Bodies of water are by their very nature mysterious and creepy places; you can't see what's beneath
your feet, you never know who else might be in there with you, and if you were dragged
down your corpse would be pretty hard to find.
That's certainly the case with some of the places on this list, but we've also got tales
of lakes full of unique species, paranormal rivers full of mythical monsters, and weird
hobbit creatures living in an underground lake all for you in this, our list of seven
mysterious waters of the world.
Number 7: Lake Anjikuni Anjikuni Lake is located in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada,
and it's near here in 1930 that an entire village of Inuits disappeared seemingly overnight.
The village consisted of somewhere between 30 to 2000 people, which is a pretty broad
estimate if you ask me.
But when local trapper Joe Labelle wandered through in November 1930, he found not one
single soul.
Scattered food and weaponry indicated a large number of people had been there not long ago,
but nobody was around to explain what had happened, and the village's Inuit inhabitants
were never seen again.
The mystery deepens when you find out that several graves in the nearby burial ground
had been recently disturbed, that a pack of sled dogs starved to death just outside the
village, and other people from nearby villages reported seeing strange lights in the sky
above Lake Anjikuni around the same time as the Inuitsdisappeared.
Where did they go?
What were those lights?
And what would anyone want with the contents of an Eskimo grave?
Number 6: The River Thames There can be no doubt that London's River Thames contains
a fair few secrets beneath its waters, as at 346 kilometres long there's plenty of room
for artefacts and evidence to become lost in the murky depths.
London itself is nearly 2,000 years old after being founded by the Romans, and human settlements
have been established in this area for even longer, so who knows what treasures and terrors
may have accumulated over two millennia in the Thames?
Unexploded World War 2 bombs, an iron ball and chain and an old Roman sex token are just
some of the strange things that have washed ashore, but the two most common items which
turn up are Victorian garbage...and body parts.
Human remains wash up from the Thames at least once every week; with 2011's Voodoo Torso
story proving particularly unsettling.
It was later discovered that this headless, limbless body belonged to a five-year-old
boy apparently killed in a Voodoo ritual, and when this isn't the most famous torso-based
mystery your river has to offer, you know you're dealing with a pretty mysterious place.
That particular honour goes to the notorious Jack the Ripper, who is considered the prime
suspect for the Thames Torso murders of 1887 to 1889.
Over the course of two years, body parts belonging to multiple women were found floating in the
Thames, and with these cases overlapping with the deaths of Jack the Ripper's five confirmed
victims, you have to wonder if the Thames contains any more cadavers courtesy of the
elusive Victorian throat-opener...and indeed, if it contains any clues to his identity as
well.
Number 5: The Palawan Island River The Philippine Island of Palawan is a stunning tropical island
full of mysterious life that until recently was previously unknown to mankind.
One of the most shocking discoveries here was Nepenthes attenboroughii; a carnivorous
plant thought to consume rodents and small monkeys unlucky enough to fall inside it.
The plant was named after David Attenborough who has a keen interest in the species, with
evidence of his rodent and monkey consumption limited to the Planet Earth blooper reel.
And this place gets even more fascinating when you find out it's also home to one of
the world's longest underground river systems.
The Cabayugan River is part of a vast subterranean cave system over 24 kilometres in length,
with the river itself running 8 kilometres through a series of underground chambers.
This subterranean river was considered a mystical place for the island's native people, with
locals telling tales of huge aquatic beasts, gargantuan lizards, and dwarf-like humanoids
who called the cave their home.
It's certainly true that unique species have been found in this river and its surrounding
areas, with many more thought to exist further inside.
There have also been a few strange sightings of animals and remains of animals which technically
shouldn't exist here, so could there be any truth to those sensational claims by the locals?
I mean, if flesh eating plants live on this island pretty much anything goes right?
Number 4: The Devil's Sea Strange Mysteries is far too cool to do an entry on the Bermuda
Triangle, so let's instead take a look at its Pacific Ocean equivalent - The Devil's
Sea.
Also known as the Dragon's Triangle, this area of water off the coast of Japan has claimed
several ships and hundreds of lives over the past century, including a research vessel
sent out by the Japanese government to explore the phenomenon in 1952.
Japanese fishermen won't go anywhere near this area, and if you're thinking this fear
is a recent development think again.
The legendary conqueror Kublai Khan once reportedly lost 40,000 men while trying to navigate the
Devil's Sea, and records from both ancient times and the modern day include tales of
magnetic anomalies, disappearing vessels and strange flashing sky lights.
What is it with the flashing lights everywhere?
If someone really is coming to abduct our people you'd think they'd at least be discrete
about it.
It's literally the first thing they teach you in kidnapping 101.
That, and always keep the last piece of duct tape folded over.
Trust me; it's a real pain to find the end when you're trying to keep someone quiet.
Number 3: The Mariana Trench The Mariana Trench - not to be confused with the Marinara Trench
which is a subway sandwich I just invented - is the deepest part of the Earth's ocean,
stretching over 2,550 kilometres and sinking down an astonishing eleven kilometres into
the Earth's crust.
Found at the bottom of the Western Pacific Ocean to the east of the Mariana Islands,
this place is so deep that only four descents have ever been achieved, with two of them
manned and one of these a solo visit made by Avatar and Titanic director James Cameron.
Because of the paucity of visits we know very little about what exists at its bottom.
Well actually that's not true, as just a few months ago we realised we'd accidentally dumped
a bunch of garbage down there without knowing.
And it'll be just our luck if the stray rings from a six-pack strangled the last surviving
fish with cancer curing blood.
But if truth be told, there could be plenty of crazy creatures down at the bottom of the
Mariana Trench waiting to be discovered by marine biologists and Steven Spielberg probably.
But the few things we have already observed down there are pretty amazing, as they include
giant amoebas that are immune to most toxins, a bizarre new species of orb-like jellyfish,
another new species nicknamed the ghost fish, an under-ocean lake of liquid sulphur, and
hot vents spewing water and liquid carbon dioxide, around which new and exciting life-forms
may have developed.
There's also the possibility that the Mariana Trench is home to sea creatures several orders
of magnitude larger than anything we've ever seen.
Evidence in the form of scars on Killer Whales indicates that colossal Giant Squid lurk somewhere
in the ocean, and if Cthulhu was gonna pitch up shop anywhere, it's almost certainly going
to be the Mariana Trench.
Number 2: Point Pleasant The Silver Bridge was a road-bridge which once straddled the
Ohio River at Point Pleasant, connecting the states of West Virginia and Ohio.
But on December 15th in 1967 the Silver Bridge collapsed, killing 46 people in the process.
And while this incident was of course tragic, an unexpected consequence was that it brought
the end of an even more horrifying event - The Mothman visits.
The Mothman was said to be some kind of creature which was seven foot tall, barrel chested,
and had glowing red eyes and ten foot wings.
Hundreds of West Virginia residents claimed to have seen the Mothman between 1966 and
1967, but spookily these hauntings stopped as soon as the Silver Bridge collapsed.
So was the Mothman a real creature?
Was its home somewhere in the Ohio River?
Perhaps directly underneath the Silver Bridge?
Who knows?
But the area of Point Pleasant where the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers meet is a notoriously popular
place for paranormal rumours.
UFO's, ghosts, strange creatures and Government men in black have all been sighted in this
region, so is there anything else lurking in this river that we should know about?
Or was the Mothman it, and did the Silver Bridge tragedy put an end to this mysterious
creature's life?
Number 1: Lake Vostok Lake Vostok is one of the largest lakes in the world, but it's not
its size that makes it impressive; it's the fact that four kilometres down, beneath a
layer of ice, this freshwater lake has remained sealed off from the rest of the world for
over 15 million years...until some Russians punched a hole in it.
Vostok is a subglacial lake which exists beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, and until Russian
scientists explored it via borehole in 2012, the lake and its inhabitants had existed inside
a completely separate world to our own since the Miocene Epoch.
Further exploration of this isolated environment could give us clues as to the conditions we
might find inside the ice-capped oceans of Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's Moon
Europa, but first we're going to deal with the news that there are thousands of new species
living down here that we've never ever met before.
Samples taken from the lake contained the DNA of over 3,500 recognised species and more
than 10,000 species that were entirely new to us, with potentially new creatures, viruses
and bacteria all lurking down there ready to be discovered...and maybe destroy mankind,
we'll have to wait and see.
So that's our list, but if you're thirsty for more intriguing aquatic anomalies then
why not watch our recent video on the seven strangest things found in the ocean.
There's a weird purple orb that we still can't explain, so maybe you guys can.