Surrounding the Black Hills, the Devil's Tower is one of the most mysterious places you will find in the world. (Shutterstock)
Planet Earth is a mysterious place that never ceases to amaze.
You won’t have to look far to find some natural peculiarity for which science sometimes offer a theory. However, many places are complete enigma.
Getting to these locations is often difficult; sometimes you will find that you really don’t want to be there – depending on whether you believe the rumors of ghosts and aliens.
Scientists keep looking for answers and are often surprised by the obscurities they find.
How can you explain why there are blood-looking falls in the driest and coldest place in the world or why your car will flip over when driving through part of New Brunswick?
Some places captivate people more than others. Take the Eternal Flame Falls in New York, the Bermuda Triangle or the Nazca Lines, one of archaeology's greatest puzzles, for example.
The incapability to understand the real story behind some of these phenomena draws many people. They are just so infused by intrigue that there is no explaining it.
1. Blood Falls, Antarctica
(National Science Foundation/Peter Rejcek /Public Domain)
How is it that the coldest and driest place on the planet has a blood-red waterfall pouring down slowly into the McMurdo Dry Valleys, some of the most extreme desert lands on Earth?
What causes the mysterious flow was only recently “discovered” in a study.
Scientists believed for many years red algae gave the creepy color.
But now research has shown that iron oxide is responsible for the hue. The waterfall even contains strange bacterial lifeforms.
2. Magnetic Hill, Moncton, New Brunswick
(Wikimedia Commons/ Jim101 /CC BY-SA 3.0)
Be very careful if you choose to drive to the bottom of this iconic hill.
Stories about what happens there have been around since early 1900s.
As impossible as it sounds, your car will start to "roll" uphill. “And it doesn’t just work on cars – vans, trucks and even tour buses roll upward in total defiance of natural law,” according to Tourism New Brunswick.
3. Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand
(Shutterstock)
The Moeraki Boulders, originally formed in sea floor sediments about 60 million years ago, are large spherical “stones” scattered on Koekohe Beach near Moeraki on New Zealand’s Otago coast.
They are concretions that have been exposed through shoreline erosion from coastal cliffs that back the beach.
Each boulder weighs several tons and stands up to six feet high.
4. Racetrack Playa, Death Valley, California
(Thinkstock)
Located in a remote valley between the Cottonwood and Last Chance Ranges, Racetrack Playa is a place of spectacular beauty and mystery.
The Racetrack is a dry lakebed, best known for its strange moving rocks. It looks like they “sailed” through the valley.
“Although no one has actually seen the rocks move, the long meandering tracks left behind in the mud surface of the playa attest to their activity,” according to the NPS.
The most logical explanation so far is that ice forms covering the stones, causing them to move.
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5. Eternal Flame Falls, Orchard Park, New York
If you go to the waterfalls of Shale Creek in the southeast corner of Chestnut Ridge Park, you may notice a strange orange-red light behind the water and think it's just your eyes playing tricks on you.
Can something really burn under water? You’ll actually smell the golden flame because it’s fired by methane gas escaping through the cracks.
(YouTube)
The water sometimes extinguishes the flame, but you can easily start it up again with a lighter.
6. Inuit village near Lake Anjikuni, Canada
The residents of an entire village disappeared here without a trace.
Legend has it that a trapper who had been there many times before, and met with the locals, found the place completely deserted one night with some fires still burning. There was no sign of human life but all of their weapons and supplies had been left untouched. The dogs were found frozen and starved to death even though there was food scattered around.
(Wikimedia Commons/ CC0-Public Domain Nicolas Perrault II)
There are still no logical theories as to what happened here. Some people have speculated there was a massive alien abduction.
7. The Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle – also known as the Devil’s Triangle – is perhaps the most famous spot of mystery in the world. It covers an area about 500,000 square miles between Bermuda (once known as the Isle of Devils), Miami and San Juan in Puerto Rico.
Ships passing and planes flying over the Triangle are said to have vanished in thin air or sunk in the deep sea without any explanation. Many hypotheses have been offered over the years as to what’s happening-- some are geological or hydrological. Very scientific.
(Shutterstock)
Check out more of the Most Mysterious Places Around the World
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