What do you think about this?
In 1992, in a village in Zhejiang province in eastern China, a few farmers decided to pump out a pond they had always believed was bottomless. Days of pumping later, the water level dropped and revealed something no one expected. The pond was not a natural pool at all. It was the flooded mouth of an enormous man made cavern, carved by hand out of solid sandstone.
It was not alone. In the end at least twenty four of these caves were found beneath the small hill, each one a vast chamber with pillars, sloping walls, and ceilings cut with careful precision. The largest are the size of a cathedral. Every surface is covered in the same deliberate parallel chisel marks, millions upon millions of them, as if the stone had been combed. Together the caves represent the removal of nearly a million cubic meters of rock.
Here is the mystery. There is no record of them anywhere. Not a line in China’s vast and meticulous historical archives mentions who dug them, when, or why. There are no soot marks from lamps, no discarded tools, no inscriptions. A project this huge would have taken thousands of workers years to complete, and yet an entire civilization seems to have swallowed the memory of it whole.
Could it be that something so immense was built, used, and then deliberately forgotten, its purpose sealed underwater and out of every book?
An ancient quarry, a hidden storehouse, or something we have not guessed at all? What do you think the builders of Longyou were really making?
What do you think about this? The Abenaki spoke of something in Lake Champlain long before Europeans arrived, and Port Henry still keeps a sign counting sightings. In 1977 Sandra Mansi photographed a long neck and a dark hump, and no hoax was ever found in it. Log, or a real animal?
What do you think about this? In 1579 Francis Drake beached the Golden Hind somewhere on the northern California coast and claimed the land for England. Nobody can say which beach. A brass plate found in 1936 was celebrated for decades, then proved a hoax. Point Reyes, or somewhere else?
What do you think about this? Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, one is engraved on copper instead of parchment, and it is a treasure map. It lists 64 hiding places holding tons of gold and silver. Not one has ever been found. Real temple gold, or an ancient legend set in metal?
What do you think about this? On August 15, 1977, an Ohio telescope caught a 72 second burst from Sagittarius, 30 times stronger than background, right on the hydrogen frequency. The astronomer circled it and wrote Wow. It never came back. Fluke, or one word of a conversation?
What do you think about this? The Shroud of Turin carries a full length image of a man that behaves like a photographic negative, which nobody noticed until it was first photographed in 1898. Carbon dating said medieval. Nobody can explain how the image formed. Artwork, or something else?
What do you think about this? In December 1900 three lighthouse keepers vanished from a rock off Scotland. Door shut, meal uneaten, clocks stopped, one oilskin still on its hook, so a man walked into a storm without it. No bodies found. Rogue wave, or something stranger on that island?
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