Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places

Most of the time, we travel to acquire knowledge, to gain a better understanding of a part of the world, its people, culture and history. On the other hand, sometimes it’s even better to marvel at the many unsolved mysteries, unexplained wonders and enigmatic phenomena of the world. Prepare to be amazed by these places that are as baffling as they are beautiful.

By Fiona Brutscher

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Stonehenge, England – A mystery hiding in plain sight, this Neolithic stone circle is so enshrined in popular culture, it’s easy to forget how little is actually known of its original purpose and the construction methods used. The discovery of human remains point to an ancient burial ground, while animal sacrifices could signify a religious function, and the alignment with the sunrise and sunset of the summer and winter solstice indicates some astronomic significance. Theories abound, but there is no universally agreed explanation. Whatever it was used for, it was an important site for centuries, and it continues to inspire. english-heritage.org.uk

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Moai Statues, Easter Island – Probably the most famous and enduringly fascinating man-made mysteries are the giant monolithic figurines adorning the remote Polynesian island 3,500 kilometres off the coast of Chile. Known as Moai to the Rapa Nui people who built them over 700 years ago, the roughly 900 statues are thought to represent deceased ancestors or important chiefs. Their legends tell of the Moai walking to their destinations, inspired by divine power – and at this stage, that explanation is as good as any of the unverified modern theories explaining how the colossal stone slabs, up to 10 metres high and 82 tonnes heavy, might have been transported. The only texts that may provide insight have never been deciphered. whc.unesco.org

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Stone Spheres, Costa Rica – There are several layers of mystery surrounding these more than 300 spherical stones (or, as the locals would have it, balls) found in 3 World Heritage-listed sites. Specifically: Who? Where? …And why? Little is known of the Precolumbian Diquis people whose culture was lost after the Spanish conquest of Costa Rica. Most of the stones were moved and many damaged in agricultural clearing in the 1930s, so it’s hard to determine their original locations and alignment. Those stones that remain on their original sites seem to be placed in lines pointing towards certain locations, but any theories about their original significance remain speculative. whc.unesco.org [Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Hessdalen Lights, Norway – Researchers can at least touch, examine, measure and revisit monoliths, sculptures and stone spheres, even if they remain mysterious. They can’t do the same with the as yet unexplained eerie lights that appear periodically in the Norwegian Hessdalen Valley. Sightings of unusual, colourful moving lights in the night sky were already reported a century ago, possibly even earlier, but reports peaked in the 1980s. Since then, Project Hessdalen has been monitoring the lights, and since 1998 an Automatic Measurement Station (AMS) has been documenting occurrences, capturing photographic evidence and trying to find scientific explanations. The fact that, almost 20 years later, they still haven’t arrived at a satisfactory conclusion is all the proof some UFO theorists need that extraterrestrial activity is to be blamed. hessdalen.org

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Skellig Michael, Ireland – The jagged rock in the wild Atlantic, off the West Coast of Ireland, features in early Celtic legend and Christian fables, but the actual, real history of the monastery built in this forbidding place is still very much shrouded in mystery. Around the 7th century, a small group of ascetic monks rowed 12 kilometres to the larger of the two Skelligs and proceeded to build a settlement there – entirely by hand, out of stones found on the island. The monastery remained in use until the 13th century, but little is known of the monks who lived there and their reasons for choosing this hermitic life. The most recent hermit to seek refuge here – Luke Skywalker, as per Star Wars Episode 7 – is unlikely to shed any light on these questions. whc.unesco.org [Photo: styrovor/Flickr]

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Oak Island, Canada – Man-made structures don’t have to be ancient or imposing to pose seemingly unsolvable riddles. The so-called Money Pit on a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia may be something as banal as a natural sinkhole. On the other hand, it is rumoured to be an elaborately constructed, booby-trapped hiding place for anything from pirate loot or a Knights Templar treasure (like the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, because why not?), to the lost jewels of Marie Antoinette and manuscripts revealing the true identity of William Shakespeare. Numerous prominent Americans, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Errol Flynn and John Wayne, visited Oak Island or invested in treasure hunting expeditions, adding even more to the popular appeal of the mystery. oakislandtours.ca

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Giza Pyramids, Egypt – The most tantalising mystery is one that’s close to being unravelled. When Operation Scan the Pyramids concludes at the end of 2016, we might know a lot more about how the iconic tombs were constructed and what lies behind their thick walls. The project, initiated by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and coordinated by Cairo University, is using non-destructive technologies like thermography and radiography to unlock the secrets of the only surviving wonder of the ancient world. Scans have already detected temperature differences indicating hidden chambers. We may soon find out if modern science can reveal what’s concealed inside. scanpyramids.org

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Nazca Geoglyphs, Peru – One thing needed to understand the giant figures and lines created by the Nazca civilisation is imagination; because we can marvel at the precision of the humanoid, animal and geometric designs from above, we simply can’t imagine how they were made by a civilisation that had no access to aeroplanes or satellite imagery. As always, when Planet Earth presents humanity with a mystery, many people have chosen to assume that aliens must have covered a 450-square-kilometre area in the Peruvian desert with these geoglyphs. Scientists, on the other hand, agree that the lines were scratched into the ground by indigenous people over a thousand-year period between 500 BC and AD 500. How exactly they did it, however, may never fully be understood. whc.unesco.org [Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Göbekli Tepe, Turkey – Touted as the oldest temple in the world, this archeological site has already yielded remarkable discoveries, despite the fact that only a fraction of the existing structures have been uncovered. If current scientific assumptions are correct, the huge pillars, weighing up to 20 tonnes, were created and moved over 13,000 years ago, in order to build a site serving some form of sacred function. That would mean the development of human societies unfolded in a different sequence of events than previously assumed, indicating that hunter-gatherers were already capable of organising labour on a large scale and working towards a common goal well before the advent of settlements or farming communities. gobeklitepe.info [Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Plain of Jars, Laos – Excavations and research on this vast plain dotted with 3,000 or more giant megalithic stone jars have been hampered by the threat of unexploded cluster bombs, remnants of the Laotian Civil War. A first theory that the jars, up to 3 metres in diameter, may be Iron Age burial or cremation pods, was formed in the 1930s. Even though recent research (part of an ongoing 5-year project) seems to at least support the notion that the site served as a burial place, the precise function of the jars in this scenario remains unknown. However, extensive bomb-clearing has made the Plain of Jars a lot safer – and less mysterious. unescobkk.org [Photo: Nick Hubbard/Flickr]

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Mayan Ruins, across Central America – The hundreds of Mayan ruins found in today’s Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico are admired for their imposing structures, elaborate decorations and sometimes simply their sheer size. However, what lends them an enduring air of mystery is the rapid decline of such a large, advanced, complex society, capable of bringing forth these cultural artefacts and edifices still found across Central America. The fate of the Mayans is often used to illustrate that even the biggest, most powerful and seemingly stable societies can fall apart… without even leaving any indication of the reason for their demise. whc.unesco.org [Photo: EliM111/Flickr]

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Eternal Flame Falls, New York – An eternal flame burning behind a cascading waterfall? If you think that sounds like a clever parlour trick, you’re not entirely wrong. The dancing flame seemingly encased in water doesn’t self-ignite. If and when it’s extinguished, it belies its name and has to be re-lit. However, even if – at first glance – the mystery of the flame is easily explained by natural gas deposits below the falls seeping out and being set alight by humans, scientists are still unable to explain how the natural gas is produced. Although there are dozens of other naturally fuelled flames all over the world, this one in upstate New York may well turn out to be the only one of its kind. erie.gov [Photo: Kim Carpenter/Flickr]

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

Yonaguni Monument, Japan – It’s hard to imagine that a striking, fantasy-inducing underwater structure located at a popular dive site off the coast of one of the world’s most densely populated countries has barely been researched. Although the so-called monuments submerged in the ocean near Yonaguni Island are fascinating to behold, there is no consensus on their origin. The scientific explorations conducted to date have been superficial and led to opposing conclusions. Without further investigation, there’s no knowing whether the beautiful formations were created by humans or by the sheer forces of the ocean. Neither explanation would detract from their uniqueness. jnto.go.jp [Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---

The Site of the City of Troy, Turkey – Before the mysteries of Troy can be uncovered, we first need to know which current archeological site was once the city immortalised in Homer’s Iliad. Until the late 19^th century, it was assumed that all events, as well as the city described in the epic poem, were purely fictional. However, a historic site excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in Turkey quickly became the widely accepted location of Troy, and it is now assumed that events like the siege of Troy were at least based in reality. Still, there’s no agreement on which of the several layers uncovered was the settlement where Helen of Troy may have walked or, indeed, whether the currently accepted location is the correct one at all. whc.unesco.org [Photo: David Holt/Flickr]

Travel

---

The World’s 14 Most Mysterious Places.

---