Let me take you back to the late 16th century. Colonization of the New World is in full swing, with the British efforts being led by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had been appointed by Queen Elizabeth I specifically for this job. A lot of the mainland was settled by Native Americans (but not for long, don’t you worry – the rest of the settlers would make that problem go away soon enough), so Raleigh decided to settle on the island of Roanoke, just off the coast of modern day North Carolina. The colony proved to be an immense success, with the colonists turning out to be self-sufficient enough to manage it and live off the land. In 1587, a little girl named Virginia Dare would become the very first child to ever be born in the American Colonies, fated to live out the rest of her days on the island, working the fields and having the simple life of a 16th century colonist, just like her parents.

Except that’s not what fate had in store for her. Shortly after the girl’s birth, her grandfather John White, appointed by Sir Raleigh as the governor of Virginia, left with a small crew back to England in order to gain more supplies for Roanoke. His journey ended up taking three years (which really makes those seven-hour long oceanic flights feel like a breeze), and in 1590, White finally returned to the colony… Only to find it completely deserted. Not a single person was there. Nothing of value was left. His family, including his little granddaughter, was gone without a trace. The only clue left was the word “Croatoan”, which had been carved into one of the trees – presumably by a fleeing colonist. There were no signs of violence, no puddles of blood, no bullet holes or tomahawks in the trees. The colony had been untouched, safe for the missing colonists and their belongings.

So the obvious question is what happened to Virginia Dare, her family and her fellow colonists? Why did they leave their home, and if they did, where did they go? Now, as you should know by now, I’m a man of reason and I don’t like to entertain impossibilities, so for the time being, let’s eliminate aliens, demons, Native American graveyards and anything else in this realm, okay? There are several theories that are a bit more grounded in nature, based on the evidence at hand. The likeliest explanation is that the colony found itself no longer able to sustain itself. It took three years to bring home the much-needed supplies, and it’s entirely possible that the colonists simply didn’t last that long. They may have left the island in search for a home with more resources, and on their way might have drowned, or been killed by Spanish conquistadors. The Dare Stones – a series of inscribed stones discovered in the 1930s – were apparently used as a gravestones for Virginia Dare, her father and most of the colonists, claiming that they were murdered by savages. However, it’s very likely that the stones were faked, given the fact that they were discovered quite far from Roanoke.

The likeliest theory received some support only recently, when two different teams discovered the remains of pottery in North Carolina. What’s interesting about this discovery is that it was made in a style called Border Ware, shared by a lot of the pottery and cutlery found in Roanoke. Which means that it’s very likely the colonists did, in fact, go inland, and eventually mixed in with some of the local native tribes. It seems like a stretch, but considering the fact that no bodies were ever discovered by future colonists, it seems unlikely that the inhabitants of Roanoke met their doom prematurely. The hint left on the tree – “Croatoan” – also supports this, as the Croatoan tribe lived on an island not far from Roanoke. It’s very likely that, rather than face starvation, the colonists (at least part of them) went there and mixed in with the local population. Unfortunately, at this point more concrete proof than that will likely be impossible to find. No matter what happened, though, it’s clear that the Roanoke Colony, alongside its youngest resident Virginia Dare, has been able to capture the minds and imaginations of people who lived hundreds of years after them – something that likely wouldn’t have happened had they remained untouched.

What if one day we discovered an iPod in a previously unopened chamber of the Pyramid of Giza? Or a Snickers wrapper buried deep beneath Stonehenge? Will that discovery change the course of human history? Are we going to assume that it’s just a hoax and move on, or that we’re missing something and the discovery isn’t as important as we may think it is? What would our reaction to such a phenomenon be? Well, that’s actually not a hypothetical scenario, as we’ve already discovered an item so misplaced in time that there seems to be no logical explanation of its existence.

Enter the London Hammer. In 1934, a group of tourists was hiking near the town of London, Texas. One of them threw a stone, accidentally breaking it and finding something rather peculiar inside – a perfectly preserved hammer head, alongside part of the wooden handle. Finding the discovery to be interesting, the tourists brought the hammer to the attention of the local museum, who quickly deduced that since the hammer was embedded into the rock, then the rock must have formed around it in order to enclose it, and by that logic the hammer must be older than the rock. The kicker? The rock is over 400 million years old. If that doesn’t sound shocking to you, let me put it in perspective. The oldest known tools used by humans are 3.4 million years old. The very first species which would eventually evolve into homo sapiens lived between 7 and 5 million years ago. The dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago, and that doesn’t even come close to the age of the hammer.

400 million years ago, the Earth was in the Devonian era, where the Earth was populated by giant mushrooms and most lifeforms still lived underwater. The only living creatures on the surface of the Earth were primitive anthropods who had previously evolved from ocean dwellers. And yet, somehow, somebody was using a hammer. Not only that, but the metal comprising the head of the hammer consists of 97% pure iron – a purity that can only be achieved with modern means. There is nothing to suggest that this is just a normal, everyday, store-bought hammer inserted into the rock, either – parts of it are still embedded into the 400 million year old rock. To say that this discovery is impossible would be a massive understatement, and yet it very much is. In a time period where no creature with anything resembling opposable thumbs lived, someone somewhere created a hammer using techniques that wouldn’t be discovered for another 400+ million years. Was that an ancient astronaut? A time traveler? Was the hammer somehow misplaced in time? Or is there a lot about history that we simply do not understand?

In the 1990s, the citizens of the small town of Taos, New Mexico, began complaining of a sound which was driving them crazy. Not everyone complained – the reports were made by a small minority of citizens, but those who made them were completely unrelated and had never met before. The University of New Mexico investigated these claims, but found no substantial evidence that a noise even existed – nothing was picked up by the tools and instruments used in an attempt to record the source of the sound, and none of the people who investigated even heard it with their own ears. While originally just written off as an odd form of mass psychosis, soon it was discovered that British newspapers had been reporting a very similar phenomenon since the 70s, and once the story of Taos reached global attention, numerous people across the globe reported hearing the noise that would later be dubbed “The Hum”.

The Hum is a low-frequency noise, like a quiet, but still very audible buzzing which can also be sensed as a vibration. Listeners report that it sounds like a machine being used far away, but the sound is of the same volume no matter where the person hearing it is located. Since headphones do nothing to block the sound, and doctors have discovered nothing wrong with the ears of the people who reported hearing it, it is more likely than not that what is perceived to be a “sound” is actually not audible at all, though its exact cause is, obviously, unknown. Regardless, the Hum has very real, physical consequences on those that hear it, such as fatigue, headaches and pain, with listeners reporting the sound as “excruciating”. In the UK, it has been linked to at least one suicide.

Despite numerous researches and explorations into the source of the Hum, nothing but theories and speculation has been presented. According to some, the source of the sound is the shifting of tectonic waves or electric grids, but to sound the answer isn’t nearly as innocent. One thing that must be taken into account is that while the Hum is audible across the world, most of the cases where it can be heard are tied to specific regions, such as New Mexico or parts of the UK. Many believe that there is something on those lands, or maybe even under them, which is causing it. One theory involves the presence of secret military bases which use an unknown frequency to communicate, which can be felt as vibrations by a small percentage of the population. While this definitely sounds in character for New Mexico, as there are already numerous military bases in the state, it becomes harder to explain in other regions. One thing’s for sure, though – the Hum exists, and we’re about as close to figuring it out as we were in the 90s.

UFO sightings. Signs of species unknown to science. Paranormal activity. Out of body experiences. Reincarnation. Unexplained disappearances. We all have at least one story to tell about something that has happened to us or to someone close, a story that is mysterious, unexplainable, even a little bit creepy. We’ve all experienced something that conventional science claims is impossible, like witnessing a creature or object we couldn’t quite identify, or having a premonition about an event which happened to be accurate.

When I was only nine years old, my parents and I witnessed a formation of three lights in the sky traveling in the form of a triangle and slowly moving through the sky. The lights were bright, much brighter than the stars around them, and they weren’t blinking or colored like they would be on an airplane. After about a minute of slow movements the lights vanished from the sky, as if extinguished.

This experience, while terrifying at the time, inspired me to research the mysterious, the unexplainable and the obscure. I’ve looked into practically every area of the unknown and have gathered a collection of notable cases which could make anyone stop and wonder if there’s more to this world than meets the eye. I will be presenting some of these cases to you, the person reading this right now. I will not make any claims or statements that have not been proven by science, and I will only present the facts the way they are, leaving you to draw your own conclusions. Maybe eventually you, too, will believe that anything is possible in a world filled with so many mysteries.