Facts About Don Juan Pond - strangefacts

• Don Juan Pond, the hypersaline lake in western Antarctica which has even greater salinity than the Dead Sea

• With a salinity of over 40%, Don Juan Pond is the saltiest body of water in the world

• It is named after the two pilots who first investigated the pond in 1961, Lt Don Roe and Lt John Hickey

• It is a small lake, only 100m by 300m, and on average 0.1m deep, but it is so salty that even in the Antarctic, where the temperature at the pond regularly drops to as low as -30 degrees Celsius, it never freezes

• It is 18 times saltier than sea water, compared to the Dead Sea which is only 8 times saltier than sea water

• At its saltiest, Don Juan Pond contains 671 parts per thousand salt, compared to 35 and 300 for the ocean and the Dead Sea respectively

• A beautiful salty pool in Antarctica's Dry Valleys is teaching scientists about the potential for life in brine pools on ancient Mars

• The study also reveals a previously unreported mechanism for producing an important greenhouse gas - nitrous oxide - in Antarctic habitats

• Research at Antarctica's 'Mars on Earth' reveals non-organic mechanism for production of important greenhouse gas

• Possibly even more important, the discovery could help space scientists understand the meaning of similar brine pools in a place whose ecosystem most closely resembles that of Don Juan Pond

Facts About Socotra - strangefacts

• Measuring 1,200 square miles, Socotra (also Suqutra) Island is located in the Arabian Sea, about 500 miles from Aden and less than 200 miles from Somalia

• The sparsely populated island has a mountainous interior and most of its population engages in farming or fishing; the most striking feature of this isolated place is its biodiversity and the great number of unique flora and fauna

• The ruler of the Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra resided there under British rule during much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

• The island became a part of South Yemen in 1967 and, with Yemeni unification in 1990, it became a part of the Republic of Yemen (ROY)

• Given its location near the sea lanes, Socotra was long thought to be of strategic value by Western imperial powers

• During the latter half of the Cold War, South Yemen allowed the Soviet Union to maintain a submarine base and other military facilities there; Russia continues to maintain a modest naval presence

• During the late 1990s there were rumors about a deal between the United States and the ROY over military facilities on the island, but the complicated, if not strained, relations between the two countries, beginning with the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Aden in 2000, squelched this talk

• The considerable activities regarding Socotra now focus on its development as a tourist destination featuring and protecting its unique biodiversity

• Socotra has been described as one of the most alien-looking place on Earth, and it’s not hard to see why

• It is very isolated with a harsh, dry climate and as a result a third of its plant-life is found nowhere else, including the famous Dragon’s Blood Tree, a very-unnatural looking umbrella-shaped tree which produces red sap

Facts About Door To Hell - strangefacts

• East of the Caspian Sea in the middle of Karakum desert somewhere in Central Asia hide a secret It is something so surreal and extraordinary in the same time you thing is not real at all

• Here near a small town of Darvaza, Turkmenistan is located “The door to hell” how locals name the strange place

• In fact it is a 50 – 100 meter crater who burn continues for 35 years without any pause

• The Door to Hell, as local residents at the nearby town of Darvaza have dubbed it, is a 70 meter wide crater in Turkmenistan that has been burning continuously for 35 years

• In 1971, geologists drilling for gas deposits uncovered a huge underground cavern, which caused the ground over it to collapse, taking down all their equipment and their camp with it

• During a drilling they found an underground cavern filled with natural gas

• In this moment the ground collapsed, leaving a large gaping hole exposed

• To avoid poisonous gases coming out of the hole, it was decide to fire up and let the gas burn

• Since the cavern was filled poisonous gas, they dared not go down to retrieve their equipment, and to prevent the gas escaping they ignited it, hoping it would burn itself out in a couple of days

• From its burning mouth pours the stench of sulphur, fouling the local air and making anything with nasal cavities flee from the vicinity 

Facts About Sphinx of Egypt - strangefacts

• Sphinxes are massive stone statues that depict the body of a reclining lion with the head and face of a human

• The Great Sphinx's paws and head are out of proportion, suggesting there may have been an even larger, earlier statue which was adapted

• Egyptologists have long argued the monument outside Cairo, which has the head of a pharaoh and the body of a lion, was built soon after the first pyramid - around 4,500 years ago

• Schoch claims the amount of water erosion the Sphinx has experienced indicates a construction date no later than the 6th millennium BC or 5th millennium BC, at least two thousand years before the widely accepted construction date and 1,500 years prior to the accepted date for the beginning of Egyptian civilisation

• The figures are found all over the world in different forms, but they are most commonly linked with Egypt, which features the most famous example in the form of the Great Sphinx of Giza

• Incredibly, the statue is carved out of one monolithic piece of rock, and at 240 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 66 feet tall, it is considered to be the biggest monument of its kind in the world

• Historians largely accept the function of the Sphinx to have been that of a symbolic guardian, since the statues were strategically placed around important structures like temples, tombs, and pyramids

• It stands adjacent to the pyramid of the pharaoh Khafra, and most archeologists believe that it is his face that is depicted on that of the statue

• Despite its reputation as one of the most famous monuments of antiquity, there is still very little known about the Great Sphinx of Giza

• Egyptologists might have a small understanding of why the statue was built, but when, how, and by who is still shrouded in mystery

• The pharaoh Khafra is the main suspect, which would date the structure back to around 2500 BC, but other scientists have argued that evidence of water erosion of the statue suggests that it is much older and perhaps even predated the dynastic era of the Egyptians

• This theory has few modern adherents, but if true it would mean the Great Sphinx of Giza is even more mysterious than previously believed

Facts About Goseck Circle - strangefacts

• One of the most mysterious landmarks in the Germany is the Goseck Circle

• The Goseck circle is a Neolithic structure in Goseck in the Burgenlandkreis district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It consists of a set of Concentric ditches 75 meters across and two Palisade rings containing gates in defined places

• It is considered the earliest Sun Observatory currently known in the world. Interpretations of the ring suggest that European Neolithic and Bronze Age people measured the heavens far earlier and more accurately than historians have thought

• It is monument made out of earth, gravel, and wooden palisades that is regarded as the earliest example of a primitive “solar observatory” 

• The circle at Goseck is one of more than 250 ring-ditches in Germany, Austria and Croatia identified by aerial surveys, though archaeologists have investigated barely 10 of them

• The circle consists of a series of circular ditches surrounded by palisade walls (which have since been reconstructed) that house a raised mound of dirt in the center

• The palisades have three openings, or gates, that point southeast, southwest, and north

• It is believed that the monument was built around 4900 BC by Neolithic peoples, and that the three openings correspond to the direction from which the sun rises on the winter solstice

• The monument’s careful construction has led many scientists to believe that the Goseck Circle was built to serve as some kind of primitive solar or lunar calendar, but its exact use is still a source of debate

• Evidence has shown that a so-called “solar cult” was widespread in ancient Europe

• This has led to speculation that the Circle was used in some kind of ritual, perhaps even in conjunction with human sacrifice

• This hypothesis has yet to be proven, but archeologists have uncovered several human bones, including a headless skeleton, just outside the palisade walls

Facts About Nazca Lines - strangefacts

• The Nazca lines are a series of designs and pictographs carved into the ground in the Nazca Desert, a dry plateau located in Peru

• They cover an area of some 50 miles, and were supposedly created between 200 BC and 700 AD by the Nazca Indians

• The area of the Peruvian desert in which the Nazca Lines were drawn is called the Pampa Colorada. It is 15 miles wide and runs some 37 miles parallel to the Andes and the Pacific Ocean.

• They designed them by scraping away the copper colored rocks of the desert floor to expose the lighter-colored earth beneath

• The lines have managed to remain intact for hundreds of years thanks to the region’s arid climate, which sees it receive little rain or wind throughout the year

• Some of the lines span distances of 600 feet, and they depict everything from simple designs and shapes to characterizations of plants, insects, and animals

• Scientists know who made the Nazca Lines and how they did it, but they still don’t know why?

• The most popular and reasonable hypothesis is that the lines must have figured in the Nazca people’s religious beliefs, and that they made the designs as offerings to the gods, who would’ve been able to see them from the heavens

• Other scientists argue that the lines are evidence of massive looms that the Nazcas used to make textiles

• one investigator has even made the preposterous claim that they are the remnants of ancient airfields used by a vanished, technologically advanced society

• Astronomer Robin Edgar presented the theory that Nazca lines particularly the ones that feature animals, fish and humans were created in order respond to the "Eye of God" which would be a feasable explanation as during the Nazca line period it co-insides with a large amount of solar eclipses took place over the southern Peru area

• Robin Edgar believed this as a solar eclipse would resemble the pupil and iris looking down on the people below, therefore it is believed that the lines were created in order for the eye in the sky to view the Nazca lines

• The Nazca lines are featured in the book "Chariots of the Gods" by Erich Von Daniken that discusses his belief that the Nazca lines were created by aliens and used as landing strips

• Erich Von Daniken felt that the designs were to complex and covered such a large distance that they could not have been created by humans due to the size of the lines, lack of tools plus they had no ability to view the lines from the air

Facts About Yonaguni Monument - strangefacts

• Yonaguni Monument is one of all the famous monuments in Japan, perhaps none is more perplexing than Yonaguni, an underwater rock formation that lies off the coast of the Ryuku Islands

•  It was discovered in 1987 by a group of divers who were there to observe Hammerhead sharks, and it immediately sparked a huge amount of debate in the Japanese scientific community

• The monument is made up of a series of striking rock formations including massive platforms, carved steps, and huge stone pillars that lie at depths of 5-40 meters

• There is a triangular formation that has become known as “the turtle” for its unique shape, as well as a long, straight wall that borders one of the larger platforms

• The currents in the area are known for being particularly treacherous, but this has not stopped the Yonaguni monument from becoming one of the most popular diving locations in all of Japan

• The ongoing debate surrounding Yonaguni centers on one key subject: is the monument a natural phenomenon, or is it man-made?

• Scientists have long argued that millennia of strong currents and erosion have carved the formations out of the ocean floor, and they point to the fact that the monument is all one piece of solid rock as proof that it was not assembled by a builder

• Others, though, point to the many straight edges, square corners and 90-degree angles of the formation as proof that it’s artificial

• They often cite one formation in particular, a section of rock that resembles a crude carving of a human face, as evidence

• If they are right, then an even more interesting mystery presents itself: who constructed the Yonaguni Monument, and for what purpose?

Facts About Newgrange - strangefacts

• Newgrange considered to be the oldest and most famous prehistoric site in all of Ireland

• Newgrange is a tomb that was built from earth, wood, clay, and stone around 3100 BC, some 1000 years before the construction of the pyramids in Egypt

• It consists of a long passage that leads to a cross-shaped chamber that was apparently used as a tomb, as it contains stone basins filled with cremated remains

Newgrange View

• The most unique feature of Newgrange is its careful and sturdy design, which has helped the structure remain completely waterproof to this day

• Most amazing of all, the entrance to the tomb was positioned relative to the sun in such a way that on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the rays from the sun are channeled through the opening and down the nearly 60 foot passageway, where they illuminate the floor of the monument’s central room

• Archeologists know Newgrange was used as a tomb, but why and for who still remains a mystery

• The painstaking design needed to guarantee that the yearly solstice event occurs suggests that the site was held in high regard, but other than the obvious hypothesis that the sun featured prominently in the mythology of the builders, scientists are at a loss to describe the true reason for Newgrange’s construction.

Facts About Cahokia Mounds - strangefacts

• Cahokia is the name given to an Indian settlement that exists outside of Collinsville, Illinois

• Archeologists estimate that the city was founded sometime around 650 AD, and its complex network of burial grounds and sophisticated landscaping prove that it was once a thriving community

•  It has been estimated that at its peak the city was home to as many as 40,000 people, which would have made it the most populous settlement in America prior to the arrival of the Europeans

Cahokia Mounds View

• The most notable aspect of Cahokia today are the 80 mounds of earth, some as high as 100 feet, which dot the 2,200-acre site. These helped create a network of plazas throughout the city, and it is believed that important buildings, like the home of the settlement’s chief, were built on top of them

• The site also features a series of wooden posts that archeologists have dubbed “woodhenge.”

• The posts are said to mark the solstices and equinoxes, and supposedly figured prominently in the community’s astronomical mythology

• Although scientists are constantly discovering new information about the Cohokia community, the biggest mystery that remains is which modern Indian tribe is descended from the residents of the ancient city, as well as just what it was that caused them to abandon their settlement