We’ve heard all of many strange disappearances of people from planes and ships. But sometimes, whole planes and ships disappear in mysterious ways as well. Sometimes, they’re found in just days, but others are never found at all.

When you’re finally embarking on that long-awaited and much-needed vacation, you might wish you never had to come back. Be careful what you wish for. Here is a list of ten passenger transports that mysteriously vanished.

Mysteries, mysteries everywhere. For everything we know, there’s so much more that we don’t. Whether it’s an unsolved crime, an unexplained sighting, or weird things falling from the sky, sometimes there are just no answers.

On this list are ten mysteries from Northern Europe that need solving. Hopefully someday, someone will do just that, especially where doing so could provide closure to the families of those who fell victim to as-yet unsolved crimes.

The United States of America contains many classified bunkers, particularly in relation to continuity of government (COG). In the event of a terrorist attack, nuclear strike, or other catastrophic occurrence, US government leaders congregate in top secret facilities, all of which are strong enough to withstand severe blasts and provide survival necessities for extended periods of time. These exclusive fortified shelters are some of America’s best-kept secrets and strongest lines of protection.

For millions of years, the mountains have loomed above us, holding their chilling secrets in the clouds just out of our reach. However, as time goes on, humans make more progress toward unlocking answers to the world’s greatest puzzles. Even so, some of the most unsettling mysteries are lying on the colossal faces of the Earth’s mountains.

On November 24, 1971, a man in dark glasses and a neatly pressed suit boarded a Northwest Orient airplane with a bomb in his briefcase. The man, known today only as D.B. Cooper, demanded $200,000 in “negotiable American currency” and four parachutes—or else he’d blow up the plane. The ransom was paid, the passengers were let go, and D.B. Cooper leaped out the back of the plane and parachuted into the darkness and disappeared.

The identity of D.B. Cooper remains a mystery to this day. It is the only unsolved case of its kind in history, and after 45 years, we still don’t know who did it. Some names, though, have come up more than once—and one of them just might be the real D.B. Cooper.

Mysteries stir our curiosity, mesmerizing us until they can be solved. Though supernatural causes or conspiracy theories are more fun to think about, mysteries often end up with surprisingly banal explanations. However, there are cases which remain unsolved, perhaps forever, and they are often the most intriguing.

Ancient Egypt is one of the most mysterious civilizations in human history. It has left behind obvious proof of infrastructure and technology that was extraordinary for the time (as far as we know). Nowadays, we’re still fascinated by what ancient Egypt managed to accomplish, and we still ask ourselves how they did such complicated things with their apparently modest technology. Modern science still cannot explain some of the Egyptians’ accomplishments, one of them being the building of a perfectly structured pyramid.

Everest. Just say the name, and your mind is likely to conjure all sorts of images and tales from this beast of a mountain’s relatively short, yet utterly fascinating and often controversial, history. From the glorious first ascent of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to the tragic end met by so many of those who’ve sought to scale the planet’s highest peak, the narrative of “Chomolungma” is one packed with mystery and intrigue.

Not only has this 8,848-meter (29,029 ft) giant attracted some of the nuttiest, most impassioned, and daring adventurers the world has ever known (and perhaps even the odd ghost and Yeti) but it has also borne witness to some of the strangest, most inexplicable, and haunting events in mountaineering history. Below, we take you through ten of the most baffling and unexplained mysteries to have graced the planet’s loftiest peak since the first European expeditions there thrust the mountain into the international spotlight in the early 20th century.

We have all heard of Atlantis, the legendary island that sank into the sea in a single day and night. But who came up with it, was Atlantis a real place, and is there more to the story than this?

We get the story of Atlantis from the Greek philosopher Plato. Really, from two of his writings, Timaeus and Critias. The books date to around 360 BC.

In them, Plato wrote that the Greek sage Solon was given the story in Egypt by a priest. Upon his return, Solon shared the story with his relative Dropides. Then Dropides passed it down to his son Critias, who told his grandson, also named Critias, who finally shared it with the philosopher Socrates and others who were present.

This list should not be taken as historical fact but as a true account of what Plato wrote. Whether we decide to believe in the legend is our own choice, but we can probably agree that this might have been the first recorded game of telephone.

Copper is one of the first metals used by humans. Starting at roughly 5000 BC, the Copper Age, or Chalcolithic period, witnessed a radical transition from the primitive stone technology of the Neolithic to the metal-crazed Bronze Age. For millennia, copper was the principal engine of the world economy.

The most abundant prehistoric metal artifacts, copper alloys provide archaeologists with windows into the ancient past. A soft metal, copper is poorly suited for weapons but ideal for jewelry and ornamentation. Into it, we have carved the story of civilization.

Whatever their secrets, whether they’re dark and deadly or merely harmless rituals and beliefs for members only, the influence that Freemasons had on the (sometimes literal) building of the United States is widespread and far-reaching. To some people, particularly those in conspiracy circles, that is not a coincidence. If you believe their version of events, neither are the connections of Freemasons to positions of power throughout US history.

Manly P. Hall stated clearly in his book, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, that the US was nothing less than a “Masonic experiment,” designed to allow Freemasons to “dominate the world.” Considering the world from which they were escaping—one in which religious dogma still influenced all aspects of life—whether their experiment was a noble one or not is perhaps based on your own perspective . . .

If you’ve ever watched an episode of Star Trek or The Big Bang Theory, then you know that physics can be made accessible to the masses in a fun way. Our favorite sci-fi and comedy writers may not get every detail right, but they do spark our interest in the weirder aspects of scientific theories.

Today, we’re going to talk about 10 real mysteries that physics has yet to explain. From alien communication to time travel to gushing faucets, we’ll try to make these mysteries understandable for everyone.

You may even want to explore these topics further on your own. After all, there are million dollar prizes waiting for the people who solve some cosmic puzzles. (Read on to find out which one of these 10 mysteries could make you rich.) You’ll probably get a Nobel Prize and change the world, too.

When the name bin Laden is mentioned today, the first thing that comes to most people’s minds would be terrorism—particularly against the United States. Similarly, the name George Bush (the father or the son) evokes images of each man’s time as president of the United States. In the case of George W. Bush, his time in the White House came during the 9/11 attacks.

However, there are many connections other than the obvious one mentioned above. The Bush and bin Laden families have a long history of business dealings, while Osama himself apparently did a complete about-face, as he once collected his paycheck from the CIA, working on behalf of the United States and their interests. While some of the following links between the Bushes and the bin Ladens are likely to be mere coincidences, they are intriguing, to say the very least. Here are ten examples of connections, be they direct or through mutual associates, between two of the most famous families on the planet.

Long a symbol of the remote and the mysterious, Antarctica caps the southern extremity of our planet as one of the world’s largest land formations. Pull up an image of Antarctica on Google Earth, and you’ll see a largely featureless white mass. But beneath a seemingly impenetrable sheet of ice lie endless hidden mysteries to entice the inquisitive mind.

For instance, there’s still no explanation for the widely publicized Wilkes Land Anomaly, an enormous impact crater with a gravitational force at the center so great that it creates a “bubble” powerful enough to be detected all the way out in space.[1] Scientists say that this anomaly is what remains of an asteroid which hit the Earth millions of years ago, but not everyone is convinced that an ordinary asteroid would produce such a strong gravitational field. Furthermore, multiple oddly regular formations and seemingly altered images dot the Antarctic landscape when viewed from above, including an allegedly airbrushed section that’s estimated to be over 23 kilometers (14 mi) long.

Perhaps these mysteries are what have attracted numerous dignitaries and military expeditions to the seventh continent over the last century. While the facts may be scarce regarding the secrets Antarctica might be hiding, theories about the icy landmass, its origins, and its hidden contents continue to run wild. Here are ten bizarre examples of enduringly mysterious high-profile expeditions to the enigmatic land of Antarctica.

Since the advent of sailing, there have been those who’ve traveled the seas in search of new lands, fortune, and hope. However, there have also been those with the sole purpose of plundering and destrcution. These people are commonly known as pirates. Pirates are notorious for having no mercy and doing almost anything in order to reap a reward. The main era for pirate activity was the 17th to early 18th centuries. It ultimately died down due to naval forces becoming too strong to combat. Although there are still a number of pirates around today, the last great pirate crews died hundreds of years ago, taking countless mysteries with them to the oceans’ murky depth