十大歷史未解之迷(上)

Since the world began, we have been surrounded by mysteries. Some are solved by science, but others remain unexplained and might stay unsolved forever. Some are as ancient as humanity, but our fascination with them keeps them timeless. Here are ten such historical unsolved mysteries, to both entertain you and make you wonder.

世界伊始，我們便已被謎團所包圍。一些謎團爲科學所解決，但仍有些謎團無從解釋並可能永遠無法解開。這些謎團和人類一樣古老，但我們對他們的癡迷卻使他們歷久彌新。這裏就有十個既能愉悅你，又能讓你產生求知慾的謎團。

Fate of Hitler's Stolen Wealth

10.希特勒偷來的財寶的下落

This is supposedly the greatest and biggest cache ever: an unimaginable hoard of looted gold bars, jewelry, and foreign currency, with an estimated value of $4 billion. These stolen riches disappeared in the blink of an eye from the vaults of the German Reichsbank. In the decades after World War II, troves of looted valuables were found in Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, Spain, and Sweden, but they hardly compare in value to Hitler's supposed hoard.

據稱這是有史以來最好最大的寶庫：被掠奪的金條，珠寶和外幣多得難以想象，價值在四十億左右。這些偷來的財寶眨眼間便消失在德國國家銀行。二戰後的幾十年裏，這些搶劫來的貴重物品在葡萄牙、瑞士、土耳其、西班牙和瑞典都有發現。但這些發現幾乎不能與所估計的希特勒寶藏相媲美。

Groups all over the world are still hunting for his treasure, but even after all these years, the question remains: Where is the gold of Hitler? The only sure thing is that the mystery of the treasure remains unsolved, with all its rumors, speculations, and myths still entwined around it. One of the most popular beliefs is that Hitler himself buried it in a secret location somewhere in Deutschneudorf, Germany. Some treasure hunters believe that the plunder is lying at the bottom of Lake Toplitz in Austria, while others suggest that it's stashed in banks around the world. The only certain thing is that, when there's nothing but speculation about the location of a $4 billion treasure, it grows into a legend.

世界上仍有很大一批人在尋找着這份寶藏，但即使這麼多年過去了，疑問仍然存在：希特勒的寶藏究竟在哪？在謠言、猜測和神話的裹挾下，唯一能夠確定的是寶藏之謎仍待解決。最爲大衆所接受的看法之一是，希特勒自己把它埋在德國多伊茨希諾伊多夫的某個地方。一些尋寶者認爲這些掠奪品正安睡在奧地利的託普利茲湖中，然而另外一些人則認爲它被藏匿在世界各地的銀行中。唯一肯定的是，當我們只能通過猜測來獲悉這份價值四十億寶藏的位置時，它也就逐漸成爲一個傳說。

Disappearance of the USS Cyclops

9.美國海軍"獨眼巨人號"的失蹤

The Bermuda Triangle is famous for mysterious disappearances that have taken place there over the years. Even though scientists are nowadays able to provide logical explanations for most of the disappearances in that area, some have never been explained, including the unsolved disappearance of the USS Cyclops, a Proteus-class collier of the US Navy.

百慕大三角因歷年來頻繁發生離奇失蹤事件而聞名。儘管當今科學家能夠爲這一地區的多起失蹤事件提供合理的解釋，但仍有一些疑團尚待解決，這裏面就包括美國海軍Proteus級別的貨輪"獨眼巨人號"的失蹤。

During the First World War, the USS Cyclops was sent to Brazil to fuel British ships in the South Atlantic. Returning from Rio de Janeiro, she made a brief stop at the island of Barbados, then departed for Baltimore on the 4th of March, 1918. From that time forward, no one saw or heard anything about the Cyclops ever again. The crew and all 306 passengers vanished once and for all, and no trace of them or the ship has ever been found. It remains the single largest non-combat loss of life in U.S. Naval history. Even though American Naval authorities have tried for years to give a logical explanation, the disappearance remains an absolute mystery with many unanswered questions.

在第一次世界大戰期間，美國海軍"獨眼巨人號"被派往巴西爲南大西洋的英國船隻補充燃料。它從里約熱內盧出發，在巴巴多斯島短暫停留，然後在1998年3月4日啓程前往巴爾的摩。從那時起，沒人再見到或聽到與之相關的信息。船員和船上的306名乘客徹底消失了，沒有找到他們的任何蹤跡。這是美國海軍史上唯一的也是最大的非戰爭死亡。雖然多年來美國海軍官方一直致力於給出一個合理的解釋，但這次失蹤事件仍與許多懸而未決的問題一樣成爲難解之謎。

ting the Remains of Christopher Columbus

8.克里斯多弗·哥倫布遺骸的安放處

Christopher Columbus is probably the most famous explorer of all time, and we know pretty much everything about his life — except for one mystery: After his death in 1509, his remains continued to travel, and we don't know where they ended up. Originally buried in the Spanish city of Vigiadolid, in 1537 his bones were transferred to the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, in accordance with his wishes. But when the Spanish lost the region to the French in 1795, his remains were transferred to Cuba, where they stayed until the Spanish-American war. They were eventually returned to Seville, Spain, in 1898.

克里斯多弗·哥倫布可能是有史以來最著名的探險家，我們對他的生平也瞭解頗多——除了一個謎團仍待解決：他在1509年死去之後，他的遺骸仍繼續航行，其最終去向尚未可知。它的遺骸最初埋藏在西班牙城市巴亞利多德 ，1537年根據他生前意願，其遺骸被轉移至加勒比海的伊斯帕尼奧拉島。但是在1795年西班牙將這個地區割讓給法國時，他的遺骸又被運往古巴，直到1898年美西戰爭爆發，他才最終被送回西班牙的塞維利亞。

The Dominican Republic's official version, however, claims that the remains of Columbus never left Hispaniola. In 1877, in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, a box was discovered bearing an inscription stating that the remains inside were those of the "glorious and eminent Cristobal Colon." A DNA analysis conducted on the bones in Seville, and on those of Columbus's brother Diego (who is buried in the same city) showed that the two samples matched perfectly. When researchers announced these findings in 2006, the controversy surrounding Columbus's earthly remains should have come to a definitive end. However, the Dominican Republic openly challenges the results of the DNA testing, and for years has demanded a DNA analysis of the bones in Hispaniola, leaving open a window of doubt.

然而，多米尼加共和國的官方卻聲稱哥倫布的遺骸從未離開過伊斯帕尼奧拉島。1877年，在聖多明各大教堂發掘出一個盒子。盒子上的題名錶明盒裏的遺骸屬於"傑出和尊貴的人——克里斯多弗·哥倫布"。研究人員對塞維利亞的哥倫布遺骸和哥倫布弟弟迭戈（被葬於同一城市）遺骸進行DNA對比，發現兩者的DNA完全吻合。當研究人員將這些發現在2006年公之於世時，關於哥倫布遺骸下落之爭本應完美收尾，但多米尼加共和國卻公然挑戰這份DNA測試結果，並且多年來一直要求對伊斯帕尼奧拉島的遺骸也進行DNA檢測，這也就爲後世留下了一個未解之謎。

ets of the Phaistos Disc

7.費斯托斯圓盤之謎

The Minoan Civilization is considered by most historians to be the first organized Western civilization, and it has been named "the first link in the European chain." The Phaistos Disc, which was discovered in 1908 by Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in the ancient city of Phaistos, gave hope to even the least optimistic among us that it would help us understand the Minoan civilization in more detail.

米諾亞文明被大多數歷史學家認爲是最早的有組織的西方文明，並一直被稱爲"歐洲鏈條上的第一個環節"。費斯托斯圓盤於1908年在古城費斯托斯被意大利考古學家路易吉·裴涅爾發現，這個發現讓我們有希望更詳細地瞭解米諾亞文明，哪怕這種希望是最不樂觀的。

But the Phaistos Disc is a global conundrum that has kept its secrets hidden for thousands of years. Suggestions about what its inscription means include a hymn, a prayer, a geometric theorem for the calendar, and the narrative of a story. However, the global scientific community has not been able to confirm any of these. After decades of research, a diverse team of scientists intensively studying the Minoan language and the text of the Phaistos Disc may have come close to solving one of the biggest mysteries of archaeology, but so far the Disc remains an absolutely unsolved mystery.

但是費斯托斯圓盤卻是一個困擾人類千年的世界性難題。有人認爲它上面的符號代表着讚歌、祈禱、曆法的幾何定理以及一些故事。但世界上還沒有科學家能夠確認這些符號。也許幾十年以後，一些深入研究米諾亞語言和費斯托斯圓盤符號的專業科學家能夠解決這個困擾考古界的最大謎團，但目前爲止，這個圓盤仍是一個未解之謎。

"Wow!" Signal

6."Wow!"訊號之謎

On August 15, 1977, astronomer Jerry Ehman, working on a SETI project at Ohio Wesleyan University's Perkins Observatory, glanced as usual at the prints generated by the radio telescope known as the "Big Ear," but what he saw this time made him write "Wow!" on the printout. But what did he see exactly that caused such a reaction? According to him, it was the strongest, clearest, and most significant signal ever recorded, and a unsolved mystery that astronomers have been debating for decades.

1977年8月15日，天文學家傑瑞·艾曼在俄亥俄州衛斯理公會派大學的一個搜尋地外文明項目中，如往常一樣查看由"大耳朵"電波望遠鏡留下的報表，但這時他根據所看到的內容在稿紙之外寫下"Wow!"。他究竟看到了什麼，使他有如此反應？據他所言，這個訊號是有史以來最強大、最清晰、也是最重要的，這也成了天文學家數年來一直爭論的謎團。

That was thirty-six years ago, and still no one knows what caused the signal or where it came from exactly. The scientific world is unable to provide a clear explanation, strengthening the myth surrounding this case. Even skeptics now wonder if the signal could have been the first human contact with extraterrestrial life.

36年前，沒人知道這個信號如何而來以及來自何方。科學界也未能提供一個合理的解釋，這也就讓這事變得越發撲朔迷離。現在甚至有人懷疑這個信號是人類與外星生命的第一次接觸。

翻譯:李念 來源：前十網