From the date that Jesus was born to the location of Cleopatra's tomb, there are many mysteries that will never be solved. Sometimes the excavated material has been lost or the site has been destroyed. Sometimes it's because new evidence isn't likely to come forward or the surviving evidence isn't clear enough to lead scholars to a consensus.
These mysteries are more interesting because of the lack of answers. Live Science looked at 14 historical questions that might never have a definitive explanation.
Over the past 1000 years, the story of King Arthur has been told many times. The sword Excalibur is one of the most famous parts of the Arthurian stories.
The reality was probably less magical if King Arthur existed. The earliest surviving accounts tell of a leader who fought several battles against the Saxons, but the accuracy of these accounts is questionable.
There are a number of sites in Britain that are believed to be the home of King Arthur, but excavations have not been able to confirm that. It's not likely that scholars will ever know for certain if King Arthur was real or not.
Jack the ripper murdered at least five women in London in the late 19th century. A number of letters were sent to the police saying that they were from the ripper. It's a matter of debate among scholars whether any of them were written by the ripper. Jack the Ripper is named after these letters.
Dozens of people have been brought up as possible candidates due to the fact that the ripper wasn't found. John Morris suggests in his 2012 book " Jack The Ripper: The Hand Of A Woman (opens in new tab)" that a woman named "Lizzie Williams" may have been the ripper. The true identity of the ripper is not likely to be known.
On July 30, 1975, the leader of the teamster union disappeared and was declared dead in 1982. His killer's identity and the location of his body are still unknown. A number of sites in Detroit and Oakland County have not been found.
It was thought that Hoffa's body was buried in New Jersey. This theory is no longer valid. According to The New York Times, FBI agents visited a former landfill in New Jersey in October of 2021. The survey is a follow-up to a deathbed confession by a landfill worker who claimed that he and his father buried Hoffa's body under the dump in 1975. The steel barrel was not found by the agents.
According to The Guardian, Mara Schneider, an FBI spokeswoman in Detroit, said "nothing of evidentiary value was discovered during that search." The FBI will continue to pursue any viable lead in their efforts to locate Mr Hoffa.
His killer is not known. The Iceman, as he was known, claimed to have killed Hoffa and dumped his body in a scrap yard before he died. Philip Carlo wrote a book on Kuklinski's confessions after visiting him in jail. A number of police officers doubted the confession after reading the book. It looks like Hoffa's remains will never be found.
Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony died in 30 B.C. and were buried together in a tomb.
A mystery surrounds the location of the tomb. In 2010, Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former antiquities minister, conducted excavations at a site near Alexandria where there are a number of tombs from the era when Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt. Hawass reported in a series of news releases that Cleopatra VII's tomb was not included in any of the archaeological discoveries. Even if Cleopatra's tomb does survive, it may still be heavily plundered.
The biggest mystery in American history will never be solved. President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was killed before he could stand trial. On January 3, 1967, Ruby passed away from lung cancer.
There are many Kennedy assassination theories.
Oswald and Ruby both killed JFK on their own. Ruby wanted to spare Kennedy the embarrassment of Oswald returning to trial. Since JFK's death, numerous alternative explanations have been brought forward by historians and amateur historians, who do not agree with this explanation. It is unlikely that a firm consensus will be reached.
Cleopatra VII gave birth to a boy named Caesarion who she claimed was the son of Julius Caesar. In 44 B.C., Cleopatra named Caesarion as co-ruler of Egypt with his mother.
The child may or may not be Caesar's son. Caesar didn't acknowledge the child as his own. There was a pamphlet written by one of Caesar's friends that denied that Caesarion was Caesar's son. After Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII were defeated by Octavian in 30 B.C., Cleopatra VII took her own life.
It is unlikely that scholars will ever be able to determine if Caesar was really Caesarion's father because of the fact that no remains of Julius Caesar or Caesarion are left.
Oak Island, located off Nova Scotia, Canada, has been rumored to hold a money pit of buried treasure since the 16th century. Numerous expeditions costing millions of dollars have traveled to the island to look for the lost treasure, but have not been able to find it.
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There has been no find on Oak Island. People are still going to try to find it. The ninth season of The Curse of Oak Island is scheduled to premiere in 2021.
A treasure tale that will probably never be solved is more old. Archaeologists discovered a copper scroll in a cave at the site of Qumran in 1952. The writing was engraved on a scroll. Some scholars think that it is impossible for the scroll to record so much gold and silver.
The Roman Empire ruled the Qumran area for more than a millennium. Scientists theorize that the treasure was hidden to prevent it from being captured by Roman forces during the revolts against Roman rule. Whether the treasure is real, where exactly it was hidden, or whether it could still exist today are all mysteries that will likely never be solved.
The First Temple, a building used by the Jewish people to worship god, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. There was an Ark of the Covenant in the First Temple.
The ark's fate is not known. The ark may have been hidden before the city was captured, according to ancient sources. It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 The location of the ark isn't known. There are many stories about the fate of the ark. The ark is kept in Ethiopia, according to one story. The ark was hidden and won't show up until a messiah arrives.
Many Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th, but he probably wasn't born that day. It is possible that the date was chosen because it is close to the Roman festival ofSaturnalia. The earliest records of Jesus' birthday are from the 4th century A.D.
Many Orthodox Christians celebrate Jesus' birthday on January 6 or 7 because ancient records show that early Christians were never able to agree on a birth date. Even though scholars agree that Jesus was born around 4 B.C., the exact year is not certain.
The gardens at the ancient city of Babylon were described by ancient writers. Some ancient writers called the gardens a "wonder of the world" because they were so impressed by them. The Hanging Gardens had plants cultivated at a height above ground level and the trees were embedded in an upper terrace.
Archaeologists have not been able to find the remains of a garden that is similar to this one. Archaeologists are wondering if the hanging gardens really existed. The gardens were thought to be located at the Assyrian city of Nineveh by a researcher at the University of Oxford. Both Nineveh and Babylon have suffered damage from wars and loot over the past two decades, and it is unlikely that this mystery will ever be solved.
Plato wrote in the 4th century B.C. about a land called Atlantis that existed in the Atlantic Ocean and conquered Europe and Africa. The story depicts a conflict between Atlantis and the prehistoric Athenians that ends with Atlantis vanishing beneath the waves.
Some people think that the legend could have been inspired by real events in Greek history. The Minoan civilization, which flourished on the island of Crete until about 1400 B.C., may have inspired the story of Atlantis. Minoan settlements were damaged during the eruption of Thera in Greece.
The Minoans were overcome by a group of Mycenaeans who were based on mainland Greece. The debate will probably never be fully settled.
The earliest surviving Gospels were written in the second century.
Many questions are left unanswered by the lack of first-century texts about Jesus. Is there a time when the Gospels were written? How much of the stories actually happened? What was it like to be a person like Jesus? The environment where Jesus grew up is revealed in archaeological investigations. It's not known if the house that Jesus grew up in was actually Jesus' house.
It is unlikely that scholars will ever fully understand what Jesus was really like.
An illustration of what Jesus might have looked like, based on archaeological data and ancient texts, was published in a researcher's monograph. The researcher found that Jesus probably had brown eyes, black hair, and olive-brown skin. It's likely that Jesus had a height of about 5 foot 5 inches, which was average for males in that era.
The cup that Jesus drank from at his last supper with his disciples will never be found. The search for the Holy Grail was described in some of the King Arthur stories as a quest that King Arthur and his knights undertook.
In films like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," where it was used to heal Indiana Jones after he was shot by the Nazis, there are no serious attempts to find the Holy Grail.
The original article was published on Live Science in December of 2021.
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