesn't get much bigger than the Trojan War.
17:32A favorite subject of ancient Greek literature,
17:35the Trojan War details the invasion of Troy by the Achaeans.
17:38Many scholars debate the history of the war itself,
17:41and for a long time, they debated the location of Troy as well.
17:45Most thought it was merely a place of legend,
17:48but that viewpoint changed thanks to Heinrich Schliemann and Frank Calvert.
17:52In 1871, the archaeologists began excavations in present-day Hissarlik Turkey
17:57and discovered not one city, but nine.
18:01Schliemann, with his interest in Homer, was not the first in this area.
18:06Frank Calvert, a British expatriate, had been living in the area from 1845 onward.
18:12He grew up in this area and gradually amassed a tremendous amount of textual evidence
18:20for where Troy lay.
18:23Each city was built on the ruins of the last,
18:26resulting in numerous distinct layers labeled by Roman numerals.
18:30It's now widely believed that Troy VI is the one depicted in the Greek myth.
18:34History can never confirm if Homer's heroes ever lived,
18:38nor whether the legendary Trojan horse ever existed.
18:43But thanks to modern archaeology,
18:45the city in which Homer placed his heroes,
18:48the lost city of Troy,
18:51is lost no more.
18:52Number 12. The Easter Island Heads
18:55The Moai, as they're properly known,
18:57are some of the most recognizable monuments in the world.
19:01Populating Easter Island and Polynesia,
19:03the Moai were carved in a volcanic crater called Rano-Raraku.
19:07The Moai are considered to be no more than perhaps a thousand years old.
19:13However, it has been established
19:16that some of them penetrate down into the ground
19:20by a great amount of feet
19:22to reveal the rest of the body,
19:25not just the oversized head.
19:27And the amount of patination
19:29suggests
19:31that they are infinitely older
19:34than a thousand years.
19:35They were then transported to the outer perimeter of the island,
19:39where they rested on platforms called Ahu.
19:41We don't really know how the natives moved the statues,
19:44and for a long time,
19:46we didn't know why they chose the sites they did.
19:48Well, that particular question was solved in 2019
19:51by researchers at Binghamton University.
19:54They discovered that the Ahu were placed
19:56near sources of fresh drinking water,
19:58because that's where communities were inclined to settle.
20:02It's not dramatic, but it sure is practical.
20:04Scientists are continually uncovering more of this history.
20:09But it is already clear
20:10that this was a remarkably complex society,
20:14of which the Moai were only one part.
20:16Number 11.
20:17The Classic Maya Collapse
20:19In the span of human history,
20:21the Maya Collapse wasn't all that long ago,
20:24with the last city falling to Spanish settlers in 1697.
20:28But another major collapse occurred earlier,
20:30with most of the major Maya cities
20:32being abandoned between the 7th and 9th centuries.
20:35The reason for this
20:36is one of history's greatest unanswered questions.
20:39Well, it was, until 2012.
20:42Turns out, a number of factors went into the collapse,
20:44as it so often does.
20:46They set up the city
20:47on the most fertile agricultural lands,
20:49down on the bottom lands
20:50that the river had carved out
20:52and made fertile over the centuries.
20:54By doing so,
20:55they were basically cutting off their own food supply.
20:58They weren't able to farm the best lands.
21:00They were then obliged
21:01to cut down the forest on the slopes.
21:04In doing so, that caused erosion,
21:06as they had to cut back even higher up.
21:08The Maya greatly deforested the surrounding area,
21:11which exacerbated an ongoing drought
21:13and killed all agriculture in the region.
21:16Furthermore, trade routes had changed from land to sea,
21:19impacting local economies
21:21and forcing a relocation from the southern lowlands
21:23to the northern Yucatan.
21:25Number 10.
21:26The fate of the Franklin Expedition.
21:28Captain Sir John Franklin's
21:30Arctic Exploration Expedition
21:31was lost after leaving England in 1845.
21:34Franklin was searching for a shortcut
21:36from Europe to Asia through the Northwest Passage.
21:38His ships were caught in the crushing Arctic ice
21:41and abandoned off King William Island.
21:43Over the years,
21:44many other ships set out to see
21:45if they could find out
21:46what happened to the doomed crew.
21:47The top part of a human skull.
21:50And, um,
21:51I think it's,
21:54it's one of Franklin's men.
21:55Like, it's related to Franklin's men.
21:59So part of the skull is broken,
22:02but just the top part.
22:03While some clues were found,
22:05including gravesites of some of the men
22:06who had been aboard,
22:07it was only at the end of the 20th century
22:09that we began to get answers
22:11about what had caused Franklin
22:12and his team so much trouble.
22:14Unfortunately,
22:15we discovered that many of the crew members
22:16did not die quickly,
22:18but rather succumbed to diseases like scurvy
22:20and even lead poisoning
22:21after becoming icebound.
22:22And sadly,
22:23the rumors of cannibalism
22:25were also proved to be true.
22:26The previous actions of the British crew
22:28had been erratic,
22:30even dangerous.
22:31After all,
22:32they had been eating each other.
22:34Number 9.
22:35Mysterious Notes in the Odyssey.
22:37Homer's epic Greek poem,
22:39The Odyssey,
22:40has become known
22:40as one of the most important pieces
22:42in the history of literature.
22:44While there are many things
22:45that we still don't know
22:46about the story's creation,
22:47an extra layer of mystery was added
22:49when a copy was found
22:50with unintelligible notes in the margin.
22:52The copy belonged
22:53to the University of Chicago library
22:55and was a Venetian edition from 1504.
22:58The library created a contest
23:00to see if anyone could crack the code,
23:01and Italian computer engineer
23:03Daniele Metelli figured it out
23:05with help from colleague Giulia Chetta.
23:07Turns out the notes
23:08were written in a French shorthand
23:09and dated from the 19th century.
23:12Number 8.
23:13King Richard III's Death.
23:14While his legacy
23:15has lived on through Shakespeare,
23:17King Richard III of England
23:18was the final English king
23:19to perish in battle.
23:20In fact,
23:21his death during the Battle of Bosworth Field
23:23is often used to mark
23:24the end of the Middle Ages.
23:25It was here in the Midlands
23:26on the battlefield at Bosworth
23:29during the War of the Roses
23:30that he fell.
23:32The hunched back so-called villain king
23:35was cut down
23:36on the pointy end
23:37of his successor's sword.
23:39But his remains were lost
23:40and only uncovered in 2012
23:42during an archaeological excavation of Leicester.
23:45The position of the spine
23:46in the grave was interesting.
23:48There was a very noticeable curve in it,
23:50and that's not something
23:51that can occur just by accident.
23:52That's not something that can happen
23:54just by squashing the skeleton
23:55into the grave.
23:56The following year,
23:57the body was identified
23:58as belonging to Richard III.
24:00Ladies and gentlemen,
24:02it is the academic conclusion
24:03of the University of Leicester
24:04that beyond reasonable doubt,
24:06the individual exhumed at Greyfriars
24:08in September 2012
24:10is indeed Richard III,
24:12the last Plantagenet king of England.
24:14He had suffered 11 wounds,
24:16most of which were on his skull,
24:17which suggests that he lost
24:19his helmet in battle,
24:20leading to his demise.
24:22Number 7.
24:23The Sailing Stones
24:23Known as sailing stones
24:25or moving rocks,
24:27observers have long noticed
24:28the enigmatic phenomenon
24:29of these objects
24:30that seemingly move on their own,
24:31leaving trails in their wake.
24:33The most famous example
24:34is found at Racetrack Playa
24:35in California's
24:36Death Valley National Park.
24:37Many experiments have been undertaken
24:39in an attempt to understand
24:40how these large objects move,
24:42and we now seem to have an answer.
24:44When ice break-up takes place,
24:46when the ice begins to melt
24:47just enough under the light breezes,
24:49that ice, big ice sheets,
24:51drive the rocks in front of them
24:53and just plow them along the bottom
24:55of this shallow pond.
24:58On cold nights,
24:59thin sheets of ice develop under them
25:00and then float
25:01and are able to be moved by the wind,
25:04which propels the rocks
25:05as fast as 5 meters per minute.
25:07Rocks move through a combination
25:08of a shallow pond,
25:10ice, light breezes,
25:12and sun to set them in motion.
25:14Number 6.
25:14The Face on Mars
25:16Between the Erandus Crater
25:17and the Bamber Crater
25:18in the Cydonia region of Mars,
25:20spacecraft Viking 1
25:21captured an image in 1976
25:23that has fueled speculation for decades.
25:26That's because it looked
25:27for all intents and purposes
25:28like there was a face on the red planet.
25:30While people wanted to use this
25:32as evidence of an alien civilization,
25:34the actual explanation is a banal one.
25:36Scientists have agreed
25:46that the face is essentially
25:47an optical illusion
25:48and that it's only present
25:50based on the angle
25:51from which you view it
25:52and how well lit it is.
25:54Number 5.
25:55The Location of the USS Indianapolis
25:57The sinking of the USS Indianapolis
26:00is among the greatest tragedies
26:01that the American Navy
26:02has ever experienced.
26:06Torpedoed by a Japanese submarine
26:15in 1945 during a mission
26:17to deliver parts of the nuclear weapon
26:19Little Boy,
26:20there were only 316 survivors
26:22from a crew of 1,195.
26:24And I looked back at that time
26:27and she was up on her bow
26:28going down.
26:29In 12 minutes,
26:30the ship was gone.
26:32The wreck remained unfound
26:33despite several expeditions
26:35to locate it.
26:36But in 2016,
26:38new information was revealed
26:39that gave us a better clue
26:40of where it might be.
26:41And in 2017,
26:43a team funded by Microsoft
26:45co-founder Paul Allen
26:46finally found
26:47the well-preserved remains
26:48of the ship.
26:49New images,
26:50both haunting and revealing.
26:52That's an unbelievable
26:53amount of damage
26:54from that torpedo.
26:55Show the devastation
26:56caused by two Japanese torpedoes
26:58that hammered the USS Indianapolis
27:01on July 30, 1945
27:02while en route
27:04to the Philippines.
27:05Number 4.
27:06How the Pyramids were built.
27:08The Egyptian pyramids
27:09are one of Earth's
27:10most widely recognizable landmarks.
27:12Many secrets
27:13about these magnificent structures
27:14remain.
27:16Built to withstand eternity,
27:18they seem in no hurry
27:19to reveal them.
27:20But for many years,
27:22people wondered
27:22how they were possibly built
27:23without modern technology.
27:25Was it aliens?
27:26Well, probably not.
27:28It had already been known
27:29that the Egyptians
27:30likely used wooden sleds
27:31to drag large objects
27:32across the sand,
27:33but researchers
27:34at the University of Amsterdam
27:36added a probable solution
27:37to make this even easier.
27:38They established
27:39that by wetting sand,
27:40only slightly,
27:41it would create
27:42the perfect amount of friction
27:43to carry very heavy objects easily.
27:46Wetting it with the right amount of water
27:47makes it remarkably slick.
27:49A team of 10 workers
27:50can easily pull a one-ton sled.
27:52But people always seem to forget
27:53that Egyptians had animals
27:55like donkeys and cattle around
27:57to help too.
27:58Another ancient Egyptian mystery
27:59that has a more clear-cut answer
28:00is the hieroglyphs
28:01that seemingly depict
28:02modern helicopters.
28:04Turns out,
28:04these are a product of the stone
28:05being reused
28:06for more than one image.
28:08Number 3.
28:09What caused the Tunguska event?
28:10In a remote area of Russia in 1908,
28:13a massive explosion took place
28:15that flattened tens of millions of trees
28:17and produced an estimated
28:18185 times more energy
28:21than the atomic bomb
28:21dropped on Hiroshima.
28:23Millions of pine trees,
28:24larches, and birches
28:25are destroyed
28:26by the pressure wave
28:27and the fires.
28:30A shock wave circles the world,
28:32leaving its mark
28:33on seismographs everywhere.
28:35But no one can understand
28:36where it has come from.
28:37It inevitably left many wondering
28:39what had caused it.
28:41For decades,
28:41people have speculated
28:42that it might have been an asteroid,
28:44a comet,
28:44a clash of matter and antimatter,
28:46or even an alien spaceship landing.
28:48The night sky
28:49was illuminated
28:51for weeks after
28:52and people were able
28:54to read their newspapers
28:55in the middle of the night
28:56from London to Asia.
28:58But in 2013,
28:59it was essentially confirmed
29:01that it was, in fact,
29:02a meteor,
29:03when a team
29:03from the National Academy
29:04of Sciences of Ukraine
29:05analyzed rock samples
29:06of meteoric origin
29:07from the site.
29:08Researchers studied
29:09microscopic fragments
29:10of decayed vegetation
29:11dating back to the time
29:12of the event
29:13and discovered
29:13mineral combinations
29:14perfectly consistent
29:15with other meteorite
29:16impact sites,
29:17like the 50,000-year-old
29:19meteor crater in Arizona.
29:20Number 2.
29:21The Bermuda Triangle
29:22While some of the other
29:24mysteries on our list
29:24may not be commonly known
29:26to the general public,
29:27nearly everyone's heard
29:28of the Bermuda Triangle.
29:29For many years,
29:31people have wondered
29:31about the evils at work here
29:33that seemingly make boats sink
29:34and planes fall from the sky.
29:36Ships that have shown up
29:37absolutely empty,
29:39no sign of any struggle,
29:40yet the crew has just vanished.
29:42But the explanation
29:43is simple and unexciting.
29:45While some may imagine
29:46the Triangle
29:47as a small and specific area,
29:48it's actually a huge
29:49and not well-defined region
29:51that is heavily trafficked
29:53by sea and by air.
29:54Bermuda is surrounded
29:55by a network of reef,
29:57a stunning reef
29:57that come right to the surface.
29:59And when ships encounter those,
30:00they literally break them apart.
30:01If you go back in time
30:02to your old wooden ships
30:03and stuff like that,
30:04those ships had no chance.
30:05In fact, your cruise ship
30:07may have sailed right through it
30:08without you noticing.
30:09Yes, plenty of accidents
30:11have occurred there,
30:12but they largely
30:13have logical explanations.
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30:281. Anastasia's Escape
30:33In 1918,
30:35the Russian imperial Romanov family
30:36was executed
30:37by communist revolutionaries.
30:39But for years,
30:40rumors persisted
30:41that Tsar Nicholas II's
30:42youngest daughter, Anastasia,
30:44somehow survived and escaped.
30:45So whether a sympathetic guard
30:47had rescued one of them,
30:50it's not beyond
30:51the realms of possibility.
30:53It didn't help
30:54that several women
30:54throughout history
30:55have impersonated
30:56the supposedly missing princess.
30:57The genetic testing
30:59proved beyond
31:00all reasonable doubt
31:01that Anna Anderson
31:02was not Anastasia Romanov.
31:06The whole thing
31:08was fabricated.
31:11Whoever she was,
31:12she certainly wasn't
31:13a member
31:13of the Russian royal family.
31:15These speculations
31:16were fueled
31:16when the Romanov's grave
31:17was found in 1991
31:18and two bodies
31:20were seemingly missing.
31:21But by 2007,
31:23another gravesite
31:24had been found nearby
31:24and DNA evidence
31:26conclusively proved
31:27that all members
31:28of the family
31:28are accounted for.
31:30It's a sad ending
31:31to the tale
31:31for those who prefer
31:32to hold out hope
31:33of her survival.
31:34But the DNA evidence
31:35makes it clear
31:36that's what really happened.
31:38On the night
31:39when Russia's
31:39longest-lived dynasty
31:41came to its abrupt
31:42and bloody end.
31:44What historical mystery
31:45do you find
31:46the most fascinating?
31:47Let us know
31:48in the comments below.