The Unexplained: 50 Bizarre & Baffling Unsolved Mysteries – Part 4

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21 The Guiyang “Flying Train”

In the early hours of December 1, 1994, residents of a rural village near Guiyang, the capital of China’s Guizhou Province, were jolted awake by a thunderous rumble and a strange display of flashing red and green lights. Chen Lianyou and a friend, returning from a night patrol of the nearby Duxi Forest Farm, initially mistook the noise for a distant freight train-despite the nearest railway station, Dulaying, being far away. The entire village emerged from their homes to witness the phenomenon, and many reported powerful gusts of wind, hail, and even fireballs lighting up the night. Some houses were damaged or collapsed, and those who stayed inside found their doors jammed shut until the disturbance passed. At sunrise, villagers were stunned to find 400 acres of forest devastated: trees snapped, uprooted, and bent, yet a nearby greenhouse remained perfectly intact. Damage extended to the Dulaying Railway Station and a factory, where 50-ton train cars were displaced, steel tubes twisted, and rooftops torn off-all without a single injury or loss of power.

Investigators quickly descended on the scene, but their findings only deepened the mystery. Cameras initially failed to capture photographs of the destruction, and witnesses reported bizarre details like watches losing time. Natural explanations struggled to fit: while a downburst or tornado was considered-due to the prior night’s storm-meteorological records showed no signs of such events. A meteor strike was also dismissed, as the pattern and selectivity of the damage did not match typical impact zones.

With conventional theories faltering, speculation turned to the extraordinary. UFO researchers proposed a massive craft, its damaged propulsion system causing the chaotic destruction as it struggled through the storm. Demonstrations with small models showed how such a craft could mimic the strange damage pattern. Yet critics pointed to the lack of scorch marks expected from jet-like engines. To this day, the cause behind the Guiyang “Flying Train” incident remains unsolved, fueling decades of speculation and wonder.

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22 Mysterious Purge of N. Korea’s Army Corps

In 1995, North Korea’s entire Sixth Army Corps was purged in a brutal and sudden crackdown, with nearly 400 officers executed, imprisoned, or disappeared. The event occurred during a time of extreme crisis: North Korea was reeling from economic collapse, mass famine, and the death of founding leader Kim Il Sung. Some sources report that the corps was violently disbanded after allegedly plotting to rebel against Kim Jong Il’s vulnerable new regime, though precise details remain elusive.

Accounts differ on the cause of the purge. Some scholars suggest a coup was being planned to seize key assets like ports, universities, and missile sites, potentially in coordination with other military units. Others, like journalist Barbara Demick, argue the purge stemmed from corruption, with army leaders accused of profiting from border trade during the famine rather than launching an outright rebellion.

Ultimately, the truth remains buried under North Korea’s secrecy. Without access to government records, the full story of what led to the devastating purge of one of the nation’s major military units will likely never be fully understood — another chilling mystery from inside the world’s most isolated regime.

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23 The Enigma of Encephalitis Lethargica

In the early 20th century, a mysterious illness swept the world-one that began with a sore throat and sleep disturbance, only to plunge its victims into years, sometimes decades, of frozen, almost unresponsive states. Known as *Encephalitis Lethargica*, this baffling condition blurred the line between disease and syndrome, affecting both mind and body in ways still not fully understood. Survivors described long periods of abnormal sleep cycles, rigidity, and a haunting sense of being trapped inside an uncooperative body. Though the pandemic faded by the late 1920s, its lingering effects would inspire decades of medical curiosity and tragedy alike.

In the 1960s, a breakthrough treatment emerged-L-DOPA, a dopamine precursor able to bypass the blood-brain barrier. Administered to patients trapped in post-encephalitic Parkinsonism, it seemed miraculous: people who hadn’t spoken or moved in years suddenly stood, spoke, and laughed. But the miracle came with a cruel twist. For many, the awakening was temporary. Patients experienced erratic side effects-mania, tics, even psychosis-and eventually sank back into silence or died shortly after. Dr. Oliver Sacks, who documented these awakenings, captured both the awe and heartbreak of a treatment that offered fleeting hope but no lasting cure.

To this day, the cause of Encephalitis Lethargica remains unresolved-viral? Autoimmune? Both theories still hold weight. Brain autopsies pointed to inflammation in the basal ganglia, the region tied to movement and motivation, but no smoking gun has been found. This medical mystery remains unsolved, haunting the intersection of neurology and psychiatry, and reminding us how little we still understand about the deepest workings of the human brain.

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24 Where Did the 1918 Flu Begin?

The origins of this global killer remains unsolved. In March 1918, a cook at Camp Funston, Kansas, reported sick-fever, sore throat, headache. By the end of that day, more than a hundred others had joined him. Within weeks, the illness had spread beyond the camp, crossing the Atlantic with American soldiers and seeding itself across Europe’s trenches. From there, it flared up around the world. But this first wave, though widespread, was mild. It wasn’t until a deadly second wave erupted in the late summer-nearly simultaneously in Sierra Leone, Boston, and France-that the pandemic turned catastrophic. In just over two years, the virus would infect a quarter of the global population and kill an estimated 50 million people. Yet even as it raged, the question lingered: where had it actually come from?

Scientists have since mapped the biology of influenza in extraordinary detail, decoding how its viral segments swap and mutate, how it spreads via droplets, and how a simple infection can provoke a deadly overreaction-what we now call a cytokine storm. But the true origin of the 1918 strain remains elusive. Was it a mutation that jumped from birds to humans in rural Kansas? A strain that spread from Chinese laborers through wartime transport routes? Or did it evolve silently in Europe’s military camps before bursting into the world? Despite decades of forensic epidemiology and even recovered lung tissue samples from permafrost graves, no consensus has emerged. Each theory carries compelling clues-and stubborn gaps.

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25 Who was B. Traven?

B. Traven is one of literature’s most enduring enigmas-a writer whose identity remains cloaked in uncertainty nearly a century after his first story appeared. Though best known for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which was adapted into an Oscar-winning film, Traven himself remained in the shadows, rarely seen, never confirmed. Publishing first in Germany but claiming his works were originally written in English, Traven left behind a contradictory trail of pseudonyms, false leads, and evasive interviews. His life in Mexico, his fierce anti-capitalist themes, and his unwavering focus on marginalized voices fueled further speculation about who he truly was.

The most compelling theory links Traven to Ret Marut, a German anarchist and actor who vanished after the fall of the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919. Marut’s escape from persecution, arrest in England, and years aboard “death ships” before arriving in Mexico closely mirror the harrowing journey of the protagonist in Traven’s novel The Death Ship. Both shared radical politics, a disdain for state power, and a fascination with stateless identities. Later more aliases-including Traven Torsvan and Hal Croves-emerged, each adding layers to the mystery. Croves, who worked directly on the Hollywood adaptation of Traven’s novel, eventually died in 1969. Only then did his widow confirm he had lived as all three men-Torsvan, Croves, and Traven-and that all were once Ret Marut.

Yet, doubts persist. Fringe theories propose he was everything from the illegitimate son of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Ambrose Bierce in disguise. Even today, despite photographic evidence and posthumous documents tying him to Marut, B. Traven’s identity retains an almost mythic ambiguity. The man may have died, but the mystery remains very much alive.

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26 Where Do Eels Come From?

Scattered across the freshwater rivers and lakes of countries like New Zealand, Australia, and parts of the Pacific Rim, longfin eels live out their mysterious, long lives in freshwater, growing up to two meters long and surviving for decades. But at the end of their lives, they abandon these calm inland waters for a perilous journey into the open Pacific, swimming thousands of kilometers to a secret spawning ground that no human has ever found. Somewhere between Tonga and the eastern Fiji Basin, in waters deep and dark, they mate and die-completing a cycle as poetic as it is baffling. Despite decades of study, no one has witnessed their spawning or found their eggs.

What follows may be even more mysterious: from these hidden underwater graveyards, their young-tiny, transparent, leaf-shaped larvae known as leptocephali-drift unseen across vast ocean currents. After months at sea, they somehow find their way back to the very freshwater streams and rivers their parents once inhabited, where they transform into juvenile eels and begin the same long, slow climb toward adulthood. No one has ever caught or seen one of these larvae in the wild, leaving a glaring gap in our understanding of how this species sustains itself. Even the cues that prompt adult eels to begin their death-bound journey remain uncertain, though physical changes like enlarged eyes and ocean-ready bodies suggest a deep biological clock at work. Attempts to track their journeys have been met with frustration: tags fall off, batteries die, and eels plunge to unexpected depths to avoid predators.

Despite their ecological importance and cultural significance, longfin eels are endangered and continue to face threats from fishing, habitat destruction, and climate change. Uncovering the secret of their breeding grounds is not just a matter of scientific curiosity-it’s a race against time. Until we find that hidden cradle in the sea, the longfin eel will remain one of the ocean’s most enduring and elegant mysteries.

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27 Mystery Beneath: The White Shark Café

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, halfway between California and Hawaii, lies a mysterious and seemingly barren stretch of sea known as the White Shark Café. Since the early 2000s, researchers have discovered that most Pacific great white sharks-despite being solitary by nature-abandon the California coast each year to spend months in this remote area. While 20% of tracked sharks head toward Hawaiian waters, an overwhelming 80% converge in this curious patch of ocean, engaging in repetitive deep dives up to 500 meters every few minutes, for reasons that remain unknown.

Theories about this unusual behavior primarily focus on two possibilities: mating or feeding. Mating is an obvious contender due to the sheer number of sharks gathering, yet the wide variation in age and maturity, including juveniles, complicates that hypothesis. Feeding, another standard motivator in animal migrations, is challenged by the fact that this region is considered an oceanic “desert” with little prey. A fringe theory proposes that deep-sea creatures like giant squid may be a hidden draw, potentially explaining the sharks’ strange diving patterns, though evidence for this is still lacking.

The regular, determined pilgrimage to such an unremarkable place continues to puzzle scientists and its true meaning remains as elusive as the predators that vanish into its depths.

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28 Crutches Everywhere: Sweden’s Hip Mystery

In 1982, the small Swedish town of Bua experienced a bizarre outbreak now known as Buasjukan or Värö Hip, a mysterious condition that left dozens of preteen girls suffering from unexplained hip pain, difficulty walking, and a sudden reliance on crutches. Over just five months, the phenomenon swept through schools in Bua and neighboring towns, even requiring hospital treatments like traction for some children-though no physical cause could be determined. The students recovered fully months later, but the wave of symptoms left parents, doctors, and school staff baffled.

Despite efforts to identify the source-including viral testing in the U.S.-no conclusive cause emerged. Although inflammation was observed in some cases, it was unclear whether this was a symptom or a reaction to overzealous treatments. Theories ranged from environmental hazards (like emissions from a local pulp mill and radiation from a nearby nuclear plant) to illnesses imported from abroad. None held up under scrutiny. Eventually, medical professionals suggested the outbreak may have been psychosomatic, spurred by a combination of social contagion, stress, and possibly a few genuine cases at the outset.

As quickly as it started, Buasjukan vanished-never to reappear. It remains one of Sweden’s strangest medical mysteries, with no clear explanation but plenty of lingering questions.

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29 Mysterious Upsweep Sound

First detected in 1991 by NOAA’s underwater microphones, the Upsweep is an ongoing, unexplained sound phenomenon that has echoed through the Pacific Ocean for over three decades. Characterized by long, narrow-band frequency bursts that spike in loudness for several seconds, the sound is powerful enough to be picked up across vast distances. Unlike one-time anomalies like the now-explained “Bloop,” Upsweep recurs in a seasonal pattern, particularly in spring and autumn, and remains active to this day-though it appears to be gradually weakening.

Despite extensive monitoring, scientists still don’t know the source of the Upsweep. Theories range from undersea volcanic activity to the movements of glaciers or even unknown marine life. But none of these explanations account for the seasonal timing or the sheer duration of the phenomenon. The idea of a volcano erupting consistently for over 30 years, and only during certain seasons, defies geological norms. With no clear answers yet, the Upsweep remains one of the ocean’s most persistent and perplexing acoustic mysteries.

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30 Man in the Iron Mask

The Man in the Iron Mask was a mysterious prisoner arrested as Eustache Dauger around 1669 or 1670 and held under strict custody for 34 years in various French prisons, including the Bastille and the Fortress of Pignerol. Always under the watch of the same jailer, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, the prisoner died in 1703 during the reign of Louis XIV, buried under the name “Marchioly.” His identity has remained one of history’s great mysteries, sparking countless books and theories, especially since his face was never seen, hidden throughout his imprisonment by a mask made of black velvet.

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