world's biggest unsolved mysteries

The allegorical aspect of Atlantis was taken up in utopian works of several Renaissance writers, such as Bacon's New Atlantis and More's Utopia.[4] On the other hand, 19th-century amateur scholars misinterpreted Plato's account as historical tradition, most notably in Donnelly's Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. Plato's vague indications of the time of the events—more than 9,000 years before his day[5]—and the alleged location of Atlantis—"beyond the Pillars of Hercules"—has led to much pseudoscientific speculation.[6] As a consequence, Atlantis has become a byword for any and all supposed advanced prehistoric lost civilizations and continues to inspire today's fiction, from comic books to films.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that disappeared on 8 March 2014 at 01:20 MYT,There has been no confirmation of any flight debris,[22][23][24][25][26] and no crash site has been found,[27] resulting in many unofficial theories about its disappearance. The only evidence of the plane's flight path after it disappeared from military radar over the Andaman Sea are communications between the aircraft and a satellite over the Indian Ocean. Analysis of these communications by multiple agencies has concluded that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean.[28][29][30] On 24 March, the Malaysian government, noting that the final location determined by the satellite communication was far from any possible landing sites, concluded that "flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean

During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day

The Bermuda Triangle or the devils gate is a mythical section of the Atlantic Ocean roughly bounded by Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico where dozens of ships and airplanes have disappeared. Unexplained circumstances surround some of these accidents, including one in which the pilots of a squadron of U.S. Navy bombers became disoriented while flying over the area; the planes were never found. Other boats and planes have seemingly vanished from the area in good weather without even radioing distress messages. But although myriad fanciful theories have been proposed regarding the Bermuda Triangle, none of them prove that mysterious disappearances occur more frequently there than in other well-traveled sections of the ocean. In fact, people navigate the area every day without incident.

The scientific community generally regards the Yeti as a legend, given the lack of conclusive evidence,[4] but it remains one of the most famous creatures of cryptozoology. Analysis of samples associated with claimed yetis found a sequence of mitochondrial DNA that matched a sample from an ancient polar bear jawbone found in Norway, that dates back to between 40,000 and 120,000 years ago.

On 12 November 1933, Hugh Gray was walking along the loch after church when he spotted a substantial commotion in the water. A large creature rose up from the lake. Gray took several pictures of it, but only one of them showed up after they were developed. This image appeared to show a creature with a long tail and thick body at the surface of the loch. The image is blurred suggesting the animal was splashing. Four stumpy-looking objects on the bottom of the creature's body might possibly be a pair of appendages, such as flippers.[31] Although critics have claimed that the photograph is of a dog swimming towards the camera (possibly carrying a stick), researcher Roland Watson rejects this interpretation and suggests there is an eel-like head on the right side of the image.[32]
This picture is the first known image allegedly taken of the Loch Ness Monster.

The vessel was found to be in good seaworthy condition and the general impression was that the crew had left in a great hurry. They had left behind their oil skin boots and pipes. Captain Morehouse's explanation was that they had left in panic thinking the vessel to be sinking. The chronometer and sextant were not found on board. The last entry on the ships slate showed she had made the island of St Mary in the Azores on November 25th.

Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and letters from a writer or writers purporting to be the murderer were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard. The "From Hell" letter, received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, included half of a preserved human kidney, supposedly from one of the victims. Mainly because of the extraordinarily brutal character of the murders, and because of media treatment of the events, the public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper".

Figured wood has been sought and worshipped for its beauty for centuries. Any design, pattern, or distinctive mark that appears on the surfaces of wood may be described as figure, and it results from combinations of color, luster, texture, and grain.

Even though it has been studied for a long time, very little is known about why figure develops in wood. There are a lot of contradictory theories, and the ultimate causes are largely unknown. Ecological factors have been studied to see if they have an affect on figure, but there are no studies that have shown a definitive correlation of factors like geographic location, climate, soil, bark, foliage, rate of growth, etc. on figure. Most of the best figured wood develops in well formed, straight, healthy trees. All figured wood types occur in almost every part of the world where figure is recognized, although certain areas appear to produce more figured trees than other areas.

The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II.[4] No one has yet succeeded in deciphering the text, and it has become a famous case in the history of cryptography. The mystery of the meaning and origin of the manuscript has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript the subject of novels and speculation. None of the many hypotheses proposed over the last hundred years has yet been independently verified.[5] Many people have speculated that the writing might be nonsense.
The pages of the codex are vellum. Some of the pages are missing, but about 240 remain. The text is written from left to right, and most of the pages have illustrations or diagrams.

The Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists, a few scholars believe that the disc is a forgery or a hoax.
The disc was discovered in 1908 by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, and features 241 tokens, comprising 45 unique signs, which were apparently made by pressing hieroglyphic "seals" into a disc of soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiraling toward the disc's center.
The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur and professional archeologists, and many attempts have been made to decipher the code behind the disc's signs. While it is not clear that it is a script, most attempted decipherments assume that it is; most additionally assume a syllabary, others an alphabet or logography. Attempts at decipherment are generally thought to be unlikely to succeed unless more examples of the signs are found, as it is generally agreed that there is not enough context available for a meaningful analysis.

There are many compelling arguments that the entire story is a hoax, including a 1980 article "A Dissenting Opinion" by cryptographer Jim Gillogly, and in 1982 Joe Nickell published a scholarly analysis of the Papers and their related story, using historical records that cast doubt on the existence of Thomas J. Beale. Nickell also presents linguistic evidence demonstrating that the documents could not have been written at the time alleged (words such as "stampeding", for instance, are of later vintage). His analysis of the writing style showed that Beale was almost certainly James B. Ward, whose 1885 pamphlet brought the Beale Papers to light. Nickell argues that the tale is thus a work of fiction; specifically, a "secret vault" allegory of the Freemasons. James B. Ward was, in fact, a Mason himself

The monument was built sometime between 1748 and 1763, commissioned by Thomas Anson, paid for by his brother, Admiral George Anson, and fashioned by the Flemish sculptor Peter Scheemakers. The relief copy of the Poussin painting is contained within a rustic arch, and shows a woman and three shepherds, two of whom are pointing to a tomb. On the tomb is carved the Latin text Et in arcadia ego ("I am also in Arcadia" or "I am, even in Arcadia"). The carving displays a number of small alterations from the original painting, and an extra sarcophagus has been placed on top of the main tomb. Above the Poussin scene are two stone heads, one showing a smiling bald-headed man, the other bearing a likeness to the goat-horned Greek god Pan.

Amazed at how closely the signal matched the expected signature of an interstellar signal in the antenna used, Ehman circled the signal on the computer printout and wrote the comment "Wow!" on its side. This comment became the name of the signal.

The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who operated in northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s.,Suspects have been named by law enforcement and amateur investigators, but no conclusive evidence has surfaced. In April 2004, the San Francisco Police Department marked the case "inactive," yet re-opened the case at some point prior to March 2007.[2][3] The case also remains open in the city of Vallejo, as well as in Napa County and Solano County.[4] The California Department of Justice has maintained an open case file on the Zodiac murders since 1969

A vast city built by the ancient Mayan civilisation and discovered nearly a century ago in modern day Guatemala is finally starting to yield its secrets - including a hint that apocalyptic predictions around the 'end' of the Mayan Calendar may be wrong.

Crop circles are sometimes accompanied by a rhythmical trilling sound since captured on tape and analysed by NASA as artificiall in origin. But it was not until a decade later that the phenomenon began to really manifest itself in a quantitative manner. To date there have been over 9000 reported and documented crop circles throughout the world, with some 90% of them coming from England. It is also fair to say that many more may go unreported each year. To date there have been some 9000 crop circles worldwide.
Since then some eighty eyewitnesses from as far away as British Columbia have reported the formation of a crop circle, which takes less than twenty seconds to materialize, often accompanied by sightings of unusual lights and structured craft beaming shafts of light onto the field the night before.