Recently found mystery of TAJ MAHAL

Taj Mahal,Agra

A belief of 100's of Years stands Shattered !!

Taj Mahal is not something which we all Knew about,
or read it in our school books.
A complete Shocker, take a look Yourself !

BBC reports:
The Taj's Other Story
If you have ever visited the Taj Mahal then your guide probably told you that it was designed by Ustad Isaof Iran, and built by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Indian children are taught that it was built in 22 years (1631 to 1653) by 20,000 artisans brought to India from all over the world.
This story has been challenged by Professor P.N. Oak, author of Taj Mahal: The True Story, who believes that the whole world has been duped. He claims that the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz Mahal's tomb, but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya), worshipped by the Rajputs of Agra city.
In the course of his research, Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace had been usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodelled the palace into his wife's memorial. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur is said to retain in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for the surrender of the Taj building.
The use of captured temples and mansions as a burial place for dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers. For example, Hamayun, Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions.
Oak's inquiries begin with the name Taj Mahal. He says this term does not occur in any Mughal court papers or chronicles, even after Shah Jahan's time. The term 'Mahal' has never been used for a building in any of the Muslim countries, from Afghanistan to Algeria.
'The usual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal is illogical in at least two respects. Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani,' he writes. 'Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name for the building.'
Taj Mahal is, he claims, a corrupt version of Tejo-mahalaya, or the Shiva's Palace. Oak also says that the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.
Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting that the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era:
1. Professor Marvin Miller of New York took samples from the riversidedoorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan.
2. European traveller Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs, but makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built.
3. The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest that the Taj was a noteworthy building long well before Shah Jahan's time.
Oak also points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief that the Taj Mahal is a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum.
Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time, and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples.
Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Oak's book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the first edition with dire consequences.
The only way to really validate or discredit Oak's research is to open the sealed rooms of the Taj Mahal, and allow international experts to investigate.

THE YONAGUNI MONUMENT

Of all the famous monuments in Japan, perhaps none is more perplexing than Yonaguni, an underwater rock formation that lies off the coast of the Ryuku Islands. It was discovered in 1987 by a group of divers who were there to observe Hammerhead sharks, and it immediately sparked a huge amount of debate in the Japanese scientific community. The monument is made up of a series of striking rock formations including massive platforms, carved steps, and huge stone pillars that lie at depths of 5-40 meters. There is a triangular formation that has become known as “the turtle” for its unique shape, as well as a long, straight wall that borders one of the larger platforms. The currents in the area are known for being particularly treacherous, but this has not stopped the Yonaguni monument from becoming one of the most popular diving locations in all of Japan.

The Yonaguni Monument

                              

The Mystery
The ongoing debate surrounding Yonaguni centers on one key subject: is the monument a natural phenomenon, or is it man-made? Scientists have long argued that millennia of strong currents and erosion have carved the formations out of the ocean floor, and they point to the fact that the monument is all one piece of solid rock as proof that it was not assembled by a builder. Others, though, point to the many straight edges, square corners and 90-degree angles of the formation as proof that it’s artificial. They often cite one formation in particular, a section of rock that resembles a crude carving of a human face, as evidence. If they are right, then an even more interesting mystery presents itself: who constructed the Yonaguni Monument, and for what purpose?

Well personally in my opinion,its quite hard to believe that such wonderful piece of art is merely due to some climatic currents and corrosion.It must have been built by someone about whom our present world is unaware of. But nevertheless, our scientists may also be right putting into account all their professional experiences, after all god's creations are also quite unique and fascinating!! 

MYSTERY SPOT

Mystery Sport is a tourist attraction near Santa Cruz, California, famous because of its disrespect to the laws of physics and gravity. The odd cabin, although seems like lying on flat ground, makes those who enter inside swinging all the time. The most probable theory that tries to explain this says that it’s all about “tilt-induced visual illusion. The illusion experienced by visitors results from the oddly tilted environment as well as standing on a tilted floor. Inside the tilted room of the Mystery Spot misperceptions of the height and orientation of objects occur. Even when people are standing outside on a level ground, the slant of the building in the background causes misperceptions as we judge the height of people using the slant of the roof rather than the true horizon.”

This is the most fascinating thing the world might have ever seen. After all it allows any individual to swing all about as if it were outer space! A place which can make a six feet tall man appear an entire foot shorter within few seconds must be really mysterious and heart throbbing according to me. It does not seem that the reason behind such a mystery is going to reveal itself so easily.

BERMUDA TRIANGLE

It is believed that the Bermuda Triangle swallows ships, planes and all the people with them. So many ships and planes have disappeared and so many disasters have happened in the area between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Miami.For years, believers in the paranormal, aliens, and other outlandish theories pointed to the the disappearance 
of ships and aircraft as an indicator of mysterious forces at work in the “Devil’s triangle.”

But now the mystery is solved as computer studies of ocean floors around the world, particularly this area, reveal evidence of massive methane explosions in the past. Scientists have finally pointed the rest of us to a more plausible cause.The presence of methane hydrates indicates enormous eruptions of methane bubbles that would swamp a ship, and
projected high into the air- take out flying airplanes, as well.

Any ships caught within the methane mega-bubble immediately lose all buoyancy and sink to the bottom of the ocean. If the bubbles are big enough and possess a high enough density they can also knock aircraft out of the sky with little or no warning. Aircraft falling victim to these methane bubbles will lose their engines-perhaps igniting the methane surrounding them-and immediately lose their lift as well, ending their flights by diving into the ocean and swiftly plummeting.

It is quite frightening to read the line that the sea swallows ships and air crafts flying through that region. Thanks to our scientists that they have spotted out the reason. At least people won't have fear of any paranormal activities going out there.

NAZCA LINES

Nazca Lines are the most outstanding group of geoglyphs in the world, they are located in the Nazca Desert, between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. Etched in the surface of the desert pampa sand about 300 hundred figures made of straight lines, geometric shapes and pictures of animals and birds - and their patterns are only clearly visible from the air.

There are 3 mysterious aspects to Nazca Plateau:

• First, the straight lines, many kilometers long, crisscross sectors of the pampas in all directions.
• Second, many of the lines form geometric figures: angles, triangles, bunches, spirals, rectangles, wavy lines, etc.
• Third, many lines form animal patterns.

                                                                                                                         
It is believed that the geoglyphs were built by a people called the Nasca- but why and how they created these wonders of the world has defied explanation. Since the Nazca lines cannot be recognized as coherent figures except from the air, it is presumed the Nazca people could never have seen their work from this vantage point, there has been much speculation on the builders' abilities and motivations. 

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Nazca Lines Map Extract

• Could these geoglyphs be effigies of ancient animal gods or patterns of constellations? Are they roads, star pointers, maybe even a gigantic map? If the people who lived here 2,000 years ago had only a simple technology, how did they manage to construct such precise figures? Did they have a plan? If so, who ordained it? It all seems so otherworldly. To comprehend the Nasca lines, created by the removal of desert rock to reveal the pale pink sand beneath, visitors have proposed every imaginable explanation - from runways for spaceships to tracks for Olympic athletes, from op art to pop art, to astronomical observatories.

EASTER ISLAND

On a tiny Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean stands a large group of monolithic structures that, by comparison to some of the other places on this list, are young. The Easter Island Heads, referred to as Moai, were built sometime between 1250 and 1500, but their purpose and the reason for their construction still remains a mystery. Most believe that these statues were erected to honor the ancestors of the tribes that once inhabited this island, but the true purpose of these statues have been lost to time as the original inhabitants of the island lost their lives to either European slavery or European disease.

The island is home to so much tragedy that many claim that it has ghostly inhabitants. Current residents on the island claim to see the ghosts of the original natives of Easter Island traveling along the ancient roadways that they carved out centuries before. Combine these stories with the eerie statues always watching you and Easter Island is not only mysterious but an incredibly frightening place.

Reading the above, undoubtedly it is a quite frightening and breath taking place! By looking at the pictures. it seems to be a quite fine piece of art in the era in which it was built. It would be quite interesting to find out who built this and their motive behind it.

STONEHENGE

 Stonehenge is a circle of 17 upright stones called sarsens which stand on Salibury plain in South West England. The stones weigh up to 50 tonnes and have other stones, called lintels, laid across the top. There is also inner circle of smaller blue stones weighing up to 4 tonnes each. Stonehenge is only stone circle in the world with lintels across the top of the stones and experts think it was completed in about 1500 BC. They believe that sarsen stones were transported from 32 Km away and the blue stones came from the incredible 250 Km away. In that old period with out transport facilities at least 600 men would have been needed to move each sarsen stone on some of the steepest parts of the journey. Nobody knows exactly why Stonehenge was built, but it may have been a druids' temple or even a kind of astronomical calendar.

There is a folk story that tells the origin of at least one stone, the Heel Stone. The Heel Stone lies just outside the main entrance to Stonehenge and leans towards the stone circle as if it is directing the way to the monument. The story goes that the devil built Stonehenge in a devious plot to preoccupy human beings using their own curiosity against them, but a holy man saw the devil building the monolith and swore to tell the world of the devil’s evil plot. The devil hurled one of the stones at the holy man as he ran away. The stone struck the holy man’s heel and then stuck in the ground. This story is obviously just folklore, due to all the judeo-Christian elements as the structure is dated back before the rise of Judaism and Christianity in Europe.

Along with other theories of aliens and living Nordic gods, is a macabre theory that suggests that the site was used as a place of human sacrifice and sexual rituals by a heathenistic pagan civilization. This theory though has very little evidence to support it and seems to be based more on prejudices of early humans before modern religion than anything else.

It seems that the purpose of this structure can only be theorized. The true purpose of Stonehenge seems to be lost to time.

LAKE VOSTOK

Lake Vostok is the most recent mystery coming from Antarctica, and the whole world probably, as there is possibility for some revolutionary revelations. Scientists believe that in the lake under the ice surface there are some species that have survived 15 billions years. However, these species would be something that the world has never seen before, as they would have developed under complete darkness.

Vostok is the largest of hundreds of lakes that sit under the thick layer of ice on the Antarctic continent and Russian scientists have been drilling through the ice towards the lake for several decades.

   Lake Vostok research camp in Antarctica. Examining any life
    forms found in the lake – most likely to be very simple
       organisms if they exist – would shed light on the
 evolution of life on Earth

They think the lake might be a haven for so-called "extremophiles" – bacteria and other single-celled organisms that have evolved to live in conditions in which other life forms would struggle to survive, such as darkness, or extreme temperatures, or salinity.

Examining any life forms found in the Vostok – most likely to be very simple organisms if they exist – would shed light on the evolution of life on Earth and, possibly, tell scientists about the potential for life elsewhere in our solar system.

The researchers are close to obtaining a water sample, so we should wait for the results.

This is a very interesting discovery made by our scientists. Though it is not as mysterious as the other spots, then too it may help in putting light on how earth has evolved from the past millions of years!

MOUNT RORAIMA

 Mount Roraima is located on the triple border point between Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. It is weird because of its shape, but is also mysterious because of the clouds that are always near the peak and the endemic fauna. The tabletop of the mountain, which is the peak actually, is considered as one of the world’s oldest geological formations. It is believed that the plateau was formed by water and winds, but the reason why some species can’t be found anywhere else remain mystery.

Mount Roraima

Well after reading the above. it surely seems to be a place where everyone would like to visit! The most fascinating thing about this place is the presence of clouds and life forms which are not found anywhere else!

EYE OF AFRICA - MAURITANIA

 From space this mysterious depression in the Sahara Desert of Mauritania really does look like a human eye. The image shown below is the "pupil" but a visit to Google Earth zoomed out a little will reveal the cliffs that make up the rest of the eye. This natural phenomenon is actually a richat structure caused by the dome shaped symmetrical uplifting of underlying geology now made visible by millennia of erosion. Please note that this explanation is not wholly accepted by the scientific community. There still remain academics that believe it is the sight of a meteor impact and yet others still that believe it resembles the                                formations caused by underground nuclear blasts. By the way, we estimate that the detonation would have had to be in the gigaton range. Currently no country in the world has a weapon even close to this destructive yield.

THE STRANGE EYE OF AFRICA IN MAURITANIA

Currently scientists believe that they know what caused this formation. Hey! It's a Ri chat structure ... whatever that really means.
No one has explained yet why it is circular 

THE SAILING STONES OF RACETRACK PLAYA

 THE SAILING STONES OF RACETRACK PLAYA

The Sailing Stones add mystique to Death Valley but the real strangeness of this place is its desperate isolation, heat and incredible flatness. 

 The Racetrack Playa is an exceptionally flat and dry lakebed located above the northwestern side of Death Valley, in Death Valley National Park, California. The playa is best known for one of the most strangest mysteries of the planet – the sliding rocks. These rocks can be found on the floor of the playa with long trails behind them. Although no one has actually seen the rocks move, the long meandering tracks left behind in the mud surface of the playa attest to their activity. Some of these rocks weigh several hundred pounds and have traveled as far as 1,500 feet, which leaves us with the question: "How do they move?"

One early suggestion was that the rocks were driven by gravity, sliding down a gradual slope over a long period of time. But this theory was discounted when it was revealed that the northern end of the playa is actually several centimeters higher than the southern end and that most of the rocks were in fact traveling uphill.For the past ten years, Dr. Paula Messina, professor of geology at San Jose State University in California, has been tracking the movement of each of the 162 rocks scattered over the playa. Her research suggest that a rare combination of rain and wind conditions enable the rocks to move.Some people have suggested attaching radio transmitters to the rocks or erecting cameras to catch them “in the act” in order to put an end to the speculation. But as Death Valley National Park is 95 percent designated wilderness, all research in the park must be noninvasive. It is forbidden to erect any permanent structures or instrumentation. Further, no one is permitted on the playa when it is wet because each footprint would leave an indelible scar.


How do these stones travel on their own? Its quite hard to believe that the winds there are so strong they they can move an entire stone from one place to other! May be the friction of the ground also plays a significant role.