10 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of All Time

10 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of All Time
10 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries of All Time

In the 21st century, it seems unlikely that any real mysteries still exist in the world. People are better educated than ever before and have access to huge amounts of information that can be used to help solve the problems of yester-year. Yet even today, the world is still grappling with unexplained occurrences and daily mysteries that even the collective mind cannot use the internet to explain.

Some of these mysteries are centuries old and will probably never be solved because too much time has passed. Yet, others are mysteries that are only a few years old and have essentially

just been given up on by the powers that be.

Here are the top 10 unsolved mysteries that still remain in 2016:

10. Flight MH370

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370

Markus Mainka / Shutterstock.com

On March 8th, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off on a regularly scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Headed north for Beijing, the plane was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members. However, less than a full hour after the plane took off, as it was flying over the South China Sea, the plane disappeared from radar.

Hidden from air traffic control, the Malaysian military tracked the aircraft and watched as it flew westward and away from the flight path towards Beijing and instead crossed the peninsula. A short while later, it left the range of the military’s radar. That was the last anyone saw or heard from that Boeing 777.

Shortly after its last sighting, the world began searching for MH370. The search started in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. When nothing turned up, they drew a larger circle and included the Andaman Sea and the Strait of Malacca. Further analysis suggested that the plane turned and went south into the Indian Ocean. However, it was impossible to figure out what happened from there. The only further information found was a final signal, which was too far from any landing sites to suggest a safe landing.

The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 became the widest and the most expensive search for an aircraft in the history of aviation. The only possible sign of the flight washed up over a year later on Reunion Island, near Madagascar.

Though most are certain that the plane is at the bottom of the ocean and all the passengers and crew are dead, what happened to them and the plane that carried them is still a mystery. No one is sure whether it was a hijacking, electronic hijacking, terrorist attack, shot down, seized by private interests, seized by the US military or whether the plane was abducted by aliens.

9. The Taos Hum

The Taos Hum
The Taos Hum

Noise is a normal part of living in the city. The buzz of city life is life-affirming for some and moderately annoying for others. However, the city of Taos, in northern New Mexico, features a different kind of noise and a different kind of annoyance.

Taos is full of noise. The birds chirp and engines roar but the city also hums. Known as the Taos Hum, it is a variety of mysterious sounds including a whir, buzz and occasional humming. It is invasive and persistent but not everyone can hear it all the time.

A study showed that at least two percent of the population in Taos can hear the humming. Both men and women hear it in equal turn but it seems that middle aged people are the most likely group to hear it. Most people hear it at different frequencies which range anywhere from 32 HZ to 80 Hz. One of the most interesting things about the hum is that people can’t move away from it. One person said they could still hear the humming even 48 kilometers away from Taos.

No one is sure where the sound comes from. Some people don’t believe it is a physical sound and instead it happens when people focus in on background sounds. There is a theory that the sound is created by a mechanical device. Some also believe that the people who hear it have tinnitus. Still, some say that the hum is generated by individuals because a human’s ears actually create their own noises. In fact, this is very common but most people don’t notice these sounds.

Regardless, there is no consensus on where the noise comes from and why so many people can hear it.

8. The Kensington Runestone

Mysterious Viking Runestones
Mysterious Viking Runestones

On a normal sunny day in 1898 near Alexandria, Minnesota, a Swedish immigrant named Olof Ohman found a 200 pound slab of stone covered in runes. The runes were in-keeping with those of used by the Vikings in the 14th century.

Ohman said that he found the stone while he was preparing new land for plowing and initially mistook it for being of Native American origin. The find was an important one for the area, which was primarily made up of Swedish and other Scandinavian immigrants.

At the time, there was a renewed interest in the travels of Leif Ericson to North America, effectively making it the Vikings who discovered the New World and not the Spanish. It was being widely discussed in the nation and in the Scandinavian community because of the potential cultural significance of the event if it was true.

Thus, the finding of this stone created a huge splash. The Historic Society of Minnesota bought the stone for $10 and it eventually reached a professor of Scandinavian Languages at the University of Minnesota who called it a hoax because the Norwegian runes used on the stone were more modern than the date given on the stone. However, others suggested the inscription could be nearly 500 years old because of the weathering on the back of the stone.

The text roughly says that a group of Scandinavians went on a journey to explore the land west of Vinland and spent 14 days traveling from the island in 1362. While there, they went fishing and then encountered Native Americans.

Whether or not the stone is real, it does beg an important question regarding whether the Vikings were really the first to discover America.

7. Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper was one of the most famous serial killers and criminals in history. He was an unidentified serial killer who was active between 1888 and 1891 in an impoverished neighborhood of London known as Whitechapel. The name came from a letter written by someone who claimed to be the serial killer. However, the letter may not be real and is believed to have been written by journalists in order to create more interest in the story. The killer has also been referred to as the Whitechapel Murderer and less commonly as Leather Apron.

Most of the murders attributed to this killer were of female prostitutes who were known to live and work in East London, including in Whitechapel. These women died after having their throats slit and their abdomens cut open. That the killer sometimes removed internal organs suggested to police that he might have surgical knowledge. Only five victims were connected to Jack the Ripper; however, there were 11 murders during that time that the police tried to connect to a single killer.

Even at the end of the 19th century, the media coverage of the murders and the murderer was intense. One of the reasons that the legend has lived on so long was because of the extensive and widespread coverage of the crimes. Even today, both the media and scientists search for the man who might have murdered those girls.

Dozens of names have been put forward over the past century including a London doctor who killed himself a month after the last murder, a man who killed three of his own wives, a Russian doctor and even Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, a grandson of Queen Victoria who passed away in 1892 in an asylum.

Jack the Ripper may have been long dead, but scientists are still looking for him. Every few years, new evidence comes to light that seems to point to a new individual. However, the murders and the mystery remain unsolved.

6. The Bosnian Pyramids

Bosnian Pyramids
Bosnian Pyramids

It seems as though Egypt and the Nile basin have the monopoly on large pyramid structures. Their pyramids are well frequented by specialists, scientists and tourists alike. But it is possible that there is another set of pyramids that are older and larger than those in Giza.

Sam Osmanagich, a Bosnian businessman and amateur archaeologist, claims that the geological structures found in the back yard of the town of Visoko in Bosnia are the oldest and greatest pyramids in the world.

The site consists of two primary hills. The first, the Pyramid of the Moon, is said to be the oldest step pyramid in the world. The smaller hill, known as the Pyramid of the Sun, is also considered to be a pyramid by Osmanagich and his team. Reportedly 12,000 years old, Osmanagich and his team say that the rocks under their feet were a part of the greatest pyramid complex in the world.

Since the discovery was announced in 2005, nearly half a million people have descended upon the small town north of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The organization surveying and excavating the site has received huge donations from the public and state organizations.

Despite the work and the notoriety that the hills have gained over the last decade, there are some detractors. Archaeologists generally deny that there’s anything under these hills and geologist reports are either negative or inconclusive. Yet, many visitors who travel to these sites say that they are convinced that not only are these hills the oldest pyramids in the world but they also have special powers.