A country where it is illegal to be overweight. A nation that skipped an entire day in 2011. A jellyfish that does not age. Oxford University older than the Aztec Empire. The world is full of facts so bizarre they sound invented, yet every single one is documented and real. Simon De Lafronde and Marco Bellinari find them, verify them, and make sure you never look at the world quite the same way again.
#bizarreworld #unbelievablefacts #worldoddities #strangebuttrue #factsthatshock
Stranger Than Fiction | Why We Do That | The Forgotten Truth | Unfiltered Travel Stories
Notre Dame de Paris took 182 years to build, spanning at least seven master builders, none of whom saw it finished. When the first stone was laid in 1163, Saladin had not yet been born, the Magna Carta was 52 years away, and the Aztec Empire would not exist for another 265 years. The flying buttress was invented during construction to solve a problem nobody anticipated.
Teaching at Oxford began in 1096. The Aztec Empire was not founded until 1428, making Oxford 332 years older. Students were sitting examinations in Oxford while the Aztec empire was at its height. The two worlds simply had not met yet. Here is what else was happening in 1096 when Oxford opened its doors.
Saudi Arabia banned the sale of cats and dogs as pets and prohibited walking them in public. The reason given by the religious police: young men were using them to flirt with women. The cat ban had no basis in Islamic law. The Prophet Muhammad was famously devoted to cats. And the ban was never really enforced.
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid. The gap between the pyramid and Cleopatra is 2,500 years. The gap between Cleopatra and Neil Armstrong is 2,000 years. Pizza Hut is closer to Cleopatra than the pyramids are. Ancient history has its own ancient history.
In Tromsø, Norway, the sun does not set for two months. The assumption is that it destroys sleep and mental health. The Tromsø Study found sleep barely changes across the seasons. And the further north you live, the more positive your attitude toward the extreme light cycles. The locals have simply organised their culture around it.
On August 21 1986, a lake in Cameroon exploded without fire, lava, or sound. A cloud of carbon dioxide flowed down into the valleys and killed 1,746 people and 3,500 animals before sunrise. In the nearest village, six people survived out of 800. It can happen again.
On a hot July afternoon in Paris, the Eiffel Tower is approximately 15 centimetres taller than it was in January. It is also leaning. Both are measurable, both are documented, and neither is a metaphor. Marco Bellinari explains the physics and the history behind the most famous iron structure in the world.
There is an animal the size of a fingernail that does not die of old age. When injured or starving, it reverses its life cycle to its earliest juvenile form and starts again. Scientists have documented it completing this process over ten times in succession. Its name is Turritopsis dohrnii.
In France, you can legally marry a dead person. Between 60 and 100 people request it every year. The President of the Republic must personally sign the authorisation. And the evidentiary requirements are stricter than most living marriages ever face.
