Original subtitles

Around the world, historians,

archaeologists, and other experts are

trying to get to the bottom of some of

the most fascinating mysteries in human

history. Every year, new mysteries are

solved. But just as many are uncovered

as we get a clearer look back into the

past.

In October 2024, 51-year-old Suzanne

Simpson was living in San Antonio, Texas

with her husband, Brad. They had four

children together, and Suzanne was

employed as a luxury real estate agent.

On the 6th of October that year, Suzanne

and Brad attended a birthday party at

the Argyle in Alamo Heights, Texas. For

most of the night, the party continued

without incident. But at around 11 p.m.,

a witness saw the couple arguing and

would later report that the fight got

physical at one point. A neighbor would

state that he heard screams coming from

a nearby wooded area after learning that

Suzanne had gone missing and could not

be located. He added that during the

argument, it became obvious that Suzanne

was trying to get away from Brad, but he

prevented her from leaving. At 3 p.m.

the next day, the couple's children's

school contacted Brad to report that

Suzanne had not picked them up, and the

authorities were notified. The lead

investigator in her case then contacted

Brad to set up a meeting about the case,

but Brad failed to show up and then

refused to cooperate with the police.

After an appeal was made for anyone who

saw Brad's black truck being driven in

certain areas to come forward, several

witnesses contacted the police to state

that they'd seen him driving in

different areas with large trash bags

and a tarp in the back of a vehicle. The

day after Suzanne disappeared.

It was later reported when he traveled

to the school to get his children, these

items were no longer in the truck and

he'd removed a firewood rack from the

truck's bed. Then he traveled to the

bubble bath car wash where he washed and

cleaned the driver's side and left the

rear passenger sides of the vehicle.

In a surveillance photo, investigators

spotted a 30 oz bottle of Clorox, which

is a cleaning product, on the back seat.

Brad then texted a friend asking him to

meet up at his house and adding that he

didn't have much time. The friend stated

he'd be there in 40 minutes, and Brad

then instructed him to leave unknown

items in the pump house, making sure to

mention a firearm that was also to be

left behind. Later that night, the same

friend texted Brad telling him to quote,

"Get over here." and stating that he

won't tell anyone. On the 8th of

October, Brad was seen standing next to

a fire pit. And when it was searched

later on, investigators found a burnt

laptop and three cell phones that had

been destroyed by the fire. It's

believed that the three phones belonged

to Brad and that he was attempting to

get rid of evidence. While the search

for Suzanne was ongoing, the last known

photo of her, which was taken by a

security camera, was released in hopes

that someone had seen her, but no one

came forward with any new information.

With this evidence in hand, Brad was

taken into custody the next day, and

according to investigators, he seemed

completely unfased by his wife's

disappearance and the fact that he was

named as a suspect. He stated that

Suzanne had lost her phone at an HEB

store on the day of her disappearance,

that he had no idea where she was.

Suzanne's banker then came forward to

report that she'd made a strange

statement to him. She said that if she

ever went missing, the police should

look for her in a lake, but she didn't

elaborate on that statement, and the

investigation into her case remains

active, and Suzanne's current

whereabouts remain unknown.

Scientists trying to piece together the

mysteries of human evolution made a

major breakthrough with DNA analysis of

a skull found in China almost 100 years

ago. The skull was given the nickname

the dragon man when it was finally

brought to the attention of scientists

some 90 years after it was found by

construction workers building a bridge

over China's River. The fossil puzzled

experts, but DNA evidence helped solve

the mystery of the skull and a much

older mystery that scientists have been

trying to solve for decades. A farming

family brought the skull to a university

in 2018. They've been keeping it hidden

for three generations. In 1933, while

China was under Japanese control,

workers building a bridge in Harbon

uncovered the skull. They knew that they

were looking at something special. It

was unlike any modern human skull. To

keep it safe, one of the workers took it

home and left it at the bottom of the

family well, where it would remain until

the family finally retrieved it in 2018.

A wellpreserved

146,000year-old skull was found. Its

origin identified by soil analysis. The

skull with a long low brain cap, large

nose, and almost square eye sockets

belonged to a man with a brain

comparable to modern humans. Scientists

considered it a new species, Homo Langei

or Dragon Man, named after the Black

Dragon River region. Others were unsure

given the muddle in the middle period

when three human species interbred

making classification difficult without

DNA.

Another theory was that this was the

skull of a Denosovven. The Denosovvens

were a human species that were only

identified in 2018.

So far, only fragments of remains had

been found. And it was only through

genetic sequencing that scientists were

sure the species was distinct from

others. If the skull were a Denosovven,

it would mark one of the biggest

discoveries related to the species.

DNA testing would be needed to find the

answer. Unfortunately, testing of bone

and tooth fragments didn't reveal any

ancient DNA that could be tested.

Scientists took a new approach, scraping

plaque from the dragon man's mouth to

analyze. Most of the DNA found was

identified as modern contamination, but

there was enough ancient DNA to test.

The tests revealed that the skull most

closely matched DNA from the fragments

of Denisovven fossils. The dragon man

was what this ancient human species

looked like beyond a few teeth and bone

fragments.

History is full of ancient cities that

have been lost to the sands of time.

Some of these are only attested to in a

few written sources, while others are

widely known until only relatively

recently before vanishing without a

trace. There are few lost cities as

important as the ancient city of Akad.

The Aadian Empire has been described as

the first empire in human history. It

was founded by Sargon of Akad around

2334 BC. For thousands of years, the

region known as Sumer had been populated

by citystates. Some of these could be

very powerful, but their influence was

limited to the city and the area

immediately surrounding it. Sargon

defeated the king of one of these

citystates. But rather than staying in

one location, he expanded his influence

to spread across what had once been many

independent states. The Acadian Empire

grew during the reigns of Sargon's son

and grandson, unifying huge stretches of

Mesopotamia.

The empire stretched from the

Mediterranean to Iran and from Anatolia

to the Persian Gulf. For the most part,

however, it remained between and around

the Tiger and Euphrates rivers, the two

rivers that had made Mesopotamia the

cradle of civilization.

Sargon is believed to have founded the

city of Akad, the same city that the

empire would be named after. It's been

attested to in many ancient sources and

was clearly an important city for both

politics and trade. Descriptions of the

city often include mentions of a port or

quay, which was very important for

transporting goods into the city, as

well as transporting armies to the

battlefields across the known world.

This allowed the Acadians to expand

Acadians to expand their influence and

their influence and to keep the

to keep the territory under their own

territory under their own control. There

control. There was also a significant

was also a significant temple to Ishtar.

temple to Ishtar. In the past, a god

In the past, a god might have been the

might have been the patron of a single

patron of a single city. Sargon made

city. Sargon made Ishtar the deity of

Ishtar the deity of his dynasty, making

his dynasty, making her an important god

her an important god to the entire

to the entire temple. Even after the

temple. Even after the Acadian Empire

Acadian Empire fell, its impact was felt

fell, its impact was felt by the

by the successor states. The Acadian

successor states. This allowed the

kings were glorified and held as what a

good king should be like. The city of

Akad itself was also prized even after

it was abandoned. Long after the empire

fell, a Babylonian king wrote about

excavating an old temple at Akad and

restoring it. They believed the Acadian

Empire was so important that it should

never be forgotten. But it eventually

was. And it wasn't until the 1800s that

archaeologists began to understand the

significance of this ancient empire.

At first, they believed the city of Akad

would be fairly easy to find. But

despite over 140 years of searching, no

trace of the city has ever been found. A

few solutions have been put forward to

try to solve the mystery. Some have

suggested that Akad was another name for

Babylon, but multiple ancient writers

spoke about Babylon and Akad in the same

accounts, making it unlikely they were

referring to the same place by two

different names. The description of the

city's quay has indicated to some that

it was located along one of the rivers

and was likely at a confluence between

two river points, but others believe

that the city instead had extensive

canal systems that would have connected

to the rivers, but regulated the water

flow. Despite these clues, the location

remains a mystery.

This photo shows 38-year-old plant

mechanic Greg Monks while he was

attending a stag party in Portugal in

June of 2025, and it's clear that he's

having a good time, but this is the last

time that he was seen alive, and the

investigation into his case is still

ongoing. Greg hailed from Scotland, and

on the 28th of May, he and a group of

friends traveled to Portugal, where they

checked into the Novurro Apartments.

From there, they planned to visit

several bars in the area to celebrate a

friend's upcoming wedding. They were

supposed to remain in Portugal for 5

days. But just hours after setting out

from the apartments, something went

wrong. The group had been out for a few

hours having drinks and food. And at

some point in the early morning hours,

Greg decided to head back to his

apartment. He bid his friends good night

and started back on his own. But when

they tried to rouse him the next

morning, they were surprised to find he

wasn't in his room. The police and

Greg's family were informed, and it was

later revealed that he was last seen on

CCTV footage in a quiet residential area

about 4 miles from the apartments.

Searches of that area were immediately

organized, and his family and girlfriend

flew out to Portugal to assist. The last

image of Greg was spread far and wide in

hopes that someone had seen him and that

they could point the police in the right

direction, but no such information was

received. His friends stated that they

last saw Greg while they were having

drinks in the King's Cross karaoke bar

from where he decided to walk back to

his accommodation. It was speculated

that he got lost along the way and was

unable to find his way back, but his

continued absence became a major cause

for concern.

The group of friends eventually traveled

back to Scotland without locating Greg,

but the authorities in Portugal

continued searching for him. The police

asked that anyone with CCTV footage of

Greg contact them, and this resulted in

the first major clue. A man living in a

luxury villa in an area of Scrubland

responded and stated that they should

search the nearby hillside. Sniffer dogs

were brought in and immediately led

searchers to an area in the Scrubland.

Tragically, Greg's family was informed

that he'd been found deceased. His

remains were recovered, and after an

autopsy was performed, the events of

that morning became much clearer. It was

established that after he left the

karaoke bar, Greg became disoriented and

lost. He then walked to the area where

he was eventually found, where he

slipped and fell into a ravine, losing

his life in the process.

Greg's family accepted this outcome and

they've stated that they don't suspect

foul play to be involved. Though they

are struggling to come to terms with the

tragic series of events that claimed his

life.

During the Second World War, hundreds of

thousands of pieces of art were stolen

by the Third Reich or their

sympathizers, mostly from Jewish people

or others who were targeted by the

regime. After the war, many of these

paintings were recovered and returned to

their rightful owners. But many more

disappeared without a trace, never to be

seen again. In August of 2025, one of

these missing paintings reappeared in an

unexpected place. Jacqu Gaiker was a

Dutch art dealer living in Amsterdam in

1940. After the Netherlands were invaded

by Germany, he helped other Jewish

people escape before trying to escape

himself. Unfortunately, he fell into the

hold of a cargo vessel that was supposed

to take him to safety, but the incident

cost him his life. After he passed, his

vast art collection was sold under

duress to German government officials.

Thousands of paintings were looted.

Among those was a portrait of Contessa

Kleonei, also known as portrait of a

lady. This was a piece of art by the

Italian master Jeppe Justandi and dated

back to the 18th century. Despite

recovering parts of Gouter's looted

collection, Portrait of a Lady remained

missing. In the 1990s, Gout Sticker's

daughter-in-law and a Dutch newspaper

campaigned to find it. Documents

revealed the painting might have been

with Frederick Kajian, a German official

who funded the war by selling stolen

Jewish items. After the war, Kajian fled

to Argentina where he had two daughters.

Though his daughters were uncooperative,

a reporter noticed one was selling her

home. Photos on the real estate website

showed portrait of a lady hanging in her

living room.

Investigators were certain this was the

missing painting. It matched photos of

the painting and they claimed there was

no reason why anyone would want to forge

it. It wasn't a particularly famous

painting and JLandi's paintings

typically sold for only a few thousand

each. Local authorities were informed of

the discovery, but when they raided the

home, they found the painting was

replaced with a more innocent work of

art. But finally, in the first days of

September of 2025, Kajian's daughter

produced the artwork. She had always

said she didn't know what painting the

investigators were talking about, but

now it was obvious she not only had the

painting, but knew that it was something

that others had been looking for.

Portrait of a Lady might not be the only

looted artwork that Kajian's daughters

inherited from their father. A still

life work by Abraham Mongan was seen in

the background of a social media post by

his second daughter. This painting still

hasn't been recovered and just how many

paintings Kajian left Europe with and

how many remain in his family's

possession remains a mystery.

James IV of Scotland was the last

monarch to lose his life in battle in

Britain. He fell in the battle of

Flaadin in 1513, leading his army in an

attack against the English. But what

happened to his body after this battle

is a curious story that ended in a

mystery. James had been crowned a king

of Scotland when he was just a teenager.

He was popular within his own kingdom

and was known as a Renaissance king. He

had ambitions to sponsor the arts and

sciences and also to lead a new crusade.

But like many of the kings of Scotland

before him, the primary focus of his

foreign policy was England. Scotland and

England had a typical rocky relationship

early in James' reign. He supported a

pretender to the throne during the reign

of Henry VIIIth, but eventually came

around to support him. He was married to

Henry's daughter Margaret, the sister of

the future King Henry VIII. With his

marriage to Margaret came the signing of

a peace between Scotland and England

that was supposed to last in perpetuity.

But when England went to war with

France, Scotland had a choice to make.

Scotland and France have been allies

since the 1200s, specifically due to

their shared enemy of England. So when

Henry VIII went to war against the

French monarch, Scotland decided to side

with its old ally. James wrote a letter

to Henry warning him that if he went to

war, he would face a threat from his

northern neighbor. Henry ignored this

threat and went to war anyway. James

personally led the Scottish army to war

in the north of England. He had the

numerical advantage, but the place

chosen to field the battle of Flaadin

wasn't the best for the northern

monarch. James lost his life in the

fight along with many other Scottish

nobles. James' body was taken to London

where it was collected by Catherine of

Aragon. She sent James' circoat to Henry

who was in France and suggested it might

be turned into a war banner. But the

question of what to do with the body was

more difficult. James had been

excommunicated by the Pope who was an

ally of England at the time. He couldn't

be buried in consecrated grounds. The

Pope eventually sent permission for

James to be buried at St. Paul's

Cathedral, but for some reason this

never happened. James' coffin was left

above ground in a priaryy in Sheen, an

area that's now part of Western London.

According to a popular story, James'

head was later removed by workmen and

kept as a trophy by the master glazer of

Elizabeth I. When he decided to get rid

of it, he took it to Great St. Michael's

Church in Wood Street, another London

church. There, the head was left in a

charal pit, a place for stray bones and

crypt sweepings. The church building was

burned down in the Great Fire of London,

and its replacement was destroyed during

the Blitz. Today, a pub is believed to

stand on the site of the old charal pit

named the Red Herring. As for the rest

of James' body, that also remains a

mystery. The Sheen Priaryy was dissolved

during the English Reformation, and it's

not known what happened to the remains

that were buried there. All that's known

for certain is that this was a place

where James' body was last seen. The

location is now a golf course.

Some have suggested an excavation to try

to locate the king's missing remains,

but without clear information about

where exactly the grave site once was,

it's unlikely they will ever be found.

This photo shows Phineas Gage holding

the metal tamping rod involved in a

horrific accident that changed his life.

Born in New Hampshire, Gage worked as a

construction foreman for the Rutland and

Burlington Railroad. His job involved

using explosives to remove rock, which

required drilling a hole, adding

gunpowder, placing a layer of sand, and

then compacting the charge with the

tamping rod before ignition. On

September 13th, 1848, near Caendish,

Vermont, Gage forgot the layer of sand.

When he compacted the explosive, the rod

struck the rock, prematurely igniting

the powder. His co-workers would find

him conscious nearby. They soon realized

the 3.58 ft rod had traveled through his

skull, entering below his cheekbone and

exiting the top of his head. But

somehow, miraculously, he survived and

was discharged. But Gabe was a changed

man, rude, unprofessional, and restless.

He left the railroad, moving to Chile to

work as a stage coach driver and later

to California. He began suffering from

epileptic seizures and he would pass

away 12 years after the injury. This

photo is the only known image of Gage

and the tamping rod is displayed at

Harvard Medical School's Warren

Anatomical Museum.

In 1337, a priest named John Ford was

attacked in broad daylight in a busy

London street. The person who

orchestrated the attack was never

punished. But even if a jury was

confident they knew who was behind the

attack, historians have remained baffled

about why the attack happened. New

research and a newly uncovered letter

have revealed the truth. The attack on

Ford was seen as a major crime.

Witnesses watched another priest stop

Ford and distract him with conversations

before three other men ambushed him.

Ford was struck by a blade in the

stomach and throat, then left to lose

his life in the street. The attackers

didn't do much to hide their identities,

and witnesses were able to name one of

the men as Hugh Lavel, a man from a

powerful, noble family, and the others

were recognized as former servants of

Lavel's sister, Ayah Fitzpay. Fitzpay

was a very powerful woman. She was

married to Robert Fitzpay, a baron in

Dorset. Ford had actually served in a

church on the Fitzpane estate and had

once been close to the couple, but years

earlier there had been a falling out. A

jury was brought together to investigate

the crime. Even though the identities of

the attackers were known, nobody knew

who they were, and little effort was

made to find them. Only one person was

ever punished for the crime. One of the

servants who served 5 years in prison.

At the time, the jury would have known

that it was likely Fitzpay who was

behind the attack, but no effort was

made to confiscate any of her

possessions, and she continued to live

happily without any trouble. To

historians looking back at the records,

it was obvious Fitzpay's wealth and

power meant she had avoided justice. But

the mystery was why she would want to

commit such a crime in the first place.

A letter from the Archbishop of

Canterbury about Fitz Payne was the

first clue in the case. The archbishop

wrote about how he'd heard stories about

the noble woman. She'd conducted

extrammarital affairs with numerous men,

including knights and clergymen. The

only person who was actually named,

though, was John Ford. Fitzpay had

confessed to some of the cases, and the

archbishop had determined she was guilty

in others, too. As punishment, she was

ordered to conduct a humiliating walk of

shame, walking barefoot across Salisbury

Cathedral, carrying a heavy candle once

a year for 7 years. She was also ordered

not to wear jewelry or makeup and to

donate money to various charities.

Fitzpay's failure to punish Ford despite

the archbishop's displeasure puzzled

historians. They suspected Ford might

have informed the church, providing a

motive for a later attack. But the

archbishop's extraordinary focus on the

case and the Fitzpay's seemingly

untroubled marriage after the affair

raised further concerns.

Another question revealed that Fitzpays

ran a criminal organization including

Ford. They had attacked a French priaryy

stealing goods and holding them for

ransom, a crime more likely to grab the

church's attention. And this also

explained the public attack on Ford,

likely a message from the gang to deter

other informants.

In 1488, Barthalamu Diaz became the

first known person to circumn Africa.

The explorer opened up a route that

would become one of the most important

trade routes in the world. But according

to one story, he may have been beaten to

this accomplishment by more than 2,000

years. Around the year 600 BC, a group

of Phoenician sailors set off from

Egypt's Red Sea coast, sailing south and

into the unknown. They've been

commissioned by Pharaoh Neiko II who

ruled Egypt from 610 to 595 BC. Niko was

known for having a large imagination and

a lot of ambition as well as various

military campaigns against the

Babylonians. He started work on the

construction of a canal connecting the

Red Sea to the Nile. He abandoned this

project when he realized that it would

be as much help to his enemies as it was

to him. But his mind remained on the

ocean. It's known that Niko constructed

fleets at a time when Egypt wasn't known

for its seafaring abilities. But when it

came to an ambitious project to circumn

Africa, he decided to work with more

experienced people. The Phoenetians were

the best mariners of the ancient world.

They also had a common enemy with Egypt

in Babylonia, making it more likely they

would work with the Pharaoh. They were

instructed to leave Egypt through the

Red Sea and return via the Straits of

Gibralar. It was a mission that had

never been done before. Nobody in the

ancient Mediterranean world knew whether

it was even possible. Many believed that

Africa connected with Asia somewhere in

the south and the Indian and Atlantic

oceans weren't connected. But the

expedition went ahead. 3 years later,

the Phoenetians sailed through the

straits of Gibralar or the Pillars of

Hercules as it was known in the ancient

times. They brought with them strange

stories and proof that Africa was

surrounded by water.

Unfortunately, the entire adventure is

recorded in only one source. Her rotus'

histories. Hiroitus was an ancient Greek

historian writing roughly 100 years

after the expedition was believed to

have taken place. His famous work is one

of the most useful sources we have about

the ancient world, but it cannot be

entirely trusted. Erotus was known to

write down any of the stories passed to

him that he found particularly

interesting. They didn't have to have a

huge amount of evidence to prove that

they were true and he did not always

cross reference his information with

other sources. That means that a lot of

the stories told in the histories are

unlikely to be true. For some

historians, Niko's expedition is one of

the stories that is more fiction than

fact. They point out that there was

nothing to be gained by making the

circumnavigation and it was unlike

ancient Egyptians to explore for the

sake of curiosity alone. They also point

out that other ancient writers didn't

seem to have heard of the expedition.

Chronicers writing centuries later

claimed they had no way of knowing what

the south of Africa was like and that

information could only come from future

explorers. But not everybody has these

doubts. Herotus included some unusual

details. The most important of these was

that the sailors reported that the sun

was seen to the north of them as they

sailed west. Herodotus didn't believe

this and it would have seemed impossible

to ancient people who had no knowledge

of the southern hemisphere. The fact

that Herodotus didn't believe it but

chose to include this detail is

revealing itself. But that it lines up

with what actually happens after sailing

below the tropics makes some historians

believe that the phoenetians actually

saw this. If the Phoenician expedition

really did take place, the main mystery

is why we have no other records of this

grand achievement. No monuments mention

it, and no contemporary sources include

any descriptions. It's possible these

may be hidden, waiting to be found by

future archaeologists, solving the

mystery of whether this voyage ever

actually happened once and for all.

This photo looks like a still from a

Hollywood movie created through special

effects, but nothing could be further

from the truth. In reality, it shows the

2010 eruption of a volcano in Iceland

against the backdrop of a borealis,

which is a strange light display caused

by charged particles from the sun that

collide with gases in our atmosphere.

The mountain seen in this photo is

called AFUoko,

which in that year had started

exhibiting seismic activity. In March,

the first eruption occurred on the

northeast flank of the mountain. And at

first, it seemed as though it would be

unremarkable. But in April, it became

apparent that the event would become

much larger than expected when further

eruptions started in the center of the

volcano, which contained a 1.8 m wide

crater that contained a lot of ice. As

the mountains started to heat up, the

ice started to melt and it flowed into

the volcano, eventually reaching the

magma beneath the Earth's crust. This

resulted in the formation of massive

amounts of steam and ash that were then

ejected from the mountain at massive

speeds. The ash that was sent high into

the atmosphere then entered a jetream

that carried it across several countries

including Norway, the Fau Islands, and

parts of Great Britain. As a result,

airplanes were grounded and the

Icelandic government declared a state of

emergency. The rest of Europe followed

suit and air travel came to a complete

standstill.

Every day that went by cost airlines as

much as $171 million in revenue, but

many other sectors were also affected.

Passengers were left stranded in foreign

countries, and calls were made for the

National Center of Atmospheric Science,

to map the course of the ash plume,

which contained particles of volcanic

rock that could cause serious damage to

aircraft.

Two research planes were sent to the

area and using sophisticated instruments

and computer models, the ash plume's

course was tracked. But efforts were

also being made to reduce the amount of

ash in the atmosphere. A research plane

owned by the facility for airborne

atmospheric measurements was sent to the

affected areas after being fitted with

an instrument that reduced the number of

particles using a laser. The plane flew

above the ash plume and fired the laser

downward. And on the ground, researchers

created a map of the plume using

computer models. It was found that the

plume contained electrically conductive

particles that could result in

lightning. This is known as St. Elmo's

fire, a phenomenon that's been seen many

times and which, as described by

witnesses, causes certain parts of an

airplane to start glowing. But far more

concerning is the fact that it can

affect the plane's airspeed indicator,

which is an essential part of any

aircraft. Furthermore, if the ash were

to enter the airplane's engines, it

caused them to seize up completely,

rendering the plane immobile and sending

it crashing to the ground below. As a

result, more than 104,000 flights were

cancelled in different areas, 95,000 of

which were in Europe alone. This is

considered to be the biggest air travel

disruption to occur since the Second

World War.

Today, scientists continue their studies

into the prediction of the eruption of

volcanoes, but in many cases, they occur

without warning, causing widespread

disruptions and damage.

The plague of Justinian was one of the

most devastating events in human

history. The disease cost the lives of

millions of people across Europe and

Northern Africa and changed society

forever in the places where it hit the

hardest. But for centuries, exactly what

the disease was has remained a mystery,

one only solved recently. The plague

first arrived in North Africa in 541 CE.

For a long time, Egypt had been the

bread basket of the Eastern Roman

Empire, feeding the growing population,

especially in the empire's major

population centers. So, a huge amount of

grain was being shipped from the center

of the plague outbreak in Constantinople

and other cities.

disease-ridden rats hopped aboard the

grain ships and soon the disease was

spreading rapidly through the empire.

Historians aren't certain just how

devastating the disease actually was.

There's a belief that many of the

writers at the time were exaggerating

just how bad things were, but we do know

that millions of people lost their

lives. In some places, burial practices

couldn't keep up with the numbers.

Entire families were wiped out and the

disease reached every level of society.

Even the emperor Justinian caught the

disease. Luckily for him, he managed to

survive and the empire itself didn't

completely collapse. The empire would

recover once the worst of the plagues

had passed. Although it would be

hundreds of years before the outbreak

was considered over. Given how prevalent

the disease was, there were plenty of

descriptions of it for modern historians

to try to piece together its identity.

According to the writer Proopius, those

suffering from the disease had

delusions, nightmares, and fevers. The

most telling symptom, though, was

swelling in the groin, armpits, and

behind the ears. Some victims would

lapse into a coma, where only the

actions of dedicated family members

could keep them alive. To historians,

this sounded a lot like the horrific

accounts of the Black Death that would

sweep through Europe centuries later.

Despite how horrifying the Justinian

plague was, it didn't come close to the

damage done by that later incident,

though, which wiped out at least a

quarter of Europe's population. But that

didn't mean this wasn't a strain of the

same disease. It wouldn't be until 2013

that there was anything to confirm this.

In that year, scientists were able to

analyze the remains of a victim found in

a graveyard in Germany. DNA analysis

revealed the bacteria

pestus, the same bacteria responsible

for the bubanic plague.

After the Second World War, reports

emerged of a secret German military base

housed in the Antarctic. For a long

time, many suspected it was nothing more

than a story, but evidence has since

proven that this secret base did exist.

Its true purpose, though, may remain a

mystery. The Shats scraper base was

located on the island of Alexandrioland,

a remote island high within the Arctic

Circle, which is now part of Russia.

Work began on building the secret

complex in 1942, but it wouldn't begin

operating until the following year.

Officially, the base was a weather

station and was manned by four

meteorologists as well as five soldiers.

At first, this purpose seems to make

sense. The weather could make or break a

mission. Many ocean vessels had been

sunk not from enemy combat, but from

coming across poor weather conditions.

Making sure the enemy had the most

accurate information possible was

essential to securing the best chances

for victory. There was also the fact

that merchant ships were sailing between

the Western Allied nations and the

Soviet Union under the lend lease

program, making it an important area for

German yubot hoping to sink the supply

ships. The Arctic region was popular for

weather bases. The Americans, British,

and Russians all had weather bases in

the region, so it wouldn't have looked

out of place for a German base to be

located here, even if the territory was

technically within the Soviet Union. But

less than a year before the Shadscraper

base began operating, it had to be

abandoned. The base had to be resupplied

by airdrops, and food would occasionally

run low. In May of 1944, two of the

staff members hunted a polar bear and

brought it back to the base to eat. The

meat was undercooked and the staff

became extremely sick. Only one person,

the base medic, hadn't eaten the food

and had to contact the Navy to report

the incident. All nine men were

evacuated.

For reasons unknown, nobody would come

to take over their positions, and the

base was abandoned. This strange

abandonment has left many questioning

the true purpose of the base. In 1944,

it would have been more important than

ever to have the weather information

that the base was allegedly gathering.

Even if the story concerning the polar

bear meet was true, there doesn't seem

to be an explanation for why nobody came

to replace the crew. One theory is that

there was more to the base than just

weather research.

In the latter stages of 2019, the police

and military in Chile were embroiled in

a delicate situation when a protest held

by a group of students escalated into a

larger protest that lasted 2 months. And

in some instances, they had to resort to

using tear gas and fire hoses to

disperse the angry crowds. It all

started on the 18th of October that year

when the Chilean government announced an

increase in the subway fair in Santiago

and students decided to protest against

it. Unfortunately, not all of these

protests were peaceful and the police

were called in to try to restore order.

Soon protests were being held in several

other parts of the country and the

military was deployed but the protesters

were unwilling to disperse and before

long a political crisis was declared.

Within just 4 days 15 people had lost

their lives in the ensuing violence and

in clashes with the authorities as more

people started to join the protests but

for different reasons. They stated that

they had enough of economic inequality

in that country and that something had

to be done about it. These events took

the Chilean government by surprise and

political parties were asked to convene

so that a solution could be found. It

was suggested that the country's

constitution be replaced and a new one

was drafted. Initially the new

constitution saw a lot of support but it

was ultimately rejected and in the years

that have followed very little progress

has been made. In this photo, which has

since been shared all over the internet,

protesters can be seen wiping their eyes

and leaning against a wall after being

exposed to tear gas, highlighting the

dire situation that Chile was facing at

the time. As the protests continued to

escalate, two churches were set on fire,

one of which was almost completely

destroyed. Banks were also targeted, and

one police station was attacked with

explosives.

As is so often the case with violent

protests, stores were damaged and

looters started stealing anything they

could get their hands on. Nevertheless,

the government's efforts to bring calm

to the country failed. And when nothing

had changed a year later, a fresh set of

protests started.

This time, 18 police officers were

injured while trying to calm the crowd

that was demanding that the Constitution

be rewritten once more. The government

responded by appealing for calm and

asking that anyone who had an issue with

the constitution make their feelings

known via referendum.

They also warned members of the public

that anyone who was caught engaging in

acts of violence would be arrested and

prosecuted to the fullest extent of the

law. But this did little to quell the

growing violence.

During the escalating violence, at least

30 people lost their lives and thousands

more had to receive treatment in

hospitals. A second draft of a new

constitution was rejected in 2023, and

at present, efforts are being made to

complete one that will be accepted by

all involved. But only time will tell

whether a third attempt will be

successful.

Sometimes the clue that solves a

historic mystery is only found after

relooking at old evidence with fresh

eyes. This may be how a biblical mystery

related to an Assyrian king is finally

solved. Sinakaribb was one of the most

famous Assyrian kings. He ruled the

empire between 705 and 681 BC. His reign

involved many military campaigns within

his own empire, including the

destruction of the city of Babylon in

701, but he's most wellknown for the

Levventine war and his siege of the city

of Jerusalem.

Sinakaribb's campaigns in Judah are

retold in the Old Testament. According

to this story, an angel struck

Sinakaribb's campsite outside Jerusalem

and took the lives of the hundreds of

thousands of soldiers. Sinakarb escaped

with his life and a peace agreement was

made with the kingdom of Judah. Assyrian

sources and chronicles from other

kingdoms in the area are less

fantastical and modern scholars believe

that King Hezekiah may have paid for

Sinakaribb to leave. It wasn't only the

outcome of the war that scholars have

debated. Another mystery is where

exactly Sinakaribb's camps were placed.

Solving this mystery involved looking

back at carvings that once decorated

Sinakaribb's palace. The art depicted

some of the highlights of Sakaribb's

rule, including military campaigns. Art

historians looking at these reliefs

again noticed something unusual.

Sinakrib's camps were elliptical in

shape and divided into sections which

contained the king's royal quarters and

soldiers tents. The camps would have

been surrounded by defensive walls. The

details depicted in the reliefs have

never been thought about much, but now

some scholars believe they could hold

the key to solving the mystery of the

locations of the camps.

One researcher took to the earliest

aerial photos of the area, looking for

any evidence of these elliptical

structures. Jerusalem wasn't the only

city that had been attacked during the

ancient war and the initial focus of the

study was the city of Lish.

This was a fortified city on top of a

hill and one of the campaigns depicted

in the reliefs. Previously, it was

believed that Sinakaribb's camp would

have been at the bottom of the hill, but

re-examining the reliefs showed that

there was a second hill positioned

between Lee and the campsite.

Going back over the aerial photos,

researchers found a hill and the remains

of an oval structure. The direction of

the oval matched that depicted in the

relief. Archaeological records showed

that there had been a period of activity

in the area around the time of

Sinakibb's campaign. But before this,

there had been nothing. After this,

there was also nothing. This wasn't the

site of a longestablished settlement. It

had only been occupied for the short

time of Sinakaribb's siege.

With one site at Leche located,

researchers turned their attention to

the camp that would have been made near

Jerusalem. Previous archaeological work

had already located a scene of a

military camp in the area, but this was

believed to be Roman and part of the

siege of the city in the first century,

but once again, the elliptical pattern

could be seen when viewing the camp from

above. Roman military camps were

typically rectangular in nature. The two

sites proved to be promising and could

potentially be the locations where

ancient men prepared for battle that

would be remembered thousands of years

later. But other researchers have warned

against declaring the mystery solved too

soon. Archaeological research will need

to take place at both potential camps

before this mystery can officially be

considered solved.

In 2020, archaeologists began excavation

work on an intriguing tomb located in

China's Anwi Province. The tomb was

believed to be older than the famous

mausoleum of China's first emperor,

surrounded by the Terracotta army. But

who exactly was inside remained unknown.

Today, scholars have a good idea of who

exactly was buried in an intricate

coffin over 2200 years ago. An important

figure from before China's unification,

the Bang Dun tomb is one of the most

impressive ever discovered in China.

It's housed beneath a burial mound some

14 m high, which would have made it

stand out from the surrounding

landscape. Buried beneath the mound is a

burial chamber divided into nine rooms,

with each one housing intricate works of

art and musical instruments. In the

central room stood the coffin inscribed

in over 1,000 characters that had

originally been written using Chinese

ink. The tomb was obviously designed for

someone important. And immediately,

experts wanted to solve the mystery of

who that important figure was.

Dating the tomb would be the first step

to getting to the bottom of that

mystery. It was estimated that the tomb

dated to around 200 BC, shortly before

the end of China's waring states period.

This was a time when the land we know

today as China was controlled by seven

different states. By 221 BC, the state

ofQin had annexed or taken over the six

other states, unifying China under one

state once more. One of the states that

was annexed byQin was Chu. Chu was one

of the geographically largest states

located around the valleys of the Hen

and Yangze rivers. Importantly, it also

occupied the location where the Wuong

Dun tomb was located. The Chu state was

known for its artistic expertise which

definitely came across in the artifacts

that were buried within the tomb. Many

of the items had never been seen in

other Chinese tombs. Artifacts included

carved heads made from lacquer wear,

divination turtle shells, and

instruments.

The tomb also included hundreds of

wooden statues. Some of these

represented guards similar to the

Terracotta army, but others were housed

in the room dedicated to music and may

have represented the tomb owner's

ceremonial entourage and entertainment

troop accompanying him into the

afterlife. It wasn't long into the

excavation work that some experts began

to put forward a theory about who might

have been buried in the coffin. Putting

together the chronology of the site and

assuming that this was in fact a royal

resting place, the obvious answer was

King Cowi of Chu. Cowi ruled the Chu

state from 262 to 238 BC. By this point

in the waring states period, Chub seemed

to be more focused on the arts than on

war. But Cowi did defeat and annex the L

state, one of the smaller states to

choose north. Ki was succeeded by three

of his sons before the chate finally

fell to the chief. While the theory that

this was Ki's tomb began to spread

almost as soon as the excavation work

began, scholars held back on making any

official announcement. But in January

2025, the CCTV announced that the

mystery was officially solved. This was

Callie's tomb.

There are few relics as controversial or

as wellstudied as the Shroud of Turin.

While many scholars have claimed their

studies have solved the mystery of the

Shroud, it's unlikely that this mystery

will ever be put to rest. One thing to

make clear here is that regardless of

your religious beliefs and regardless of

your historical beliefs, sharing the

story isn't meant to sway you one way or

the other. There are mountains of

evidence that point towards the Shroud

of Turin being legitimate, but there's

also a significant amount of evidence

that suggests it may not be. Regardless

of where you land on the subject, we're

merely sharing some interesting

information that we found after

scientists published some recent

information on the subject. The Shroud

of Turin was first written about in

modern history in the Champagne region

of France in the mid300s.

It briefly faded into obscurity before

reappearing in Turin, Italy, where it's

remained ever since. The shroud

supposedly has the image of a man with

crucifixion wounds imprinted into the

fabric. The man has long hair and a

beard and is believed by many to be the

shroud that Jesus's body was covered

with when he was laid to rest after the

crucifixion. It was recognized as an

important religious relic all the way

from its time of creation up until the

1980s when carbon dating allegedly

placed the origin of the shroud around

the year 1300s. But those studies have

since been debunked and others have

claimed that there's evidence that the

shroud can be dated back to the first

century. A more recent study published

in 2025 though has turned away from

trying to date the shroud and has begun

looking elsewhere for answers. According

to believers, the image on the shroud

was created by an extreme burst of light

that left behind an imprint of what was

touching the fabric at the time. But an

analysis using 3D modeling proved that

this may not be the case. The study

compared a fabric draped across a body

and one draped across a low relief

carving. These carvings were often used

on gravestones in medieval times and

could be made from stone, wood, or even

metal. The impression left by a full

body left warping as the curves of the

3D features would make any impression

spread and appear much wider than the

original image. But the impression left

by a low relief carving showed no such

thing. When comparing digital models of

the two fabrics, the one covering a low

relief carving almost exactly matched

the imprint on the Shroud of Turin. the

other showing the imprint that would

have been left by a body was much wider

and did not resemble the famous relic.

The study author believes that this is

proof that the shroud was a piece of

religious art and may have been intended

as a piece of grave art when it was

created. He suggested that the

impression could have been made by

heating a metal carving, leaving behind

the marks that believers claim were

caused by a burst of light.

Critics of the supposed new hypothesis

note that the low relief model

hypothesis has been proposed before many

times actually, but it's still never

been proven. Experts argue that the

model ignores the chemistry, forensic,

and other scientific findings related to

the Shroud of Turin, such as the fact

that it can be dated back throughout

history to the time of the crucifixion.

And pollen spores embedded into the

fibers of the Shroud seem to confirm

this, as well as the exact type of

fibers that it's made from. There have

also been claims to debunk the shroud,

which suggest that a piece of its fiber

was tested and only dated back to

medieval times. But this fragment of the

shroud that was tested was actually

found to have come from a patch on the

outer edge of the shroud. A patch that

had already been confirmed to have been

stitched onto the shroud during medieval

times. Meaning this entire test was

botched from the start. There is

evidence to argue either side. And while

many claim that the shroud of Turin has

been fully debunked, others aren't so

sure.

The three men shown in this photo are in

a very dangerous and desperate

situation. But what most people tend to

forget is that a fourth man, the

photographer, is in just as much danger.

And in this instance, the situation

would end in tragedy. The three men that

we can see are all firefighters who are

doing their utmost to gain entry into a

warehouse in Beirut, Lebanon on the 4th

of August, 2020. But the events leading

up to this moment started 7 years

earlier in 2013 when a merchant ship

called the MV Rosas which was sailing in

the area started experiencing technical

issues. It had set sail from Batumi in

Georgia and was heading to Bara in

Mosmbique but it was forced to dock in

Beirut for repairs. This meant that

docking fees had to be paid, but the

company that owns the ship failed to do

so, and as a result, the ship's cargo

was removed and stored in this

warehouse. Among the cargo was about

2,750

tons of ammonium nitrate, which can be

extremely dangerous and under the right

circumstances can be highly explosive.

After learning that the cargo was stored

in the warehouse, officials from

Lebanon's customs department issued

several warnings, stating that the

ammonium nitrate had to be stored in a

very specific way. But their warnings

fell on deaf ears. For 7 years, the

cargo remained untouched in the

warehouse, and a disaster was bound to

happen sooner or later. That day arrived

on the 4th of August, 2020 when a fire

broke out at the port, a short distance

from the warehouse in this photo.

Ammonium nitrate can start to degrade

when it's heated in a confined space.

But the firefighters who rushed to the

scene were unaware that it was being

stored in this warehouse.

10 of them started fighting the fire

that was encroaching on the warehouse

and the cargo that it contained. The

three firefighters in the photo decided

to try and gain entry into the

warehouse. and a photographer who was on

the scene captured their brave attempt,

not knowing that disaster was about to

strike. Moments after the photo was

taken, the ammonium nitrate detonated,

claiming the lives of all four men. It

would only be later after the fire had

been extinguished that the

photographers's camera was found. And

remarkably, the SD card that he was

using was undamaged.

The resulting blast has been dubbed the

largest non-nuclear explosion ever

recorded. and a large part of the city

was completely destroyed. More than 20

people lost their lives. 6,000 were

injured and 100 remained unaccounted

for. The blast was so great that it

caused as much as 10 billion worth of

damage to the city and 300,000 people

were left destitute. In September of

2025, a businessman named Igor

Gratushkin was arrested in Bulgaria

after it was found that he had links to

the ship and its cargo and Lebanon

issued an order to have him extradited.

But this process has been delayed since

his attorneys have asked for assurance

that he'll not be eligible for the death

penalty when he faces trial.

The Gimpy ape is a strange artifact that

has puzzled experts and tourists alike

for decades. almost 60 years after it

was first discovered. Where exactly the

artifact originated and what it was for

remains a mystery. Gimpy is a small city

in Queensland, Australia, known for its

mining history. In the 1860s, gold was

found in the area, creating a gold rush

that brought prospectors into the city.

But miners weren't the only Europeans to

settle in the area, as farmers also made

homes for themselves here. The land had

also long been the home of Aboriginal

Australians. In 1966, a farmer named Dal

Berry was working his field on the

outskirts of Gimpy when he found a

strange object. At first, it looked like

two large rocks. But on closer

inspection, it seemed to have intricate

carvings and somewhat resembled a very

weathered statue of an ape. Barry didn't

know what to make of the statue, but

believed the two rocks had once been

connected. The smaller piece was the

head of the ape, so he cemented this on

top of the larger piece. The Gimpy ape

was then donated to a local museum in

the hopes that more could be uncovered

about its origin. Apes are not native to

Australia, so the ape had to have come

from outside sources. A few proposals

were put forward. One was that it had

been carved by Chinese miners who'd come

to the area long before Europeans

learned of Australia. Other theories

were even more fanciful, suggesting it

might be of ancient Egyptian origin and

resembled the Egyptian god Thoth.

The fact that it was found near an even

more mysterious location only made the

Gimpy ape even more intriguing. This

location is known as the Gimpy Pyramid.

It was first officially discovered in

1975,

although locals had known of the pyramid

for far longer. The pyramid today lies

in ruins and resembles six or seven low

terraces.

Many stories have been told of the

pyramids, including of supposedly

mystical properties and people seeing

apparitions in the area.

While pseudoistorians have suggested it

was built by Egyptians, South Americans

or travelers from India, the actual

explanation is more mundane. It was a

terrace farm created during the 1800s by

European settlers. But with people

continuing to spread stories about the

supposedly mystical properties of the

Gimpy pyramids and their association

with far-off lands, any artifact found

nearby has gathered even more intrigue.

Very little scientific research into the

Gimpy Ape has been conducted. We know

it's made from iron stone, but little

other geological investigation has been

done. It's also unknown when exactly the

statue was created or even where

precisely it was found. This information

could be used to determine its origin,

whether it was made by early European

settlers like the terrace pyramid or was

a more modern creation. A final theory

is that the Gimpy Ape is nothing but a

work of paridolia. The statue was simply

two rocks that when put together

somewhat resembled an ape. Restoration

work done by the farmer may have

emphasized features that were created

just from natural erosion.

At first glance, this image seems to

show two hunters standing on a hill, but

closer inspection reveals they're

actually standing on a mound of bison

skulls, which brings into perspective

the number of these animals that were

hunted during the 19th century. This

particular image was captured in

Rougeville, Michigan in 1882. And after

it was taken, it was estimated that only

456 bison remained alive on the US

continent. Just 100 years earlier, the

bison population numbered between 30 and

60 million. The tragic decline in their

numbers started with the colonization of

the West after the arrival of settlers

on the continent. With them, they

brought powerful weapons that could fell

a bison in one fell swoop and with very

little effort. This gave rise to the

bison hide and bone trade, which in turn

resulted in more hunters seeking out

these animals in hopes of turning a

profit. Before long, entire herds were

completely wiped out, and their numbers

quickly started to dwindle. While this

is certainly a tragedy, many experts

state that the bison were not only

hunted for food and trade, but for a far

more sinister reason. Until the arrival

of settlers on the continent, Native

American tribes had fostered close

relationships with these animals, which

they considered an important resource

for their own survival. As the number of

bison started to decline, many of these

tribes were left decimated, and they had

no choice but to relocate to

reservations that were under the control

of settlers.

Many historians suggest that this was no

mere coincidence, but a carefully

orchestrated plan to take control of

these areas, which forced the rightful

owners of the land into submission.

Tribes that had relied on the bison in

the past started fairing far worse than

those who hadn't since they now had no

way of acquiring food, clothing,

shelter, or tools, which were often

fashioned out of bones.

Not only had they lost one of their most

vital resources, but they were also

forced to abandon the nomadic lifestyle

that they were used to since they were

now forced to remain in reservations

that had been established by the

settlers. Unfortunately, no laws were

put into place to curb the rate at which

these animals were hunted and their near

extinction was only quickened by

industry. Whenever a new railroad was

being constructed, working men needed

meat and leather, which were easily

procured from the bison via high-powered

firearms.

In modern times, their numbers have

started to climb thanks to conservation

efforts. And yet, the American bison is

still considered to be near threatened

by the International Union for the

Conservation of Nature.

The USS Jacob Jones was the US destroyer

to be sunk by an enemy in the First

World War. For over a century, the

location of this historical wreck has

remained a mystery. That mystery was

finally solved in 2022.

The Jacob Jones was launched in 1915

before the United States entered the war

that was already ravaging Europe. But

when the US declared war on Germany, the

destroyer was sent across the Atlantic

to help in the fighting. For much of

1917, she was patrolling the Irish Sea

and escorting other ships across the

waters. While the ship was fully

equipped for attack, including depth

charges specifically designed to combat

submarines, the Jacob Jones was most

wellknown for her efforts in rescuing

the victims of other attacks.

In July, the crew rescued 44 survivors

of a yubot attack on a British steam

ship. 2 weeks later, she rescued 26 of

28 men who'd been aboard another steam

ship sunk by a German submarine. One of

her last heroics came in October of 1917

when she was escorting a group of

steamers when a yubot surfaced within

the group. The submarine fired a torpedo

at another one of the escorting ships.

While others chased after the enemy

submarine, the Jacob Jones stayed behind

and rescued over 300 men from the

sinking vessel. Just 2 months later, it

was the crew of the Jacob Jones that

needed to be rescued. It was the

afternoon of December 6th, 1917.

The USS Jacob Jones had spent the day

escorting troop ships to France and now

sailing back to port. She was alone. At

about 4:20 p.m., one of the crew members

spotted a torpedo exiting the water. He

called out and the captain tried to

maneuver the ship in avoidance, but

there was little that could be done. The

ship was struck below the water line and

water started flooding in. The main mast

was damaged and the ship didn't have

power. There was no way to send an SOS

message and the crew of the Jacob Jones

were on their own. Dozens of men entered

the water. Even though it was only the

midafter afternoon, it was already

growing dark and the water was cold. To

make matters worse, depth charges on

board the ship detonated after the

sinking, taking more lives and stunning

some who were in the water. The

submarine that had hit them was U53,

captained by Hans Rose. Rose ordered the

submarine to surface a few miles from

the scene and maneuver back. A few badly

wounded Americans were taken aboard the

German vessel before it disappeared back

beneath the water. But Rose also sent a

message to a nearby US base, letting

them know of the sinking and where the

stranded men could be found.

Due to these actions, Allied vessels

were able to locate the survivors. 38

men survived the sinking, but 66 were

lost, including a man named Stanton F.

Caulk, who had swam from boat to boat to

ensure the vessels remained stable while

they were awaiting rescue. USS Jacob

Jones was sunk in a matter of minutes,

and for a century, the exact location of

its wreck was a mystery. It remained a

major goal for divers dedicated to

locating wrecks due to its historical

significance to the US and its allies.

But there are many wrecks in the English

Channel and narrowing down which could

be the sunken destroyer was a difficult

task. In 2022, a group of divers from

the Divestar wreck exploration team

examined a number of these wrecks. On

their second day of diving, they found

one that matched the description of the

Jacob Jones. It was located at a depth

of 115 m, not far from the aisle of

Sicily. No human remains or personal

items were collected, but signs on the

ship confirmed that this was the missing

vessel.

Before modern technology, map makers had

to rely on the accounts of explorers and

other sailors to draw the coastlines of

faroff lands. When those lands were

located in places that were rarely

visited, a mistake might take decades to

be spotted and corrected. This was one

of the ways that the Phantom Islands

might appear on maps. Phantom Islands

are islands that were once recorded on

maps, only for later exploration to

prove they didn't exist.

One of these phantom islands was New

South Greenland. New South Greenland was

first recorded in the account of

American explorer Benjamin Morurell

during his 1822 to23 expedition of the

seas around Antarctica.

Antarctica had only been spotted by

European explorers a few years earlier

and the landmass still mostly remained a

mystery. In 1822, Morell set off in his

ship, the Wasp, to explore these new

lands.

In his account, he wrote about visiting

various parts of the ocean surrounding

Antarctica. For the most part, the

account is unremarkable, although some

discrepancies raised alarms. On one

occasion, he claimed to have sailed at

coordinates that would later be revealed

to be deep within the Antarctic

landmass. But at the time, the area was

so unexplored that it was impossible to

say for certain what was correct and

what was actually factual. But one part

that stood out to readers was the

discovery of a new land. This land was

given the name New South Greenland.

Moral claimed that it had been spotted

in the distance from the crown's nest.

The wasp tried to get closer, but ice

meant the ship could never get too

close. Instead, they followed along its

coastline for several miles. Morell

recorded seabirds and seals lying on the

land, as well as snow-covered mountains

in the distance. The mysterious land of

New South Greenland was located in the

Wedell Sea, an area that was extremely

remote and had only been visited a few

times in the past. Even though many of

his contemporaries were skeptical, they

couldn't say for certain that New South

Greenland didn't exist. The fact that

Morell wrote about it only briefly and

deep inside a lengthy book about

everything else he saw in Antarctica

made some believe him. But later

expeditions would reveal that the island

could not have existed. At least one

explorer, James Clark Ross, claimed to

have seen land around the location that

Morel wrote about, but others were able

to disprove the island's existence.

This image depicts a group of Polish

soldiers on horseback, and one could be

forgiven for thinking that it shows a

battalion of men who are about to charge

their enemy and emerge victorious.

The fact is that it was taken shortly

before the German invasion of Poland in

1939 and that none of these men made it

out alive. The invasion began on the 1st

of September that year with German

offenses arriving by land and air. The

aim of the attack was to regain

territories that had been lost and to

take control of the country in the name

of Germany. The invading forces used a

technique known as blitz creek during

which they would first destroy the

enemy's railways, communications,

planes, and ammunition via bombing

before large numbers of soldiers

attacked by land. Following this, the

infantry would attack and do away with

any remaining pockets of opposing

soldiers. But before any of this could

be done, the Polish army felt that it

had a good chance of emerging as the

victor in the expected battle. They had

a force of 1 million men and could

surely hold their own. This was

certainly a possibility were it not for

several mistakes that were made early

on. Polish soldiers were illequipped for

a prolonged battle and when the German

side did attack, they fought back headon

rather than with a specific strategy.

They relied heavily on their offense

rather than retreating to more favorable

ground. And it soon became clear that

those in charge of the Polish army were

used to the antiquated fighting

techniques and strategies. Still, they

had hope that aid would come from

Britain, the Soviet Union, and France,

who they believed to be allies. But that

hope was dashed with the signing of the

Ribbon Molotov non-aggression pact,

which stipulated that Germany and the

Soviet Union would not attack each other

for the next 10 years.

It also contained a secret stipulation

whereby Eastern Europe was divided into

German and Soviet spheres of influence.

This included the partitioning of Poland

and hence that country unwittingly stood

on the precipice of disaster. The

invasion officially began on the 1st of

September 1939 when a German battleship

attacked a Polish military transit depot

in Danzig. This was followed by an

attack which was considered by many

historians to be the very beginning of

the Second World War.

Soon several cities were under attack as

were Poland's southern, western, and

northern borders. News of the attacks

spread quickly, and on the 3rd of

September, France and Britain declared

war on Germany, but they failed to

provide any useful support. The Polish

army saw some success during smaller

skirmishes, but for the most part, they

were overrun. Thanks to Germany's modern

equipment, technical superiority, and

sheer number of soldiers,

Polish soldiers were forced to retreat

to Warsaw with some fleeing into

Romania. The Polish forces saw major air

force bases destroyed within just 2 days

and hence the German air force saw very

little resistance. Within the first

week, Pomeelia, Greater Poland and upper

Celisia were abandoned and the borders

were overrun. From the 9th of September

to the 19th, the largest of the three

battles took place near the Bizora

River.

Polish forces were overpowered by German

aircraft. Bridges over the river were

destroyed, leaving soldiers trapped, and

many lost their lives in the air

bombings that followed. Polish

anti-aircraft weapons no longer had any

ammunition left and were quickly wiped

out. This was followed by an invasion by

the Soviet Union. And when all was said

and done, Poland had fallen. It was

divided up between Germany and the

Soviet Union. And it would only be in

1993 that the Soviet soldiers finally

left the country after the dissolution

of the Soviet Union in 1989.

The origins of the Urallic language

family have baffled linguistic experts

for years. Millions of people across

multiple countries speak languages

belonging to the family. But how these

groups relate to one another and why

they're separate from other groups has

long remained a mystery. New DNA

evidence has finally shed light on this

historical mystery. Today, the most

well-known examples of Uralic languages

are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian.

Other languages belonging to the family

are spoken in northern Russia and

clusters around the Eural Mountains and

in northern Norway. The languages are

completely distinct from Indo-Uropean,

the language family that most European

languages belong to. Historians have

been able to map the spread of this

language family, although its exact

origins are still debated. But the

spread of Urallic has been much harder

to determine. As the name would suggest,

many linguists believed the origin of

the Urallic language family was

somewhere in the Ural Mountains. This

mountain range in western Russia was a

major obstacle to movement throughout

human history.

It's here where most of the Urallic

languages are spoken today with

different groups of the language sitting

on either side of the range. But this

wasn't the only theory. Another theory

suggested that the language originated

somewhere further east. There appears to

be some connection to Turic and

Mongolian languages, two other language

groups that are not believed to be part

of the Indo-European language family. As

these two languages don't seem to have

spread from the Eural Mountains, some

linguists have theorized that the Uralic

languages must have passed through other

regions before reaching the Eurals and

Eastern Europe. New DNA evidence has

backed up that theory. A 2025 study

analyzed modern and ancient DNA from

Russia, comparing it to modern uralic

speakers. It revealed that uralic

speakers shared DNA traces from

Yakushia, northeast Siberia, a marker

absent in other groups, thus connecting

Muralic languages. Researchers believe

hyper mobile hunter gatherers spread the

language primarily westward during the

Indo-Uropean expansion, but the burial

forest prevented its spread north where

most Uralic languages are found today.

While Yakusha DNA levels vary in Urallic

speaking regions, Hungary, an anomaly,

shows minimal traces, though medieval

conquerors who brought the Hungarian

language did possess higher levels. This

research clarifies the spread of these

ancient languages and may inform

understanding of their eastward

expansion.

The name Martin Marrilet isn't too

wellknown, especially compared to other

writers publishing in the Elizabethan

period, but Marplet had a huge impact on

English satire and religion. Who he

really was remains a mystery to this

day. The Elizabethan period was one of a

lot of change for England, not least of

all in terms of religion. In the 1580s,

what exactly the Church of England was

going to look like was still being

debated. Many believed that the Anglican

Church should continue to follow many of

the same practices as the Church in

Rome. Others wanted a bigger change.

These were the people known as the

Puritans.

While the arguing continued, the

government ruled that the Archbishop of

Canterbury would have the power to

license and control all the printing

presses in England and Wales. This

significantly restricted those who

wanted to publish anything against the

church. But one mysterious individual

found a way around those restrictions.

In October of 1588, a pamphlet began to

appear on the streets of London. It was

the first tract written by the

mysterious Martin Marpled. The name was

obviously a pseudonym. A prelet is a

bishop or another high-ranking church

official. Martin's pamphlets would

definitely mar or harm these church

officials. The pamphlets combined wit,

humor, and religious doctrine to make

points against the current state of the

church. Martin was able to highlight

members of the church government and the

government of the realm and point out

their flaws as well as flaws in their

ideas. The attacks could be quite

personal at times. For example, he aimed

at the lowborn bishop of Winchester,

Bishop Cooper, calling him a tub

trimmer. He also referred to the

Archbishop of Canterbury as his grease

rather than his grace. But the pamphlets

also made sure to focus attacks on their

politics and the government of the

church.

Both the church and the secular

government issued statements against the

pamphlets and tried to catch the person

or people responsible. Church officials

published lengthy pieces which didn't

have any of the same humor as the Marlet

tracks and wouldn't appeal to the same

general audience as the shorter funnier

pieces. The government would hire a

group of respected writers to try to

mimic Martin's work and attack the

writer himself. But as they had no idea

who he was, they could only make general

attacks against the stereotype of a

Puritan.

In September of 1589, the printing press

that Marple had been using was seized.

This was a movable press, and the people

publishing the tracks had been moving it

a lot over the past year. It had

traveled around Wales in the English

Midlands, being kept in the homes of

Puritans and sympathizers, even though

what they were doing was considered

illegal. The press was found with its

owner, John Penry, a Welsh priest. Penry

had published pieces arguing in favor of

a Purinted church before, but he didn't

have the same style or wit as Martin

Marlet. While some believe he may have

been responsible for the pamphlets, most

scholars believe the culprit was someone

else.

There are thousands of unique and

intriguing items housed in Cairo's

Egyptian Museum. A small wooden statue

of a bird wouldn't normally gather much

attention compared to the likes of

golden artifacts from the tomb of Tuten

Common and statues of pharaohs. But the

Sakara bird has attracted worldwide

attention. Its purpose and origin

continue to baffle experts to this day.

The statue was found in the tomb of Pime

located in Sakara. Sakara is located not

far from Memphis and served as a

necropolis during the late and Greek

periods. It wasn't only Egypt's powerful

and elite that were mummified and buried

in shafts beneath the sand. Most of the

mummies found here belonged to the

middle class and many were buried in

mass tombs where many people from

different families were intombed

together. Exactly what kind of tomb this

was has been forgotten, but an

excavation took place in 1898.

Unfortunately, details of the excavation

weren't preserved either. We don't know

exactly what condition the tomb was in

or where the small modeled bird was

located, but it was brought back to be

housed at the museum in Kairo, where it

first began to attract the attention of

scholars. The Sakara bird has a wingspan

of about 18 cm and weighs just 39 g. It

was made from sycamore wood. It dates to

around 200 BC during the Tameic period.

What caught people's attention was the

strange shape of the bird. The tail

feathers of most birds fan out

horizontally, but the zakara birds are

vertical. To modern eyes, it resembled

an airplane with a bird's face carved

into the front rather than an actual

bird. This led to speculation that the

sakara object may have represented some

kind of flying device. The first person

to put forward this theory was Khalil

Messiah, an Egyptian physician and

dowser. He thought the statue looked too

strange to be a representation of an

animal and suggested it may have been a

model for a glider. He believed that

there had once been a horizontal

stabilizer sitting on top of the rear

tail feathers, and when this was added,

the bird would function like a glider.

There was no evidence that the

stabilizer actually existed, though.

Experiments to prove this have been

mixed. Some have given positive results,

while others suggest that even with the

stabilizer, the glider would have been

difficult to handle and only would have

moved a couple yards. A 2023 study using

a scan of the bird and computer

simulations proved that it would not

fly. Even if the model was theoretically

capable of flight, the fact that

Egyptologists have only found one small

model as evidence that the Egyptians in

the classical era were capable of flight

seems to suggest this wasn't its actual

purpose. But if this wasn't the purpose

of the Sakara bird, that leaves the

question of its real function a mystery.

Linear Elomite is one of the most

important ancient writing systems that

still remains a mystery to experts. The

writing system was used by the

mysterious Elomite people between 2300

and 1850 BC, but only a few dozen

examples of the writing have been

uncovered to date. Deciphering the

script might help scholars to understand

more about these ancient people who

lived in modern-day Iran thousands of

years ago. It was around the year 1903

when the first examples of linear

elomite started to be uncovered by

archaeologists.

A French team of researchers were

excavating Susa, Iran. It was believed

that this was the center of the Elomite

civilization. The Elommites were

believed to be one of the most important

civilizations in the early urbanization

of the near east and were neighbors with

Babylonia and Sumeriia.

The linear elecions were obviously

distinct from Kuneaor. The wedge-shaped

markings that Cunea is famous for were

missing. Instead, the script seemed to

be made up of a variety of symbols that

frequently featured crosses, diamonds,

and box-like shapes. The discovery

immediately excited scholars who began

to try to crack the unsolved mystery.

But in the century after the discovery,

only a few symbols could be understood.

One of the biggest problems facing

researchers was that there was no

bilingual translation. The Rosetta

Stone, a triilingual inscription which

repeated the same information in three

different languages, had been essential

for cracking the Egyptian hieroglyphs,

but no such inscription could be found

from ancient Elam. There were also a few

artifacts that included both linear ele.

But experts don't believe that the same

information was held in both. The

inscriptions were not a direct

translation to one another either.

Another problem was the fact that the

Elomite language itself was unknown. The

writing system was presumably being used

to write Elomite. But researchers had no

idea what it might have sounded like or

what the grammatical rules for this

language were. Elomite is a language

that went extinct thousands of years ago

and doesn't have any known relatives. In

2022, a team of researchers announced

that they had deciphered most of the

linear ele. The decipherment began with

two silver beers, which had actually

been held in a London bank for decades.

The beers had been taken from an Elomite

archaeological site when the rules

surrounding the archaeological digs in

that area were loose.

Many experts believed the beers were a

forgery, but the team of researchers in

the 2022 decipherment believed them to

be genuine. Many were optimistic about

the decipherment, which began by

translating the names of kings and

expanded to find the corresponding

sounds for 96% of the known symbols.

Others were more skeptical. The

researchers claimed that linear elomite

was almost entirely an alpha syllib.

This meant that the symbols corresponded

to sounds, similar to how letters in the

modern Latin alphabet do. At the time,

all known languages were at least

partially logoraphic, meaning that

individual symbols corresponded with an

entire word rather than just a sound.

The earliest writing systems evolved

from symbols for words. If linear

elomite was an alpha syllary, it would

represent the earliest known example of

this form of writing.

This image shows a beach with a few

beachgoers waiting out into the water

and a sailboat drifting nearby. At first

glance, it's a tranquil and fun scene,

but in reality, it serves as a precursor

to an unspeakable tragedy that occurred

on the 26th of December, 2004.

What isn't immediately apparent in this

photo is the fact that the area's

shoreline has retracted much further

than it usually does, even at low tide.

Those in the no will tell you that if

this ever happens while you're at the

beach, you should do your utmost to flee

and find higher ground as soon as

possible. The reason for this warning is

that a tsunami is about to strike. And

this image serves as a solid proof of

that fact. On this day, a magnitude 9.1

undersea earthquake occurred in the

waters off the coast of Somatra in

Indonesia. But the people in the photo

were none the wiser. Just moments later,

a massive tsunami started speeding

towards the coast. And it's safe to

assume that no one in this photo managed

to escape its destructive force. It was

followed by a series of tsunamis that

formed in the Indian Ocean over the

following 7 hours, causing massive

amounts of damage and ending the lives

of thousands of people. Some of these

tsunamis reached as far as the eastern

coast of Africa. And in some areas,

witnesses described seeing waves as tall

as 30 feet barreling toward the coast

and then destroying everything in their

paths.

To this day, it's considered one of the

worst natural disasters to have ever

occurred.

Within hours, tens of thousands of

people were unaccounted for and were

either reported as missing or found

deceased.

15 countries were affected by the quake

and the resulting tsunamis including

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand in

India. Indonesia was by far the worst

affected as it was reported that as many

as 200,000 people lost their lives, most

of whom hailed from one single province.

What followed was a struggle for

survival as people were left without

shelter, clean drinking water, and food.

Relief organizations did their best to

aid those in need, but the number of

people who needed help was overwhelming,

and many areas had been left

inaccessible thanks to roads that were

destroyed.

The photo in question serves as a stark

reminder of how quickly a situation can

change from one of bliss and tranquility

to one of terror and loss.

In 1910, the race to become the first

expedition to reach the South Pole was

on. And one British explorer, Captain

Robert Falcon Scott, had made up his

mind that he and his men would be the

ones to do so. But he wasn't merely

chasing recognition. He and his crew

were also planning on conducting

research along the Ross ice shelf,

specifically in the Victoria land

region. From the get-go, Scott and his

chief scientist, Edward Adrienne Wilson,

had differing opinions on the ultimate

goal of the expedition. Wilson felt that

the scientific research that was about

to be conducted at the ice shelf should

be the main priority. But Scott had his

mind set on becoming the first explorer

to reach the South Pole in the name of

Britain. And he was anxious to get going

since an expedition from Norway was

preparing to do the same. On the 15th of

June 1910, Scott's crew was assembled

and ready, and they set off on their

journey with a few guests on board, who

would also be given certain duties to

perform. They set sail from Cardiff,

Wales, but Scott would only join his

crew later on in South Africa, as he'd

been delayed by certain details that had

to be ironed out. By January of 1911,

they'd reached Antarctica, where they

faced temperatures of around -70 F. For

the next 10 months, they ready

themselves for the trek to the South

Pole and set out from their base camp on

the 1st of November. Not long into the

journey, they had to abandon their

motorized sledges due to the rough

terrain, and their ponies started to

suffer due to the harsh conditions and

minimal food. By the 4th of January,

though, they'd made good progress and

were preparing for the final push to the

pole. Scott decided that only a few of

his crew would go ahead and he chose

four men to accompany him on the last

150 mi of the journey. The other four

men turned back to base camp with one

man suffering from scurvy and snow

blindness along the way, but he managed

to survive thanks to the efforts of his

companions.

Scott's party forged ahead and reached

the South Pole on the 17th of January,

but they were left distraught upon

spotting dog tracks in the snow. And to

make matters worse, a Norwegian flag had

been planted by an earlier expedition.

The men's morale was devastated by the

discovery, and 2 days later, they

started back to base camp with the

knowledge that they had lost the race.

Nevertheless, they continued gathering

geological samples whenever they could,

despite fearing for their lives as they

were running very low on supplies.

Scurvy, hypothermia, and starvation had

started to set in. And at one point they

stopped to take the photo in question

and it's clear from the expressions on

their faces they felt defeated and worse

for wear. Shortly after reaching the

base of Beardmore Glacier, Edward Evans

passed away after sustaining a serious

head injury. Captain Frank Oats knew

there were too many mouths to feed and

while suffering from frostbite decided

to walk out into the frozen wasteland,

never to return, giving up his life so

that the remainder of the party would

survive.

But the thing is, this was done in vain.

The rest of the crew wrote letters to

their families, and 8 months later, a

rescue party found their tents with

their frozen remains inside.

In 1927, archaeologists excavating a

temple complex in Cambodia made an

astonishing discovery. It wouldn't be

until almost 100 years later that the

rest of the discovery could be made.

Tapome is one of the most famous temples

at the Enkor Temple complex.

Construction began on the temple in 1187

and once built, it took thousands of

people to maintain it. It was dedicated

to the mother of Jaavarin IIIth.

In the centuries since its construction,

Tapome has fallen into ruins. The

Cambodian jungle has reclaimed much of

the temple, cracking giant ancient

stones and slowly pulling apart the

bricks. Trees and other foliage still

cling to the temple walls. Although

today they're maintained, and the temple

isn't truly wild, that doesn't stop it

from attracting visitors. And it was

even a location used during the filming

of a Laura Croft Tomb Raider movie.

While the temple is an important tourist

attraction, archaeological work

continues to uncover insights into

Cambodia's past. These excavations have

been taking place for over a century. In

1927, when the area was under French

control, archaeologists uncovered the

head of a large Buddha statue. The

statue was in the Bayan art style, and

researchers believe the features were

based on those of Javarin II. It was

dated to the 12th or 13th century. The

head clearly belonged to part of a

larger statue, but there was no sign of

this statue in the dig. The intriguing

artifact was taken to the National

Museum of Cambodia where it was

protected and studied. Archaeological

work continued at the Enchor Complex,

although it was often disrupted by

events going on in the region. More

recently though, international teams of

archaeologists have been able to explore

the area again, uncovering new artifacts

and revealing more secrets about what

Cambodia's past was like. In early 2025,

a group of archaeologists from India

uncovered something that would solve a

long-standing mystery. It was the body

of a statue roughly 4 ft in height and

missing its head, feet, and one of its

hands. The feet had been located

elsewhere in the rubble, but the head

was nowhere to be found.

But advanced technology, including

digital scanning, solved the mystery of

the fragmented statue at Tapro. A head

founded decades ago near the body, was a

perfect match. The statue, unique for

its left hand on the chest, presents new

questions for scholars, such as the

reason for its pose and how it was

broken. Possibilities for its damage

include natural causes like tree roots

and weathering or deliberate destruction

during religious shifts or colonial

times.

At the end of the Second World War, tens

of thousands of American service

personnel were considered missing in

action. In the decades since then, many

remains have been recovered, providing

answers to family members left behind.

Many more still remain missing. In

November of 2023, the family of Gilbert

Haldine Meyers were finally able to lay

him to rest. The mystery began 8 decades

earlier on July 10th, 1943.

Meyers was a second lieutenant in the US

Army forces serving in the 381st

Bombardment Squadron, 310th Bombardment

Group. At the time of his disappearance,

the group's job involved flying over

Sicily and attacking military targets

there. July 10th was like any other day.

Myers was the co-pilot of a B-25

Mitchell flying alongside five other

men. Their target was the Siaka air

drone. This was an important air base

for the Axis forces. Many missions had

been dispatched from the site, hidden

among olive trees that camouflaged it

from enemy view. Malta, in particular,

had been damaged by planes flown from

Siaga. But in 1942, the air base had

finally been photographed by an RAF

pilot, and now a full campaign against

the site was being enacted by American

troops.

Myers's plane dropped its payload on the

target, but as it did so, it came under

anti-aircraft fire. The plane was hit

and rapidly lost altitude. According to

witnesses on the ground, one person in

the plane bailed out, but the others

could not escape before the plane

crashed and there were no survivors. The

campaign in Siaka was a success and the

area soon fell into Allied hands. In the

years after the disappearance, searches

took place to try to locate the remains

of the six men who lost their lives in

the crash. It soon emerged that the

pilot had been located by civilians and

buried at a nearby cemetery. There were

also rumors that German soldiers had

removed three bodies from the crash

site, but there was no information on

where they had been taken. There was no

word of anybody being taken prisoner,

and authorities were certain they were

searching for remains. In 1944, part of

the wreckage was discovered by American

investigators, but no human remains were

found. After the war, the area was

returned to the farmers who'd worked the

land before it was taken over by the

Italian military.

Searches for any further remains took

place, but the terrain made this

difficult and nothing was found. A 2022

investigation into a B-25 crash site

uncovered wreckage, though, and human

remains. DNA testing confirmed the

remains belonged to Meyers, one of the

six lost airmen. He was buried in

Florida in 2023. And while this solved

one mystery, the remains of the other

four flyers still remain missing. Thank

you guys so much for watching. If you

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bell to keep up to date with all of our

future uploads. But my name is Tai Knuts

and I'll catch you guys in the next