A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Zurich, Switzerland

Queen of the Night Cactus

 

The Swiss botanic center in Zurich showcases one of the world’s largest and most important collections of succulents.

During the summer, visitors are treated with a special nocturnal event: the rare bloom of the Selenicereus grandiflorus, a cactus dubbed the “Queen of the Night”. Each flower blossoms for just one night per year and is withered the next morning.

The ‘Queen of the Night’ is a spineless cactus with aerial roots and large fragrant flowers. The large, white, trumpet-shaped flowers have a heady, sweet fragrance (think chocolate & vanilla scents) and are pollinated by hawk moths.

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 Yamagata, Japan

 

Snow Monsters

The juhyo effect is a sustained cycle of ice accumulation that changes the scrubby fir trees into towering surreal oddities of snow and ice.

This unusual natural phenomenon occurs on the tip of Mount Zao every winter from late December to the middle of March. Harsh Siberian winds travel across the North Japan sea and the western plains of Yamagata. They batter the wooded mountainside. The freezing winds drop two to three meters of snow on the ground and glaze the fir trees with freezing condensation.

Zao Onsen ski resort is one of the few places where spooky snow monsters appear mid-February.

Alpine trees bombarded with heavy snowfalls and icy winds grow into tall, monster-like creatures.

 

 

 

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Xi’an, China

Xi’an Confronts an Unusual Challenge: a Surfeit of Ancient Tombs

China wants to protect its historical relics from new urban development projects. But that’s no simple task in Xi’an — a city where imperial tombs are seemingly everywhere.

In 2013, archaeologists in the city of Xi’an made an incredible discovery while conducting surveys for a new road-building project: a 1,300-year-old tomb belonging to one of the most powerful female politicians in Chinese history, Shangguan Wan’er.

Shangguan had served as the de facto prime minister to Wu Zetian, China’s sole female emperor. But after Wu’s death, she was killed in a bloody coup, and her final resting place had remained a mystery for centuries.

Despite decades of research, archaeologists in Xi’an still haven’t located the tombs of several emperors, let alone those of many other historical figures who lived in the city.

 

Follow the story 

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Wiltshire, England

The home of Stonehenge. Archaeologists believe it was constructed from around 3000 BC to 2000 BC. One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, it is owned by the Crown.

 

This prehistoric monument was built by a culture that left no written records.

Several scholars’ theories about its function:

A burial site

A ceremonial site

A religious pilgrimage destination

An astronomical calculator to mark the seasons

A place of healing

A final resting place for royalty

 

 There is no absolute evidence revealing the construction techniques used by the Stonehenge builders.

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 Venice, Italy

 

Mysterious Curse?

The painter Giovanni Bragolin is known for his Crying Boys series of oils. Rumor has it the painting is cursed. (And rumor also has it that there is no such Italian painter.)

 

 

This painting of a young boy was set on the walls of multiple homes throughout Europe. People in many of the homes ended up being victims of fires or explosions. The painting, itself, was always found to be intact in the aftermath.

The painter was told by a priest that the wandering orphan’s parents had died in a house fire. When the painter took the boy into his studio to paint him, the studio caught fire and burned down.

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 Ukhta, Russia

Fossils of a 372-million-year-old, early tetrapod called Parmastega aelidae, with a crocodile-like skull and eyes positioned high on its head, were discovered near Ukhta, Russia, suggesting an aquatic, surface-cruising lifestyle.

These fossils come from the Sosnogorsk Formation, a limestone formed in a tropical coastal lagoon, which is now exposed on the banks of the Izhma River.

These fossils aren’t mere fragments—when the limestone was dissolved with acetic acid, perfectly preserved bones from the head and shoulder girdle were revealed, piecing together into a three-dimensional reconstruction of the animal (by far the earliest for any tetrapod).

Tetrapods are the group of animals which made the evolutionary transition from water to land, ultimately becoming the ancestors of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

 

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Toronto, Canada

Leslieville is a quiet neighborhood. Most of the single family homes have well-tended gardens in front, but there is one particular garden that’s tended a little differently.

It’s known as the Doll House, and the owner collected stuffed and plastic critters for over twenty years since her husband passed away.

The Doll House is not just dolls—there are toys, stuffed animals, plaques, and signs, some hung from the fence, some mounted on wooden stakes, and some lining the porch and eaves. Together they create a landscape cacophony that attracts Toronto tourists and shutterbugs alike.

 

 

 

Update:

The Leslieville dollhouse has been sold to a new owner and the dolls have been removed.

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

San Jose, CA

Winchester Mystery House

 

San Jose is the home of the Winchester Mystery House which is a Victorian mansion crafted by Sarah Winchester over a span of 36 years from 1886 to 1922.

Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune, moved to San Jose after the deaths of her husband and infant daughter.

 

Sarah Winchester

A medium, Adam Coons, told her that she and her family were being haunted by the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles, and that she had to build a house for these ghosts and must never stop contruction.

The house became known for its odd architectural features, including staircases leading to nowhere, doors that opened onto walls, and rooms with mismatched windows and doors.

  

The Winchester Mystery House has 160 rooms including 40 bedrooms, 47 staircases, 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, 10,000 window panes, 2,000 doors, 52 skylights, 47 fireplaces, three elevators, two basements and just one shower.

Some of the staircases in this home are truly peculiar. Instead of taking you to another floor, they lead right into the ceiling.

 There is a vast network of secret passages twisting throughout the property. One cabinet door opens to a hive of 30 additional rooms.

 

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Rachel, NV

Rachel, Nevada considers itself “The UFO Capital of the World”. The delightfully oddball town is the nearest town to the secret aircraft testing facility at Groom Lake which is about 25 miles south of Rachel better known as “Area 51”. In 1976, the Governor renamed Nevada’s Route 375 to The Extraterrestrial Highway.

The military built their facility there and in the 1950s it was the perfect place to test experimental spy planes which some locals mistook for alien spacecraft—or so they say.

 

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

Quapaw, OK

The Spook Light

 

The Joplin Spook Light or the Tri-State Spook Light, is actually in Oklahoma near the small town of Quapaw. However, it is most often seen from the east, which is why it has been "attached” to the tiny hamlet of Hornet, Missouri, and the larger, better-known town of Joplin.

In the heart of the 4-States, a legendary phenomenon has captured the imagination of locals for centuries — the Joplin Spooklight. This mysterious light, discussed since the 1800s, continues to be a source of fascination and intrigue. To delve into the heart of the mystery, I met up with a 4-State resident, Dean Walker, who has personally witnessed the Spooklight over 50 times since childhood. Walker guided me to the elusive location, and I also consulted a local folklore expert, Lisa Martin, to uncover the rich history behind this enigmatic phenomenon.

Encountering the Spooklight

"Go across the creek, go around a house, come into Witches Holler, three miles, and you're here," says Dean Walker explaining how to get to the Spooklight from I-44 and the Missouri-Oklahoma state line.

The ball of fire, described as varying from the size of a baseball to a basketball, dances and spins down the center of the road at high speeds, rising and hovering above the treetops, before it retreats and disappears. Others have said it sways from side to side, like a lantern being carried by some invisible force. In any event, the orange fire-like ball has reportedly been appearing nightly for well over 100 years. According to locals, the best time to view the spook light is between the hours of 10:00 pm and midnight and tends to shy away from large groups and loud sounds.

Though many paranormal and scientific investigators have studied the light, including the Army Corps of Engineers, no one has been able to provide a conclusive answer as to the origin of the light.

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 Philadelphia, Pennyslvania

Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum holds a unique treasure: slices of Albert Einstein’s brain. After his death in 1955, Einstein’s brain was preserved for scientific study, and several slices found their way to the museum, where they are now displayed for public viewing.

 

 Philadelphia has trees from the moon

Philadelphia has an otherworldly claim to fame with its possession of trees grown from seeds that journeyed to the moon. In 1975, as part of the Apollo 14 mission, astronaut Stuart Roosa carried hundreds of tree seeds to lunar orbit, later germinating them back on Earth. Today, these “moon trees” stand as a living a symbol of our spectacular human and scientific achievements.

 

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Oymyakon, Russia

Oymyakon's history as a settlement dates back to the early 20th century. The village’s name translates to “unfrozen water”. Omymyakon served as a stopover for reindeer herders drawn to the area's thermal spring,  

The residents are primarily Yakuts. They have adapted to the harsh climate through activities like cattle farming, hunting, and fishing, with Yakut cows and reindeer being a cornerstone of the local diet.  

 It’s one of the coldest inhabited places on Earth:  -71 degrees to  -96 degrees.

Indoor plumbing is virtually nonexistent because pipes freeze easily in the permafrost, leading to the use of outhouses.

 So to me, the mystery is: Why would people choose to live there???

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

No Name, Colorado

How the town got its name:

 According to Visit Glenwood Springs, there are a few variations of how the town got its name, but one rendition is most widely accepted.

The city said that as the widely accepted version goes, the state sent out a questionnaire about the town’s name to its residents, to which the majority answered with “No Name” under the section asking for the name of the town.

“The state took them at their word and officially recorded ‘No Name’ into the state records, sealing the town’s fate. Despite attempts to change it, the name stuck,” Glenwood Springs said on its website.

READING CHALLENGE

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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22998133-2025-reporter-s-challenge

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