10 Historical Mysteries That May Never Be Solved

The Oak Island Pit

It's no secret that there are millions of dollars in unclaimed treasure out there somewhere - hell, the oceans are full of sunken ships carrying a king's bounty. But one of the most enduring treasure mysteries of all time is on a tiny island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Oak Island is the home of what is colloquially called the "Money Pit," an impossibly deep hole discovered in 1795. Over two centuries of excavation have revealed man-made markings and construction as deep as 90 feet, plus a "cipher stone" that alleges the presence of great wealth down there. Considering that we're no closer to finding out who dug the pit and why after 200 years of searching, it's unlikely that we ever will.

The Voynich Manuscript

We like to think that modern science has a pretty good grasp on the past, but there are still some things that have us totally befuddled. Case in point: the Voynich Manuscript. Purchased by rare book dealer Wilfrid Voynich in 1912, it looks normal at first glance - a 15th century treatise on herbalism with colored ink drawings of plants. But look closer and the weirdness starts to emerge. Many of the plants pictured aren't like anything on Earth, and the text is in no known language. Although there are some similarities with Greek and Latin, the Voynich Manuscript has resisted all known attempts of translation. Many theories exist as to the provenance of the document, but we may never know for sure.

The Confederate Treasury

One of the most enduring and bizarre mysteries of the American Civil War is the final fate of millions of dollars worth of silver from the Confederate treasury. As the Union began its final path to victory, Confederate treasurer George Trenholm liquidated the South's assets, with some saying that he passed them off to a group called the Knights of the Golden Circle to hide until the South could rise again. When President Jefferson Davis abandoned Richmond in April 1865, his men carried nearly a million dollars in gold, silver and jewels, but when he was captured just six weeks later Davis had only a few Confederate banknotes. One of the biggest lost investments was 39 kegs of Mexican silver coins weighing more than 9,000 pounds, which disappeared without a trace as the Confederate army retreated.

The Taman Shud Case

Dead bodies are discovered every day, but few capture the imagination quite as much as the unidentified corpse known as Somerton Man. On December 1st, 1948, a Caucasian man in his mid-40s was found dead on Somerton Beach in Australia. Coroners could discern no cause of death. The next year, a suitcase presumably belonging to the dead man was found in a train station locker, complicating matters further. But the big twist came when a tiny piece of paper was found in a secret pocket sewn within the man's pants. On the paper was printed "Tamam Shud," which translates in Persian to "finished." The paper was ripped from a first edition copy of "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" that was later found in a man's car. In that book were written four lines of a mysterious cipher that has yet to be cracked. There are so many bizarre layers to this story that over 60 years later we're no closer to an answer.

Taos Hum

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head? It can be pretty annoying. Now imagine if it wasn't a song, but a relentless humming noise. That's what as many as 10 percent of the residents of Taos, New Mexico hear all day long. Described by sufferers as a persistent low-frequency vibration, it has also turned up in England, Canada and New Zealand. The aggravation caused by the noise has driven several people to suicide. Scientists still have no idea what causes it, with several theories including tinnitus and otoacoustic emissions being discarded.

MV Joyita Disappearance

The ocean is home to many mysteries and wonders, but an equal number of dangers. The crew of the MV Joyita, a charter boat sailing from Samoa to the Tokelau Islands in 1955, learned that to their everlasting horror. The voyage was supposed to take a little under two days, but the Joyita wasn't found until five weeks later, floating in the Pacific. The ship's clocks were stopped at 10:25 PM but it was still floating. One of the boat's engines was covered with mattresses, and there was no sign of the crew or passengers. They'd all vanished without a trace. No bodies were ever recovered, and dozens of theories have been advanced as to why the captain and crew would abandon a damaged but perfectly seaworthy boat and disappear.

The Stone Spheres of Costa Rica

Ancient people did all kinds of weird things, but the Diquis people of Costa Rica have us all flummoxed. Their most enduring legacy is about three hundred spherical sculptures, ranging in size from a few centimeters in diameter to over six and a half feet, with a top weight of almost fifteen tons. Carved from gabbro, a coarse-grained basalt, as well as sandstone and limestone, the massive spheres serve no practical purpose and are far too heavy to be moved without machinery. When United Fruit Company workers discovered them in the jungle in the 1930s, they thought they might be filled with gold and drilled a few of them open before giving up. The native mythology calls them the cannonballs of Tara, the god of thunder, but that doesn't help much.

The Baghdad Battery

The discovery of electricity is commonly credited to Benjamin Franklin and his kite, but experiments with the force go back hundreds of years before that, with scientists all over Europe finding ways to pull charge out of a variety of materials. The Baghdad Battery, though, hint at scientific advances in that department from before the birth of Christ. These clay pots contain galvanized iron nails wrapped with copper sheeting, and archaeologists theorize that an acidic liquid was used to generate an electric current inside the jar. What that current was used for is a complete mystery, as no historical records exist from that time. Some people theorize that they might have been used for electroplating objects, but no physical evidence of that exists either.