Sep 30, 2013

10 More Unsolved Mysteries of the World

10. Marlovian Theory

Marlovian-Theory-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
The Marlovian Theory, which began as early as 1895, holds that the plays traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare were actually written by Christopher Marlowe. Christopher Marlowe was an English poet and playwright of Elizabethan era. He was born in the same year as Shakespeare was born and mysteriously died early. The Marlovian Theory theorizes that Christopher Marlowe faked his death in 1593 instead of being killed by his patron. It is believed that he was facing imminent death for heresy charges and faked his death to save himself. The first licensed work from Shakespeare, “Venus and Adonis”, was issued on April 4, 1593, just a month before Marlowe’s death. William Shakespeare’s first record of being an actor only appeared on December 1594. Some believe that both seemed to have discernably similar writing style. Whatever really happened at that fateful night in 1593 may never fully be understood. Those who follow the Marlovian Theory believe it to be the only way that Christopher Marlowe could have continued to live freely and pursue his continued love of writing.


9. Contents of the Great Library of Alexandria

Contents-of-the-Library-of-Alexandria-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
Great Library of Alexandria was destroyed in a Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 B.C. Countless texts and documents were reduced to indiscernible ash. It was one of the largest library in the world and was charged with collecting all of world’s knowledge. Alexandria was an international hub for trade as well as the leading producer of papyrus and books. Alexandria had two ports for trades and books were pulled off every single ship that came into the ports. They kept the original texts and made copies to send back to their owners. Books were also donated by travellers from all over the world. The library was also a research institution and home to a host of international scholars. The library was filled with works on mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural sciences and other subjects. It is now impossible to determine the collection’s size and content with any certainty. It is considered one of humanity’s greatest losses.


8. S.S. Ourang Medan

S.S.-Ourang-Medan-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
In June of 1947, two American vessels sailing the Strait of Malaca in Indonesian waters received a distress call from a Dutch a merchant ship, Ourang Medan. Message read, “All officers including captain are dead lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead,” followed by a final transmission “I die.” One of the American ship, SS Silver Star attempted to hail the ship, but to no avail. When they boarded the ship, they found the deck littered with corpses. The entire crew was dead, including a dog aboard the ship. The bodies of the crew all showed signs of being frozen in terror at the moment of death. Their facial expressions horrified, teeth bared, eyes pointing at the sky. They had no visible signs of trauma. While trying to haul the ship to port, the ship caught on fire. The ship finally exploded and sank. This whole story could be a hoax as there is no evidence of official registration of the ship (or perhaps the ship was never registered due to the nature of its activities). Theories of illegal smuggling of nerve gas or hazardous chemical in the cargo to carbon monoxide poisoning and paranormal phenomenon have been suggested to reason the death of its crew.


7. Egyptian Tomb in the Grand Canyon

Egyptian-Tomb-in-the-Grand-Canyon-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
In April of 1909 the Phoenix Gazette ran a story for two days about Egyptian artifacts supposedly found in the Grand Canyon. This story spanned several pages. According to the story, under the direction of professor S.A. Jordan, the Smithsonian Institute is now prosecuting the most thorough explorations, which will be continued until the last link in the chain has been forged. About 1480 feet below the surface, the long main passage has been delved into, to find another mammoth chamber from which radiates scores of passageways, like the spokes of a wheel. Several hundred rooms were discovered, reached by passageways running from the main passage, one of them having been explored for 854 feet and another 634 feet. They found war weapons, copper instruments sharp edged and hard as steel, indicating the high state of civilization reached by these strange people. There was also a tomb in which mummies were found is one of the largest chambers. There were several other notable artifacts that resembled Egyptian in origin. If this was true, it would support the theory of Pre-Columbian Trans-Oceanic Contact Hypotheses. Archeologists from Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. have completely denied of any such finds in 1909 on recent enquiries.


6. Devil’s Footprints

Devil's-Footprints-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
On February 7 and 8, 1855, the people of Devonshire in England awoke to find strange footprints throughout their small town. They were surprised to discover tracks of some strange and mysterious biped animal. The foot-prints were seen in all kinds of inaccessible places – on the tops of houses and narrow walls, in gardens and courtyards enclosed by high walls and palings, rivers, through tunnel walls as well as in open fields. Foot prints closely resembled that of a donkey’s shoe, measuring 1.5 to 2.5 inches across and 8 inches in advance of each other. The creature seems to have approached the doors of several houses and then to have retreated. There has been a similar recorded sighting by Captain Sir James Clark Ross in the Kerguelen Island of South Pole in 1840. Captain reported of finding no animals and simply tracks resembling that of donkey’s. The men eventually gave up looking for the creature as it passed over a large area of rocks and the tracks were lost. Nearly 154 years later similar footprints were encountered in Woolsery, North Devon in England in March of 2009.


5. Oh-My-God Particle

Oh-My-God-Particle-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
The Oh-My-God particle detected over Dugway Proving Ground, Utah in 1991 was probably a proton traveling at almost the speed of light (99.99%). It allegedly carried the same kinetic energy as a baseball traveling at 90 kmph. Most cosmic ray particles are of low energy and arise locally from solar flares. Another more energetic class of cosmic particles are thought to originate from elsewhere in the galaxy. They probably come from supernovae. Then there are extragalactic cosmic rays, which are of the Oh-My-God variety, with energy levels exceeding 1015 eV and rarely even 1020 eV are more formally known as ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. These particles travel very close to the speed of light and must have had a heck of a kick to attain such speeds. It is “proposed” that extragalactic cosmic rays are spun up in supermassive black holes. Furthermore, they estimate that nearly all extragalactic cosmic rays that reach Earth come from Centaurus A. It is unclear who or what sent these particles on course to earth.


4. Lead Masks Case

Lead-Masks-Case-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
The Lead Masks Case refers to the discovery of the bodies of two electronic technicians in Brazil in 1966. The bodies were found in a field wearing impermeable coats and lead masks (usually used to protect against radiation). Even stranger was the discovery of a small notebook beside their bodies with signs and numbers, and a letter in which was written: “16:30 be at the agreed place. 18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for the mask sign”. A waitress who was the last to see them alive said that one of them looked very nervous and kept glancing at his watch. There were no obvious injuries on the bodies. This area was considered to be an UFO hotspot and people reported they had seen a UFO flying over the spot around the time of their death. Autopsies failed to lend any answers. They had a water bottle and its receipt with them to return those bottles, so suicide probably was ruled out. There simply was no cause that could be found as to why these men died.


3. Oak Island (Money Pit)

Oak-Island-(Money-Pit)-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
Among the 360 small islands south of Nova Scotia, Canada is Oak Island. Oak island’s history tells of an impenetrable cache of treasure located in a vault known as the Money Pit. Attempts to retrieve the bounty since 1700’s have been fruitless and many have died in their attempts to do so. The pit was first discovered in 1795 by a young man named Daniel McInnis. Above it, hanging from the limb of a large oak was an old pulley system. On excavation together with his friends he found layer of flagstones and further down a man-made shaft. Tired from their efforts, they decided to cease work. In 1803, owners of Onslow Company continued excavation. At 90 feet they found a flat stone bearing an indecipherable inscription and beneath that possibly a wooden chest. They decided to discontinue for the evening, but in the morning the whole shaft was flooded and they were forced to discontinue. From then until now the ownership of the island has changed hands many times. Over a dozen attempts to re-excavate the pit by several in search for the fabled treasure has resulted in the shafts flooding at a certain depth. Critics argue that there is no treasure and that the apparent pit is a natural phenomenon. Artifacts found during excavations include a cipher stone, a perfectly triangular stone, Christian cross, heart-shaped stone, free masonic symbols and a piece of gold chain.


2. Out-of-Place Artifacts

Out-of-place artifacts are objects that are found in archeological sites and are predated to a time long before modern discovery of the technology used by them. Three of the following are fascinating.

Antikythera Mechanism

Antikythera-Mechanism-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
The Antikythera Mechanism is believed to be an ancient mechanical calculator designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. It has been dated to about 150-100 BC. Other machines using technology with such complexity would not appear until the 18th century. While intense research is finally answering the question of what this mechanism did, we actually have no idea how people back then were able to accomplish a technological feat so complex.

Baghdad Battery

Baghdad-Battery-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
The Baghdad Battery was discovered in the village of Khuyut Rabbou’a (near Baghdad in Iraq) in 1936. These artifacts came to wider attention in 1938 when German director of the National Museum of Iraq, found the objects in the museum’s collections. In 1940, he published a paper speculating them to be galvanic cells, perhaps used for electroplating gold onto silver objects. The artifacts consist of 5 inch tall spherical flat-bottomed terracotta jars (with 1.5 inch wide mouth). It contained a copper cylinder made of a rolled-up copper sheet, which houses a single iron rod. At the top, the iron rod is isolated from the copper by asphalt plugs and it all fit snugly inside the opening of the jar. On the 29th episode MythBusters’ (aired on March 23, 2005), Baghdad battery myth was put to the test. Ten Baghdad batteries were made and lemon juice was chosen as the electrolyte to activate the electrochemical reaction between the copper and iron. When all of the batteries were linked together in series, they produced upwards of 4 volts. The major question remains is “What were they really used for?”

Quimbaya Airplanes

Quimbaya-Airplanes-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
Pictured above is one of about dozen golden Quimbaya airplanes found in Colombia. They were made by the Quimbaya civilization, dated around 1000 A.D. Proponents of ancient astronaut theories claim them to represent modern airplanes, and therefore to be out-of-place artifacts. These figurines measures 2 to 3 inches each. Archeologists describe them as depicting birds, lizards, amphibians and insects that were abundant in the region that have been highly stylized. In 1994, three Germans, Algund Eenboom, Peter Belting and Conrad Lubbers created simplified radio-controlled scale models of these objects that actually flew.


1. Spontaneous Human Combustion

Spontaneous-Human-Combustion-Unsolved Mysteries of the World
Spontaneous human combustion is the alleged mysterious process in which a person simply bursts into flames for no apparent reason. Further, these flames appear to be localized to the victim and seem to have a very high temperature. Flames incinerate most of the body, but leave objects in close proximity to the victims relatively unscathed. Dr. John Bentley is alleged to have died of spontaneous combustion in Pennsylvania in 1966. The spot where the body lay was burnt, but the rest of the room, was left untouched by flames. Only the bottom of his one leg remained that helped in his identification. In another case, Mrs. M. H. Reeser of Florida apparently died of spontaneous combustion in 1951. The only things remained was her skull that shrunk to the size of an orange. Crematorium specialists say they cannot duplicate the complete destruction of bones in such a short period of time. One theory is ball lightning which could produce similar results, but locations of these victims seems to elude this possibility. Does the body have chemical reactions that science has yet to discover?

Top 10 Best Kept Indian Secrets

10. A Fact That could have averted Partition

Jinnah-Best Kept Indian Secrets
It is now widely believed that Jinnah was suffering from a life-threatening a lung disease before partition. By the time of partition, Jinnah’s condition worsened. Years later, Mountbatten stated that if he had known Jinnah was so ill, he would have stalled the decision of partition, hoping that the news of Jinnah’s death would have avert it.

9. Purulia Arms Drops Case

Purulia Arms Drop Case-Best Kept Indian Secrets
On the night of December 17, 1995, a Latvian aircraft (Antonov An-26 Aircraft) dropped a huge consignment of arms consisting of hundreds of AK-47 rifles and more than a million rounds of ammunition over several villages of Purulia district of West Bengal. The crew of the aircraft consisted of five Latvian citizens and one British citizen. They were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. Following the intervention of Russian authorities and British government, they were later pardoned and released. The chief accused was “Kim Davy,” who claimed that it was a conspiracy of the Indian government in collaboration with RAW and MI5 to overthrow the communist government of West Bengal. He alleged that Indian Government assured him of his safe return to Denmark. Some certificates submitted by CBI to Kolkata High Court remarked that those weapons were really meant for Bangladeshi Army. The real motive behind this massive arms drop still remains unknown.

8. India’s Vulnerable Secret Force

Paratroopers India
India’s secret force of Tibetans, the SFF (Special Frontier Force) was raised after the 1962 border conflict with China. It has been without parachutes for nearly two years on the suspicion that senior officers tried to take kickbacks. The SFF, sometimes also referred to as Establishment-22, has been a part of India’s external intelligence agency, R&AW, and was originally raised to play a role behind enemy lines in China in the event of a war. Parachutes are this regiment’s primary equipment in missions. Full story here.

7. South Korea’s Ayodhya Connection

Korean Princess-Best Kept Indian Secrets
India’s early contacts with Korea date back more than 2000 years. Two thousand years ago, a 16 year old princess from Ayodhya, accompanied by her brother, sailed from India for Korea. We only know her by her Korean name, Huh Wang-Ock. There she wed King Kim Suro, founder of the ancient Korean kingdom of Karack. The King himself received her upon her arrival, and later built a temple at the place where they had first met. She is said to have died at the grand old age of 189. Her story is narrated in the ancient Korean history books, “Samkuksaki” and “Samkukyusa”.Former president of South Korea Kim Dae Jung is a descendant from this royal line. Source

6. IAF Bombing of Mizoram

Mizo uprising-Best Kept Indian Secrets
The March 1966 Mizo National Front uprising was a revolt against the Government of India. They aimed at establishing a sovereign state for the Mizos. On 1 March 1966, the Mizo National Front (MNF) made a declaration of independence, after launching coordinated attacks on the Government offices and security forces post in different parts of the Mizo district in Assam. Indian Air Force was called in for airstrikes to target the insurgents. This remains the only instance when Government of India used airstrikes on its own civilians. Mizo National Front kept pushing for statehood and achieved Mizoram via diplomatic negotiations in 1987. Nearly 100 insurgents were killed, 35 wounded and about 550 insurgents were captured by both ground force and air force.

5. Self-Proclaimed Experts (Ankit Fadia/ Arindam Chaudhuri)

Ankit Fadia-Arindam Chaudhary-Best Kept Indian Secrets

Ankit Fadia

Rise to fame: “The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking” by Ankit FadiaThis was a bunch of outdated so-called-exploits for an outdated OS. Lot of code arbitrarily pasted on pages with no comments or explanation of working. Some of them didn’t even compile.Claims: “After the Sept. 11 th attacks, cracked an encrypted email sent by the Al-Qaeda terrorist network for a classified intelligence agency.”There has been no official corroboration of this story[1].Plagiarism: Attrition.org is run by Brian Martin (a.k.a Jericho), the founder of the Open Security Foundation and a DEFCON panel member.“Ankit Fadia is like many charlatans who gets published in one article and rides the wave of not only poor journalism but also his own hype. For years, he has been quoted in low end online publications in India (his home country). Each time he is referenced as an ‘expert’ despite having no skills or accomplishments other than being quoted in these articles. No matter how bright this kid is, how much of a “prodigy” he supposedly is, he simply cannot be considered an “expert” in security. No teenager has worldly experience that would qualify them as “knowledgeable” about an industry, let alone “expert”. He certainly isn’t worth the $15,001 – $25,000 fee per speaking engagement, peddling ten year old Windows novelty tricks called “hacks”. To make matters worse, Fadia’s FUD-based statements about “computer security” and “terrorism” are simply fear mongering to increase his visibility.”Here is a Forbes magazine article that reveals the truth of Ankit Fadia.

Arindam Chaudhuri

Arindam Chaudhuri, who dares to think beyond IIMs. He claims himself a management guru and a ‘well renowned economist’ without so as much as a graduate degree. Arindam Chaudhari started his own institute of management studies (IIPM), which he claims is better than IIMs. The fact remains that his IIPM institute still remains unrecognized by any Indian educational boards. He claims to be a MBA guru, writer, speaker, thinker, and now he has also awarded himself a Ph.D.According to an article in The Hindu:“The University Grants Commission (UGC) had recently come out with a state-wise list of fake universities. The bodies include as many as seven in the national capital including Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM).”

4. Ravinder Kaushik

Ravinder Kaushik-Best Kept Indian Secrets
Ravinder Kaushik was a former RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) agent, who after his training in India lived most of his life (26 years) in Pakistan and became a Major in Pakistan army. He later died there after being caught.He was born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan on April 11, 1952. He was a famous theater artist and displayed his talent at the national level dramatic meet in Lucknow, which was witnessed by some officials of the Indian Intelligence Agency RAW. He was contacted and offered a job for being an undercover agent of India in Pakistan. He was recruited by RAW and was given extensive training in Delhi for two years. At the age of 23, he was sent to Pakistan under the name of Nabi Ahmed Shakir. He joined Pakistani Army and became a commissioned officer and later was promoted to the rank of a Major. He married a local girl Amanat, and became father of a girl. From 1979 to 1983, while in military service, he passed valuable information to RAW, which was of great help to the Indian defence forces. He was given the title of ‘Black Tiger’. In September 1983, Indian intelligence agencies had sent an agent, Inyat Masiha, to get in touch with Black Tiger. But the agent was caught by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and revealed Ravinder Kaushik’s true identity. Kaushik was then captured, tortured for two years at an interrogation centre in Sialkot. He died in 2001 in Central Jail in Multan.

3. Operation Trojan Horse

Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev-Best Kept Indian Secrets
According to a book that came out around 2005-06, “Martyrdom of Shaheed Bhagat Singh,” our knowledge concerning the death of Bhagat Singh has been heavily skewed. The alleged source of information for this book comes from notes of Dalip Singh Allahabadi, an Indian, who was the most trusted and loyal secret agent of British government. The author of the book Kulwant Singh Kooner is his adopted godson. As per the book, frustrated with the rising popularity of Bhagat Singh and to appease the family members of J P Saunders (whom Singh assassinated), “Operation Trojan Horse” was brought into effect by British government. According to the plan, Bhagat Singh and two of his associates were hung by noose as planned, but were removed before their souls parted. Their hangman was immediately killed and put in truck with unconscious bodies Singh and his associates. All four of them were transported to outskirts of Lahore. There Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were shot dead by a death squad that consisted of relatives of Saunders. This theory is given credence by the fact that Singh’s body was neither given to his family members nor had a mandatory postmortem.

2. India’s Nuclear Experiments

Nuclear Detonation-Best Kept Indian Secrets
India’s nuclear program, from its ideation in 1989 until execution in 1998 was under multiple governments who were sworn to secrecy and only due to this secrecy that India was banned from multiple sanctions by USA, which were later lifted off due to the diplomacy of the then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh. Despite the $27 billion budget and a galaxy of spy satellites, U.S. Intelligence agencies failed to detect India’s preparation for 1998’s nuclear blast. Why? U.S. officials blamed it on a leak to The New York Times. Senior Intelligence and military officials told NBC News that India put its nuclear testing equipment underground in 1996 following a leak to The New York Times that U.S. spy satellites were monitoring India’s nuclear test site.India has its own satellite-imaging capability, which gave us an understanding of what can and can’t be seen from space. India kept the nuclear program separate from its military, which like many militaries is prone to boasting and leaking. Unlike nuclear programs of any other country, India’s nuclear program was not as dependent on outside help. India has a large pool of trained nuclear scientists and electrical engineers and an industrial infrastructure capable of producing key equipment. Much of U.S. intelligence on other nations’ nuclear programs is derived from electronic eavesdropping on sales of equipment related to weapons development. India had prevented Western intelligence from recruiting spies in India by an aggressive program of counterintelligence that included surveillance and even attempted recruitment of diplomats and suspected agents. “They are very, very good,” said one US official.CIA officials said that the United States did not even know anything about the tests until Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee announced the tests on television Monday morning, four hours after they had taken place. The announcement even preceded analysis of the seismic data on the tests that US detected.

1. Arihant Submarine

Arihant-Best Kept Indian Secrets


This is the only official picture of Arihant submarine. For such a huge project this is great considering the usual standards. It is said that the Vishakapatnam docks were covered and lengthened for the Arihant project.