Dead Herring
Friday, October 3, 2025
Halloween Month
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional
Zurich, Switzerland
Queen
of the Night Cactus
During the summer, visitors are treated to a special nocturnal event: the rare bloom of a cactus dubbed the "Queen of the Night". Each flower blossoms for just one night per year and is withered the next morning.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
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.
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
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.
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
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
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
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.
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
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).