10: The Mystery of the Keyhole Scientists can't seem to figure out why ancient
societies all over the world had a fascination with monuments in the shape of a keyhole.
Civilizations that lived thousands of miles apart and at vastly different times in history
all had an obsession with keyholes. For example, the Well of Santa Cristina
in Italy was built as a sacred site by the Nuragic civilization sometime around the 12th century BC.
It was crafted by remarkably skilled masons who had advanced knowledge of stone working.
Sadly, nobody left behind any written records of what the keyhole-shaped well was used for.
Archaeologists believe it had something to do with secret meetings and cultic rituals.
There was a larger site around the well, although the well itself was the focal point of the shrine.
It could have been a cult dedicated to fertility, or some kind of water god.
In Saudi Arabia, researchers recently found ancient tombs that are also quite old,
and a long way from Italy. Researchers with the University of Western Australia
surveyed the hundreds of key shaped tombs from a helicopter, shocked to see they make up a kind of
highway of the dead through the desert. In Japan, there are the Keyhole tombs,
undoubtedly the most mysterious. In Osaka alone, there are over 44 burial mounds each shaped
like a keyhole. They are truly massive, built between the 3rd century and the 6th century AD.
People of great social status were buried inside these megalithic keyhole tombs,
including Emperor Nintoku. But still, we don't know why the keyhole shape was so important.
According to Mr. Kurahashi, curator of the Sakai Museum, the shape is a symbol of power
and authority. Somehow civilizations from around the world all came up with the same
shape to represent something important. Now that’s a very interesting coincidence.
9: The Shugborough Inscription The Shugborough Inscription has been
baffling scientists for years. It can be found on the grounds of Shugborough Hall in England, an
inscription left on the Shepherd’s Monument from the 18th century. There is an engraving of Nicolas
Poussin’s Arcadian Shepherds, put up around 1748, and below it was a mysterious sequence of letters:
O U O S V A V V. There is no explanation, there's no meaning, and the best code
crackers in the world have never been able to figure out what the inscription says.
This was a pretty big mystery even in the 19th century. Some of the most famous minds of the age,
like Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens, tried to solve the riddle and couldn't. The only
person who's even come close is Keith Massey, a linguistics expert who was once recruited by
America's National Security Agency. He used his expert knowledge of Latin to fill in the blanks,
translating the code into English too, “I pray that all may follow the Way of True Life.”
This was something like a prayer that could have been written on Christian tombs.
While that does wrap things up nicely, not everyone believes it. One of the more
outlandish theories is that the letters are a hint as to the whereabouts of the Holy Grail!
Some say it was a surviving member of the Knights Templar who carved the letters
into the stone as a final clue as to where the grail can be found. If it ever existed at all.
8: The Taos Hum The city of Taos in New Mexico is a quiet
community famous for skiing and mostly populated by artists and creative people looking for a
laid-back lifestyle. Have you ever been there? Taos is also famous thanks to a strange
phenomenon that scientists have never been able to solve. It's called the Taos Hum,
and it just might drive you insane. The hum is just what it sounds like. It
was first reported in the 1990s by the residents of the town who described it mainly as a low,
droning hum that could be heard no matter where they went within the village limits. Some believe
the hum is natural, some say it's a psychological issue with the people who can hear it,
and some believe there's an underground base of aliens conducting experiments in mind control.
The first man to study the hum was Joe Mullins, a professor at the University of New Mexico. He
surveyed the residents of the town and found that about 2% could hear the hum. So, Joe set
up equipment in these people's homes to see if it could pick up what they were hearing with their
ears. His equipment picked up nothing. The only thing Joe found out was that each person described
the hum slightly differently, as a whirr, a buzz, or a literal hum. This puzzled researchers because
clearly, people were hearing something, but they were all hearing something slightly different.
To this day, science has never been able to explain the hum – although similar situations have
been reported in Borneo, Canada, and England. Do you think people are actually hearing something,
or is it all in their heads? 7: The Brazil Tablet
The Brazil Tablet was supposedly brought across the Atlantic Ocean in 1310 by Malian explorers.
This mysterious statue was left by the African explorers deep in the Brazilian jungle,
then eventually picked up by the English explorer Percy Fawcett many centuries later. The tablet
was described as having African pigment and features, clearly not made by any South American
civilization, and yet picked out of an unexplored region in Brazil near the Culuene River.
The figure on the tablet is dressed in the fashion of a sailor from the Mali Empire in Africa,
probably meant to represent a Malian royal traveling across the ocean on a boat.
The tablet implies that African explorers reached the new world far
before European explorers. Some say the Mali Empire not only reached South America
but also arrived in North America and built a settlement in the Four Corners area. The
presence of the tablet in the jungle suggests they had been exploring when the artifact was lost.
However, there isn't much more evidence to talk about. We don't even know where the famous Brazil
Tablet went after Percy Fawcett found it. It's nowhere to be seen today. Plus, there are no
archaeological remains of Malian settlements in the West. They definitely could have made their
boats and came across the ocean hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus. But if it's true,
the information has either been obliterated from the history books or the evidence has simply
gotten lost. What do you think happened to the tablet? Tell me what you think in the comments.
6: The Hanging Gardens of Nineveh For centuries, archaeologists and
historians have struggled to discover the truth behind the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Just like the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the hanging gardens were supposed to be one
of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But unlike the others, the gardens have never been
physically found. What I mean is that their ruins have never been uncovered where they
supposedly should be in the old city of Babylon. But here's the thing. Doctor Stephanie Dalley of
Oxford University says the gardens weren't located in the city of Babylon, but 300mi
(483km) away in the city of Nineveh. Stephanie also claims the gardens weren't constructed by
the famous Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, but by the Assyrian king Sennacherib.
Stephanie put forth the theory in 1992 and then spent 20 years piecing it together. Her main
piece of evidence comes from a bas-relief found in a palace in Nineveh, showing trees growing
from a great colonnade in the palace. Plus, the city of Nineveh was also known as New Babylon
once the Assyrians conquered normal Babylon in 689 AD. The whole thing could just be a
confusion between the two names. The whole point though is that scientists still don’t know if
the Hanging Gardens of Babylon ever existed – or where they were if they were ever real.
And now for number 5 but first wanted to say a big thank you to
Tactical Rhino and Andrew Jackson
If you are new here, welcome and be sure to subscribe to join the OE family!
5: The London Stone The London Stone has been identified
as a Druid altar, a Roman milestone, and has been standing in London since prehistoric monsters
roamed the land. In truth, this mysterious rock is a chunk of limestone seated in a glass case
in the Museum of London. Previously, it had been behind the iron grille of an office building from
the 1960s with a bronze plaque saying its origin is a mystery. And yeah, that’s true.
There are so many myths surrounding the London Stone that it's hard to talk about all of them.
Some say it was used by medieval kings and queens in ceremonies when they took control of London.
Another myth is that if the London Stone is ever moved or destroyed,
the City of London itself will crumble and die. The bizarre reality is that nobody knows where
the London Stone came from or why it's so important. It's just kind of there,
and always seems to have been. Some believe it’s the magical heart of London when it doesn’t appear
to be anything more than a brick of limestone. Why do you think the London Stone is such a mystery?
Give me your ideas in the comment section. 4: Proof of Atlantis
Depending on who you ask, Atlantis is about as real as Wakanda. Historians generally
agree Atlantis is a fantasy world created 2000 years ago by Plato, a Greek philosopher with a
very active imagination. And yet people are still searching for Atlantis as we speak.
One of these teams of researchers recently claimed that they discovered the exact location
of the lost city, but not where you might expect. This group of amateur archaeologists is called
Turangga Seta, and they're pretty hardcore about finding Atlantis. They believe the city is
submerged 322km (200mi) from the southern coast of Java in Indonesia. They arrived at this conclusion
by looking at codes left behind by the ancient Javanese. They looked at geological abnormalities,
traditional stories, and anecdotal evidence to come to their conclusion. This isn’t all that
scientific, and they haven't found any ruins, but they're confident Atlantis is down there. And if
it’s not, maybe it’s somewhere nearby, waiting to be found on the floor of the ocean. Do you think
Atlantis is real,or just a myth? 3: Jesus the Shapeshifter
In 2013, people started buzzing about a newly deciphered Egyptian text from 1200 years ago.
The text described Jesus as being a shapeshifter. Yes, it seems the ancient Egyptians believed Jesus
had the uncanny ability to change his shape. But perhaps what’s even stranger than what
was written in the old text is that all information about the study vanished after
the initial headlines. The story began to cycle through major news websites, then it was gone
and the study was seemingly abandoned. It seems like nobody wants to talk about how
Jesus may have been shifting his shape, or what the mysterious Egyptian text is talking about!
The text that was found was written in the ancient Coptic language by a distinguished
theologian named St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th century AD. He tells the story of the crucifixion
with one major plot twist. He says that Judas’s famous kiss following his betrayal of Jesus was
actually to make sure it was Jesus! Because he was known for changing shape, shifting skin tone,
and morphing between a young child and an old man. It's quite a curious situation. The text is 1 out
of 55 manuscripts discovered in 1910 in the ruins of the destroyed Monastery of Archangel
Michael in Egypt. The manuscript had been buried for about 1000 years by monks who had
stashed them in an underground stone vault. This is all very strange! What do you think?
2: Aztlan Aztlan is the mythical home of the Aztecs,
supposedly the land of the most ancient Mesoamerican civilization in human history known
as the Mexica. According to the Aztec legends, the Mexica left their home in Aztlan to find a new one
in the Valley of Mexico, in the area around modern Mexico City. Aztlan was supposed to be a luxurious
place situated beside a large lake, where all were immortal and the resources were abundant.
When they left this land, the Mexica found themselves in a terrible hell of thistle bushes,
horrible weeds, poisonous lizards, deadly snakes, and suffocating heat. Then they made
it to the Valley of Mexico and built their new city, later becoming the Aztec civilization.
What scientists don't know is whether Aztlan was a real place or not. But what we do know
is that there was a major migration of humans moving from northern Mexico and
the southern United States starting around 1100. This migration had the native people
moving through harsh scrublands filled with poisonous creatures and brutal temperatures.
They eventually settled in the region around Mexico City. This much of the story is true.
The biggest issue is trying to figure out where in the world Aztlan may have been.
It must have been somewhere in the United States, somewhere with moderate temperatures, crystal
lakes, and rich resources. But like Atlantis, we still aren't sure if Aztlan was even real!
1: Taming a Prehistoric Giraffe The Sivatherium is an extinct genus of giraffids.
Or in plain English, it was a type of giant primordial giraffe that used to roam across
India and Africa. It was one of the biggest land animals in history, looking like an okapi
but standing over 10ft (61m) tall. Most scientists agree, that the giant
giraffe began going extinct 7 million years ago in the Late Miocene period,
then was completely gone by just one million years ago. But there is a bit of a discrepancy. In the
ancient Kingdom of Kish in Iraq, there was an enormous animal that looked an awful lot like
a Sivatherium that was tamed and ridden by humans. At least, that's what the archaeological evidence
shows us. Archaeologists have found rock paintings in the Sahara of gigantic giraffes,
painted 8000 years ago. During an excavation in Kish in the 1920s, an elaborate copper rein ring
that was fixed to a chariot was discovered from 3500 BCE. It was shaped just like a Sivatherium.
It was incredible because most rein rings depict things like horses and ordinary camels.
But this one was unique, showing an enormous beast that couldn’t possibly have existed back then.
Or could it? This is what scientists can't figure out. We know that Sumerians tamed all kinds of
wild animals, even allegedly taming deer to pull their chariots. But they also seem to have tamed
wild massive giraffes. As unlikely as this, there is a sliver of a chance that some of these beasts,
just a few, survived until around 5500 years ago, and that the Sumerians
rode around on them like gigantic horses. Do you think the ancient Sumerians roamed around
on gigantic giraffes? Let me know in the comments and thanks for watching the video today! Be
sure to subscribe if you haven’t already to help support the channel. I’ll see you again soon, bye!