You know that we love some ancient mysteries over here at Top 5 Scary. After all - the truth is stranger than fiction, and we need only peer back through the annals of time to find some of the most mysterious and perplexing events that have left ancient scholars and historians scratching their heads- shrugging their shoulders and muttering - beats me - we’ll let those people in the future try and figure out what the hell happened. Well, thankfully for us - some of these mysteries are just too good to pass up, so - I guess we better take a look.
Today, we curiously take a look at the Top 5 Most Mysterious Unsolved events in History. For the Kicking off at Number 5 -
The Tomb of Antony and Cleopatra
Now, the legendary Roman politician and general, Marcus Antonius - alongside his kindred spirit Cleopatra, may well be the most notorious lovers in the history of our civilization, and although mountains upon mountains of literature have been written about their star-crossed fate - the real mystery of Antony and Cleopatra came after they had both slipped from this mortal coil.
Now, if you know anything about the RomanConquest of Egypt - you’ll know that around 30 BC, Mark Antony, and Cleopatra were not in the Roman’s best books, and a general known as Octavian had waged a long and bloody campaign to bring Cleopatra’s reign to an end - which he ultimately won, but sadly for us - that’s where the trail runs cold, with no leads as to the two lovers final resting place.
One of the greatest unsolved mysteries in antiquity is the exact location of the final burial place of Antony and Cleopatra - but according to several ancient historians, Suetonius and Plutarch to name a few - it was recorded that Octavian had permitted the two to be buried together - as their surviving children were taken back to Rome to be raised as Roman citizens. There are several leads that their tomb was located somewhere west of Alexandria - but numerous excavations throughout history have proven fruitless. However, they did come close - and between2008 and 2009, reports of the prestigious Egyptologist Zahi Hawass having found evidence of their fated tomb came to light. Although no concrete evidence has been unearthed- relics and memorial coins of the lovers have been found in small ceremonial tombs- perhaps pointing toward Cleopatra’s and Antony’s Tomb being somewhere in the vicinity. The excavation continues - but whoever stumbles upon the Tomb of Antony and Cleopatra will unearth one of history’s greatest mysteries.
The Sack of Baltimore-
And now, I love this particular entry - partly for its many layers and potential implications - but mainly for the fact that it’s a swashbuckling tale of chaos and carnage, that seemingly - came out of nowhere. On June 20th, 1631 - a small village namedBaltimore, in West Cork of Ireland - was randomly and viciously attacked - by pirates. Not just any pirates, though - but pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa, which at the time was synonymous with the ottoman empire. Now, if you couldn’t tell - that’s quite a distance. This incident would go down as the largest attack by Barbary Pirates in both Ireland and Great Britain - and seemingly, the target was a tiny village tucked in the corner of the Emerald Isle.
So, it posed the glaring question -- why? Was it just a random chance of opportunity after the pirates had drifted off course? Perhaps, but it’s not likely. See - the attack was led by a Dutch Captain, by the name of Jan Janszoon van Haarlem who had changed his name to Murad Reis the Younger- which if you can’t tell, is a bit of a curveball. But that curveball may have actually been thrown by someone else entirely. You see, despite being a small village, Baltimore was actually in the middle of a power-play. At the time, it was under the control of a Gaelic Chieftain - Sir Fineen O’Driscoll - but the nearby English colony of Cork, led by a man named Sir Walter Coppinger - also had Baltimore in his sights. History is unclear as to who pulled which string - but all signs point toward the bizarre pirate attack being orchestrated by someone else entirely, in the hopes of seizing power away from O’Driscoll. In fact - several texts have even suggested that O’Driscoll’s own relatives may have orchestrated the move - as they’d been exiled to Spain following defeat at the Battle of Kinsale. Whoever did it - overestimated the bloodthirst of the Barbary pirates - because following the raid, Baltimore was virtually deserted for several generations. The best-laid plans of mice and men.
St. John’sDance-
And, you may have heard mention of this one before - but perhaps not in this context. You see, it’s important that we note, that in modern times, St. Johns’s Dance - or St. Vitus’s Dance - is a terrible disease also known as Sydenham’s Chorea - that affects the nervous system and results in a series of hysterical jerking movement of the limbs, often exhibited in young children. Generally speaking, it isn’t infectious- but that doesn’t figure to explain the countless records of mass hysterical dancing that occurred throughout history, of literally thousands of people across Europe being afflicted by a manic need to dance. The earliest known outbreak occurred in the7th Century - and was primarily thought to occur during times of intense hardship - particularly affected the peasant and working class.
So, what - you’re a peasant in dark age Europe - and all of a sudden you just start dancing and can’t stop, somehow infecting the rest of your village, town or city - until there’s a horde of people doing the exact same thing - potentially collapsing from exhaustion or dying from a heart attack? Well, yeah. Because that’s exactly what happened. One of the most well-documented cases was 1518, in the Austrian city of Strasbourg - where a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing in the streets - and within a month, 400 people had joined her. Yeah, she danced for a month - and loads of people died. Now - there are many, many theories on the true explanation of St. John’s Dance - and scholars still argue as to whether it truly was a real contagious disease or merely a social phenomenon. One of those theories suggests particular fungi had infected their crops - and another suggests that it was all a misunderstanding, and St. John’s Dance was actually the practice of some secretive European cult. Yeah. Beats me guys.
The Remains of Richard the III
And this one, strangely enough - is the perfect blend of ancient mystery and potentially contemporary unexplainable intrigue. Because that’s exactly what you all came for, right? Also, I mean - this one is already pretty much solved, but it’s in the details where it’s mystery truly shines. We all know Richard III, right? A horse, a horse - my kingdom for a horse. But, well - apparently, this woman, ScottishAuthor and Historian, Philippa Langley - knew him a little bit better than anyone else did. Now, it’s important to note that history had long forgotten the final resting place of Richard the III, the last Plantagenet King of England - and after his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth - his remains were scattered to the winds of history. After all, history is written by the winners.
Well, let’s fast forward to modern times- when in September 2012, Philippa Langley led an excavation of a car park in Leicester city center. A few signs pointed toward it potentially being the ruined remains of Greyfriars Church - but in the words of Langley, she had a strange feeling - one that she couldn’t quite place - and something was telling her that Richard the III was buried beneath that very car park. Now, the dig team was on a very tight budget- and only had one chance at excavating a tiny portion of the car park. And guess what? The exact place that Philippa Langley had a strange feeling about - turned out to *be* the final resting place of Richard the III’sremains. And not only that but the parking space that he was buried beneath - was marked with a large painted R on the tarmac, used to signify a reserved parking space. I mean - all of this can be explained away, right? Eventually, someone would have found the remains of the dead King - but you can’t deny the fact that the strange cosmic coincidence that led Langley to his final resting place is much more mysterious than a dead English Kingin a car park.
The Tunguska Event
And I absolutely love this entry - for its cosmic significance alone, and the potential warning sign that we should all be wary of. Let’s head on over to remote Siberia - whereon the bright summer morning of 30th June 1908 - a massive impact explosion, the likes of which has never before been seen in human history - completely flattened a remote area of the Siberian wilderness - covering over 2’000 square kilometers of isolated forest.
As far as we know, no-one was caught in the blast - but if they were - they would have certainly been obliterated by shockwave1’000 times greater than that of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb. The Tunguska explosion completely flattened over 80 million trees in its blast radius - rupturing their roots like grass to a lawnmower. Fifty or so miles away - those native to the region were knocked flat on their feet by the blast - windows shattered and building subsided. For all intents and purposes - it was the result of unimaginable power - and if Tunguska had occurred over a metropolitan area - an entire city would have likely been flattened.
So, what was it? Well, the leading scientific consensus is that the explosion of the Tunguska Event was caused by the impact of a *small* asteroid- one that had possibly burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, and then produced a shockwave that resulted in the aforementioned cataclysm. However, not everyone buys that hypotheses- as many other researchers and scientists have proposed the Tunguska Event being the result of a leak of natural gas from deep within the Earth’s crust - that became ignited by a storm and resulted in the Tunguska hellfire. Most evidence though points toward Tunguskabeing the result of an asteroid - albeit, one that luckily somehow missed the vast majority of our entire populated planet. It’s also important to note that researchers believe Tunguska to be the result of a *small* asteroid, which is a terrifying thought in itself. It poses an incredibly important question- how would our history have been shaped if the Tunguska Event occurred somewhere else- what if it’s intended target had changed.
