Mysteries of History: Which are your favourites?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

For myself, I choose the Amber Room.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/143364.stm


Saturday, August 1, 1998 Published at 00:15 GMT 01:15 UK


World: Europe

On the trail of the Amber Room

An exquisite room made entirely of carved golden tree resin

The BBC Europe correspondent David Shukman reports:
The mystery of what is generally considered to be the greatest of the missing treasures of Europe may be about to be solved.

Two rival teams in Germany and Lithuania believe they have located the Russian Czar's Amber Room, which was looted by the Nazis during World War II.

The Amber Room - often described as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" - is currently valued at about $250m.

It consisted of 100,000 pieces of carved amber panelling covering 55 square metres.

[RandomKoolzip]

1. Mine are the Nazca Lines....

in Peru.

A large part of my family was born and raised in Peru, and my grandfather was an archaeologist who worked there. When I was a kid, there were always picture books of Peru, Macchu Picchu, and specifically the Nazca Lines all over the house.


I alwayys wondered about why they were made, when and by whom. Balloons? Runways for spaceships?


I love stuff like that.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

2. Yeah, the Nazca lines. I love the theories people have on that site.

It's like a textbook definition of mysterious. Why draw huge intricate designs that can only really be comprehended from the air? It's fascinating.

[seventhson]

3. Bingham? Or one of the other archaeologists?

just asking

[RandomKoolzip]

4. No, his name was Leo Schaedel.

A mummy he discovered in Chile was on the cover of Life magazine in the early 1950's....

[seventhson]

18. Cool. I DREAM about being at Macchu Pichu

So far it is only a dream

[Zero Gravitas]

41. balloons

I saw an interesting show on the lines. Some guy thought that some images from that time showed balloons. He speculated that since the lines couldn't be seen from the ground that priests ascended in hot air balloons as part of a religious ceremony. He was able to construct and fly a balloon made entirely out of materials available at the time!

Of course that doesn't prove that they really did fly balloons back then, but its certainly not out of the question.

[terrya]

5. Stonehenge.

Why exactly was it built? For what purpose?

Terry

[Screaming Lord Byron]

6. How did they build it? That's a serious undertaking for stone-age folk.

[RandomKoolzip]

7. It was built so that we may write rock operas about it....

"Stone'enge!" (cue dwarf dancing around tiny 'enge model...)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

8. Can't you just see some mesolithic Rick Wakeman

in a sheepskin cape hammering away at a primitive Moog in the centre of this rock-age arena?

[RandomKoolzip]

9. Well, NOW I can!

And, strangely enough, I'm not hungry anymore, either....

[Zero Gravitas]

42. LOL!

Stonehenge, where the demons dwell
Where the banshees live and they do live well
Stonehenge
Where a man is a man and the children dance to
the pipes of pan
Stonehenge
Tis a magic place where the moon doth rise
With a dragon's face
Stonehenge
Where the virgins lie
And the prayer of devils fill the midnight sky
And you my love, won't you take my hand
We'll go back in time to that mystic land
Where the dew drops cry and the cats meow
I will take you there
I will show you how

[terrya]

12. Oh, that explains it.

Thanks!

:-)

Terry

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Regarding the Amber Room:

Here's a fairly good colour photograph (better than the ones in the BBC story you link to).

[Screaming Lord Byron]

13. Thanks, Spider. Is that a reconstruction or a very early colour shot?

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. Colour photo from 1940...

Probably an early Kodachrome.

[Rowdyboy]

11. Favorite Historical Mystery? Did Grand Duchess Anastasia survive

the massacre of the Romanovs? The 1950's movie with Ingrid Bergman really touched the romantic in me so I read everything I could find on the subject of Anastasia and the Romanovs in general. I firmly believed that "Anna Anderson" really was the daughter of Czar Nicholas and she survived Ekaterinburg. I was really sad after all those years of believing to learn for certain that she was merely a German factory worker pretending. She certainly did a great job, because she lived pretty well for a commoner!

DNA tests gave me the truth, but they eliminated the romance. Almost wish I didn't know.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

14. I went to school with a descendent of the Tsar's brother.

He's about fourth or fifth in line to that throne.

[Rowdyboy]

26. They've been fighting each other for the last 80 some years

over who has the better claim to a non-existent throne! What fun family reunions must be! :eyes:

http://members.surfeu.fi/thaapanen/Articles/st01.html

http://www.permonline.ru/~museum/romanov/fond/0007.htm

Ah, for the problems of the upper crust! Reminds me of Henry II and Eleanor...

[Screaming Lord Byron]

28. I googled the people I know, turns out their story is totally accurate.

I won't mention any names, though. The guy's mother is officially a Princess of Russia. Seems there's quite a few out there.

[Rowdyboy]

37. Just curious...Was it a private school?

You would assume someone like that would be enrolled in a pretty selective, school with excellent security.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

40. You would assume so. But it wasn't.

It was a small town in the country. The family was very ordinary and middle class, and the school was a normal, everyday school. I'll have a look to see exactly where in line they are, but it's pretty high up.

[Rowdyboy]

Some members of the royal family escaped

with little more than the clothes on their backs. Its entirely possible that they're really quite middle-class economically.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

44. It would appear they are looked down on for marrying morganatically.

Fascinating stuff. All this effort for a throne no one will ever sit on.

[fudge stripe cookays]

32. "Hush dear, mummy's fighting."

One of the best lines from "The Lion in Winter."

[Rowdyboy]

36. Don't get me started again!

We had "Lion in Winter" quotes flowing like wine on a movie thread yesterday. I haven't laughed that much in quite a while. Thats a wonderful piece of drama/comedy brilliantly brought to life by a cast of exceptional actors. Have I used enough expressive adjectives? Its, obviously, my all time favorite film.

[LynneSin]

16. Easter Island and those big heads

How did they get there?

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

22. You know...

The second one from the right does bear a slight resemblence to John Kerry.

Don't flame me. I'm gonna vote for him.

[LynneSin]

25. Who else would I be voting for? Nadar? Bush?

Kerry all the way!

[Zero Gravitas]

43. they were made there

there are several quarries on the island with half finshed statues and several more finished ones. The real mystery is why they were made.

[fudge stripe cookays]

17. Atlantis, Mu, the real origin of the Basques, the fate of the Cyclops

And what really happened to Jimmy Hoffa.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

20. The fate of the cyclops? I must admit I'm unfamiliar with that one.

And I call myself an esoterician. Sheesh!

[fudge stripe cookays]

30. 1918-- Ship disappearance

The Cyclops was an American collier that was supposedly lost in the Bermuda triangle. It was probably one of the first "victims"

When I was about 12, I was fascinated with shipwrecks. There was this great book in our school library called "They Sailed Into Oblivion" by A.A. Hoehling that had my name on the check-out card every 2 weeks. That was where I first heard about the Cyclops and the explosion of Halifax during WWI. And many other interesting stories. (It has the Titanic, Lusitania, La Bourgogne, General Slocum, Sultana, Hans Hedtoft, Kaiser Wilhelm, Vestris, etc.)

Turns out that my great grandparents came to the U.S (in 1911) on one of the ships that eventually came to the aid of The Volturno, which caught fire at sea in 1913.

reprehensor finally found me a copy of that book online several years ago. One of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

33. Fascinating. I always find it strange the Halifax Explosion

is not that well known. That was pretty horrific.

[fudge stripe cookays]

34. I know!

Among Canadians it's a terrible well-known tragedy, but Americans have no clue. As usual.

I'd really like to make it to the east coast on one of our visits. I think BC will be next in line, though.

[GOPisEvil]

21. Those carvings under the ocean...that fascinates me.

Strange that they are there - IS it Atlantis, or some other long lost land mass?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

23. Is that Bimini?

[GOPisEvil]

27. I wanna say the waters off Florida, Bermuda...

...gah...I'm straining to remember the last TV show I watched on it.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

29. That sounds like it. Bimini is in the Bahamas, IIRC.

[fudge stripe cookays]

31. I think Edgar Cayce said that was part of Atlantis, didn't he?

[GOPisEvil]

35. I got my Bimini confused with my Bikini...stupid consonants!

:P

Yeah, I think you're correct.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

38. Sure, but if they ever offer you a package holiday on Bikini Atoll.

Take it! That place is the bomb!

[GOPisEvil]

39. I've always wanted glowing skin!

[Astarho]

19. The Antikythera device

a complex navigation "computer" from about 31 BC

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_4.htm

Also the aluminum cup of Tiberius is really interesting, but hard to find much information about.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

24. They had rudimentary batteries back in old Mesopotamia.

Turn your watch, turn your watch back,
about a hundred thousand years.
A hundred thousand years.

I'll meet you by the third pyramid
I'll meet you by the third pyramid
Ah come on, that's what I want, we'll meet
in Mesopotamia. oh oh oh

(We're goin' down to meet) I ain't no student,
(Feel those vibrations) of ancient culture
(I know a neat excavation) Before I talk
I should read a book.
But there's one thing I do know,
There's a lot of ruins in Mesopotamia.

Six or eight thousand years ago
They laid down the law. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haa
Six or eight thousand years ago
They laid down the law. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haa

I'll meet you by the third pyramid
I'll meet you by the third pyramid
Ah come on, that's what I want, we'll meet
in Mesopotamia. oh oh oh

(We're goin' down to meet) Now I ain't no student,
(Feel those vibrations) of ancient culture
(I know a neat excavation) Before I talk
I should read a book. (Mesopotamia, that's where I wanna go)
But there's one thing that I do know, (Mesopotamia, that's where I wanna go)
There's a lot of ruins in Mesopotamia.

Six or eight thousand years ago
They laid down the law. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haa
Six or eight thousand years ago
They laid down the law. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haa
In Mesopotamia. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haa
They laid down the law. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haa
In Mesopotamia. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haa