The world is a wonderful and sometimes even unknown place. Even today, our world still contains artwork, temples, and cities about which we know little. Their secrets have seemingly vanished in the proverbial mists of time. Indeed, thousands of years after their creation, there are still numerous ancient unsolved mysteries of the world. Here are some of them. 

Ancient Unsolved Mysteries Of The World

1.  What Exactly Do The Carnac Stones Represent?

Local legend has it that the megaliths known as the Carnac Stones are in actuality the totally petrified remains of a long-ago Roman legion that was turned to stone by the legendary wizard Merlin. Nestled in Brittany in northern France close to the village of Carnac, this 40-hectare area is home to almost 3,000 standing stones that harken back to between 3,000 to 4,500 BC. These hand-hewn granite stones are up to 6.5 meters high and had to be moved as far as 50 kilometers.  

Scientists and historians still are stymied. One theory is that they were ancient earthquake detectors. Others think they are calendars or astrological devices. Still, others believe the stones formed a temple honoring the dead. 

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Whatever Happened To The Denizens Of Angkor Wat?

French explorer Henri Mouhot discovered this forgotten temple complex in the Cambodian jungle (near what’s now Siem Reap) in 1860. The few locals knew nothing about it. Historians have determined that between AD 800 and 1401, this was once a great empire. Why was it left to fall to ruin sometime in the 1400s?

The temple was only a part of a large city. It was populated by the Khmer, the Hindu natives. The main temple was decorated with pictures of fighting and various legends written in ancient Sanskrit. Satellite images indicate the majority of the city is now under the jungle.

The city fell quickly due in part to battles with the Thai and Vietnamese. By 1450, the city was abandoned. Did the Khmer accidentally denude their only food source? Did a change in faith, from Hinduism to Buddhism, create a lack of unity and divide them? To this day, no one knows.

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Was Ages-Old Gobekli Tepe Really The Garden Of Eden?

Gobekli Tepe, high atop a ridge in southeastern Turkey, was constructed 12,000 years ago, near the end of the last Ice Age. Because it was founded so early in human history, some sources suggest it might be the actual site of the Garden of Eden.

It’s believed the area was once temperate and forested at a time when people were hunter-gatherers. Yet these people were apparently building rather elaborate temples complete with striking carvings at a time when saber-toothed tigers existed. While only a small portion of the site has been excavated, there are presently at least 43 large stone-walled temples.  

Incredibly, it was erected before the use of fire, pottery, the wheel, metal tools, and domesticated animals. The Bible notes nothing of buildings and says that Adam and Eve were banished and weren’t permitted to go back, so they couldn’t have built anything later. Still, Gobekli Tepe’s age makes it the oldest human site discovered.

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Why Is The Ancient Bent Pyramid Shaped Like This?

Pyramids are supposed to have a soiree base that rises up to a perfect point. So why does this particular pyramid slope roughly two-thirds of the way to its top? It was constructed under the reign of Pharaoh Snefru.

The pyramid has a simple square base and is 105 meters high. It has a pair of inner compartments that are connected via a narrow hallway. While the outside seems to indicate the lower section was built in the usual manner, for some unknown reason, the construction crew suddenly changed the specific angle of its slope.

Some suspect the sudden death of the ancient tomb’s occupant necessitated a quick conclusion to the construction. Maybe a nearby pyramid collapsed and made the architect aware of a design flaw. Perhaps this was an ancient prototype that provided builders with insight on how to erect the later pyramids.

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What Is The Secret Behind The Pictish Stones?

These ancient, enigmatic free-standing stones are located in Scotland on the eastern side of the country and north of the Clyde-Forth line. They date back to between AD 500 and 900 and include almost 50 hand-carved symbols of animals, everyday objects, and strange symbols. Before the Scots, the area north of Hadrian’s Wall was inhabited by the Pictish people.  

They had no known writing system. The stones may be mysterious tombstones, territory markers, or symbols representing clans or married couples. The stones may also be symbolic political protests against the then-new religion known as Christianity. Although the symbols might be the remnants of a symbolic writing system, we’ll probably never know.

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What Is The Story Behind The Plain Of Jars?

This archeological Laos landscape in the ancient Xiangkhoang Province. Here you’ll discover thousands of large stone jars between one- and three-meters tall dotting the plain. They may date back to the Iron Age, roughly 500 BC to 500 AD.

In the 1930s researchers found beads, bronze jewelry, ceramics, iron implements, and even human skeletal remains. Most of the jars, however, were empty. They may have had lids composed of perishable material.

They may have been used to hold water, served as funeral urns, or were meant to be memorials. Were the jars, which may be in up to 90 different sites, carved before or after transporting them? How the jars, weighing up to 30 tonnes, were relocated from a quarry eight kilometers away is another unsolved mystery. 

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Why Was The City Of Teotihuacan Abandoned?

This ancient, abandoned city is located 48 kilometers from Mexico City. It spans an area of 20 square kilometers. It includes ruined, deserted palaces, pyramids, sophisticated irrigation systems, and roads. 

Indeed, they were discovered deserted by the Aztecs in the 1100s who called it Teotihuacan. (In English, it’s “the place where one becomes a god.”)  There’s no written record regarding its past but it was reportedly abandoned circa AD 700.

Before that, however, it had been a thriving city with almost 200,000 residents. It featured the Pyramid of the Sun, the third largest on the planet, the Pyramid of the Moon, the Avenue of the Dead, palaces, and temples. No one knows why the city was abandoned.  

Could the soil have become barren? Was there a civil war? Were they attacked by other tribes? All we know is the original residents left following an unexplained citywide fire.

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Do Rivers Of Mercury Really Protect Emperor Qin’s Tomb Complex?

This massive mausoleum was accidentally discovered by a farmer Xi’an in Shaanxi in 1974. Specifically, he found human figures composed of terracotta. Archeologists still on-site believe there are 130 chariots, 150 cavalry, 520 horses, and an army of 8,000 soldiers.

Each soldier is unique but they all have swords and sophisticated crossbows. The army was created for the famous Emperor Qin Shi Huang who died back in 210 BC. He was the emperor who united the country.

An underground necropolis was created to memorialize him. The 98 square mile complex was protected by the army. While Huang’s tomb is in the center, the tomb remains sealed because of alleged booby-trapped weapons protecting the entrance as well as rumors of rivers of mercury around the tomb. In ancient times, the Chinese believed mercury gave one eternal life. The emperor drank it daily and probably caused his own death. If the tomb is contaminated, it would be dangerous to enter it. This looks like a job for Indiana Jones!

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How Does Notorious Newgrange Actually Channel The Winter Solstice?

On December 21st every year, a beam of sunlight shines into an opening at Ireland’s Newgrange Tomb in County Meath. It lights up the tomb’s floor and as the sun continues to rise it slowly covers the entire chamber in light. Somehow the neolithic farmers who lived 5,200 years ago were able to determine just how to position the construct accurately enough for this to happen.

Newgrange is a huge mound that is 13 meters tall,85 meters in diameter with a 19-mile passage and inner chambers. It’s surrounded by 97 large decorated kerbstones. Some think it was not only a place of burial but of worship. Only the elite was buried there.

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Why Did The Ancient Easter Islanders Turn On Their Statues?

Upon seeing the huge stone heads, or moai, on Easter Island in 1774 Captain James Cook wrote: “We could hardly conceive how these islanders, wholly unacquainted with any mechanical power, could raise such stupendous figures.” 

Polynesians arrived on this isolated volcanic island 3,200 kilometers from Chile sometime between the first and the sixth century AD. It is 11 kilometers wide and 23 kilometers long and includes almost 900 sculptures that have an average height of four meters. Some claim the moai once had coral eyes and were painted too.

Researchers have determined the scarlet top knots were added after the statues were erected. They also established the sculptures were always located near clean water and possibly were meant to give thanks for it. By 1701, only 600 people remained there and had begun to topple them. Did deforestation bring about starvation, civil war, starvation, and anger towards their old gods? No one knows.  

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 Just Why Is There A Huge Void In The Pyramid Of Giza?

Built roughly 4,500 years ago, scientists still debate about how it was built. In 2017, scientists discovered a hidden space 30 meters long. Now they debate the purpose of the space. Some think it was an inner ramp to move stone blocks. Others have suggested it was originally a hidden tomb. The truth may forever remain a mystery since the authorities in Egypt have not permitted archeologists to drill in order to access this Great Void. 

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What Is The Salzburg Cube?

Salzburg Cube was discovered in a foundry in Austria in 1885. It had a strange color, numerous cracks, and small holes in it. It was initially thought to be a piece of meteorite. An additional study proved it was actually something that had been artificially manufactured.  

The coal in which it was discovered was over 60 million years old. The cube was later believed to have mysteriously disappeared. Some believe it was part of a conspiracy theory while others think it was eventually discovered to be nothing more than a piece of rock and discarded. Despite its alleged disappearance, it is now reportedly on display in Vienna’s Heimathaus Museum.

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Why Is The Screaming Mummy Screaming?

The screaming mummy was discovered in 1886. Why does it have an agonized expression? Why, unlike most mummies, does it have all its organs intact?

Archaeologist Bob Brier believes the mummy’s facial expression is the result of being murdered, while an accomplice made sure the body was fully preserved. Other researchers think the scream is the result of poisoning or being buried alive. In 2008 National Geographic looked into the theory that the mummy was the son of Pharaoh Ramses III, Prince Pentewere, who was allegedly planning patricide.  

Ancient documents from the 1100s report that one of the Pharaoh’s wives found out about the plan, and poisoned Pentewere. Thus, the scream is a result of the pain from the poison. The simplest theory suggests the mummy’s jaw fell open when his head rolled back after death. 

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The Mystery Of The Hidden Shoes

In 2004, archeologists discovered something unusual during an expedition in Egypt. In an ancient jar in a little open space between a pair of walls, they found seven shoes. Specifically, four of them were children’s shoes, and the other three belonged to an adult that might have had a limp.

The jar of shoes had been hidden over 2,000 years ago. An expert in ancient footwear, Andre Veldmeijer, reports the shoes were in “excellent condition”, expensive and meant for the elite. He speculated there was some trouble and the owners, for reasons yet known, hid the shoes, fled, and never returned.   

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There are some questions that may never be answered. Even today, archaeologists and other researchers are unable to solve the mysteries left behind by some previous people. Indeed, here are 22 mysterious monuments from ancient civilizations.

The Pyramids of Giza

Located in Cairo, Egyptologists still can only speculate about this 4,500-year-old burial complex. How could ancient architects assemble these specific structures as high as 149 meters (459 feet)? How could millions of stone blocks weighing several tons even be moved several kilometers in the first place? How the builders could be so precise with such rudimentary tools remains a mystery to this day.

Pyramids

The ancient Egyptians built pyramids. But how did pyramids come to be built in both Mexico and Japan as well? How did people with such limited resources erect such impressive structures?
Was there once an internationally-known architectural method about which we now know nothing? Many theories have been posed and not all are scientific. Could they be the product of alien activity or a peculiar paranormal phenomenon?

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan is just northeast of Mexico City. Historians remain uncertain as to who built this 9.7-square-mile (25-square-kilometer) site. Scientists proved it the Aztecs did not construct this 2,000-year-old location.
They only “inherited” it. Additionally, Hugh Harleston, an American engineer, discovered that Teotihuacan is actually a model of our own solar system. The various buildings proportionally correspond to the size and position of the planets.

Tiwanaku

Located on a high-altitude plain in Bolivia, this pre-Columbian city is over 1,000 years old. Some believe it to be between 4,000 and 12,000 years old. Regardless of its age, researchers agree that it could be one of the world’s oldest cities. The impressive details of the stonework indicate that this was once the home of people who were ahead of their time.

Tiermes

Found in Spain’s Castile-León region, Tiermes is nearly entirely carved in the rock there. The ruins include city gates, a forum, homes, and an impressive aqueduct system. Researchers do not yet know for sure who built this city or even when. They do know that the Romans aided in the city’s economic development and that the Celtiberians, the Visigoths, and the Moors all passed through here.

Petra

Although this city was erected in the fourth century BC, this once important trading center in Jordan was forgotten before the eighth century AD. In 1812, it was rediscovered and deemed a UNESCO World Heritage site. Researchers still have questions. How were the inhabitants able to carve the entire town from the rock? How were they even able to have enough water in one of the world’s most arid areas?

Great Zimbabwe

Ensconced in the hills of southeastern Zimbabwe, this 2.7 square-mile (7 square-kilometer) ancient trade center was built by the Shona people sometime between the 11th and 15th centuries. In 1871 it was rediscovered by a group of European explorers. Some researchers theorize this was once the location of the biblical, gold-rich King Solomon’s Mines. Unfortunately, this theory quickly led to the ruins being pillaged.

Temples of Malta

Found in the famous Maltese archipelago, the megalithic temples of Malta are a treasure. The islands of Gozo and Malta include some of the planet’s oldest prehistoric architectural structures. These temples date back to somewhere between 4000 and 2500 BC. They are not only significantly elaborate in their design but are reportedly “advanced technical achievements” for that time period. They are included on the official UNESCO World Heritage list.

Newgrange

Situated north of Dublin, Ireland, the imposing Newgrange passage tomb is over 5,000 years old. It has a diameter of 2890 feet (85 meters). If you’re there close to the winter solstice, visit before sunrise. Watch as the sunlight passes through the opening on the mound and moves up the lengthy passage into the burial chamber. Witness the perfect alignment of the sunrise and the monument.

Stonehenge

The prehistoric rocks of Stonehenge, England, are world-famous. Some sources estimate that this place was actually used between 3700 and 1600 BC. Declared an official UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986, this architecturally sophisticated circle of stones remains a mystery. No one fully understands the significance of the location. Still, the mysterious monument reveals evidence of both Bronze and Neolithic Age mortuary and ceremonial practices.

The Stone Circles of Avebury

The famous Neolithic stone circles of Avebury in southwest England can be found 18.5 miles (nearly 30 kilometers) north of the famous Stonehenge in Wiltshire. They are reported to be the world’s largest prehistoric stone circles and important to contemporary pagans. UNESCO states that this huge henge indicates “the outstanding engineering skills which were used to create masterpieces of earthen and megalithic architecture.”

Silbury Hill

Not far from the above-mentioned stone circles of Avebury, is Silbury Hill. At 131 feet (40 meters) high, Silbury Hill is Europe’s largest prehistoric mound. While the actual purpose of the mound is still unclear, it was built roughly between 2400 and 2300 BC. They built it in 15 distinct phases. Archaeologists think the builders were focused not on the final shape but instead on their ritual of construction.

Glastonbury Tor

The Tor overlooks Glastonbury, in England. It is essentially a conical hill that is topped by an ancient roofless tower. The tower’s actually the vestige of a church from the 1300s erected on the actual ruins of a previous church. Some historians believe this may have been the myth-enshrouded Avalon where King Arthur’s sword, the fabled Excalibur, was forged. Archaeologists know this site was inhabited long before the historic Middle Ages.

The Carnac Stones

Located in Brittany, France, the mysterious exceptionally dense Carnac stones are almost 6,000 years old. More specifically, this monument consists of over 3,000 prehistoric stones that were carved from local granite and stood up by pre-Celtic residents. Most are in Carnac, but others are technically in La Trinité-sur-Mer. Why would thousands of stones have been lined up in descending size across 2,6 miles (almost 4 kilometers)?

The Externsteine of the Teutoburg Forest

The famous Teutoburg Forest is found in Germany. It is here that one can discover an important part of old Germanic history. Here you can see the Externsteine which is a group of standing sandstone pillars formed many years ago. Some researchers think this place was a solar observatory and others believe it to be a pagan place of worship.

The Giants of Easter Island

These mysterious monuments are found on a remote island off the beautiful coast of Chile. The residents of Easter Island created the huge stone figures and ceremonial platforms between the 10th and the 16th century. The massive busts are known as moai. UNESCO notes that there are about 900. To this day, researchers wonder about their significance, how they were created and how they were moved.

Uluru

The sandstone monolith is in Australia. It is 22,000 years old and overlooks a rugged plain. This 1,148-foot (350-meter) rock is said by veteran visitors to be exceptionally beautiful at sunset when it suddenly has a crimson glow. The Indigenous population considers the rock to be sacred and thus visitors are asked to not climb on it.

Mount Tai

According to UNESCO Mount Tai “was the object of an imperial cult for nearly 2,000 years” and “symbolizes ancient Chinese civilizations and beliefs.” Perhaps this is why it is one of the five mountains China deems to be sacred. The mountain’s ecosystem remains well-balanced despite the fact that millions of visitors climb 4,921 feet (1,500 meters) annually to reach the summit.

Notre-Dame de Paris

The world-renowned medieval Catholic Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in France has an air of mystery to it that has been a source of inspiration for animation, novels, songs and more. It recently celebrated its 850th anniversary and even weathered a major fire. Some historians still wonder about the symbolism of the numerous carved stone sculptures along its famous façade.

Mausoleum of the Qin Emperor

It was here near the city of Xi’an, China in 1974 when the famous army of terra-cotta warriors was discovered. They date back to 210 BC when they were created to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, in the afterlife. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, this tomb makes one wonder if each terra-cotta warrior actually represents a real soldier.

The Anasazi Cliff Dwellings

In the southwestern US between the first century BC and 15th century AD, the Native American Anasazi constructed their dwellings in the sides of cliffs. Archaeologists find the precarious location intriguing and remain uncertain as to why the ancient Anasazi suddenly abandoned their homes. Was it a drought, environmental degradation, or some other danger?

The Yonaguni Monument

Just 98 feet (30 meters) off the undersea coast of Japan’s Yonaguni Island, is the underwater pyramid. Discovered in 1985, today it is known to some as the “Yonaguni Submarine Ruins” while others call this stone pyramid “Japan’s Atlantis.” To date, this submerged pyramid-like formation still remains a mystery.

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