Crop Circles
The original crop circles were exactly that - circular patterns of flattened crops, often created in mysterious circumstances overnight. During the last 20 years, though, crop circles have evolved into complex geometric shapes, like the DNA double helix or the nautilus shell.
In 1966, an Australian sugar cane farmer said he saw a saucer-shaped spaceship rise up from a swamp before flying away.
But in 1991, two men from Southampton, England, admitted they conceived the whole idea as a prank some 15 years earlier. They made their masterpiece using planks, rope, hats and wire - and could create a 40-foot circle in 15 minutes. The only reason they came clean was because one of the men, Bower, was running up considerable mileage on his car and had to convince his wife he wasn't having an affair. He continues to demonstrate the art today.
The Pyramids of Egypt
When it comes to unexplained mysteries, the pyramids of Giza in Egypt really take the biscuit. The largest pyramid of all, also known as the Great Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu), was built around 5,000 years ago - but how?
The Pyramid of Cheops is the size of a 40-storey building and covers an area big enough to fit 10 football fields in it. More than 2 million stone blocks were used to make the pyramid, each weighing 2-5 tons and cut from a distant limestone quarry on the other side of the Nile. Experts reckon it took 400,000 men some 20 years to complete.
Engineering feats aside, there is also some weird paranormal phenomena going on at the Pyramid of Cheops. In the 1940s, a French hardware dealer spotted some mummified animals exactly one-third up the height of the pyramid. The remarkable thing was they showed no signs of decomposition. He deducted that the pyramid shape was responsible for preserving these creatures. Attempts to mummify dead organic matter under small cardboard pyramids have produced the same result - as if there is some kind of "energy" within the pyramid shape.
Later, a Czech radio engineer conducted a series of experiments in which he placed a brand new razor blade inside a 1:1,000 scale model of Cheops. He aligned his pyramid on a north-south axis exactly like the real thing. After getting 50 shaves from the razor, he was forced to conclude that it was only getting sharper from being inside the pyramid. It took him 10 years to obtain a patent for this remarkable device, which still has no scientific explanation today.
Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch)
He's big, he's hairy, and he's starred in his own TV show. Bigfoot is world-famous for spooking the bejesus out of hikers and hunters in North America. Scientists consider Sasquatch to be the result of folklore, misidentification and a whole lot of hoaxes. However, some people believe many of these humanoid creatures exist around the world, just like the Yeti of the Himalayas.
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Bigfoot has been described as an ape-like creature, some 6-10 feet tall, weighing more than 500 pounds, and covered in dark brown or reddish hair. Witnesses give him large eyes, a heavy brow ridge and a crested head, much like a male gorilla. Footprints allegedly belonging to Bigfoot are 24 inches long.
Is Sasquatch really one of the great unexplained mysteries of the world? Somewhat disappointingly, the most famous footage of Bigfoot at Bluff Creek, California, was shot down by a man called Bob Heironimus. Years after the event, he claimed he wore an ape costume for the filming (photo, right).
Scientists also point out there is slim chance that a prehistoric, bipedal, apelike creature could exist, simply because the breeding population of such an animal would have to be so large that many more sightings would be reported.
Nevertheless, Bigfoot's cousin - the Yeti (aka the Abominable Snowman) - has a strong alleged presence in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. Teams of scientists continue to seek out photo evidence, and many locals accept the reality of a breeding Yeti population as read.
