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Find out hidden details you never noticed in famous paintings, the mystery of the mountain that 'Lays Eggs' or if you wanna, join us on a trip to the creepiest places in the World!
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00:00Imagine you're an art detective, and your task is to explore the mysteries behind the world's most famous paintings.
00:06I'm talking about works from Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Picasso.
00:11So, grab your magnifying glass, as this journey is about to begin.
00:16First off on your list is Rome.
00:19After enjoying delicious pasta, you head to the Sistine Chapel, home to the world's most famous ceiling.
00:25Oh, and you know how they say Michelangelo painted the frescoes lying down?
00:30This is just a myth.
00:31Actually, the painter created a complex system of platforms that allowed him to paint standing.
00:37You're checking out The Creation of Adam, that fresco in the middle.
00:41The Italian artist Michelangelo, the author of this masterpiece, was widely known for his study of human anatomy.
00:49Art experts argue that the right part of the painting is an anatomically correct depiction of an enlarged brain.
00:56To proof check this, you try overlapping a picture of the organ and the artwork.
01:01It seems to be a match.
01:02The cerebellum, the optic nerve, and the pituitary gland are all there.
01:07Even the floating green scarf thingy appears to match the vertebral artery.
01:12Some researchers think it was Michelangelo's way of depicting knowledge and wisdom.
01:17But you have to sleep on it to decide what you think.
01:21Moving on, you catch a train and arrive in Florence.
01:25Time for a quick gelato break, then straight to the Academia Gallery.
01:29One of art's most celebrated sculptures is waiting for you inside, Michelangelo's David.
01:36David is a 17-foot-tall marble wonder.
01:39It was carved for about three years.
01:42The mystery surrounding it is to figure out the statue's true expression.
01:46Looking at him from below, you'll think his face is serene and peaceful.
01:51But art historians argue that this work was largely misunderstood.
01:55Apparently, his body hides a very different story.
01:59Take a closer look, and you'll notice his brows are frowning, and the veins in his arms are popping out.
02:06That doesn't look too relaxed, does it?
02:09Michelangelo's idea was to depict David right before an important confrontation.
02:14So maybe he wasn't all that serene after all.
02:19Italy is so rich in art, you can't leave just yet.
02:22You're still in Florence.
02:24You pay a visit to the famous Uffizi Gallery.
02:27Many famous paintings are hosted by this museum, but you're checking out Botticelli's Primavera, or Spring.
02:35This artwork is mysterious from the get-go.
02:39Experts can't say the exact year it was commissioned.
02:42It remained untitled for years, until the painter Giorgio Vasari finally came up with a name for it.
02:48Usually, when critics and viewers admire this painting, they focus on the figures in the foreground.
02:54But in this case, the actual work lies in that Botticelli painted over 46 different plant species, with almost identical
03:02precision.
03:03And, oh, in the painting overall, these plant figures are repeated over 200 times.
03:09Unbelievable!
03:11I'd say the last visits were full of impressions, weren't they?
03:14Ready to keep going?
03:15A plane ride later, you arrive in Paris, the City of Lights, Berets, and the famous Mona Lisa.
03:24You go through the Museum de Louvre, and come to Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, La Gioconda.
03:30There are many theories regarding this work of art, and you dive into some of them.
03:35A strong case has been made that the Mona Lisa could be a self-portrait of da Vinci himself.
03:41Historians have thoroughly compared da Vinci's face and that of the Mona Lisa.
03:45And guess what?
03:47They appear to be strikingly similar.
03:50Oh, and then there's the smirk theory.
03:53Dentist and art expert Joseph Bartowski claims to have discovered the secret behind Mona Lisa's smirk.
03:59He says her tight facial expression is a typical indication of someone who lost their front teeth.
04:06Could it be so?
04:07Also, in 2010, the Italian Committee for Cultural Heritage found a collection of symbols hidden in the painting.
04:16These are only visible through highly technological magnifying lenses, but they showed that Leonardo inscribed an LV inside Mona Lisa's
04:25right eye.
04:27Experts guess that this is da Vinci's signature.
04:30But the other symbols, a CE in the left eye and a 72 in the arch of the background bridge,
04:37are still very mysterious.
04:40Phew! You covered a lot of ground on this one.
04:42Ah, of course, at the end of your visit, remember to test if her eyes really follow you around.
04:49Now you're headed to Amsterdam to check out the Rijksmuseum.
04:53You came to see a specific Rembrandt painting that hides a mysterious story.
04:58The Night Watch is one of Rembrandt's most famous paintings,
05:01but experts argue that the name of the painting and its content are mismatched.
05:07Let's take a closer look.
05:08The painting depicts a large group ready to embark on a mission.
05:12Rembrandt's technique is called Chiaroscuro, highlighting the contrast between light and shade.
05:18Until 1947, art critics believed the painter was depicting a nighttime scene.
05:23But when the painting was cleared of a thick dust layer,
05:27it became clear that the scene was happening in broad daylight,
05:31with the sun streaming down from the top left.
05:34Now, it's too late to change its name to the Day Watch.
05:38While in Amsterdam, you find a museum dedicated to Van Gogh's art.
05:42Did you know that he painted over 900 paintings during an impressive period of only 10 years?
05:48Anyway, the Van Gogh Museum hosts the biggest collection of yellow sunflower paintings you'll probably see in your life.
05:56Actually, almost all of Van Gogh's paintings feature dominant yellow shades.
06:01This particularity of his art may be a result of how he saw the world.
06:06Some art experts have speculated that one of Van Gogh's remedies changed his color perception,
06:12making him see more yellow around him.
06:15Okay, so this trip just keeps getting better.
06:18The next stop on your list is the United Kingdom.
06:21Then, on to the National Gallery.
06:24You may spend hours looking at Jan van Eyck's painting, Arnolfini Portrait,
06:29and not see anything out of the ordinary.
06:31In the foreground, a couple holds hands and stares at the viewer.
06:35But if you zoom in on the mirror on the wall, you'll see two more people in the room.
06:41Art experts say the male figure in the painting has his hands raised to greet these two people seen in
06:47the mirror,
06:47and that one of the figures is van Eyck himself.
06:51Oh, and that's not the only watermark the painter left.
06:54Above the mirror, you'll see his flamboyant signature.
06:58Jan van Eyck was here, 1434.
07:01And speaking of people trying to sneak into their art,
07:05Caravaggio, the renowned Italian Renaissance painter,
07:08left a little Easter egg in one of his famous paintings, Bacchus.
07:12This one is a bit difficult to spot.
07:14In the half-filled jar in the bottom left corner of the painting,
07:18there is a tiny self-portrait of the painter himself, hidden amongst the liquid.
07:22To see the image clearly, one needs the help of sophisticated technology,
07:27or at least a very efficient magnifying lens.
07:30But it's there, a male figure, a.k.a. Caravaggio, with a brush in his hand.
07:36Fun fact, the tiny self-portrait was first noticed in 1922,
07:41over 300 years after the painting was completed.
07:43It was forgotten due to poor conservation.
07:47To finish the trip, you fly overseas across the Atlantic, all the way to Chicago.
07:53The enormous collection of the Art Institute hosts a well-known painting by Pablo Picasso,
07:58The Old Guitarist.
08:00This painting's secret is so well hidden
08:02that it also needs the help of x-ray machines and super fancy technology.
08:07But the results are worth it.
08:09The readings show that Picasso painted The Old Guitarist
08:12on top of another unfinished painting.
08:15We can clearly see the outlines and shapes of a half-drawn female figure
08:20that Picasso gave up on mid-work.
08:22The emerging artists of the time used that way of saving money quite often,
08:27as canvases were expensive.
08:30This was quite a tiring world trip, wasn't it?
08:33Get some rest, Sherlock of art.
08:36The coldest part of our planet, Antarctica, keeps surprising us.
08:40Take a look at this waterfall named Blood Falls.
08:43Reddish water falls from the white ice.
08:46Scientists concluded that the color is related to iron.
08:49The water coming from the glacier oxidizes and rusts when it's exposed to oxygen,
08:54and the red color occurs.
08:56Step on Mount Gandic.
08:58It lays eggs.
09:00Well, maybe not real eggs,
09:02but the stones certainly look like dinosaur eggs.
09:05That's why the mountain got its fame.
09:07The, let's call them stone eggs, formed in one part of the mountain over 500 million years ago.
09:13Interestingly, this phenomenon repeats once every 30 years.
09:18Eggs come out in various sizes and shades.
09:21The stones appear on the surface of the cliff.
09:23A study made in the area has revealed that the composition of the stones of the cliff
09:28isn't similar to other parts of the mountain.
09:31Here, calcareous rocks rule.
09:33They're more prone to erosion.
09:35They ripen off day by day.
09:37It took three decades for the stones to get to the egg shape.
09:40Yet, it's still a mystery how these rock formations can be so perfectly spherical and smooth.
09:46According to scientists, every stone egg has an organic core.
09:50They're made of shells, plant remains, fish teeth, and skeletons.
09:55Maybe this has something to do with it.
09:57Gulu Village is close to the stone eggs.
10:00Locals believe that these eggs are sacred.
10:02Villagers associate it with good fortune.
10:05In fact, nearly every family has one of these eggs in their house.
10:09Unfortunately, there are only about 70 eggs left.
10:12So, if you want to see them, you gotta hurry up.
10:16The Richet structure is a circular geological phenomenon in the Sahara Desert near Mauritania.
10:22It's made out of rocks in layers.
10:24And these layers look very much like rings.
10:27No wonder the unique structure even got NASA's attention.
10:31Up from the sky, the geological feature seems to be swirling and spinning.
10:36Scientists are still not sure how these rings got there.
10:39Some say it was an asteroid impact.
10:42Many others believe that it was a natural geological process.
10:45To them, the Richet structure is an uplifted and eroded dome.
10:49Geologists often classify it as a domed anticline.
10:54The scientists discovered that the rocks at the center are older than the ring-shaped outer rocks.
10:59So, it seems like the stones have been eroded to flat rock layers.
11:03Anyway, there's no valid explanation for this phenomenon.
11:07And the 28-mile-long mystery of the Sahara is still to be solved.
11:12Number 4 is Rapa Nui, or Isla de Pasqua.
11:16But I bet you know it as Easter Island.
11:19Yeah, it's got three names.
11:21It was discovered by Jacob Roggeveen, who actually never intended to look for that island.
11:26He just casually landed there one Sunday.
11:29That's where the name comes from.
11:31Jacob was supposed to find Terra Australis.
11:34Disclaimer, it's not Australia.
11:36This one never existed and was nothing but a hypothetical continent.
11:40Plus, he wanted to peek at Davis Land, which was believed to have once been seen by Edward Davis, the
11:47pirate, not Edward Davis the saxophone player.
11:50Jacob failed at that too, though nobody ever saw that island except for the pirate Davis.
11:55Jacob may have failed to discover some lands he wanted to, but he discovered Easter Island instead.
12:01This is an island and special territory of Chile, located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean.
12:07It's on my list because nearly 1,000 stone statues called Moai were found there.
12:13They were created by the Rapa Nui people.
12:16Nearly all statues represent gigantic heads, but there are also a small number of figures kneeling with their hands over
12:23their stomachs.
12:24Each statue represented chiefs or other important members of Easter Island society.
12:30To curve those statues, the locals used volcanic stones that were softened.
12:34Our next stop is the Gateway to the Underworld.
12:38Nah, don't worry.
12:39This is just how people label Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan.
12:44This giant natural gas crater has been there for five decades.
12:48This crater is continuously burning gases.
12:51The president of the country wants experts to find a way to extinguish this continuous firing pit.
12:56This site was created by people accidentally in 1971 while working on a natural gas project.
13:03Ever since then, the flames have been on, and it's become a tourist attraction.
13:08Mysterious constructions are sometimes built in our era, too.
13:12We don't have to go millions of years ago to long-gone civilizations.
13:16Edward Leedskallin single-handedly built a structure called Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida.
13:23He didn't use any large machinery.
13:25He carved and sculpted more than 1,100 tons of coral rock in 28 years until 1951.
13:32It's a mystery how he managed to do it all by himself.
13:36Leedskallin sculpted the sentimentary rock into different objects, such as walls, tables, chairs, a fountain, and a sundial.
13:45There's, of course, a legend behind this mystery, too.
13:48He was inspired to build the structure after being abandoned by his fiancée on their wedding day.
13:53Uh-oh, runaway bride.
13:55Well, he wanted to prove his love to her and the world.
13:58So, he wanted to do something extraordinary.
14:02Well, he definitely nailed it.
14:04Now, let's talk a little bit about the mystery of the Nambibian fairy circles.
14:08There are millions of circular patches in hundreds of miles, ranging from 10 to 65 feet in diameter.
14:15They're called fairy circles because they look like a fairy or an otherworldly creature made them.
14:21These are essentially oval-shaped soil surrounded by grass.
14:25There are a lot of local beliefs surrounding the creator of these marks.
14:30Yet, science says something else.
14:32Biologists and mathematicians have been puzzled by the mystery of the Nambibian fairy circles for decades.
14:38There is more than one theory to explain this phenomenon.
14:42Here's one popular theory.
14:43The water is limited in the desert, so plants compete to reach the water.
14:48Some plants expand and thrive into a patch.
14:51But smaller plants nearby cannot get the necessary water to live.
14:55In the end, some vegetation disappears, and the remaining ones stay at the patch's edges.
15:01That's why they form such regular distant gaps.
15:05What if I tell you that there is a hill in Leic City, India, where, instead of rolling downwards, things
15:12roll uphill?
15:13It's an optical illusion.
15:15The road looks like it's a sloping hill because of its surrounding landscapes.
15:19Yet, the road actually goes down.
15:22These kinds of hills are called magnetic hills or gravity hills.
15:26Scientific explanations vary.
15:29The most common theory says that the hill has such a strong magnetic force that it can pull cars in
15:35the vicinity.
15:36Now, how about seeing some flaming rocks?
15:39Yenartash spread over an area of over three square miles.
15:43The place is located on a rocky mountain in southwest Turkey near the town of Cearalea.
15:49Yenartash got its name from its appearance.
15:51It literally means flaming stone.
15:54The rocks have been flaming for at least 2,500 years, and they'll probably keep burning for the coming decades.
16:01The mountain where the rocks are is an inactive volcano.
16:04So, it's full of tiny fumaroles that release gases such as methane.
16:09The gas ignites when it comes into contact with oxygen and creates the flaming effect.
16:14And, by the way, back in the day, sailors used the flames as a natural lighthouse, as it's really close
16:21to the sea.
16:22Today, it's more of a tourist attraction, though.
16:25Hikers love it, too.
16:27Now, walk on this frozen Lake Abraham in Canada.
16:31In winter, the frozen water gets filled with ice bubbles.
16:35It looks magical, but these white orbs aren't that safe.
16:38They consist of flammable methane gas.
16:41Eww.
16:42Beauty can be misleading.
16:44The next one is from Racetrack, Death Valley, USA.
16:48There is a dry lake bed with moving rocks.
16:51Now, these odd rocks look as if they've been pushed or dragged by someone or something.
16:57They leave both a trail and a mystery behind.
17:00The force behind all this is now understood.
17:04Surprise!
17:05It's the wind and some ice.
17:07Scientists say the wind pushes the rocks during brief windows when the soil is covered with ice.
17:14Now, I can't help but notice that many mysterious things on Earth involve stones or rocks or methane.
17:21Which one of these phenomena is your favorite?
17:24Picture a ghost town, abandoned buildings covered in graffiti, rusting remains of cars, cracks in the roads.
17:30And now, add to that a thick blanket of black smoke coming from under the ground.
17:36And the ground itself is hot to the touch.
17:38You're entering Centralia, Pennsylvania.
17:42Centralia used to be a lively place during the 1800s and up to the 1960s.
17:46Its rich coal mines attracted a lot of people to work and live there.
17:50But, in 1962, one of those mines accidentally caught fire, which started to spread underground.
17:58Coal is a slowly burning fuel, so the citizens continued to live peacefully for almost another two decades,
18:04until the fire began to undermine the town.
18:08One of the worst accidents was when a giant sinkhole appeared out of nowhere in the backyard of a house
18:13in Centralia.
18:15Luckily, no one was hurt, but after that, people started leaving the place.
18:19In the following 30 years, almost everyone moved out, though not all.
18:24As of 2020, five people still live there.
18:27But, other than that, Centralia is by all means a ghost town.
18:31And crumbling abandoned buildings and cracked roads are just a minor part of it.
18:36The most disturbing thing about this place is the smoke billowing from under the ground through cracks.
18:42The fires down below are still raging, heating up the surface and slowly destroying the remains of the town.
18:49In fact, this was what inspired the famous fictional town of Silent Hill.
18:54The blaze is estimated to last for another 250 years, and by that time, there will be nothing but scorched
19:01wasteland in the area.
19:03If you're afraid of bugs, then this place will probably be your worst nightmare.
19:07The Gomantong Caves in Malaysia could be one of the most picturesque places in the world if not for their
19:13dwellers.
19:15First off, there are bats.
19:17Over 2 million of these animals live in the vast expanses of the caves.
19:22They're easily scared, but I guess you don't want that.
19:25Millions of winged horrors flying at you in a panic aren't to be taken lightly.
19:30Secondly, there are cockroaches.
19:33And while the number of bats is more or less determined, the roaches swarming the floors and walls of the
19:38caves are unaccountable.
19:40There are so many of them that you won't be able to make a single step without a dozen of
19:45these creepers crawling up your legs.
19:46And finally, if you manage not to scream from the cockroaches and wake up hordes of bats, you might be
19:53rewarded with other wonderful dwellers of the caves.
19:55Those include snakes, scorpions, and giant, venomous centipedes.
20:00Charming!
20:01Still, the caves are open to the public, and there are lots of people who visit this place.
20:07Right in the middle of nowhere in the empty wastelands of the Karakum Desert in Central Asia, there's a great
20:13hole in the ground that burns, forever.
20:16It's called the Darvaza Gas Crater, and it's an actual pit, broad and deep, that has been ablaze for over
20:22half a century now.
20:24The locals call it the Gate to the Underworld, and the view is indeed frightening.
20:29There is no way to extinguish the flames, and scientists believe the crater will keep burning for centuries on end.
20:35The pit apparently appeared in 1971, when a group of engineers scouted the area and thought they stumbled upon an
20:42oil deposit.
20:43It turned out to be a natural gas pocket, though.
20:46And when the drilling rig started working on the site, the ground collapsed.
20:51The engineers were afraid that the poisonous gas might put nearby towns in danger, so they thought it best to
20:57set it on fire and let it burn out in a few weeks.
20:59But, as we can see, the blaze is still going strong.
21:04The crater has since become a popular tourist attraction, but despite that, it still poses some danger.
21:10So efforts are being made to finally extinguish the gates of the underworld.
21:15Imagine seeing an insanely venomous snake right next to your foot.
21:19Terrifying enough, huh?
21:21And now, multiply that experience by a couple thousand times, when no matter where you try to run, there are
21:27similar snakes all around.
21:29That's Snake Island for you, and the name couldn't describe it better.
21:33The island is located not far from the coast of Brazil, and is home to thousands of golden lance-head
21:38vipers.
21:39About 11,000 years ago, the sea levels rose and separated the island from the mainland, and lots of lance
21:45-head vipers became trapped on it.
21:47Their mainland siblings are venomous as well, but not as much.
21:51The golden variety had to evolve to survive, and oh, they did.
21:56Since there's not so many land animals for the vipers to hunt, they adapted to hunting birds instead.
22:01And for their venom to be effective, it had to be instant.
22:04So, golden lance-heads developed a venom that is five times more potent than the regular variety.
22:11This helped the snakes thrive, and now there are one to five vipers per square meter of the island.
22:16It is considered so dangerous that Brazil banned all visitors, like someone would really want to go there.
22:23Lost in the woods at night, you suddenly stumble upon a human figure.
22:28Relieved, you touch their shoulder to ask for directions, but it's hard as stone and covered in moss.
22:33And then you look into the face of the person, and your mouth opens in horror.
22:38It's anything but human.
22:40My advice would be not to wander around southeast Finland at night if you don't want a shocking experience,
22:46because it's here that a renowned Finnish sculptor made his eerie sculpture garden in his own backyard.
22:52The garden's main exhibition consists of 200 human figures in various yoga poses.
22:58But as you walk around, you may come across more sinister-looking works.
23:02Such as cloaked figures with its arms stretched forward and deep black gaps for eyes.
23:08Adding to the creepiness are real human teeth in the mouths of some statues.
23:12The garden itself appeared because the sculptor was a recluse and didn't want to leave his home.
23:18And when asked to lend some of his sculptures to museums, he would say he needed to ask them if
23:23they wanted to.
23:24It seems they never did, though.
23:27Creepy statues are eerie enough, but how about creepy dolls?
23:31If you ever find yourself in Japan and want to give yourself some chills down the spine, make sure to
23:36visit Nagoro.
23:37It's a tiny village in the south of the country.
23:40Driving by its houses and yards, you will see villagers sitting on their porches or tending to their gardens.
23:46Nothing special.
23:46Until you realize they're not moving, and never will, because they're life-sized dolls.
23:53One of the local residents turned her hometown in 2002 and made a hobby of creating stuffed scarecrows in gardens
24:00and fields.
24:01But then it turned from a practical thing into a sort of memorial job.
24:06Whenever any of her neighbors left the village or passed away, she would make a life-sized doll in their
24:12image.
24:12She made them as she remembered them best, so all her dolls are doing something normal people would.
24:18They're sitting, standing, lying on the ground, and there are even full classrooms of dolls in the local school.
24:24But probably the eeriest thing about this installation is that the human population of Nagoro is less than 30 people,
24:31and the scarecrows outnumber the living dwellers more than 10 to 1.
24:35There are over 350 dolls in the village now.
24:39As their maker remembers, there were around 300 people living in Nagoro when she was a child,
24:44and now, for 20 years, she has been commemorating all of them.
24:48About 3,000 visitors come to Nagoro every year, and many of them return in the following years as well.
24:55The village is pretty hard to reach, because it's located on one of the less-traveled islands of Japan,
25:00and the nearest train station is an hour away.
25:03But that doesn't stop the tourists who want to see the wonderfully creepy scarecrows with their own.