19 Ancient Mysteries That Still Baffle Floridians and Experts
Americans are responsible for many of the world’s greatest discoveries. From the first plane to the first iPhone, American innovators are adept at creating new things.
Yet, when it comes to uncovering the past, Floridians and Americans across the U.S. are just as stumped as the rest of the world.
Our creative minds and innovative spirit are no better at figuring out ancient mysteries than our cohorts in the UK, France, Spain, or anywhere else.
It seems some mysteries of the ancient world are destined to remain unsolved. Often, the more we understand about them, the more questions we spark.
1: Nazca Lines
It wasn’t until humans took to the skies in the 1930s that they were able to see the enormous drawings etched into the plains of Peru.
Known as the Nazca Lines, the images include lines that stretch up to 30 miles, depictions of animals, and intricate geometric shapes.
Researchers have uncovered over 1,000 drawings, including a humanoid figure nicknamed “The Astronaut.” However, no one is able to explain their purpose.
Some believe they’re a solar calendar, others hypothesize they were part of sacred water rituals, and some even suggest they were to signal alien spacecraft.
2: Ark of the Covenant
Considered one of the Bible’s greatest treasures, Americans and many others have long sought the Ark of the Covenant.
However, the gilded case, said to house the Ten Commandments and the spirit of God himself, remains elusive.
Some claim it made its way to Ethiopia and still resides in the St. Mary of Zion Cathedral, though church officials will not permit anyone but a proclaimed “guardian of the ark” to see it.
Others believe it lies beneath the remains of Jerusalem’s First Temple. However, the First Temple’s remains are at the Dome of the Rock, a sacred Islamic site where excavation is impossible.
3: Stonehenge
Many researchers have dedicated their lives to understanding Stonehenge, and they’ve made great progress, but secrets still remain.
The ancient European monument dates back to before the Bronze Age and was likely used as a burial site.
Researchers also know where the stones came from (the Preseli Hills of Wales), but they’ve yet to uncover the full significance of the monument.
Why it’s positioned the way it is, what sort of ceremonial significance it had, and what the people who built it believed remain mysteries.
4: Voynich Manuscript
Neither Alan Turing nor the FBI could solve the case of the Voynich Manuscript. Discovered in 1912 by a rare book dealer named Wilfrid Voynich, the manuscript supposedly came from an ancient castle.
The document is filled with strange images, including depictions of fictitious plants and undressed women. And its language is unrecognizable to anyone living today.
Over the years, many have claimed to crack the code, but their claims have been met with serious skepticism.
If you’re interested in tackling it, Yale University has made the manuscript public.
5: Easter Island
Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen first wrote about a strange and isolated island on which thousands of giant statues stood. He saw it on Easter Day, which gave the island its common Western name, Easter Island.
Known by the locals as Rapa Nui, the South Sea island’s iconic moai statues have intrigued researchers and scholars for centuries.
They stand thirty feet tall, and some weigh more than 80 tons.
Though the descendants of the statues’ creators still live on the island, mysteries abound. Archeologists, anthropologists, and explorers have yet to agree on how the statues came to be.
6: Cleopatra’s Tomb
We know a lot about Cleopatra, the ancient Egyptian queen. We know about her relations with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
We also know she committed suicide after her and Mark Antony’s defeat at the Battle of Actium.
Yet, despite all we know about Egypt’s last queen, the site of her tomb remains a mystery.
She and Mark Antony were supposedly buried together, but their tombs have never been found.
7: Caesar’s Supposed Son
Julius Caesar and Cleopatra had a well-known affair, which, according to Cleopatra, led to the birth of a child whom she named Caesarion. If true, Caesarion would be the only son of the great Roman leader.
Caesar never denied the child’s paternity, and after Caesar’s death, Marc Antony formally recognized him as the son of Julius Caesar.
Still, many other prominent figures disbelieved that Caesarion was actually Caesar’s child.
They argued that Cleopatra was using the child’s paternity to ensure the protection of Roman leaders, which she needed to maintain her rule.
8: Alexander the Great’s Tomb
Archeologists have long sought Alexander’s lost tomb, but it remains to be found. Historians are sure that Alexander the Great died at age 32 after conquering Persia and Egypt.
After his death, he was buried in Memphis, Egypt, originally, but he didn’t stay there.
Ancient people moved his tomb to Alexandria where it was frequented and venerated as if it housed a god.
However, a tsunami hit the city in 356 A.D., and the rising sea levels that followed led Alexandria to sink, forever hiding the tomb of Alexander the Great.
9: Atlantis
Plato was the first person to mention the lost city of Atlantis in his dialogues “Timaeus and Critias.”
He described it as an advanced civilization that existed long before Plato walked the earth.
While some argue that Atlantis is purely fictional, others theorize that it may have been real.
They point to legitimate natural disasters that could have sunk a city into the sea. However, it’s likely that we’ll never really know if Atlantis was a real city.
10: Paracas Candelabra
To the north of Peru’s famous Nazca Lines sits another massive geoglyph called Paracas Candelabra.
The unique trident-like shape is over 600 feet tall.
No one knows exactly how old the hillside image is or what its purpose was.
Theories include that it may depict the creator god’s trident or that it was used to help sailors navigate the nearby seas.
11: Antikythera Mechanism
In 1901, humans discovered an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece.
Among the treasures found on board was the Antikythera Mechanism, also called the world’s first computer.
The complex system of dials and gears could predict astronomical events, but how humans created it in 150 BC remains a mystery.
The advanced piece of technology doesn’t fit with what we know about the time, and nothing like it would appear in the known historical record for thousands of years.
12: The Birth of Jesus
There are many mysteries surrounding the ancient figure who launched one of the world’s largest religions.
Some say he didn’t exist at all, while others devote themselves to the search for concrete evidence of Jesus’s life. One detail researchers have long been trying to uncover is his birthdate.
The Christian church celebrates Jesus’s birth on December 25th, but it’s unlikely that he was actually born then. The Roman Catholic church likely chose the 25th to coincide with the solstice and pagan holiday, Saturnalia.
Scholars have tried to pinpoint Jesus’s real birthdate using other biblical clues, but they remain stumped.
Some believe he was born in June of 2 B.C., while others say it was October of 7 B.C. We will likely never know for sure.
13: Plain of Jars
Why do thousands of moss-covered jars sit along the mountains of northern Laos? It’s impossible to say.
What we know is that some of them are over ten feet tall and date back to the Iron Age.
Legend has it that the jars belonged to a race of giants who used the huge vessels as wine goblets. Researchers believe they were more likely to be funeral urns, but questions remain.
Archeologists can’t explain how the jars got there or tell us much about the civilization that must have created them.
14: Holy Grail
The Holy Grail refers to the cup that Jesus drank from during his Last Supper, the final meal with his disciples before his crucifixion. Ancient lore suggests that drinking from the cup offers eternal life.
However, the Holy Grail’s whereabouts remain a mystery.
The first quest for the Holy Grail to be recorded was in 1180, and many adventurers and religious acolytes have attempted to find it since.
Some claim to have it in their possession, though the authenticity of their artifacts has never been proven.
15: Lost Land of Punt
In 2022, researchers made headlines for uncovering what could be the Lost Land of Punt.
Whether it’s truly the fabled land that ancient Egyptians used to trade with will probably never be known.
The Land of Punt traded gold, leopard skins, and other luxuries with ancient Egyptians for over a century. However, researchers had long disagreed on where Punt was in the ancient world.
Determining where Punt was located, though, could help unlock the trading paths used by the ancient world.
16: Guanabara Bay
At least one explorer, Robert Marx, believes the Romans were the first Europeans to reach Brazil, some 1,000 years before the Portuguese did.
Marx discovered a large number of Roman amphoras nestled in the sand off the coast of Rio.
Whether the Marx’s claim is true or not remains a mystery. Shortly after making his discovery, the Brazilian government banned him from the country.
They accused him of looting and forced him to halt all underwater exploration off their coast.
17: Terracotta Army
Next to the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huan, sit 8,000 life-size terracotta soldiers.
Each one is intricately carved with unique facial expressions and eerie, life-like details.
No one knows how the artists of the day managed to create such perfect replicas of human soldiers.
Researchers also can’t figure out where the kiln they used to fire them was located, as they’ve yet to find evidence of anything large enough.
18: Gobekli Tepe
Gobekli Tepe, dating back to 9600 BC, is shrouded in mystery.
The complex carved pillars, with their intricate designs, wouldn’t be so difficult to explain if they didn’t predate our understanding of the establishment of agriculture.
Many believe Gobekli Tepe was a ceremonial or religious site used by ancient nomadic tribes, but others suggest it could be evidence of a more advanced early society.
Regardless, the site’s builders appear to have prioritized its construction over other tasks, which may show that community and ceremony were important to even the earliest human societies.
19: Great Sphinx
Unlike the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Sphinx isn’t a tomb. Its reason for existence and the person depicted by its great face remain unknown.
Though many scholars believe the face is of the Pharoah Khafre, others refute that idea.
And while some say the Sphinx was built as a protector of the other pyramids, others believe it has more significance than that and may have played an astronomical or religious role for early societies.
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