The Tunguska eventA blast over the Siberian taiga flattened millions of trees across 2,150 km² of forest, yet left no crater.Strange eventsMostly solvedMysteries
Unexplained mysteries, mapped
13 strange events, places, lights and vanishings, from the Tunguska blast to the Dyatlov Pass and the lost colony of Roanoke. Every theory gets an honest rating, from best fit to ruled out.
Strange events
Blasts, deaths and happenings nobody could explain at the time
The Tunguska eventA blast over the Siberian taiga flattened millions of trees across 2,150 km² of forest, yet left no crater.Strange eventsMostly solved
The Dyatlov Pass incidentNine experienced ski hikers cut their way out of their tent on a Ural mountainside and died in the snow.Strange eventsMostly solvedStrange places
Valleys, islands and stretches of sea with a reputation
The Oak Island Money PitTreasure hunters have dug on this Nova Scotia island since the 1790s, and nobody has found the treasure.Strange placesDisputed
Nahanni's Headless ValleyA wild river valley where prospectors were found headless, leaving names like Deadmen Valley and the Funeral Range.Strange placesLegend
The Bermuda TriangleThe patch of ocean said to swallow ships and planes, a legend that began in a 1950 newspaper article.Strange placesMostly solvedMystery lights
Glowing lights that come back to the same spot
The Brown Mountain lightsNorth Carolina's famous ghost lights, which a government scientist traced to trains and headlights in 1922.Mystery lightsMostly solved
The Hessdalen lightsGlowing balls of light that float, hover and race through a Norwegian valley, watched by an automatic research station.Mystery lightsUnexplainedSounds and signals
Hums, bursts and noises from nowhere
Vanishings
People and crews who were never found
The Lost Colony of RoanokeAn English colony of more than 100 people vanished, leaving only the word CROATOAN carved on a post.VanishingsUnexplained
The Mary CelesteA Nova Scotia-built ship was found drifting and seaworthy, with her cargo intact and all ten people gone.VanishingsUnexplained
The Flannan Isles lighthouse keepersThree lighthouse keepers disappeared from a remote Hebridean island in a December storm.VanishingsDisputed
The Bennington TriangleFive people went missing around Glastenbury Mountain, Vermont, between 1945 and 1950.VanishingsUnexplained