Movies like 12 Years a Slave give us a good idea of what the desperate escape to freedom must have been like for many African-American slaves. But the following accounts are equally as captivating. Such fine examples of luck, trickery, and pure dogged determination deserve to be noticed.

10 Harriet Jacobs

Born in 1813, Harriet Jacobs was frequently the victim of brutal sexual assaults from her master, James Norcom. Even when Jacobs took a lover and had two children with him, Norcom’s sexual advances continued. Finally, it got to be more than she could bear. In 1835, she went to hide with friends.

Jacobs knew the odds were slim that she’d make it to the North, so she hid in a cramped crawl space in her grandmother’s attic on the North Carolina plantation. Barely big enough to accommodate Jacobs, the space was infested with rats. Nonetheless, she lived there for the next seven years.

In 1842, she escaped the plantation by boat to Philadelphia. Upon arriving, she was taken in by members of the Philadelphia Vigilant Committee. She later wrote about her life and trials in the memoir Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

9 Ellen And William Craft

Few slaves made such daring escape attempts as William Craft and his wife, Ellen. Married in 1846 in Macon, Georgia, the two were owned by separate masters. Ellen was the daughter of a white slaveholder and his black female slave.

Frightened of being separated, William and Ellen hatched a plan to pose as a slave and his white owner. There was one problem, though. It was unacceptable for a white woman to travel alone with a male slave. So they decided that Ellen would disguise herself as a white man.

In December 1848, they spent several days traveling by rail and steamer to the North, staying in expensive hotels among other whites to keep their cover. Ellen disguised her feminine face in bandages. The two finally arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas Day 1848. They went on to live in England, where they raised a family and wrote an account of their escape.

8 Ayuba Suleiman Jallo

Ayuba Suleiman Jallo (aka Job ben Solomon) came from a family of prominent Muslim leaders in Senegal. In 1730, he and his translator were captured by an invading tribe and sold as slaves by the Royal African Company (RAC). Ultimately, Jallo was sold to the owner of a tobacco plantation in Annapolis, Maryland.

While attempting to escape, Jallo was captured and imprisoned. Reverend Thomas Bluett began communicating with Jallo in prison using hand gestures. Bluett was surprised to discover that Jallo was a Muslim and that he could write in Arabic.

After being returned to his master, Jallo penned a letter in Arabic to his family back home. It ended up on the desk of RAC director James Oglethorpe, who had sold Jallo into slavery initially. An emotionally moved Oglethorpe had the RAC purchase Jallo’s freedom.

In 1734, Jallo returned to Senegal. He continued to press for the release of his interpreter, who was freed and returned to Africa in 1738.

7 Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist, craved freedom from a young age. In 1833, at age 20, he became engaged to a free black woman named Anna Murray. Taking the opportunity to finally find freedom, he fled his station as a ship caulker in Baltimore.

Disguised as a soldier, Douglass boarded a train for the North and traveled with a free sailor’s protection pass that a friend had given him. Although the person pictured on the pass looked nothing like Douglass, the conductor only gave it a cursory glance.

Douglass had more close calls on his way north. But he finally arrived in New York and stayed with an abolitionist, where he later met up with Murray and moved to Bedford, Massachusetts. Douglass had the status of fugitive slave until 1846 when antislavery activists helped him to purchase his own freedom.

6 Eliza Harris

Eliza Harris’s story is so captivating that author Harriet Beecher Stowe included Eliza as a character in her famous novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

When her master intended to sell her only surviving child, Eliza escaped with the toddler to the Ohio River. Unfortunately, the surface of the frozen river was broken into unnavigable chunks of ice. She waited out the day in a nearby house, but the ice continued to break into smaller pieces. That night, she heard her pursuers approaching.

Eliza bolted from the house, determined to escape or drown. At times, a chunk of ice would sink beneath her and she would be waist-deep in the freezing water. She’d push her child onto the next chunk of ice. Then she’d pull herself onto it.

Breathless and half-frozen, Eliza continued her desperate plight until she reached the other side of the river. There, a man directed her to a house where she could rest. Then Eliza was sent to a station of the Underground Railroad.

5 Henry Highland Garnet

Henry Highland Garnet’s 11-member family ran away from their master’s plantation when he was just nine years old. His father had gotten permission for them to attend a family funeral, but they didn’t intend to return.

They all made a risky, 160-kilometer (100 mi) trek by foot and carriage to Delaware. In Wilmington, the family split up. Henry and his mother, father, and sister continued on to Long Island. They changed their name from Trusty to Garnet, and Garnet would grow up to be a central figure in black education and spirituality.

4 Henry ‘Box’ Brown

Henry Brown was a slave born and raised in Virginia. After seeing his wife and children sold to an owner in a different state, a devastated Brown became determined to escape slavery. He came up with a daring plan to ship himself in a wooden crate to Philadelphia. He did it with the help of a freed slave and a white shopkeeper.

On March 3, 1849, Brown squeezed him into a small wooden crate labeled “Dry Goods.” After a harrowing, 27-hour journey, Brown arrived at the Philadelphia home of abolitionist James McKim.

However, less than a year later, Brown was forced to flee to England after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. He returned in 1875 after starting a new family.

3 Drennen Slave Girl

The escape of the unidentified Drennen slave girl is notable because of how ridiculously simple it was. One day in 1850, businessman John Drennen, his wife, and their 14-year-old slave girl checked into the Monongahela House—a lavish hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—after a long, difficult trip from the South.

After dressing her mistress for dinner, the slave girl was helped by the black house staff to carry a trunk full of damaged and dirty clothing to be washed and mended. She was fascinated by these blacks because they were paid employees of the hotel and not slaves.

At some point, the girl simply walked out the back door of the hotel and was never seen by her masters again. She was no doubt motivated by the black service people of the hotel as Monongahela House served as the seat of much secret antislavery activity.

2 Robert Smalls

Early in the morning of May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls and some shipmates hijacked the steamship CSS Planter in Charleston, North Carolina, while their white crewmates were ashore. The slaves picked up their families at a rendezvous point and then sailed into the Charleston Harbor with Smalls disguised in the captain’s coat and hat.

His thorough sailing knowledge helped to get the ship safely passed Fort Sumter. Once out of firing range, he sprinted for the Union blockade, which was established to keep the Southern states from trading or importing war items.

At the blockade, Smalls and his crew hoisted the white surrender flag for the first US Navy ship they encountered. They were hailed as heroes in the North, and their story was held up as an example that blacks could make good soldiers.

1 Lewis Williams

When Lewis Williams was a boy, his family escaped slavery in Kentucky and made their way to the antislavery stronghold of Cincinnati. In his early twenties, Williams was tricked by a fortune-teller into revealing details about his escape.

She used this information to contact his old master and turn Williams in for a reward. After the slaveholder traveled to Ohio, Williams was put on trial to be extradited back to Kentucky. His story would have ended there if not for the crafty heroics of Reverend William Troy, the leader of the black community in Cincinnati.

Troy knew a guy who surprisingly resembled Williams. On the day of the trial, Troy took a crowd of supporters to the courthouse. While everyone was distracted by a dramatic argument, Williams and his body double quickly switched places. Williams then stealthily crawled out the door on his hands and knees and eventually escaped to Canada.

Tiffany is a freelance writer hailing from southern California. You can follow her on Twitter.

In 1927, The Jazz Singer was released which marked the end of the silent-film era. The film was lauded for revolutionizing the industry as it was the first motion-picture to include synchronized speech, music and sound effects. As such it was also the first in what would become a long line of musical films, including Going My Way, Babes on Broadway, Singin’ in the Rain, Hello Dolly!, and Grease.

Some of the most captivating scenes in musical movies include the main character or several characters performing a heartfelt song or powerful anthem. On this list are just some of the memorable musical performances that still get people talking.

10 Great Scenes in Musical History

10 “Over the Rainbow”—The Wizard of Oz

“Once there was a wicked witch in the lovely land of Oz

And a wickeder, wickeder, wickeder witch there never, never was.”
The 1939 musical fantasy film, The Wizard of Oz, brought to life the unfor
gettable characters of the L. Frank Baum book in a most successful way. It features fantastic musical numbers and was ranked third on the list of most watched films of all times in 2013.

Judy Garland starred as Dorothy Gale and performed Over The Rainbow which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The 17-year-old Garland celebrated her big break as an actress by giving her all in this performance which has gained iconic status.

9 “America”—West Side Story

In 1961, the film West Side Story adapted the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, for the big screen. The story was inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and the film won 10 Academy Awards.

The film’s soundtrack spent 54 weeks at No.1 on the Billboard chart and won a Grammy award for “Best Sound Track Album – Original Cast.” It includes “Jet Song”, “Something’s Coming”, “Maria”, “I Feel Pretty”, “Somewhere”, and the catchy “America.”

“America” is the biggest dance number in the film. It was written by Stephen Sondheim and composed by Leonard Bernstein and makes for an exceptional scene.

8 “The Sound of Music | The Hills Are Alive”—The Sound of Music

Based on Maria von Trapp’s memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, The Sound of Music documents the journey of an Austrian postulant, Maria, who brings music and joy into the lives of a retired naval officer and his seven children. The film was released in 1965 and by the end of 1966 had become the highest-grossing film of all time. It won a slew of awards and is preserved in the National Film Registry.

Julie Andrews accepted the role of Maria, even though she once made fun of the theatre production that preceded the film, a year after playing the iconic role of Mary Poppins. She brought her musical stylings with her to The Sound of Music and sang “The Sound of Music | The Hills Are Alive” as the prelude. The scene during which the song is sung, is one of the most memorable in movie history and has been referenced many times in TV series and movies.

7 “Don’t Rain on My Parade”—Funny Girl

Funny Girl is based on the life and career of Fanny Brice, who was an American comedienne, singer and actress. Barbra Streisand starred as Brice in the Broadway show and was then handed the movie role for the character in what was her film debut in 1968.

The film has been deemed one of the greatest musicals ever and includes memorable songs such as “I’m the Greatest Star”, “You Are Woman, I Am Man”, “My Man” and of course “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”

6 “Time Warp”—The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Rocky Horror Show was a musical that paid tribute to terrible horror movies as well as science fiction movies from the 1930s to the 1960s. The original production was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1973 and closed in 1980 after 2,960 performances.

In 1975, the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show saw the light and went on to become the movie with the longest-running release in film history. It has a huge and faithful cult following, even though it initially flopped, and is preserved in the National Film Registry.

Some of most well-known songs in the film include ‘Damn It, Janet”, “Sweet Transvestite”, “Hot Patootie”, “Science Fiction/Double Feature” and “Time Warp.”

“Time Warp” featured in both the stage production as well as the movie and the dance that accompanies it has become a major audience-participation activity over the years.

5 “Tomorrow”—Annie

A comic strip called Little Orphan Annie eventually turned into a Broadway musical in 1977 and then into a full-length feature film in 1982 starring Aileen Quinn, Carol Burnett, Albert Finney and Tim Curry. In the movie, Annie is convinced that she was left at an orphanage by mistake, and eventually gets to live in a mansion all the while longing to meet her parents.

Of course none of this happens without several musical numbers, including “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here”, “Little Girls”, the well-known “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” and the very well-known “Tomorrow.” It is thought that “Tomorrow” was influenced by the Sherman Brothers’ “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” which was written for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. It has been covered many times over the years, but that first earnest performance by a young Aileen Quinn, still outshines the rest.

4 “Cell Block Tango”—Chicago

Several movie stars show off their musical chops in the movie, Chicago, including Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The film follows the lives of two female prisoners awaiting trial on Murderess’ Row in Chicago in the 1920s. The two women eventually become entangled in a battle for fame and celebrity.

Chicago became the first musical film to win the Best Picture Oscar since 1968.

Some of the best performances featured in Chicago include “All That Jazz”, “Mr. Cellophane”, and the dark “Cell Block Tango.”

“Cell Block Tango” was originally composed for the 1975 musical, Chicago, and each of the song’s first six words is identified with a murder suspect. In the movie, the song is performed by Catherine Zeta-Jones, Susan Misner, Denise Faye, Deidre Goodwin, Ekaterina Chtchelkanova and Mýa.

3 “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”—Dreamgirls

Dreamgirls was also adapted from a Broadway musical and released in 2006. It stars Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy and depicts the history of American R&B during the 60s and 70s.

Effie White, the character inspired by Supremes singer Florence Ballard, is portrayed by American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson. Hudson won a Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role. In the movie she performs many great songs including “One Night Only”, “I am Changing”, the spectacular “It’s All Over” alongside several cast members and the beautiful “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”.

2 “On My Own”- Les Misérables

There are very few uplifting moments in the film, Les Misérables. After all, there is sorrow and death everywhere. However, there are some musical performances that shine very brightly (Russell Crowe’s weirdness aside).

The best of these included the emotional rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” by Fantine, played by Anne Hathaway (second clip above – filmed in one take!), “Bring Him Home” by Jean Valjean, played by Hugh Jackman and “One Day More” by the cast.

Samantha Barks made her mark with her character, Eponine, singing “On My Own.” She won the role after playing the same character in London’s West End, even though more experienced singers and actresses vied for the movie opportunity, including Lea Michele, Scarlett Johannsson and Taylor Swift.

Barks later said she truly related to the role, as she had been performing “On My Own” karaoke-style since the age of seven.

1 “Always Remember Us This Way”—A Star Is Born (2018)

A Star Is Born (2018) was Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut and Lady Gaga’s big Hollywood movie debut. Both Cooper’s direction and Gaga’s performance were a hit with critics and audiences worldwide. Gaga and Cooper’s onscreen chemistry led to many fans believing that the two had a real-life romantic connection, something both have denied.

The music in the movie is predictably great with “Shallow” winning the Oscar for Best Original Song. A stand-out performance from Gaga however, was “Always Remember Us This Way” sung by her character Ally, after Jackson (Cooper) tells her he loves her.

+ “This Is Me”—The Greatest Showman

The Greatest Showman is a spectacle of showmanship and music that gave the world the much-karaoked “Million Dreams” performed by Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams. Zac Efron and Zendaya also had their own moment to shine in the film, with “Rewrite The Stars.” And then, of course, there is “This Is Me” brilliantly performed by the astoundingly talented Keala Settle and several co-stars. The song has become an anthem for people around the world and brims with optimism and defiance all at the same time.

Top 10 Film Musicals

Just kidding. Obviously, there is a lot more to countries around the world other than their landmarks, but it cannot be disputed that they are a big part of the reason people choose to travel to certain locations. Some of these landmarks have amazing backstories, while others have fantastic legends surrounding them, drawing in visitors who want to try and uncover its secrets.

Top 10 Iconic Places Pictured From Behind

10 Hidden messages

Towering above Rio de Janeiro, the Christ the Redeemer Art Deco statue is one of the largest statues of Jesus in the world and one of its New Seven Wonders. The statue’s open arms are a symbol of peace and it is the most famous landmark in Brazil. The right arm points to south Rio and the left to north Rio.

In the 1850s a local priest dreamt up the idea of creating a Christian monument on Mount Corcovado. A request to Princess Isabel for funding fell through after Brazil separated church from state in 1889. The priest’s dream was eventually realized after the First World War when, after a handful of designers crafted the statue, it was opened to the public on 12 October 1931.

Workers who made and glued the 6 million soapstone tiles that cover the statue, are said to have written messages on the back in the form of wishes or simply their lover’s name. One of the workers, Lygia Maria Avila da Veiga, was immensely proud to have her personalized tiles displayed on the statue, saying: “I wrote many wishes on the soapstones. They are up there, up there on top.”^[1]

9 70 years and counting

In South Dakota lies what is supposed to be the world’s biggest monument. ‘Supposed to be’, because after 70 years it is still not finished. In 1948, Polish American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski started work on Crazy Horse, a depiction of a Native American warrior on horseback, believing it would take 30 years to complete. He started the project with less than $200 in his pocket, no electricity, water, or functional roads to speak of. He climbed a 741-step wooden staircase to scale Thunderhead Mountain and start work on the monument. Having no money to pay workers, Ziolkowski worked alone for many years. He died in 1982, with his last wish being that his family commit to completing the monument.

Crazy Horse is a famous figure in Native American culture and the sculpture is meant to be a monument in his honor. The granite mountain into which it is being carved sports a symbolic depiction of Crazy Horse, since no photographs of the warrior exist. When the landmark is finally completed, Crazy Horse will point southeast towards a plot where many Native Americans have been buried. The plan for the memorial came in ‘retaliation’ of the tribute to white American leaders on the nearby Mount Rushmore. When completed, the Crazy Horse memorial will make all four faces on Mount Rushmore seem tiny. In the meantime, visitors to South Dakota can explore the top of the unfinished memorial and explore the area that hopefully one day will sport Crazy Horse’s outstretched arm.^[2]

8 A tree of contention

Maungakiekie is Maori for “mountain of the kiekie vine.” Also known as One Tree Hill, this volcanic peak in Auckland, New Zealand, holds a dear spot in the history of the country. After a battle in 1740, a fortified Maori village was abandoned when their chief was killed in action. The village sat on top of the volcano and only one native tree remained after it was abandoned, hence the name One Tree Hill.

Unfortunately, a settler cut down the lone tree in 1852, after which businessman John Logan Campbell decided to plant a grove of pine trees in its place. Of this grove only one tree survived. Campbell’s gravesite is located at the peak alongside a bronze statue of Chief Tamaki as well as an obelisk dedicated to the Maori people.

In 1994, the surviving pine tree was partially cut up with a chainsaw by Maori activists and then destroyed by other activists in 2000 in retaliation of the New Zealand government’s treatment of the Maori.

In 2016 nine new trees were planted to replace the pine and these are now surrounded by a fence. Once they are strong enough, arborists will pick the hardiest of the bunch to remain, once again returning the true meaning of the phrase One Tree Hill.^[3]

7 Misunderstanding

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is a major tourist attraction in Istanbul, Turkey. Nicknamed The Blue Mosque because of its interior colors, the place of worship was constructed between 1609 and 1616 as a proclamation of Ottoman power and is still in use today.^[4]

Sultan Ahmed I allegedly insisted that the mosque have six minarets, causing controversy in the Muslim community because only the great mosque in Mecca at the time had six minarets. The sultan wasn’t deterred and arranged for a 7th minaret to be added to the Mecca mosque so that he could have the six he desired for his own. Another version of this tale says that the sultan’s architect misunderstood his requirements regarding the minarets. The sultan wanted gold minarets, (altin minaret in Turkish), and the architect heard six minarets, alti minaret.

6 The Sea People

South Africa is perhaps most known for its varied wildlife and Table Mountain, but it has some spectacular beaches too. Along the Wild Coast lies Hole-in-the-Wall, one of SA’s most memorable landmarks. Hole-in-the-Wall is a massive, detached cliff with an opening through its centre that has been carved out by waves over time.

The cliff was named by Captain Vidal who headed the Barracouta vessel in 1823 when sent on an expedition to survey the coastline on which it stands. The locals, the Bomvana people, called the cliff ‘iziKhaleni’ which means ‘Place of the Sound’ or ‘Place of Thunder.’

Legend has it that the Mpako River once was a lagoon blocked off by the cliff. A young, beautiful girl sat on the cliff’s edge each day and stared out to sea, drawn to the overwhelming power of the waves. One day, one of the sea people came out to meet her. He had long hair and hands and feet like flippers, and when he approached the girl, he immediately asked her to marry him. However, when her father found out, he was enraged and warned her never to see the man from the sea again.

The girl disobeyed and ran to the man she had fallen in love with, telling him about her father’s warning. The man told her to wait until high tide. When she returned to the cliff during high tide, several sea people were standing on top of it, carrying a giant fish. They used the fish to carve a hole in the cliff, creating a passage from the lagoon to the sea. As the water gushed through the hole, pushed forward by the high tide, hundreds of sea people flowed through on the waves, led by the girl’s sea lover. She went to his side, and the entire group disappeared back through the hole in the rock and was never seen or heard from again.^[5]

To this day, the legend continues, and it is said that when the tide is high, the sea people can be heard singing above the sound of the waves surrounding Hole-in-the-Wall.

Top 10 Places Famous For Bizarre Reasons

5 Angel on top of the world

As the towers fell on 11 September 2001, some saw the devil’s face in the plumes of smoke. Most 9/11 devil face images circulating to this day were clearly photoshopped, but the most famous picture, dubbed ‘Satan in the smoke’, remains a point of contention with some firmly believing that the devil (or even an image of Osama bin Laden) appeared as the South Tower came down. Some are even convinced that Nostradamus predicted the evil that would befall Lower Manhattan that fateful day.

As part of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center Complex, the Freedom Tower, or One World Trade Center was constructed. The building opened on 3 November 2014 and its observatory opened on 29 May 2015. On 11 September 2016, the Tribute in Light Memorial lights shone brightly in the place where the two towers once stood. Photographer, Rich McCormack, took several photos of the lights and soon became aware of something unusual in the photographs once he went through them. High up in the sky, at the end of the light beam, was a figure that resembled an angel.

McCormack insisted that he hadn’t tampered with the photographs in any way and that he believed it may have been an angel or the Lord himself looking down on Manhattan.^[6] While some immediately called ‘pareidolia’ or ‘optical illusion’, others were encouraged by the image and believed it to be religious in nature.

4 The end of the world as we know it

Constructed as a small fortress in 889 AD, the Alhambra complex in Granada, Spain, was renovated and rebuilt in the middle of the 13th century to include a royal palace. Alhambra is the Spanish adaption of the Arabic ‘qa’lat al-Hamra which means ‘red castle.’ The complex also includes the Court of the Myrtles, Hall of the Ambassadors, Court of the Lions, and the Hall of the Abencerrajes. The royal palace is the only surviving palatine city of the Islamic Golden Age. Today it is visited by thousands of tourists every year and is one of the most famous historical sites in the whole of Spain.^[7]

As is the case with most historical sites, the Alhambra is surrounded with long-standing legends. One of the most popular being the one that alludes to the end of the world. On the Gate of Justice, one of the main entrances to the fortress, a hand has been carved into the arch stone and a key in the centre of the inner archway. Both are prominent Islamic symbols with the hand used to ward off the evil eye. Legend says that when the hand and the key join to become one, the world as we know it and the fortress itself will be destroyed simultaneously. It is also believed that fearful Catholics have put up a statue of the Virgin Mary over the door to the fortress, to prevent this calamity from happening.

3 A place of myth and legend

The Pena Palace is a castle located in the Sintra Mountains, Portugal. The castle was constructed on the site of a medieval chapel which was dedicated to “Our Lady of Pena.” After a reported sighting of the Virgin Mary at the chapel, many believers started pilgrimaging there. In 1493, King John II of Portugal and Queen Leonor ascended the Sintra mountains to pay homage to their patron and when the king saw how beautiful the location was, he ordered that a monastery be built there and donated to the Order of Saint Jerome. After a devasting earthquake in 1755, the monastery was shaken but the chapel was unscathed.

The town of Sintra itself is a major tourist destination because of the above-mentioned Pena Palace and a host of other castles and palaces. Sintra has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is a picturesque landmark of Portugal. The town was named, according to legend, after its people built a temple that was rejected by Rome after its completion. The people then dedicated and consecrated it to Cinthia (the moon) and Sintra was derived from this.

Sintra is also the center of the Yellow Rock legend. In a remote area of Sintra, a large stone protrudes from the ground. It is believed that whoever can topple the stone will be allowed to take the treasure buried beneath it. The catch? The rock must be toppled by throwing eggs at it. A long time ago, an old woman approached the rock with a horde of eggs. She threw the whole lot of them at the rock but was unable to move it. To this day, the yellow moss that grows on the strange rock is said to be the egg yolks splashed over it by the unlucky old woman.^[8]

2 Ceremony of strength

To commemorate the landing of King-Emperor George V and Queen-Empress Mary at Apollo Bunder, Bombay (Mumbai today) in 1911, a massive arch-monument was erected and named the Gateway of India. George V was the first British monarch to visit India. The gateway faces the Arabian sea on one side and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel on the other and has over time become of the most photographed places in the world. It was also the place from which the last British troops departed India in 1948, after the country gained its independence the year before. Furthermore, the gateway was the place Mahatma Ghandi landed when he returned to India after his 22-year stay in South Africa.^[9]

Eleven years after the devasting terror attacks on Mumbai in 2008, the Gateway of India became host to the 26/11 Stories of Strength event. The monument was lit up and sported the fateful date at the top, while the Indian Navy band performed in front of it. Several government officials and celebrities, including veteran actor Amitabh Bachhan attended the emotional event and Bachhan closed the ceremony by reciting a powerful poem. The event also featured accounts of survivors and coincided with the 150th birthday year of Mahatma Ghandhi.

1 Last glimpse of freedom

Venice, Italy is a highly popular tourist attraction, in no small part due to the gondola rides visitors can take through the canals. Venice is also home to what was an infamous old prison in the Doges Palace. At one point a bridge was constructed to connect this old prison to a new prison across the river that divided them. This bridge, over time, became known as the Bridge of Sighs.

Theory has it that it is so called because those who were marched over it, were going to be jailed for a long time and they sighed as they glimpsed the river and what would be their last beautiful sight while still free. Poet, Lord Byron, mused in one of his poems that the bridge was the last point at which condemned criminals could see Venice before they were led to their executioner. As one sails down the river and approaches the bridge today, the prison cells can still be seen on the right.

Another, more upbeat legend has it that if a couple sails in a gondola and kiss as they pass under the bridge, they will never be separated from one another.^[10]

Top 10 Creepiest Places On Earth (That You Probably Don’t Know)

History is littered with amazing discoveries, whether accidental or as the result of a thorough search. With each discovery, a little puzzle piece of ancient history, or even modern history, slots into place and gives us a little more insight into how things used to work and a world long forgotten.

Related: 10 Strange Archaeological Discoveries

10 Pregnant Mummy

In 1940 archaeologists Sydney and Georgia Wheeler discovered the world’s oldest mummy in Spirit Cave, Fallon, Nevada. Analysis revealed that the mummy is related to a Native American tribe, died at the age of 40, and has been in a mummified state for around 10,600 years. Mummy discoveries were nothing new at that point, with the mummy of King Tutankhamun having been discovered in 1922 and a female mummy found long before that, in 1902.

But the excitement over the age of the mummy is far from over, it seems, with an unexpected discovery announced in April 2021. A mummy had been donated to the University of Warsaw in Poland in 1826 and has been on display at the National Museum in Warsaw since 1917. The mummy was noted as having been found in Thebes, Egypt, before its donation to the university. However, the coffin and remains were only recently analyzed. Researchers, who saw that the coffin was inscribed with the name of a male priest, instead found a pregnant female inside it. It is believed that the woman was between 20 and 30 years old when she died and that she was between six and eight months pregnant at the time.

The “Mysterious Lady of the National Museum in Warsaw,” as the mummy is now known, was buried with a set of amulets and is believed to have had high social standing.^[1]

The cause of her death remains unclear at this stage.

9 Ship of Dreams

Robert Ballard was stressed on the first day of September in 1985. He and his team had been out on the North Atlantic Ocean for more than a week, combing the seafloor but coming up with nothing but sand.

He was reflecting on the so-far unsuccessful journey when the vessel’s cook appeared and let him know that the watch team had found something. Hurrying to the control room, van Ballard was shown a live video feed, provided by a submersible robot, of the “Ship of Dreams” wreck. There on the screen was one of the ill-fated Titanic’s boilers on the ocean floor.

The robot then followed a trail of debris leading from the boiler, and the next morning, the Titanic’s bow came into view for the first time since she sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912. Ballard and his team saw that the ship had indeed broken in two, with the stern laying around 400 meters (1,312 feet) away from the bow.

They also saw China plates, broken furniture, and a case of champagne scattered across the seafloor. Only a few steps away from their vessel were various pairs of leather shoes, a tragic reminder of all the lives lost when the ship went down.

It was revealed years later that Ballard never set out to find the Titanic when his vessel happened upon the boiler. Instead, he was tasked with finding the wreckage of two nuclear submarines, which he found quickly. He then made use of the remaining days of his original mission to locate the Titanic.^[2]

8 Paasch-Eyland

On Easter Sunday 1722, Dutch admiral and explorer Jacob Roggeveen reached a small island in the Pacific Ocean and promptly named it Paaseiland, or Paasch-Eyland, which translates to Easter Island. The indigenous name for this mysterious island is Rapa Nui, and the locals go by the same name.

Roggeveen was on an expedition to find Terra Australis, a hypothetical continent that appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries, and Davis Land, a phantom island supposedly situated in the Pacific Ocean. He found Easter Island instead and would go on to discover Bora Bora, Maupiti, and Samoa.

By far, the most talked-about component of Easter Island is the massive Moai statues of which the vast majority have toppled over in the 300 years since Roggeveen first set foot there. Once believed to have been just “heads,” it was revealed during excavations in 2010 that the massive statue heads were attached to equally huge bodies that had been buried into the ground.

The statues were carved with stone chisels, and while no one truly knows how the islanders were able to move them around, it is thought that wooden sledges, log rollers, and ropes were used.^[3]

7 A Girl’s Best Friend

Diamonds are seen as a symbol of love and commitment, and the name diamond comes from the Greek word adamas, meaning “unconquerable.” The very first diamond deposits were found in India in the fourth century, and they became part of the trade route that connected India and China. Soon, these beautiful stones were worn as jewelry to ward off evil spirits and were believed to cure illness during the Dark Ages. Until the 18th century, mines in India were utilized for diamond mining to supply the world, with only a small alternate diamond deposit found in Brazil in 1725. When India’s supply started to dry up, a search was initiated for more deposits.

In 1867, 15-year-old Erasmus Jacobs was walking the banks of the Orange River in South Africa when he found a pretty pebble. Little did he know that it would turn out to be a 12.25-carat diamond. Four years later, an 83.50-carat deposit was discovered on Colesberg Kopje, which led to thousands of diamond prospectors making their way to the region in the hopes of finding their own bit of wealth. This eventually led to a large-scale mining operation that became known as the Kimberley Mine.^[4]

6 The Final Frontier

Often called the “final frontier,” outer space has been the cause of much excitement over the years. Astronomers have, with time, come up with a host of incredible theories, including supernova explosions that form planets, the Mirror Universe theory, and super-fluid space-time.

There have also been mindblowing space discoveries such as an exoplanet nicknamed Super-Earth, ice volcanoes, Mars tsunamis, water on the moon, and black holes.

Albert Einstein predicted the existence of black holes back in 1916 with the publishing of his theory of general relativity. However, it wasn’t until 1964 that this prediction became a reality after astronomers spotted a black hole 6,070 lightyears away in the Cygnus constellation. Cygnus X-1 remained a point of contention for almost 30 years before physicists Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne finally agreed that the sighting was indeed a black hole.

In February 2021, 57 years after Cygnus X-1 was discovered, it was revealed that scientists had found the black hole to be even bigger than first thought. This meant that scientists would have to revise their thinking on stellar winds and stars that hemorrhage mass. This study is ultimately going to be backed up by more observations planned in Australia and South Africa.^[5]

5 Isolated Paradise

Hawaii consists of eight major islands, including Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and the Big Island. It is a major tourist attraction, a popular wedding destination, and the site of incredible natural wonders such as the Napali Coast, Iao Valley, and Mauna Kea.

The islands are the most isolated landmass on Earth and were first settled in AD 400 when Polynesians arrived from the Marquesas Islands in canoes. The civilization in Hawaii remained isolated from the rest of the world for around 500 years until British explorer James Cook arrived on the islands in 1778. He and his crew were believed to have been the first Europeans to travel to Hawaii, which he named the Sandwich Islands. Cook’s arrival led to immigration and inevitable disease in the form of smallpox which ravaged the native population.

The Hawaiians were in awe of Cook and believed that he and his compatriots were gods. In turn, they were exploited for this belief. However, things changed when one of Cook’s crewmen died, causing the Hawaiians to see them as mere mortals. Cook left Hawaii on February 4, 1779, but was forced to turn back after only a week. They were met by an angry mob who overwhelmed the crew of Cook’s ship and eventually killed Cook.^[6]

4 A Destroyed Beacon

During the reign of Ptolemy II, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was built on the small island of Pharos near Alexandria, Egypt. The lighthouse was instrumental in guiding ships in and out of the Alexandria harbor. Unfortunately, it was gradually destroyed between 956 and 1323 in a series of earthquakes. As a result, the only way archaeologists could determine what the lighthouse looked like was from a depiction found on ancient coins.

From the coins, they deduced that the lighthouse had been built in three tiers and boasted a massive statue of either Alexander the Great or Ptolemy II. The very last remnants of the lighthouse were destroyed in 1480 when the Sultan of Egypt ordered a medieval fort to be built over the site.

During an archaeological expedition in 1968, the Lighthouse of Alexandria’s ruins were found in the water of the Mediterranean Sea, but the exploration was put on hold because the area was a military zone. In 1994, photographs of the ruins captured images of columns and statues, including obelisks and sphinxes. Efforts are ongoing to preserve the site where the lighthouse once stood.^[7]

3 An Accidental Discovery

It was the beginning of 1947, and a group of Bedouin teenagers was going about their day tending goats and sheep near Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. One of the boys threw a rock into a narrow cliff opening and immediately heard what sounded like something shattering. Out of curiosity, he and the other shepherds entered the cave and found several clay jars, of which seven contained leather and papyrus scrolls. It was eventually estimated that the texts were around 2,000 years old, and the discovery prompted several archaeologists and amateur treasure hunters to descend upon the area. This led to the discovery of additional scrolls and scroll fragments which altogether make up around 900 manuscripts.

Four of the original Dead Sea Scrolls were put up for sale via an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal in 1954 and bought by Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin whose father already owned the other three. It remains unknown who wrote the scrolls, although the popular theory is that they were written by a Jewish population who lived in Qumran until the Romans destroyed the place.

One of the manuscripts, called the Copper Scroll, contains a guide to hidden treasure, none of which has yet been found.^[8]

2 Challenger Deep

In 2021, only around 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored, which means there are most likely plenty of intriguing and even startling discoveries to come.

The Mariana Trench is one of the most fascinating parts of the world’s oceans and is also the deepest point on Earth. To date, only three people have explored the trench, including filmmaker James Cameron. It was found in 1875 and named for the nearby Mariana Islands. The HMS Challenger expedition ran between 1872 and 1876 and covered 70,000 nautical miles. Around 4,700 species were discovered during this single expedition. Seventy-six years later, the HMS Challenger II sounded the trench as well, and in 1960 Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh reached the deepest point of the trench, called Challenger Deep, in a deep boat. James Cameron was the first person to take pictures of the Challenger Deep.

The Mariana Trench was named a national monument in 2009 and some still believe there could be a monster of megalodon proportions down there, biding its time to make a grand reveal.^[9]

1 Eve’s Footprints

In 1995, geologist David Roberts made the stunning announcement that he’d found three fossilized footprints on the shore of Langebaan Lagoon in South Africa. The footprints were dated to around 117,000 years ago, which makes them the oldest known footprints of a modern human. It is believed that the woman, nicknamed Eve, who left the prints would have lived within the time of the emergence of modern Homo sapiens. Researchers later found evidence of stone tool use in the same area.

A book written about the discovery imagines the woman crossing the dunes, perhaps carrying a small animal. It is raining, and the slight woman leaves deep prints in the sand. The prints are covered by dry sand, and as time passes, stone forms over them, protecting them. Erosion thousands of years later exposes the footprints again, leading to the Roberts discovery.^[10]

We just began another year, and we still don’t know MH370’s final resting place, who Jack the Ripper was, or whether the Alcatraz three really survived their brazen escape. Astronomers are still trying to solve intriguing space mysteries, and scientists are still hoping to find out what caused the Cambrian Explosion. The Ark of the Covenant remains lost, and JonBenet’s killer remains unidentified.

Mysteries are born every day, and some live and evolve over a long time before being solved. Unfortunately, others remain unsolved as the years, decades, and centuries pass.

On this list are more varied mysteries that have accumulated around the world and that have yet to be solved.

Related: 10 Murder Mysteries That Went Unsolved For Years

10 Hemet Maze Stone

It was 1914, and a rancher on the outskirts of Hemet, California, was surveying his property when he came across a large boulder with a strange image carved into it. Archaeologists were called, and upon further investigation, they found artifacts near the stone, which led them to conclude that the carving on the boulder was around 500 years old.

The stone carving is reminiscent of a swastika shape—a symbol used for millennia in Asian and Native American art—and forms an intricate maze. This makes it different from the other petroglyph designs found in the U.S., as these are usually images of animals, people, or nature. A theory was put forward after other stones with similar maze images were found near the original stone. It explained that Chinese sailors may have carved them after being shipwrecked in California. However, to this day, it remains unclear whether this theory is the truth. Archaeologists also still don’t know the reason for the carvings.^[1]

9 Rock Apes

So-called cryptid sightings usually consist of blurry images or video footage that may or may not resemble some kind of creature, whether it’s Bigfoot, Nessie, or some other folklore beast.

During the Vietnam War, cryptid sightings were numerous, and many American troops gave detailed accounts of what they believed was an encounter with a rock ape or “batutut.” A particular hill in Vietnam came to be known as Monkey Mountain after a high number of rock ape sightings purportedly took place there. Encounters with rock apes usually saw the cryptids throwing rocks back at troops. Some even hurled grenades back at the soldiers. The creatures are said to be at least six feet tall, with long limbs and big stomachs. It is thought that they live in troops instead of navigating the Vietnam jungles alone.

Reports of the rock apes being covered in reddish-brown hair caused some to think that they were simply orangutans. However, orangutans became extinct in Vietnam thousands of years ago. Another theory is that the troops were hallucinating because of the extreme stress and unfamiliar environment.

In 1974, the Vietnam People’s Army launched an expedition to try and capture a rock ape for research purposes. Nothing ever came of it.^[2]

8 Aleya Ghost Lights

Spooky mysteries are usually the most popular. Historic places, in particular, often have secrets lurking around every corner. West Bengal was founded in 1947 and, over the years, has become famous for its creepy buildings and cemeteries. One of its main claims to spooky fame is the Aleya ghost lights that flicker above the swamps here.

Ghost lights have been reported around the world, but the Aleya lights seem sinister in their intent. It is alleged that many fishermen have drowned after being transfixed by them. It is also believed that the lights are the spirits of the dead fishermen who are now stuck in the marshes.

Urban legends say that several bodies of fishermen have washed up on the shores of the swamps and that these remains were surrounded by a strange mist. Their deaths were never explained.

The first scientific explanation for ghost lights was that lightning interacts with the gas over swamps, creating the lights. This theory was rejected because the lights seem to move in tandem with people who come close to them. Other theories say that fireflies or barn owls are responsible for the phenomenon.^[3]

For now, however, the obvious cause of the lights remains a mystery.

7 The Missing Nuclear Bomb

On February 5, 1958, an F-86 fighter plane collided with a B-47 bomber during a practice exercise. The bomber was carrying a Mark 3,400 kg nuclear bomb at the time of the collision, and for the safety of the aircrew, the bomb was dropped from the plane. There was no explosion as the bomb struck the sea below.

An initial search ensued for the discarded bomb, and then another and another. The bomb was never found. There is some disagreement and controversy about whether the bomb is a functional weapon or whether it had a dummy core installed. Searches for the bomb continued, and in 2004, Air Force Lt. Colonel Derek Duke announced that he’d narrowed the search field down to an area the size of a football field. However, this, too, was a dead end.

The bomb is believed to still be in the water off Tybee Island and still hold 400 pounds of explosives. Further searches are now on hold, with the Air Force saying it’s best to leave the weapon be.^[4]

6 Mysterious Particles

Since 2016, ultra-high-energy particles have shot up through the thick ice in Antarctica three times. These events set off detectors in the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna experience. These events also didn’t match the behavior of Standard Model particles, and they looked like ultra-high-energy neutrinos. However, if they were neutrinos, they should not have been able to pass through the Earth.

Scientists have produced several theories to explain the phenomenon, including sterile neutrinos and atypical dark matter distributions, but these have yet to be proven correct.

At a loss for answers, some have turned to unconventional theories. The strangest one of the bunch says that the particles may be evidence of a parallel universe, where time flows backward, and the Big Bang would mean the end of the world.^[5]

5 The Moorgate Tragedy

On February 28, 1975, a train crashed while traveling along the Northern City Line in London. Forty-three people died, another 74 were injured, and the accident became known as the worst of its kind during peacetime. The tragedy came after the train failed to stop at a platform and crashed into a concrete wall at the end of the tunnel at the Moorgate station. The rescue operation lasted six days, and engineers started investigating the cause of the accident immediately after.

However, they couldn’t find an answer. The train was mechanically sound, which led them to suspect that the train driver was to blame. It was found that the driver had his hand on the power handle until two seconds before impact, and he didn’t try to protect his face as the train slammed into the concrete. Survivors told authorities that the driver behaved strangely, almost zombie-like, as the train sped toward its horrible fate. At that time, 56-year-old Lesley Newson had been with London Transport for six years, and there had been no red flags regarding his state of mind during that time.

On the day of the crash, he’d had money on him that was meant to be for his daughter’s car, and there was no indication that he’d been suicidal or intended to perform an act of terror. An autopsy on Newson revealed that he was in good health, and he had a tiny amount of alcohol in his system.

What happened to Newson that day remains unknown—whether he had been in a fugue state or given a substance that altered his thinking. It also remains unknown whether he deliberately crashed the train or whether an undiscovered condition caused him to become “blank” and crash the train.^[6]

4 A Matter of Existence

According to Plato, Atlantis existed 9,000 years before he was born. Plato’s writings are also the only known records that mention Atlantis. Most scholars believe that Atlantis was simply a fictional place, dreamed up by Plato, but some believe it was an actual city that eventually sank beneath the sea. It is also said to have taken an advanced civilization with it when it vanished beneath the surface.

There are several theories about Atlantis, including that it was a continent on its own, located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean before it was submerged. Another theory says that the Bermuda Triangle is to blame for Atlantis’s disappearance. Yet another theory has it that Antarctica lies over the lost city of Atlantis and that it is still frozen underneath thick layers of ice.^[7]

Did Plato invent Atlantis and model the idea of it after his vision of an ideal civilization? Or is Atlantis lying deep down in the depths of the sea, just waiting to be discovered?

3 Robert Rayford

Robert Rayford, or Robbie as he was affectionately known, was around 15 years old in 1968. At that time, he started developing intense pelvic pain, testicular swelling, and difficulty breathing, and sores broke out all over his body. The doctors who examined him soon suspected that the teenager had been subjected to sexual abuse, as he tested positive for severe chlamydia, which had already spread throughout his system. Robbie told the doctors different stories about his sexual history, saying that he’d slept with only one girl and then saying that he was still a virgin.

Robbie Rayford died in May 1969 after contracting pneumonia, leaving medical personnel stunned as to what the true cause of his death may have been because his other symptoms just didn’t gel. So they saved some of his cells in cold storage and moved on.
Twenty years later, the world was in the grip of the AIDS pandemic. One of the doctors who treated Rayford tested the saved tissue samples using the Western blot test, only to find that it tested positive for antibodies against all nine detectable HIV proteins.

Speculation ensued, and some doctors believed Rayford was Patient Zero in the AIDS epidemic. However, he could not have contracted it via international travel, as he’d never left the Midwestern United States where he was born. This means he never traveled to New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, where the disease first started causing havoc in America.
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While it remains unconfirmed how Rayford contracted HIV twenty years before AIDS was even identified, some experts believe that he’d been forced into child prostitution.^[8]

2 Fort Hood Deaths

In 2020 alone, 39 soldiers stationed at the Fort Hood army base in Texas died or vanished. Among these, thirteen took their own lives, five were murdered, and eleven remain unsolved. Additionally, army data showed that around 129 felonies had been committed at the base between 2014 and 2019, and these crimes varied between murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, rape, and more.

These shocking stats are higher than that of American deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan during the same year.

In October 2021, yet another soldier was found dead behind the barracks at Fort Hood. Twenty-six-year-old Spc. Maxwell Hockin’s body was found just days after a soldier who had been reported missing returned to the base unharmed. As of this writing, Hockin’s cause of death has not been revealed.

The numbers are alarming and have increased significantly since 2014. The reasons behind the Fort Hood slayings, deaths, and disappearances remain unknown, but ongoing investigations have been implemented to try and curb the seemingly unrestrained flow of tragedy.^[9]

1 Strange Burial

During the 1960s, a shallow grave was uncovered in the Tunel Wielki cave system in the Jurassic Highland of Poland. Inside it lay the skeleton of a child with a tiny skull inside the gaping hole that used to be her mouth. Proper examination of the remains was only completed recently, and it was found that the small skull was that of a finch. Another bird skull was also found alongside the remains.

It has since been determined that the remains belong to a young girl, perhaps between 10 and 12 years old, and that a bird had been placed in her mouth when she was buried. It is believed that the girl had come to the country with the Finnish troops who invaded Poland during the 17th century.

This is the only Scandinavian bird-headed burial that has ever been discovered in the area, and the girl’s cause of death also remains a mystery.^[10]