Exploration mysteries

map of Lake Parime in colour

Exploration Mysteries: Lake Parimé

We’ve all heard of El Dorado. The fabled lost...
dead astronaut

Exploration Mysteries: Lost Cosmonauts

“Listen! Listen! Talk to me! I am hot!…oxygen…oxygen…am I...
black goo

Natural Wonders: La Mancha Negra

Imagine you are a child in the 1980s and...
old map of America

Exploration Mysteries: Norumbega

“Now from the North Of Norumbega, and the Samoed...
ancient city

Exploration Mysteries: Nan Madol

It is the place “between the spaces” — a...
A ship in a storm

Exploration Mysteries: The Devil’s Sea

In 1980, 19-year-old Peter Lambert was working aboard the...
Underground tunnel.

Exploration Mysteries: Lizard City Beneath Los Angeles

At the height of the Great Depression, a crazy...
mushroom cloud

Exploration Mysteries: The Vela Incident

By 1979, the Cold War had dragged on for...
illustration of thule

Exploration Mysteries: Thule

I first encountered the word “Thule” in college while...
A U.S. Navy ship

Exploration Mysteries: The Philadelphia Experiment

It is a cheesy B-movie, an iconic X-Files episode,...
Vampire grave with a sickle across the neck.

Exploration Mysteries: Vampire Graves

Robert Eggers' film Nosferatu has renewed interest in vampires....
painting

Exploration Mysteries: Belovodye

Picture a land free of politics and persecution. The...
crystal skull

Before Indiana Jones, There Were Other Crystal Skulls

I am prepared to risk it all by admitting...
a composite image of newspaper clippings

The Mysterious Mad Gasser of Mattoon (and What We Can Learn From Him)

Fictional mystery stories are nice and tidy — all...
photo with black space below and the Earth above

Exploration Mysteries: Black Knight Satellite

My grandfather and I had a daily ritual when...
Dighton Rock

Exploration Mysteries: Dighton Rock

Petroglyphs are hard puzzles to decipher. Despite a wealth...
a group of roman soldiers accost a black man in tribal garb

Exploration Mysteries: Did Romans Discover the Nile’s Source?

Ancient Greek historian Herodotus once called Egypt "the gift...
a view of mountains from the Missouri River.

Exploration Mysteries: The Yazoo Man Who (Might Have) Beat Lewis and Clark to the Pacific

When Lewis and Clark led the Corps of Discovery...
a man stands in a desert holding a microphone

Exploration Mysteries: The Hum and Other Unexplained Sounds

Seeing is believing, but what about hearing? Since the 1970s,...
missing kayaker head & shoulders

Missing U.S. Kayaker Faked Own Death and Fled to Eastern Europe

BY JUAN HERNANDEZ Ryan Borgwardt was reported missing on August...
ghost ship

Exploration Mysteries: Ghost Ships

“July 11th. At 4 am, the Flying Dutchman crossed...
One of the last photos of Paul Knutsen and Peter Tessem.

Exploration Mysteries: Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen

In 1919, Peter Tessem could not bear his chronic...
a black and white photo of two merchant ships circa 1940

Exploration Mysteries: The Ghastly Tale of the ‘Ourang Medan’

In June 1947, the American vessel Silver Star pulled alongside...
illustration

Exploration Mysteries: Did King Solomon’s Mines Really Exist?

In 1934, an archaeologist was digging in the Timna...

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