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Your Weekly Escape

In honor of the publication this week of our extraordinary feature on the centuries-old mystery of Stonehenge, we dug into our archives to bring you a special edition of Your Weekly Escape: more fascinating unsolved mysteries and burning questions to sink your teeth into.

OLAF SCHUBERT/ALBUM

The mysterious life of the man who would become the Buddha

Many centuries ago, a wealthy man left behind his family and his wealth to seek a different way. He set out as Siddhartha Gautama and became the Enlightened One. But while religious texts on Buddhism abound, concrete facts about Siddhartha—including when he lived—are few. Now, scholars are turning to archaeology to find answers.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

PHOTOGRAPH BY STUART CONWAY WITH PERMISSION OF TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM

It was America's first English colony. Then it was gone. 

Two decades before Jamestown, settlers arrived in what is now North Carolina. What happened to them is a mystery that for 400 years spawned wild speculation, hoaxes, and countless conspiracy theories. But now, a series of archaeological finds and a chance discovery have revealed tantalizing clues that suggest what may have happened.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

JAVIER TRUEBA/MADRID SCIENTIFIC FILMS

The world's first known murder happened 430,000 years ago

The first known murder was just as brutal as any other. The attacker smashed the victim twice in the head, leaving matching holes above the victim's left eyebrow. The dead body was then dropped down a 43-foot shaft into a cave—Spain's infamous "Pit of Bones"—where it lay for nearly half a million years.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE VICTIM

PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY LUONG

This device could solve the ultimate unknown: the cosmic mystery of dark matter

Scientists have been searching for this strange substance for decades, when observations of the universe revealed that all the visible matter we see is actually outnumbered 6 to 1 by the mysterious, inert stuff we can only detect via its gravitational tug. Enter the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment, or ADMX: the most sensitive scientific instrument of its kind ever built.

SEEING THE INVISIBLE

PHOTOGRAPH BY HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

The Ark of the Covenant is an enduring mystery. Is it even real?

This legendary artifact is the ornate, gilded case said to have been built some 3,000 years ago by the Israelites to house the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written. Biblical accounts describe in detail what it looked like, and it's been linked to several miracles. What do archaeologists say?

MYTH VS. REALITY

PHOTOGRAPH BY NICK DUNLOP

These birds flock in mesmerizing swarms of thousands. Nobody knows why.

Thousands of birds move in unison through the evening sky, as if performing a highly synchronized ballet. When they finally descend to their treetop roost, the beating of their iridescent wings creates such a rush of sound that the noise earned the phenomenon its unusual name: a murmuration of starlings. Here's what makes it so unique—and so perplexing.

MYSTERIOUS MURMURATIONS

PHOTOGRAPH BY BODLEIAN LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Does this ancient text reveal a new clue about the origin of zero?

Carbon dating on an ancient Indian manuscript—in which zero is represented as a small dot—found that some pages date to the third or fourth century, 500 years older than previously thought. For mathematicians and historians, the manuscript represents one of the most important clues to understanding a mathematical concept that would help fields such as calculus and physics flourish centuries later.

THE DEBATE, AND WHY IT MATTERS

STILL MORE MYSTERIES TO PONDER ...

In 1845 explorers sought the Northwest Passage—then vanished

Who was Jack the Ripper? Relentless detectives are still on the case.

DNA was supposed to solve the mystery of a lake full of skeletons. It only deepened it.

Venus was once Earth's twin. How did it become a fiery hell—and are we next?

The location of Amelia Earhart's plane remains elusive—but a recent search ended with a 'tantalizing clue'

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