The Darvaza Gas Crater: Who Lit Turkmenistan's 'Door to Hell'?
A desert crater in Turkmenistan has burned for decades. Everyone says Soviet geologists lit it in 1971, but the records are missing and the dates don't agree.
Tag: Unsolved History
9 case files, newest first.
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The Copper Scroll: A Treasure List From Qumran
One Dead Sea Scroll is not parchment but copper, and lists dozens of hiding places for gold and silver.
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The Somerton Man, 1948: "Tamam Shud" and a Name at Last
A well-dressed man was found dead on Somerton beach in Adelaide on 1 December 1948, with no identification and a scrap reading 'Tamam Shud' sewn in his pocket.
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The Kensington Runestone, 1898: A Viking Message in a Minnesota Field?
In 1898 a Swedish farmer in Minnesota pulled up a slab carved with runes dated 1362. Scholars have argued over it ever since. Here is where it stands.
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The Missouri Booms, 1805: The 'Artillery of the Rocky Mountains' Lewis and Clark Could Not Explain
At the Great Falls of the Missouri in 1805, Lewis and Clark kept hearing booms like distant cannon under clear skies. They never found the cause.
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Oak Island and the Money Pit
Since the 1790s treasure hunters have dug into a small Nova Scotia island. Six deaths and a TV series later, no treasure.
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The Mesón de Fierro, 1783: The Iron Mass of the Chaco That Fell From the Sky
In 1783 a Spanish naval officer dug around a huge mass of pure iron on Argentina's Chaco plain and blamed a volcano. It had fallen from the sky.
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The Nuremberg Sky Battle, 1561: Spheres, Crosses and Tubes Around the Rising Sun
At sunrise on 14 April 1561, a Nuremberg broadsheet says, red, blue and black balls fought around the sun for an hour. We read the original print.
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Voynich Manuscript: Beinecke MS 408
Yale’s undeciphered illustrated codex: the library dates it to the late 15th or 16th century and does not endorse decipherment claims.
