Frozen Sea

Top 9 Most Overlooked Mysteries in History

9. Lost City of Helike

In the late 2nd century AD, the Greek writer Pausanias wrote an account of how (4-500 years earlier?) in one night a powerful earthquake destroyed the great city of Helike, with a Tsunami washing away what remained of the once-flourishing metropolis.

The city, capital of the Achaean League, was a worship centre devoted to the ancient god Poseidon, god of the sea. There was no trace of the legendary society mentioned outside of the ancient Greek writings until 1861, when an archeologist found some loot thought to have come from Helike - a bronze coin with the unmistakable head of Poseidon.

In 2001, a pair of archeologists managed to locate the ruins of Helike beneath the mud and gravel of the coast, and are currently trying to peice together the rise and sudden fall of what has been called the "real" Atlantis.

8. The Bog Bodies

This mystery may even be a problem for those legendary investigators from CSI and the like! The bog bodies are hundreds of ancient corpses found buried around the northern bogs and wetlands of Northern Europe. These bodies are remarkably well preserved, some dating back 2,000 years. Many of these bodies have tell-tale signs of torture and other medieval "fun", which have made some researchers postulating that these unfortunate victims were the result of ritual sacrifices.

7. Fall of the Minoans

The Minoans are best known for the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur, but it is in fact the demise of this once-great civilisation that is more interesting. . While many historians concentrate on the fall of the Roman Empire, the fall of the Minoans, who resided on the island of Crete, is an equal, if not greater mystery.

Three and a half thousand years ago the island was shaken by a huge volcanic eruption on the neighbouring Thera Island. Archeologists unearthed tablets which have shown that the Minoans carried on for another 50 years after the eruption, before finally folding.

Theories of what finally ended them have ranged from volcanic ash covering the island and devastating harvests to the weakened society eventually getting taken over by invading Greeks.

6. The Carnac Stones

Everyone has heard of Stonehenge, but few know the Carnac Stones. These are 3,000 megalithic stones arranged in perfect lines over a distance of 12 kilometers on the coast of Brittany in the North-West of France.

Mythology surrounding the stones says that each stone is a soldier in a Roman legion that Merlin the Wizard turned in to stone.

Scientific attempts at an explanation suggests that the stones are most likely an elaborate earthquake detector. The identity of the Neolithic people who built them is unknown.

5. Who Was Robin Hood ?

The historical search for the legendary thief Robin Hood has turned up masses of possible names. One candidate includes the Yorkshire fugitive Robert Hod, also known as Hobbehod or Robert Hood of Wakefield.

The large number of suspects is complicated further as the name Robin Hood became a common term for an outlaw. As literature began to add new characters to the tale such as Prince John and Richard the Lionheart the trail became more obscure. To this day no one knows who this criminal really was.

4. The Lost Roman Legion

After the Parthians defeated underachieving Roman General Crassus' army, legend has it that a small band of the POWs wandered through the desert and were eventually rounded up by the Han military 17 years later.

First century Chinese historian Ban Gu wrote an account of a confrontation with a strange army of about a hundred men fighting in a "fish-scale formation" unique to Roman forces.

An Oxford historian who compared ancient records claims that the lost roman legion founded a small town near the Gobi desert named Liqian, which in Chinese translates to Rome. DNA tests are being conducted to answer that claim and hopefully explain some of the residents' green eyes, blonde hair, and fondness of bullfighting.

3. The Voynich Manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript is a medieval document written in an unknown script and in an unknown language. For over one hundred years people have tried to break the code to no avail.

The overall impression given by the surviving leaves of the manuscript suggests that it was meant to serve as a pharmacopoeia or to address topics in medieval or early modern medicine.

However, the puzzling details of illustrations have fueled many theories about the book's origins, the contents of its text, and the purpose for which it was intended. The document contains illustrations that suggest the book is in six parts: Herbal, Astronomical, Biological, Cosmological, Pharmaceutical, and recipes.

2. The Tarim Mummies

An amazing discovery of 2,000 year old mummies in the Tarim basin of Western China occurred in the early 90s. But more amazing than the discovery itself was the astonishing fact that the mummies were blond haired and long nosed.

In 1993, Victor Mayer a college professor collected DNA from the mummies and his tests verified that the bodies were all of European genetic stock.

Ancient Chinese texts from as early as the first millennium BC do mention groups of far-east dwelling caucasian people referred to as the Bai, Yeuzhi, and Tocharians. None, though, fully reveal how or why these people ended up there.

1. Disappearance of the Indus Valley Civilization

The ancient Indus Valley people, India's oldest known civilization had a culture that stretched from Western India to Afghanistan and a populace of over 5 million. le—India's oldest known civilization— were an impressive and apparently sanitary bronze-age bunch.

The scale of their baffling and abrupt collapse rivals that of the great Mayan decline. They were a hygienically advanced culture with a highly sophisticated sewage drainage system, and immaculately constructed baths.

There is to date no archaeological evidence of armies, slaves, conflicts, or other aspects of ancient societies. No one knows where this civilization went.

Weightlifter's Hand Broken in Olympics

ALL THESE PICTURES ARE MADE WITH FOOD

Face up to the dark face of the moon in eclipse

• 

  EARLY risers — or all-night revellers — will be treated to a special sight tomorrow morning with a partial eclipse of the moon in the pre-dawn sky.

  From 5.36am the Earth's shadow will sweep across the moon's face, darkening part of the full moon.

  By the time the moon sets just after 7am, close to 80% of the moon will be obscured.

  Astronomical Society of Victoria spokesman Perry Vlahos said it would be "a magical sight for the naked eye".

  "The bright part will be very, very bright and the rest will be in very deep shadow," he said. "It will almost be black and white."

  Lunar eclipses occur at full moon when the sun, Earth and moon are perfectly aligned.

  Melbourne Planetarium astronomer Dr Tanya Hill said an eclipse was a unique opportunity to see the solar system in motion. "That's what I really love about them, it reminds us that we are on this journey through space."

  It is safe to watch a lunar eclipse and no special equipment is needed.

  Tomorrow's eclipse is best seen where there is a low, unobscured view of the western horizon. The Astronomical Society suggests beaches from St Kilda to the Mornington Peninsula.

  
  

  By : Chee Chee Leung

  • August 16, 2008

Interesting Facts to know...

1. Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person stop producing tears. Try it next time you chop onions. 


2. Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time. Indeed convenient! 


3. Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name. 


4. Male mosquitoes are vegetarians. Only females bite. 


5. The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle. 


6. To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe. 


7. Canadians can send letters with personalized postage stamps showing their own photos on each stamp. 


8. Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old. 


9. It snowed in the Sahara Desert in February of 1979. 


10. Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water. 


11. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. 


12. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave. Let's all try this tonight! Hihihi.... 


13. Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes. 


14. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. 


15. Everyone's tongue print is different, like fingerprints. 


16. Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the gut. It will pass through the system 
and be excreted. 


17. At 40 Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing. 


18. There is a hotel in Sweden built entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year. 


19. Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk right foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, rather than right foot, left foot. 


20. Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after a fatty meal. 


21. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.