«"To seal hermetically," after the alchemist Hermes Trismegistus, means to seal something in such a way, usually by magic, that it can never be opened. The next ten riddles—a list of boxes, tombs, and scrolls, as well as one letter—aren't necessarily magically sealed, but in any case, none of them have ever been opened.
10. Letter from Queen Elizabeth II
In November 1986, Queen Elizabeth II wrote an open letter to the people of Sydney, Australia. But the letter arrived sealed, with the stipulation that it not be opened for another hundred years. Thus, until 2085, on a date chosen by the Lord Mayor of Sydney, the letter's contents will remain a mystery—it will be kept in a vault in a restricted area of Sydney's Queen Victoria Building. She didn't even tell her own staff what it said.
Could these be new revelations of royal pedophilia, characteristic of Sydney? Could this be a decree from beyond the grave, separating Australia from the Commonwealth? Or perhaps he is ceding the throne to his legitimate heirs, the descendants of Australian farmer Mike Hastings?
Boring, it's assumed it has something to do with protecting the building she currently occupies, named after her great-great-grandmother, from demolition. It already suffered that fate in 1959, when developers had plans for a parking lot. Then, in 1984, a Malaysian company signed a 99-year lease on the building. .
9. Boxes of Boguslav Irus
In 1901, Croatian botanist, pharmacologist, philanthropist, and explorer Bohuslav Jiruš left the bulk of his worldly possessions to the National Museum. But the secretive professor (of whom no photographs are known) had a sense of humor; he left his possessions in two wooden boxes and instructed them not to be opened for 200 years. In 2022, with 79 years remaining, museum staff realized they could use computed tomography (CT) scanning to view the contents without actually opening them and, therefore, technically not ignoring their benefactor's wishes.
Hoping to satisfy their curiosity while they were still alive, they put the dilemma to a vote—asking 3,000 members of the public what they thought. To their disappointment, 53 percent voted against CT scanning. So, the speculation resumed.
Given the weight of the boxes, it's speculated that they may contain copper objects—perhaps some kind of device? Others believe the boxes may contain botanical or pharmacological discoveries—medicinal plants or dangerous bacteria. At the very least, it's assumed that a photograph of the man will be there somewhere, and we'll finally learn what he looked like.
8. Tomb of Alexander the Great
So this one was opened—and plundered—again and again by such luminaries as Cleopatra (to finance her war against Augustus), Caligula (to steal his breastplate), and Caracalla (to steal his tunic, ring, and belt). But nature, not man, has since sealed it, and it has not been opened since ancient times.
It is believed that the tsunami of 365 BC that flooded Alexandria cut off access to the tomb. In fact, it is believed that, along with much of the ancient city on which the modern city is built, it sank to the seabed. But there are other theories. Perhaps, as Ambroise Schilizzi suggested in 1850, it is in the Nabi Daniel Mosque in Alexandria, but permission to excavate it was never granted. It may not even be in Alexandria. One theory suggests that a tomb in Vergina, Greece, commonly believed to be that of Philip II of Macedon, actually belongs to Alexander the Great. Another suggests it is in Venice, in the tomb of St. Mark beneath his basilica. Yet another theory places it in the Siwa Oasis in western Egypt.
Nevertheless, back in Alexandria, Greek archaeologist Kalliope Limneos-Papakosta continued her search for decades, most recently pumping out water to facilitate her excavations. To date, she and her team have discovered the city's first roads and what they believe was the ancient royal quarter. This, she said in 2023, is the site where the conqueror is believed to be buried.
7. The En-Gedi Scroll
Discovered over 50 years ago in the damaged Holy Ark at the Dead Sea, the two-thousand-year-old En-Gedi Scroll had been burned and reduced to an indestructible piece of charcoal. Opening it was out of the question; even handling the scroll risked turning it to dust. Archaeologists had no choice but to set the ancient document aside and forget about reading its contents.
Until recently. In 2015, computer scientist Brent Seales used his revolutionary image processing software to "virtually unroll" the scroll. First, he scanned it with X-rays using a micro-CT scanner. Then, he mapped it onto a 3D computer model of the scroll, which, given its irregular shape, proved more difficult than it seemed. Finally, he digitally converted the shape into a flat page.
Although the scroll was fragmentary due to damage amounting to only 35 lines of readable text, it contained chapters of Leviticus (one of the first five books of the Torah). Written in Hebrew, it allows researchers to better understand the text's early history. In fact, it is the earliest copy of any book of the Pentateuch ever found in the Holy Ark.
6. Mysterious Safe
When New York farmer Kirk Mates returned to his fields from a trip out of town, he was puzzled to discover a 600-pound metal safe. There was no indication who had left it or what was inside. But there was a note: "If you can open this, you can get what's inside.".
When the press caught wind of the story, Mathes' farm in Barre, Orleans County, became a media circus. Apparently trying to downplay the safe's significance, he told reporters it had likely been left by local "crazy kids... real pranksters." But crowds still flocked to his farm, some smashing the safe with sledgehammers, damaging the hinges, and knocking off the handle and dial.
After calling the police and hiding it, Mates said he planned to leave it unopened. Although the intensity of interest bothered him, he felt the mystery was amusing enough to keep. "If you open it," he said, "the show's over." The current plan is to house the safe in a local history museum. "It could contain millions of dollars. It could contain confetti," said Cindy Vanlihout of the Barre Beautification Committee. "You have no idea, so just dream.".
5. Tomb of Cleopatra
According to archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, who has been searching for Cleopatra's tomb for over three decades, "Cleopatra outsmarted everyone." She evaded the complacent Roman Emperor Augustus by committing suicide, and then even denied the Empire her corpse, taking it, along with that of Mark Antony, to a location that remains secret to this day. The most likely location is Taposiris Magna, a temple outside Alexandria, Egypt. But many years have passed since Martinez and her team discovered "spectacular artifacts" associated with the queen there, including coins and figurines of Isis.
However, just recently, in 2022, they discovered a spectacular tunnel—13 meters deep, two meters high, and 1,305 meters long—cut through sandstone cliffs. Its design, described by experts as a "geometric marvel," is reminiscent of Eupalinos's Tunnel on Samos, built in the 6th century BC. The tunnel is a promising lead, but like the previously discovered network of tunnels connecting Lake Mariout to the Mediterranean Sea, it was partially submerged by earthquakes between 320 and 1303 AD.
If discovered, Cleopatra's tomb would be the most important archaeological find of the 21st century. Martinez already knows what her first words will be if she reveals it: "The world has never forgotten you, Queen Cleopatra.".
4. Herculaneum papyri
The Herculaneum Papyri, discovered in another Pompeii, Herculaneum, in the late 1700s, comprise a total of approximately 1,100 papyri. Found in a luxurious villa belonging to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, they represent a tantalizing "invisible library" filled with unprecedented glimpses of the classical world. In fact, the Herculaneum Papyri represent the only classical Greco-Roman library surviving to this day. The only problem is that the eruption of Mount Vesuvius turned them into black, unbroken lumps of charcoal. .
For centuries, researchers have tried to access their contents, often destroying the scrolls in the process. (Many were destroyed, either thrown into the sea or burned as charcoal, before their discoverers even realized what they were.) Their first archivist, Camillo Paderni, cut some in half, copied the visible text, and then scraped off each layer one by one. A couple of years later, Vatican restorer Antonio Piaggio glued ultra-thin and ultra-strong calf intestine to the scroll's surface, then used weights and ropes to carefully separate each layer so artists could copy the contents. But the method was far from perfect; many layers stuck together and tore. Since then, the scrolls have been hidden in secret vaults to protect their contents until we can somehow properly open them.
Now, judging by the "virtual unrolling" of the En-Gedi scroll, it appears that time has come. The same computer scientist has collected up to 12,000 cross-sections of papyri he was allowed to examine and is now relying on artificial intelligence to sort the jumble of letters by density. Unlike the En-Gedi scroll, the authors of the Herculaneum papyri did not use metal in their ink. If successful, the scrolls will usher in a new "renaissance of classical antiquity," potentially altering the canon. But archivists are understandably cautious. Even simple handling of the papyri can reduce them to dust. So far, Seales has only captured two images, and he still needs to wait for the AI to improve.
3. Joanna Southcott's Box
Self-proclaimed Apocalypse Woman Joanna Southcott sold "Seals of the Lord" to simpletons, guaranteeing each buyer one of 144,000 places in Heaven. She even seemed to believe it herself, convinced by visions that she had a sacred mission. Specifically, despite being a 64-year-old virgin, she claimed she was destined to give birth in London to the messiah—Shiloh, prophesied in the Book of Genesis. In fact, she looked pregnant enough not only to convince herself but also to attract followers (the Community of the Holy Spirit, later renamed the Panacea Society), who built an ornate gold cradle for the infant. Ultimately, however, Southcott's abdominal distension proved to be the cause of her death, and her followers reluctantly buried her body.
But she left many more prophecies in a large wooden box, bound as "guided by the Spirit" in the Seven Seals. So at least they had something to look forward to. The problem was, Southcott said it could only be opened during a national crisis and only in the presence of all 24 bishops of the Church of England. The first part was easy. Even in the 1920s, a century after her death, Southcott's admirers knew they were living in the end times and that her box would "lead the English nation" to safety. The bishops, however, weren't so convinced—not even a Panacea Society advertising campaign on the sides of London buses urgently warned the public that "England's troubles will increase until the bishops open Joanna Southcott's box.".
Despite a house being prepared for this purpose, the bishops never arrived. Although a psychic investigator claimed to have opened the box containing the Bishop of Grantham and found books, papers, dice, a lottery ticket, a nightcap, earrings, a purse, and a pistol, it was too small to have belonged to Southcott. Today, the real box is hidden somewhere in the English town of Bedford, which the Panacea Society considered the Garden of Eden.
2. Repository B in Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Dedicated to Vishnu and run by the royal family, the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, India, is one of the most secure sacred sites in the world thanks to its underground vaults. The building is now monitored by CCTV cameras, metal detectors, and hundreds of machine-gun-armed guards. Until June 2011, no one even knew what treasures it held; access to the "mega-secure" underground vaults required a Supreme Court warrant.
Among the items recovered were a solid gold idol of Mahavishnu, four feet tall and three feet wide, studded with diamonds and precious stones; a solid gold throne for the 18-foot idol of the god; thousands of gold chains (one 18 feet long); solid gold coconut shells studded with emeralds and rubies; gold elephants; and sacks full of gold coins from the Roman and medieval eras. The haul was valued at approximately $22 billion.
However, one of the six vaults—Vault B—was exempt from the court order because it is not part of the temple's treasury. To this day, it remains unopened. But not for lack of trying. Apparently, one attempt by temple authorities to break the lock was stopped when they heard the sound of crashing waves on the other side of the door, leading to the belief that it opens onto the Arabian Sea. The vault is also believed to be guarded by venomous snakes, vampires, and magic. Rumors also circulate of another, even more secret room with solid gold walls and the largest cache of undiscovered treasures in the world.
1. The tomb of the first Chinese emperor
At the end of the Warring States period, Qin Shi Huang unified China under a centralized imperial rule. Politically, this forever transformed the Celestial Empire. Personally, however, it reinforced the new emperor's lifelong obsession with immortality, granting him access to unprecedented resources and manpower. Even as a child, long before he became the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang had been planning this. Now he could issue decrees for all citizens of the country to join his hunt for the elixir of life.
He could also have begun work on his underground necropolis, where (as a backup) he planned for his body to lie in peace until resurrected. In Shaanxi Province, archaeologists have discovered the famous Terracotta Army—life-size replicas of ancient warriors. But this discovery, significant as it is, represents only a tiny portion of a still-unexplored burial complex covering 6.3 square kilometers.
The underground city, built by 700,000 people over 38 years, is said to conceal: picturesque palaces and towers; priceless artifacts; many, many more terracotta warriors than have been discovered so far (and in their original purple color, undamaged by daylight); and a complete mechanical replica of China's river network, filled with mercury. It is this last detail that keeps archaeologists in awe. According to the ancient historian Sima Qian, the tomb is also guarded by automatic crossbows, the exact details of which were deliberately lost to history when their creators were locked inside.