Checkin' out the Middle Ages

Top Ten things to View in the Middle Ages (give or take a few centuries):

10) Did Columbus and his crew experience a UFO sighting? From "The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus": Christopher Columbus and Pedro Gutierrez while on the deck of the Santa Maira, observed, "a light glimmering at a great distance." It vanished and reappeared several times during the night, moving up and down, "in sudden and passing gleams." It was sighted 4 hours before land was sighted, and taken by Columbus as a sign they would soon come to land.

9)Eldorado. What was the source for this myth? Was there ever such a place?

8) King Arthur. Camelot, Mordred and the Knights... Was it all just a fanciful tale built upon some reality? How much was true (and where's that lake and Excalibur now)?

7) Borobudur. The largest Buddhist monument in the world, Borobudur in Indonesia was built in the 9th century, constructed with an excess of two million stone blocks. There are also more than 2,650 individual relief panels, as well as a total of 504 statues of Buddha. Rediscovered in 1814, the mysteries have only piled up - mysteries about its construction, its purpose, its abandonment... and even what secrets still lie beneath it.

6) The Norse discoveries in America. How far did they get - and when? Lots of potential evidence that our Viking friends traveled extensively...

5) The Templar Treasure. Legends relate how, in 1307, just before the fated Friday 13th mass-arrest and subsequent killing of great numbers of Templar ranks, members loaded up their storehouse of treasure (and ancient relics) onto a fleet and set sail for..... somewhere. Was it Scotland? Greenland? Or as some claim, America or Nova Scotia?

4) The Taj Mahal. Supposedly construction began in 1632 - as a shrine for the lovestruck Prince's wife. Yet... numerous contradictions abound, relating alternate beliefs, including one that Shah Jahan merely expanded onto an original Shiva Temple (complete with catacombs and underground shrines) dating back almost two thousand years. http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_TajMahal.htm

3) Nuremburg 1561. The entire city seems to have witnessed an astonishing 'War in the Heavens'. At sunrise on the 14th April 1561, the citizens of Nuremberg beheld "A very frightful spectacle." The sky appeared to fill with cylindrical objects from which red, black, orange and blue white disks and globes emerged. Crosses and tubes resembling cannon barrels also appeared whereupon the objects promptly "began to fight one another." This event is depicted in a famous 16th century woodcut by Hans Glaser.

Was this just a latter-century hoax? If not... what really happened?

2.5) Genghis Khan's Tomb. The subject of my next book (The Mongol Objective). The greatest conqueror ever, he died around 1227. And the legends surrounding his funeral march and subsequent burial are as mysterious as they come. Reports that 20,000 laborers were slaughtered to protect the secret, and a secret clan continues to guard his true resting place - and the vast treasure amassed from his conquests.

2) The Voynich Manuscript. Dating back to sometime in the 15th century, "The World's Most Mysterious Manuscript" consists of some 250 pages of hand-written and illustrated vellum pages. It has been studied by American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II, yet it has defied all decipherment attempts. The mystery surrounding it has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript a subject of both fanciful theories and novels.

1) The Shroud of Turin. I'm putting this in the 'Middle Ages' category since that's where the fun begins. The first 'certain historical record' of its existence begins around 1350. From there, it's had quite a remarkable history. According to former Nature editor Phillip Ball, "it's fair to say that, despite the seemingly definitive tests in 1988, the status of the Shroud of Turin is murkier than ever. Not least, the nature of the image and how it was fixed on the cloth remain deeply puzzling". The shroud is one of the most studied artifacts in human history, and one of the most controversial.

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