10 World Secrets That Were Finally Revealed
Top 10 World Secrets That Were Finally Revealed
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Welcome to WatchMojo, and today were counting down our picks for the unsolved mysteries surrounding geography, world histories and ancient civilizations that captured imaginations around the globe.
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#10: Weeping Statues
Youve probably seen it on the news or in a movie - a religious statue is weeping, and usually some kind of red liquid just to make it that much creepier. This phenomenon is often associated with miracles as, you know, a statue should not be crying. However, there are many non-religious reasons why a statue might be crying. In some cases, the water is nothing but condensation, and if the statue is made of porous materials, moisture can seep through and resemble tears. There also might be psychological perceptions at play, or just good old fashioned tampering for the sake of fame and attention. Even the Catholic Church ignores weeping statues for the most part and have called out a number of examples as hoaxes.
#9: The Salish Sea Discoveries
The western coast of North America is the site of one of the most gruesome mysteries in modern history. Beginning in the summer of 2007, a number of human feet - often still inside their shoes - have washed ashore in British Columbia, Tacoma, and Seattle. A number of macabre theories have been put forth, including the possibility of a serial killer. But the reality is far more mundane. People die at sea - often in tragic boating accidents - and their bodies decompose in the water. As this happens, the extremities, like hands and feet, break away from the body. And because the feet are trapped inside the shoes, they are mostly saved from decomposition and buoyed, allowing them to float to shore in the currents.
#8: The Tunguska Event
In the early morning of June 30, 1908, a remote area of Russia was hit with a massive and mysterious blast. This blast completely leveled over 800 square miles of forest and flattened 80 million trees. No source could be found for the explosion, so no one knew what exactly happened. Thousands of scientific papers have been written about the incident and the area has been studied for decades, with many trying to crack the bizarre case. It is now generally agreed that a 200-foot meteor traveling 60,000 miles per hour exploded in midair over the area, resulting in whats called a meteor airburst. This airburst then leveled everything below the meteors detonation site.
#7: Crocker Land
The 19th and 20th centuries were filled with brilliant adventures into the Earths poles - but you probably havent heard of the Crocker Land Expedition. American explorer and Navy officer Robert E. Peary described an enormous, mountainous land that he could see from Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. He named it Crocker Land after his financial backer George Crocker, and an expedition set out to find and map it. Yet they found no such island, despite its supposedly immense size. It simplydidnt exist. What a tantalizing mystery. No, seriously, it didnt exist. As we later learned through his personal diary, Peary made the whole thing up, probably to secure more funding from an excited Crocker.
#6: The Construction of the Pyramids
The Giza pyramids are arguably the most famous landmarks in the world. They continue to stand tall (literally) after thousands of years. Their construction has baffled people for millennia, leading some to suggest that aliens must have been involved! After all, humans couldnt possibly drag and lift those stones into place, right? Well, yes they could. Researchers believe that workers loaded the blocks onto sledges and wet the sand to make them easier to drag. They raised the blocks using ramps and levering techniques. This took tens of thousands of people decades to complete, but hey, no one said building a Wonder of the World was easy!
#5: The Windsor Hum
There are a weird number of hums heard throughout the world, each described as a persistent and irritating whine. One of the most notable examples was found in Windsor, Ontario. The sound was described by many as a low, droning vibration, and it was loud enough that one evening in 2012, over 20,000 people reported it to the local police! Alas, the mystery was finally solved in 2020, and thousands of annoyed residents could finally rest easy. Literally. The sound was sourced to nearby Zug Island, a heavily-industrialized area just off Detroit, and specifically the blast furnaces operated by U.S. Steel. When these furnaces were deactivated in April of that year, the sound ceased and peace was restored.
#4: The Surgeons Photograph
Its one of the most famous photographs in cryptozoology - a massive, dinosaur-like head emerging from Scotlands Loch Ness. The photo has entranced the public ever since its publication in 1934, with many believing it to be verifiable proof of the elusive Loch Ness Monster. But even for those who didnt believe in the mythical monster, a lingering question still remained - what exactly was this? It wasnt until the 1990s that we got firm answers. In 1991, a man named Christian Spurling admitted that the photo was a hoax, having built the monster using a toy submarine and wood putty. He then conspired with a number of others in order to fool The Daily Mail into publishing a bogus story - which it famously did.
#3: Stonehenge
One of humanitys greatest marvels, Stonehenge has been standing for thousands of years. But where exactly did the giant stones come from? They are all pretty much symmetrical - 13 feet high, 7 feet across, and each weighing 25 tons. Experts have been trying to crack the case for hundreds of years. Some will have you believe that it was aliens, but no, it was really just the nearby woods. In 2019, researchers were able to do tests on a small piece of extracted stone and sourced it to the nearby West Woods in Wiltshire. The location has finally been pinned down, but one tantalizing question remains - how did they drag these 25-ton boulders 15 miles to the south?
#2: The Collapse of the Maya Civilization
The largest and most sophisticated pre-Columbian civilization of the Americas, the Maya flourished for thousands of years. The civilization entered its so-called classic period in the year 250, and this lasted until 900. It was around then that the entire political system collapsed, and the Maya abandoned their most important cities to move north. With this, the Maya civilization entered what is called its Postclassic period. So what the heck happened? Its a mystery that has plagued historians for years. The answer was finally found in the 21st century. Turns out that the Maya were so overpopulated that they damaged the environment and created a devastating drought. With their agriculture thoroughly destroyed, the Maya were forced to abandon their most populous cities.
#1: The Bermuda Triangle
Everyone knows of the mythical Bermuda Triangle. Found between Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and the Florida coast, the Triangle is said to be a hotspot of paranormal activity, prone to swallowing ships and planes and leaving their fates unknown. Its one of the most enduring mysteries of American pop culture. Only, there isnt really a mystery, and this has been known since at least the mid 70s. Thats when Larry Kusche published The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved, and posited that the triangle does not have a higher incident rate than any other part of the ocean. Furthermore, many of the original stories were either highly exaggerated or just outright made up. Its just a fun story and nothing more.
Which world secret would you most like to see solved? Let us know in the comments!
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