In 2013, Archaeologists were shocked to discover what can only be described as a wall of Spider Art in an ancient desert. Its the only known example of its kind from the the Old World. Dating has put the age to around 4000 BC, over 6000 years ago. The drawings depicts spiders, their webs and even ensnared prey. Historians have struggled to learn more about the people who drew these and their obsession with spiders. Some believe its part of an ancient totemic ritual to combine the spider with the power of the sun.
9. Sailing Stones
For many years, scientists were baffled by a mysterious phenomenon in Death Valley - one of the hottest deserts in the world. Heavy stones seemed to be moving in the mud, leaving trails behind them - sometimes straight, sometimes curvy, sometimes sharply changing direction. There were no footprints and no obvious way that these stones were moving across the desert floor. Theories sprouted up including everything from magnetic fields to aliens or even the supernatural. Right now, the best scientific theory is that under certain winter conditions in Death Valley, enough ice and water can form to float the rocks across the muddy surface in a light breeze, leaving a train in the mud as they go.
8. Band of Holes
In the Naza Plateau in Peru lie about 6000 man made holes. They begin at the edge of a valley and run up a hill for about a km and a half. Each one is about 1 meter in diameter and 50 - cm deep. Heres the thing - locals have no idea how they were made. Archeologists have been studying them for over 80 years now, trying to figure out their origin and purpose. Its thought that they were made by Inca empire but theories have ranged for their existence from graves to storage sites.
7. Desert Glass
When Scientists tested a scarab jewel that belong to Egyptian Pharaoh tutankhamun, they were surprised to find the glass inside came from before the earliest Egyptian Civilization - so this begs the question, where did the glass come from? Eventually, they found it came from a thin sheet of glass sprinkled across a huge part of the Sahara Desert. They calculated that this glass could only have been made by a meteor impacting the atmosphere and creating a huge fireball, cooking the sand below with temperatures of up to 18,000 degrees celsius or 32,500 degrees fahrenheit.
6. The Oldest Pot Stash
In 2008, archaeologists found almost two pounds of marijuna in a 2,700 old grave in Chinas Gobi Desert. The age makes it the oldest stage of cannabis ever discovered. What was it doing there? Well according to Dr Ethan Russo, it could have been for pain control or to aid in mystic divination. The stash is now being stored in the Turpan Museum in China.
5. Maree Man
In the late 1980s, someone flying over a remote part of the South Australian desert spotted an image - a huge hunter, naked and armed with a stick - it could be either a Woomera or Boomerang. The man is 2.6 miles tall and is still visible today. Experts know it must have been ,made in modern times as there was no record of it before - but its a mystery as to who designed this thing. Many have come forward, but nothing is known for sure.
4. Fairy Circles
Deep in the Nambian desert lie millions of strange Fairy Circles. The circles are devoid of any life but the edges are surrounded by knee high grass. Nothing will grow in the middle, even when fertilized soil is added. The circles can reach up to 20m in diameter and seem to be evenly space - they never overlap. They also seem to have a lifespan of about 75 years. Right now, the leading explanation for their existence is different termite colonies who don't want to encroach on anothers territory.
3. The Planes
Whats one thing you don't expect to find buried in an old desert? Planes. During the 2003 coalition invasion of Iraq, the US military was surprised by the lack of enemy planes. Intelligence reports had said Saddam had them before the war, so where were they? A few months into the war, someone noticed a tailfin sticking out of the sand near a military base. After some digging, they found 30 brand new Iraqi planes. For whatever reason, Saddam had thought he could just bury these million dollar pieces of machinery in the sand and then dig them up later - didnt really go to plan.
2. Nabta Playa
Deep in the Sahara Desert, a Stone Age community built the Nabta Playa, a series of standing stones built 6,500 years ago. This makes them a thousand years older than Stone Henge and the oldest astronomical alignment of its kind ever discovered. Some of the stones face in a north west direction, others from east to west - this seems to tell archaeologist that it had some astrological significance. Perhaps they were used to mark the summer solstice or the beginning of the rainy season, back when this desert recieved more rain. Either way, the mysterious stones are so steeped in history that we may never know the full picture.
1. The Mysterious Oasis
In 2014, shepherds in the Tunisian desert were shocked to find a huge beautiful blue lake where there definitely wasnt one before. Before long, locals were arriving to enjoy the oasis and cool off in in the heat. The thing is - people arent really sure where this lake came from. Some point the finger at seismic activity causing groundwater to rise to the surface. Whats even stranger though is that the water started out clear, then turned blue and then after a few days it was green and filled with algae. The public safety office issued a public warning that the lake is dangerous and unfit for swimming - but the mystery of its origin continues.
