The original crop circles were exactly that - circular patterns of flattened crops, often created in mysterious circumstances overnight. During the last 20 years, though, crop circles have evolved into complex geometric shapes, like the DNA double helix or the nautilus shell.
In 1966, an Australian sugar cane farmer said he saw a saucer-shaped spaceship rise up from a swamp before flying away. When he looked at the landing site, he found the reeds intricately woven in a clockwise direction on top of the water. There are many other anecdotal accounts of crop circles appearing in alien UFO literature, where sometimes the crops were burnt, otherwise flattened.
But in 1991, two men from Southampton, England, admitted they conceived the whole idea as a prank some 15 years earlier. They made their masterpiece using planks, rope, hats and wire - and could create a 40-foot circle in 15 minutes. The only reason they came clean was because one of the men, Bower, was running up considerable mileage on his car and had to convince his wife he wasn't having an affair. He continues to demonstrate the art today.
Unexplained Mysteries of The World #2 The Pyramids of Egypt
When it comes to unexplained mysteries, the pyramids of Giza in Egypt really take the biscuit. The largest pyramid of all, also known as the Great Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu), was built around 5,000 years ago - but how?
The Pyramid of Cheops is the size of a 40-storey building and covers an area big enough to fit 10 football fields in it. More than 2 million stone blocks were used to make the pyramid, each weighing 2-5 tons and cut from a distant limestone quarry on the other side of the Nile. Experts reckon it took 400,000 men some 20 years to complete.
Engineering feats aside, there is also some weird paranormal phenomena going on at the Pyramid of Cheops. In the 1940s, a French hardware dealer spotted some mummified animals exactly one-third up the height of the pyramid. The remarkable thing was they showed no signs of decomposition. He deducted that the pyramid shape was responsible for preserving these creatures. Attempts to mummify dead organic matter under small cardboard pyramids have produced the same result - as if there is some kind of "energy" within the pyramid shape.
Later, a Czech radio engineer conducted a series of experiments in which he placed a brand new razor blade inside a 1:1,000 scale model of Cheops. He aligned his pyramid on a north-south axis exactly like the real thing. After getting 50 shaves from the razor, he was forced to conclude that it was only getting sharper from being inside the pyramid. It took him 10 years to obtain a patent for this remarkable device, which still has no scientific explanation today.
Unexplained Mysteries of The World #3 Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch)
He's big, he's hairy, and he's starred in his own TV show. Bigfoot is world-famous for spooking the bejesus out of hikers and hunters in North America. Scientists consider Sasquatch to be the result of folklore, misidentification and a whole lot of hoaxes. However, some people believe many of these humanoid creatures exist around the world, just like the Yeti of the Himalayas.
Bigfoot has been described as an ape-like creature, some 6-10 feet tall, weighing more than 500 pounds, and covered in dark brown or reddish hair. Witnesses give him large eyes, a heavy brow ridge and a crested head, much like a male gorilla. Footprints allegedly belonging to Bigfoot are 24 inches long.
Is Sasquatch really one of the great unexplained mysteries of the world? Somewhat disappointingly, the most famous footage of Bigfoot at Bluff Creek, California, was shot down by a man called Bob Heironimus. Years after the event, he claimed he wore an ape costume for the filming (photo, right).
Scientists also point out there is slim chance that a prehistoric, bipedal, apelike creature could exist, simply because the breeding population of such an animal would have to be so large that many more sightings would be reported.
Nevertheless, Bigfoot's cousin - the Yeti (aka the Abominable Snowman) - has a strong alleged presence in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. Teams of scientists continue to seek out photo evidence, and many locals accept the reality of a breeding Yeti population as read.
Unexplained Mysteries of The World #4 UFOs/ Area 51
Unidentified Flying Objects can usually be explained away as airplanes, helicopters, weather balloons, comets, meteors and even the five planets which can be seen with the naked eye. In photographs they are usually deemed as dust on the camera lens or simply all-out hoaxes. But sometimes they fall into the category of true unexplained phenomena, as is the case with UFOs.
The first reported UFO sighting happened in Texas in 1878, when a local farmer reported seeing a large, dark, circular flying object flying "at wonderful speed". Another famous early sighting occurred in the UK in 1916, when a pilot reported seeing a row of lights that rose and disappeared into the sky.
After UFOs were popularized by science fiction in the 1950s, the number of sightings went through the roof. Theories to explain the paranormal phenomena range from the good old Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, where aliens are visiting us from another planet; to the Interdimensional Hypothesis, where alien UFOs are crossing the fabric of space-time from a parallel universe.
Meanwhile, UFO conspiracy theories center around Area 51 in Nevada, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The site houses a large air base that was selected in the 1950s for testing of a U-2 spy plane. It has since become America's testing ground for secret "black budget" aircraft before they go public.
The UFO stories began when, in 1989, Bob Lazar claimed on Las Vegas TV that he had worked on alien spacecraft just south of Area 51. The combination of government secrecy and unexplained phenomena happening in the sky above the desert has sparked UFO conspiracy theories ever since.
Unexplained Mysteries of The World #5 The Belmez Faces
In 1971, in the small Spanish village of Belmez, Maria Pereira claimed a human face spontaneously appeared on her cement kitchen floor. It wasn't long before she destroyed the floor and replaced it - and a new face promptly appeared.
More and more faces continued to appear on the floor of Maria Pereira's kitchen, attracting thousands of visitors every day. Some were male, some female, some large, and some small. In time, she discovered that the house, built around 1830, stood above a graveyard used by the Romans, Spanish Muslims and then Medieval Christians.
Did Maria Pereira paint the faces herself? If so, she never benefited financially from all the attention. She lived a simple life in that same house and eventually died in 2004, after which the house was put on the market. Besides ghostly apparitions, paranormal experts suggest a second theory - that the faces were manifested on the floor by telekinesis. Apparently, the expressions on their faces used to change with the mood of Maria Pereira.
However, skeptics point out that it is possible to analyze the molecular changes in the whitewash and prove that some level of fakery was involved. Many believe that the paintings were actually created by Maria's son, Diego Pereira.
Unexplained Mysteries of The World #6 The Out of Body Experience
An out of body experience is defined by your awareness being transferred beyond your physical body. When it happens during severe bodily trauma, it's often called a Near Death Experience (NDE). And when it's layered with esoteric interpretations of the afterlife, it's known as Astral Projection.
Dr Robert Monroe famously documented his Out of Body Experiences in his book, Journeys Out of the Body. He was at first incredulous when he began having OBEs against his will but soon traveled to places far removed from the material realities of life on Earth.
The main thing to appreciate about OBEs is that they often occur at night, when our minds slip from the logical waking world, to a world of fanciful dreams and impossibilities. If you were a spiritual person, you might say your Out of Body Experiences prove the existence of an afterlife. However, scientists find this evidence inadmissible; it is, after all, entirely subjective and shares many common elements with a Wake Induced Lucid Dream.
Unexplained Mysteries of The World #7 The Mayan Prophecy
According to many New Age believers, the Mayan Prophecy states that the world as we know it will change on December 21, 2012. This is not a new phenomena; as landmark dates draw near, end of the world theories creep out of the woodwork with astonishing popularity.
This particular theory has been around for more than 5,000 years. It began when the ancient Mayans plotted our position in the Milky Way and launched the Mayan calendar. However, the astrological prediction has since been embellished. Here's one popular spiritualist interpretation:
The Mayans believed that in the year AD 1999, mankind would have 13 years to recognize our own patterns of self destruction. Then, starting December 21, 2012, our entire lives would be tested and only those most in touch with their spiritual sides would survive. They claim a natural or man-made disaster will occur (although no-one can agree on the exact nature of the event) tearing apart the civilized world and taking us back to hunter-gatherer days.
It's another classic doomsday theory and I urge you to ignore it. While the world may come to an abrupt end any time, any day, without warning, there is very little you can do about it. One thing is for sure: our society, like all civilizations before us, is geared to postulate over end-of-the-world mysteries with gusto.
Unexplained Mysteries of The World #8 Stonehenge
Stonehenge is one of the greatest unexplained mysteries of the world. It's certainly no hoax (estimated to be more than 5,000 years old) and is probably the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain.
When you visit Stonehenge, you'll find yourself driving for miles through rolling hills and countryside until, suddenly, you catch sight of this bizarre structure. There's an eerie feel to the area around Stonehenge, and for thousands of years it has soon silently, giving away few clues as to the meaning of its existence.
Excavations have revealed that Stonehenge was built in three parts. First, a series of holes were dug around 3,100 BC as part of a religious ceremony. Then, more than 1,000 years later, the most dramatic stage of building took place. Huge bluestones from mountains in Wales were lugged more than 240 miles to the Stonehenge site. Why would anyone do this in the age before the wheel? It wouldn't have been hard to find rocks closer nearby. The stones were set up to form an incomplete double circle, aligned perfectly with the midsummer sunrise.
The third stage in 2,000 BC saw the arrival of the more stones, transported by land from the Marlborough Downs some 25 miles away. Then, after a further 500 years had passed, someone felt the need to rearrange the massive Welsh bluestones into the familiar horseshoe and circle we see today.
One of the great unexplained phenomena, the meaning of Stonehenge is still not clear today. Was it a temple, a burial ground, an observatory, or an ancient calendar? Without a time machine to go back and ask, we may never know.
Unexplained Mysteries of The World #9 Loch Ness Monster
The Loch Ness Monster is a prehistoric creature thought to inhabit the Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. As lake monsters go, Scotland has tales of a fair few, with Nessie gaining the most popularity of all on the back of anecdotal evidence.
Nessie first hit the headlines in 1933 when a story was published in the Inverness Courier. The report quoted a Londoner who had visited a few weeks earlier as seeing: "a most extraordinary form of animal... the nearest approach to a dragon or pre-historic animal that I have ever seen in my life."
After that, more sightings were reported and this unexplained phenomena hit international headlines. That same year, one motorcyclist claimed to nearly hit Nessie late one night as it lumbered across the road and slid back into the loch. Soon, apparent photos of the Loch Ness Monster were published.
In 1960, an aeronautical engineer filmed a hump crossing the water in Loch Ness in a powerful wake unlike that of a boat. Years later, digital enhancement of the footage revealed what seemed to be the rear body, flippers, and two more humps of a plesiosaur-like body. The technician said: "Before I saw the film, I thought the Loch Ness Monster was a load of rubbish. Having done the enhancement, I'm not so sure."
There's no doubt that the story of Nessie has drawn huge tourist interest to the famed Loch Ness. And while some suggest it's a living plesiosaur, New Scientist points out that such a creature could never lift its head up out of the water like the photos and anecdotes suggest. What's more, the loch is only 10,000 years old and was frozen solid for about 20,000 years before that.
Unexplained Mysteries of The World: #10 Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle is one of the great unexplained phenomena of the 20th century. It is held responsible for the disappearance of countless airplanes and boats in the ocean between Florida, San Juan, and Bermuda. This area is one of the most heavily sailed shipping lanes in the world, with vessels crossing through daily for ports in the Americas, Europe and the Caribbean Islands.
So why do people think there's weird stuff going on in the Bermuda Triangle? Because there are a huge number of disappearances that happened in very mysterious circumstances, falling beyond the possibilities of human error, equipment failure or natural disasters. Many theories attribute a paranormal explanation, like a suspension of the laws of physics.
The first unexplained phenomena occurred in the 1950s when the story of Flight 19 came to light, detailing a group of five US Navy bombers on a training mission. The flight leader was reported to have said: "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that Navy officials said the planes "flew off to Mars", linking the Devil's Triangle with the supernatural.
Skeptics say that such incidents have been embellished, and the Bermuda Triangle is responsible for no more disappearances than any other area of ocean. However, fans of paranormal phenomena say many incidents remain unexplained to this day, despite considerable investigation.
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