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Could you help solve the world's greatest mysteries?
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Published: July 19, 2009
Just in case you'd like to do a little reading this summer, here are several historical mysteries for your consideration. The solution to each has generated many books and articles, not to mention documentary films.
Although each of these puzzles has been written and theorized about by "the experts," each still eludes solution, or at least a solution satisfactory to all. Some may never be solved to anyone's satisfaction.
These are but summaries of five historical mysteries. To find out more, go to an Internet search engine, or better yet, to a library or bookstore.
Mystery No. 1: Was there a "Lost Continent" of Atlantis?
Plato wrote about the "Lost Continent" of Atlantis in two dialogues, Timaeus and Critias. Basically, he spoke of an island continent, west of the Pillars of Hercules (our Straits of Gibraltar), that was the location of a marvelous, utopian island civilization.
Was Plato describing a real place that later sank beneath the waves, or was his Atlantis just an invented illustration, an ideal to be copied?
Remember that for many years people thought the Troy of Homer's "Iliad" was a fiction until Heinrich Schliemann began digging in a hill in the 1870s near the Dardanelles in Hisarlik, Turkey, and came upon not one Troy, but nine, built one atop another, right where Homer said it was.
By the way, the island of Thera (also known as Santorini) was destroyed by a gigantic volcanic eruption in the 17th or 16th century B.C., and the resulting tsunami may have been the origin of this legend, although the remains of the island lie south of mainland Greece, rather than west of it.
Mystery No. 2: How was the Great Pyramid constructed?
Every so often, someone comes out with a book propounding a new theory on the construction of the Great Pyramid of Cheops (a.k.a. Khufu) on the Giza Plateau near Cairo. The title is usually something like, "Riddle of the Pyramids Solved!"
The Great Pyramid is the sole surviving example of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was originally 481 feet tall, and its base covers the area of 571,536 square feet, the equivalent of 10 NFL football fields, including end zones. The estimated 2.3 million blocks that compose it each weigh from two to 70 tons. These blocks had to be quarried, trimmed, hauled and set in place, carefully, in a certain order, as there are passageways and rooms inside the structure.
It is believed that structure was erected in 14 to 20 years, and if 20 years, then about 800 tons of stone had to be set in place each day. The joints of the stones are accurate to 1/50th of an inch.
Theories as to the Egyptians' method of stacking the giant blocks is where it gets very interesting, particularly as you go higher and have to lift the blocks and set them down gently.
Did they use a giant single, miles-long ramp? Were the blocks rounded out with wooden cradles and rolled up the sides? Was a four-sided ramp?
Kids, be the first one on your block to solve a 4,500-year-old puzzle. And then, of course, you can write a book about it.
Mystery No. 3: What happened to the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke?
In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to plant England's first colony on the New World.
He sent 150 people to Roanoke Island, a small piece of land just within the Outer Banks of North Carolina, but in what was then called Virginia, named in honor of Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.
As Raleigh and his co-adventurers had no experience in colonization, there were troubles at Roanoke from the start, some caused by the colonists and some by events beyond their control. Things got so bad the colonists asked their governor, John White, to return to England, explain their situation to Raleigh (who had stayed in England), and to return with more people and food and supplies.
White was delayed in his return by the Spanish Armada and didn't get back until 1590, when he found the colony deserted.
Several theories attempt to explain the disappearance, the most popular being that the Spanish came up from their colony in Florida and wiped out the colonists or enslaved them. Some of the Native Americans may have decided that they didn't like their pushy neighbors who were always borrowing food and never returning it.
Another theory is that the colonists, despairing of White's return, built a ship and sailed for England, only to be lost at sea, a common fate in those times. Disease, a hurricane, or a combination of the two are also credible solutions.
My favorite explanation, the one used in the annual production of Paul Green's "The Lost Colony" at Manteo, is that the colonists went to live with friendly Native Americans on the mainland and that the Lumbee Tribe of eastern North Carolina owes part of its genetic pool to these Lost Colonists.
Mystery No. 4: What happened to Anastasia?
Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova was the fourth and youngest daughter of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, the Tsarina Alexandra. Anastasia, along with her parents, three sisters, brother Alexei and servants, were shot to death in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg on the night of July 17, 1918.
The imperial family had been prisoners of the Bolsheviks for some time, and with the approach of the White Russians who would free the Romanovs, ordered that the tsar, his family and retainers be executed.
The story is that one of the daughters, usually it is Anastasia, was merely wounded in the fusillade, and with the help of a friendly guard, escaped execution.
Over the years, there have been at least 10 Anastasias, claimants to a Romanov fortune that is real enough.
A woman known as "Anna Anderson" was believed by many to have been the Grand Duchess, but DNA tests (assuming they were accurate) determined that Anderson was a fake.
There was an excellent 1956 movie, "Anastasia," starring Ingrid Bergman, and an animated version with Meg Ryan's voice for Anastasia, made in 1997.
Mystery No. 5: What Happened to Amelia Earhart?
The famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart disappeared along with her navigator, Fred Noonan, during an attempt to circumnavigate the world by air in 1937.
They took off from an airstrip on Lae, New Guinea, in a customized Lockheed Electra and were trying to make a landing at miniscule Howland Island, more than 2,500 miles eastward, where they would refuel and fly on to California, thus completing an around-the-world flight.
They never made it to Howland, and either ditched the airplane at sea or made a forced landing on the beach of an island or atoll. There, Earhart and Noonan either perished and the plane slid into the sea, or they were taken prisoner by the Japanese.
Either way, the most massive sea hunt in U.S. Navy history up to that time was made for the duo.
In 1943, during World War II, there was a movie "Flight for Freedom," starring Rosalind Russell, that supported the idea that Earhart deliberately crashed at sea so that the Navy would have to look for them and over-fly and photograph the many Japanese-held Pacific islands. A new major motion picture about Earhart is also reportedly set to be released.
There is a possibility that their aircraft's remains may yet be found and this mystery solved. After all, the RMS Titanic was found, wasn't it?
O.C. Stonestreet is a retired Iredell County history teacher and works in the newsroom at the R&L. He can be reached at ostonestreet@statesville.com.
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