Thursday, January 8, 2009
Why Was the Mary Celeste Known as a Jinx Ship?
The Mary Celeste had a strange jinxed history ever since the time of her launching in 1861. Her first captain died after only a few days in command.
Then she collided with another ship, damaging her hull and sinking the other ship. A few years later, she ran aground in Nova Scotia, and the man who tried to salvage her went broke.
She was finally put back in service, and in 1872, while carrying a cargo of commercial alcohol, she was found drifting and abandoned, for no apparent reason. There was plenty of food and water on board, and her cargo was intact.
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When Was a String of Beads Used as a History Book?
Even though the Indians in the eastern part of North America used the white, purple, and black beads made from shells mainly as money, or wampum, they also used them to record important happenings in the tribe. Wampum beads were strung on belts to record each event in a story, and served as a reminder of these events when the story was retold.
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When Was a String of Beads Used as a History Book?
Even though the Indians in the eastern part of North America used the white, purple, and black beads made from shells mainly as money, or wampum, they also used them to record important happenings in the tribe. Wampum beads were strung on belts to record each event in a story, and served as a reminder of these events when the story was retold.
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What Is the Mystery of the Lost Colony?
In 1586, fifteen Englishmen settled Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, to establish England's claim to the island. The following year, 117 additional settlers, men, women, and children, arrived, only to find that the original fifteen men had disappeared without a trace.
Then three years later, in 1590, an English supply ship came to Roanoke Island with provisions or the settlers, only to find the entire colony gone! The only clue they left behind was the wordy "CROATOAN" carved on one tree and the letters "CRO" on another.
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How Did Mystery Hill Get Its Name?
The huge stone slab at Mystery Hill in New Hampshire has long been a puzzle. Who put it there? Why? And what was it used for?
The slab seems to be the top of a stone table, which may have been the scene of animal or human sacrifice. The grooves along the edge of the slab may have been where the blood drained off.
Directly below the stone table a maze of underground caves opens into a small chamber.Anyone whispering in this hidden room can be heard very clearly above the ground.
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What Is the Puzzle of the Nazca Desert in Peru?
You would have to be in an airplane looking down on the Nazca Desert in order to see this Peruvian puzzle. A series of gigantic pictures and designs have been made by removing the dark topsoil and exposing the lighter yellow soil underneath.
The subjects are flowers, spiders, birds, snakes, and gods wearing halos. Some of the lines in these patterns are 40 miles long. Who made them? And why?
Scientists estimate that these gigantic pictures were done between 700 and 1500 years ago. The Incase say they did not create them, but that a race before them did. But who?
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How Did the Odd Circle of Rocks at Stonehenge Come To Be?
At Stonehenge in England stand huge stones, some as high as 24 feet, arranged in three circles, one inside the other. They seem to be in that pattern G for a reason, but until only recently, no one knew that reason. People could only guess that it was an ancient temple, which, according to radiocarbon tests, was built in 2200 B.C.
Then in 1966, Gerald Hawkens, an astronomy professor, fed the pattern of the stones into a computer and found the purpose of Stonehenge. It is not, as many believed, an ancient temple.
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What Is the Mystery of the Easter Island Statues?
Easter Island, a volcanic island in the South Pacific, is the site of a great mystery. Over 600 enormous stone heads, 2,000 years old, each carved from a solid piece of rock and with identical faces, stand over all the island. They rise from 10 to 40 feet above the surface and weigh up to 70 tons each. None of these heads has eyes, and none is complete.
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What Is the Secret of the Ruins at Machu Picchu?
Machu Picchu, in Peru, is called "The Lost City of the Incas" lost, because it was only discovered in 1911. The temples, palaces, stairways, and terraces of this ancient walled Inca city show that its people worshipped the sun and were amazingly accurate as astronomers.
One of the temples is so arranged that a wall of pure gold is lit up once a year when the rays of the sun shine through the doorway at exactly the right angle and hit the wall. That day occurs when the sun is farthest from that part of the earth
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What Is the Mystery of the Cheops Pyramid?
The ancient Egyptians buried their royalty in pyramids under millions of tons of rocks because they believed this would assure them of a life of peace and wealth after death, and an eternal life for their souls.
The largest pyramid ever built, the Pyramid of Cheops, or the Great Pyramid, in Giza, Egypt, was probably constructed about 5,000 years ago. But the mystery is, how?
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What Is the Riddle of the Sphinx?
The ancient people of Egypt, Greece, and the Near East all had legends about imaginary creatures with human heads and animal-like bodies. These people built statues of these creatures, called sphinxes, to guard their temples and tombs.
The sphinx in Greek mythology had the head of a woman and the body of a lion. She is said to have lived on a high rock outside the ancient city of Thebes and stopped all travelers passing by to ask them this riddle:
What goes on four feet in the morning, on two feet at noon, and on three feet in the evening?
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