6 historical mysteries that are unlikely to be solved

1. What is written in the Voynich manuscript

The mysteries of history: the Voynich manuscript

In 1912, the antique dealer Wilfrid Voynich bought a medieval manuscript from the Jesuit monks in the Italian town of Frascati. A typical manuscript, apparently, an alchemical or astronomical treatise, herbalist, or something else like that. Full of images of various plants, constellations, incomprehensible diagrams and naked women in the water. But there is one small problem.

The book is written in an absolutely incomprehensible language - it was not spoken in Europe at that time, and indeed in the world in general.

Plants drawn in the botanical section are not found anywhere in nature. The stars listed in the astronomical chapters are impossible to recognize. Recipes, alchemical compositions, schemes - everything is incomprehensible.

The text is gibberish that cannot be read. The alphabet of the book is found only in it - and it is not clear how it correlates with existing languages and whether it correlates at all. Although it was all written clearly by a professional scribe who knew the language.

It has been suggested that the Voynich manuscript is a forgery, but radiocarbon analysis indicates that it is in fact a 15th century manuscript. Paints, ink, parchment - everything is real, quite authentic. That is, it is definitely not a pseudo-artifact concocted on the knee.

In general, the Voynich manuscript has been stirring the minds of historians for more than a hundred years, but no one can understand where it came from, by whom it was written and what this rubbish actually means. By the way, you can flip through the pages here yourself - suddenly you will understand something.

It is not known whether we will find out what it is: an artifact of a civilization that disappeared without a trace, an encrypted book of a secret witchcraft society, or a book from another dimension, where the constellations, plants and architecture are completely different.

Or just a joke of a medieval cryptographer who created a meaningless manuscript (although the text in it looks quite meaningful) to sell to a wealthy connoisseur of magical treatises. Well, or in this way he made fun of future generations.

2. What really was the "call of Cthulhu"

In the summer of 1997, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recorded an inexplicable phenomenon several times - a low-frequency sound of unknown origin. The phenomenon received the unofficial name Bloop, from English - "Bulk".

At first it was assumed that he was published by a living being, but such creatures are still unknown to science.

This was indicated by 1.

3. some acoustic features of the Bulka. However, its power and loudness significantly exceeded the capabilities of some blue whales. If only some incomprehensible phenomena did not enhance the whale's singing and did not increase the range of its propagation.

It is also possible that it was a cluster of giant squids. NOAA also put forward versions that this is the noise of cracking underwater icebergs, a volcano, an earthquake or an underwater geyser.

An interesting coincidence: The Call of Cthulhu, by the American writer Howard Lovecraft, tells the story of a dead god with the head of an octopus, who sleeps in the underwater city of R’lyeh in the Pacific Ocean.

People who worship Cthulhu in the novel make human sacrifices and repeat the incantation: "In the depths of the waters under R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu sleeps, waiting in the wings." With the correct position of the stars, he will wake up, come out of the ocean and … it is not known what will happen to humanity, but clearly nothing pleasant.

Lovecraft accurately indicated in the novel the coordinates of the resting place of the Ancient - 47 ° 09 ′ south latitude, 126 ° 43 ′ west longitude. By a strange coincidence, the source of "Bulka" was located in the same part of the Pacific Ocean as R'lyeh from Cthulhu.

Well, Howard was mistaken for a couple of thousand kilometers, with whom it does not happen - he is a writer, not a geographer. But now cryptozoologists have a reason to believe that these are not squids or icebergs, but the snoring of the mighty Ancient.

Jokes aside, but the source of the phenomenon still remains a mystery, and the sound was no longer repeated.

3. Who is Jack the Ripper

In the second half of 1888, in London, a mysterious criminal killed, one after the other, five women engaged in prostitution in the troubled East End. The newspapers gave him the nickname Jack the Ripper.

The maniac dealt with his victims so quickly and unnoticed that a couple of times the bodies were found literally a few minutes after he left.

To this day, Jack the Ripper remains one of the most mysterious assassins in history.

Scotland Yard had many suspects, but the murders were never solved. The police received a couple of letters, allegedly written by a maniac, in which he sneered at the police. But it's unclear if they belonged to the Ripper or if it was a hoax.

Many guesses were expressed who the killer was - there were more than 100 suspects in total. Maybe he was a crazy surgeon who hated prostitutes, or an obsessed midwife who believed that with her murders she "cleansed the world of filth."

And there is also a crazy theory that Prince Albert Victor himself, Duke of Clarence, grandson of Queen Victoria, who just decided to have some fun - aristocrats are often bored. But over the years, we are unlikely to ever know the truth.

4. Where did the crew of "Maria Celeste" go?

Mysteries of history: the crew of the "Mary Celeste"

In 1872, a merchant brigantine named Maria Celeste set sail from New York to Italy. On board were Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife and two-year-old daughter, as well as seven crew members. They were carrying 1,700 barrels of denatured alcohol for sale.

Four weeks later, the aimlessly drifting ship was discovered by the Dei Grazia brig in the Atlantic Ocean. Not a single person, dead or alive, was found on it. The things in the cabins were laid out, as if people had just left for a while. No traces of violence, no fire. True, all the documents disappeared, except for the ship's log.

Sailor pipes with tobacco and food supplies were also where they usually were.

Everything indicates that the passengers and sailors deliberately left the ship, especially since the lifeboat was not in place. But what made them do this, why they didn’t take anything with them, why they didn’t leave notes and threw the logbook, remains a mystery.

Many hypotheses have been voiced. It was assumed that the crew had to abandon the ship because of an underwater earthquake, or they were frightened by some kind of water tornado, or they were attacked by a giant squid (although it seems far from gurgling Cthulhu), or something similar.

Some even explained everything by the fact that the sailors got drunk with denatured alcohol and staged a riot, but judging by the condition of the ship, they were rowdy somehow too intelligently. Although mass insanity has not been canceled either.

In general, the crew of the "Maria Celeste" disappeared without a trace, and no one has ever seen it again. And it is still unknown what happened there.

5. What happened in the Roanoke colony

Mysteries of History: the Roanoke Colony

There is an island in North Carolina called Roanoke. In 1585, a group of English settlers founded a colony there. And so it began.

A tribe of Indians lived in the vicinity of the settlement in the village of Akvakogok. At first, neutrality was maintained with them, but then the silver cup disappeared from the colonists, and the Native Americans were accused of this. The British were so upset that they burned down the entire village. And this, naturally, did not contribute to the friendship of peoples.

After that, misfortunes began to haunt the colony. The lack of food and the constant attacks of the Indians eventually forced some of the people to return to England. The head of the settlement, John White, traveled across the Atlantic to bring back a new batch of colonists and supplies.

He left 90 men, 17 women and 11 children on Roanoke Island, including his granddaughter Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America.

When White and the new team of colonists returned to Roanoke three years later, after much hardship, the entire population disappeared without a trace.

On the palisade around the village was carved the word CROATOAN, the name of a neighboring Indian tribe. And this is all that remains of the colonists.

Where they went is still unclear. Perhaps the village was attacked by Indians - but no signs of fighting, fire or destruction were found. Another version: the Indians, seeing the plight of the colonists, suggested that they voluntarily leave with them, and the British disappeared into the depths of the mainland and eventually assimilated.

More extravagant versions - mass insanity, the sacrifice of the inhabitants of the colony by the Indians, an attack by unfriendly Spaniards, an epidemic of an unknown disease, resettlement to the neighboring island of Hatteras, abduction by aliens from Tau Ceti and other hypotheses.

6. How Dyatlov's tourist group died

In January 1959, 10 tourists from the Ural Polytechnic Institute went on a ski trip in the Northern Urals. One of the skiers later left the route and returned home, and the other nine, including the leader of the group Igor Dyatlov, continued their journey and stopped for the night on the slope of Mount Holatchakhl.

There they froze to death. To this day, it is not clear how this happened.

Apparently, something made the tourists jump out of their tents in the middle of the night and leave the camp - without clothes or supplies. Further down the slope, they tried to make a fire in order to somehow warm up, but all died from hypothermia. The bodies of five were found by the rescue team a month later, and four more bodies were found only in May.

Versions of the death of the Dyatlov group were expressed 1.

2. an incredible amount - from 75 to 100. Most likely, the tourists had to leave the camp, fleeing from an avalanche or storm, but traces of these natural phenomena, sufficient to confirm the hypothesis, were not found.

It was also assumed that Dyatlov's group was attacked by a wild animal, for example, a connecting rod bear or an elk. Or they became victims of escaped prisoners, faced ball lightning, fell under the influence of infrasound of an unclear nature …

Not to mention the traditionally mentioned in such cases aliens, yeti and agents of the sinister KGB, who eliminated bystanders of their covert operations.

Be that as it may, the true picture of what happened remains a mystery.