What do you think?
Rate this book
Mysteries of the Unknown
Mystic Places
Large Hardcover.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
25 people are currently reading
656 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
November 29, 2022
MYSTIC PLACES for me was one of those books that touch on just enough of the subject to wet your appetite. Most of the information was of the introductory nature, though in my case, I heard much of it before. It was still fascinating because I learned a bit more about each location covered.
Background information was given for each, in case you want to go digging.
As you probably know, Atlantis was an advanced city state utopia thought to exist long ago that was destroyed in some cataclysmic event. The exact location was unknown and most of what we know about it came from the writings of Plato. People have searched for it over the years, sometimes spurred on by psychics. In the 1920's Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, his son Jack, and his son's friend Raleigh Rimell disappeared when they went searching for a mysterious City X which was rumored to be a remnant of Atlantis in southwest Brazil.
Ghost ships such as the Flying Dutchman have been seen over the years. On board the HMS Inconstant, Prince George and his brother Prince Albert Victor, along with others of the crew claimed to have seen it on July 11, 1881.
On December 5, 1945 five US Avenger torpedo bombers of Flight 19 disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle as did a Mariner flying boat sent out to search for them.
There are plenty of bizarre stories about the Great Pyramid, especially concerning visitors spending the night inside it. You won't catch me doing that!
The Great Pyramid, Stonehenge and the leylines have a lot in common. Leys are lines of prehistoric barrows, dolmens, stone circles, pagan altars, and medieval churches (which were often built over pagan altars) that lay in a straight line. Some say there is psychic energy to be found there, as well as UFO sightings. (Lay lines are mentioned in the book "Raven Boys.")
One thing I found interesting and made me think of the movie "The Poltergeist" was that the book claimed that American Indian burial grounds were often sited over uranium deposits.
This book was well illustrated and there were interesting facts presented about each of the sites.
Background information was given for each, in case you want to go digging.
As you probably know, Atlantis was an advanced city state utopia thought to exist long ago that was destroyed in some cataclysmic event. The exact location was unknown and most of what we know about it came from the writings of Plato. People have searched for it over the years, sometimes spurred on by psychics. In the 1920's Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, his son Jack, and his son's friend Raleigh Rimell disappeared when they went searching for a mysterious City X which was rumored to be a remnant of Atlantis in southwest Brazil.
Ghost ships such as the Flying Dutchman have been seen over the years. On board the HMS Inconstant, Prince George and his brother Prince Albert Victor, along with others of the crew claimed to have seen it on July 11, 1881.
On December 5, 1945 five US Avenger torpedo bombers of Flight 19 disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle as did a Mariner flying boat sent out to search for them.
There are plenty of bizarre stories about the Great Pyramid, especially concerning visitors spending the night inside it. You won't catch me doing that!
The Great Pyramid, Stonehenge and the leylines have a lot in common. Leys are lines of prehistoric barrows, dolmens, stone circles, pagan altars, and medieval churches (which were often built over pagan altars) that lay in a straight line. Some say there is psychic energy to be found there, as well as UFO sightings. (Lay lines are mentioned in the book "Raven Boys.")
One thing I found interesting and made me think of the movie "The Poltergeist" was that the book claimed that American Indian burial grounds were often sited over uranium deposits.
This book was well illustrated and there were interesting facts presented about each of the sites.
July 5, 2021
This was a neat Time Life read exploring mystical places. The book was filled with great artwork and photos related to the topic. Various places included the mysteries and speculations about Atlantis, unexplained phenomena like the legend of the Flying Dutchman, the Bermuda Triangle and time warps, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, megaliths including Stonehenge and other stoneworks found throughout the United Kingdom, and 'Pictures on the Earth' like earthworks found at Nazca plateau in Peru, the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio, and other pictures/geoglyphs throughout the world.
Overall this was a neat book and presented the information clearly and unbiased. Each chapter is just enough and was merely an introductory level. If interested in the lost world of Atlantis, I would highly recommend reading Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Ignatius L. Donnelly. This book was referenced throughout the first chapter of this book. Thanks!
Overall this was a neat book and presented the information clearly and unbiased. Each chapter is just enough and was merely an introductory level. If interested in the lost world of Atlantis, I would highly recommend reading Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Ignatius L. Donnelly. This book was referenced throughout the first chapter of this book. Thanks!
review-of-the-year
December 16, 2022Reminded by seeing a review of a friend that I read this when I was younger. My GR is an account of all the books I have ever read. I like to remember them all. And these are sitting in immaculate condition at D’s Mum’s. Maybe I can see some of them later in the series that I didn’t get to read.
The evolution of theories… for instance in this one is the Bermuda Triangle mystery. Theories for that are now different or considered “explained”. Rogue waves and currents….
It’s fascinating to see how something is explained then as opposed to now.
The evolution of theories… for instance in this one is the Bermuda Triangle mystery. Theories for that are now different or considered “explained”. Rogue waves and currents….
It’s fascinating to see how something is explained then as opposed to now.
November 6, 2010
This is a good book for those interested in the mystical. It does take a more historical view of the places and beliefs (it is Time-Life after all). It does a rather good job of presenting a survey of the various places on Earth which people have imbued with mystical qualities from Atlantis to the Nazca Lines. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they did include the medicine wheels in North America. There was also an interesting chapter on ley lines which supplemented one's understanding of tne energy that these places have. The book does present the historical evidence well sticking to the facts but one can't help but feel like there is an element of skepticism to the presentation. Overall, it does more to inform about the places and the mysticism surrounding them complemented by some beautiful photography and informative diagrams. As with all good overviews, it did make me want to read about each one, and the mysticism surrounding them, more.
July 18, 2016
Atlantis, Stonehenge, The Great Pyramid and other mystic places are examined in this book.
Stunning photographs scattered throughout the book made this a real pleasure to read, as it saved me the chore of having to google places I've never heard of to see what the author was talking about.
Stunning photographs scattered throughout the book made this a real pleasure to read, as it saved me the chore of having to google places I've never heard of to see what the author was talking about.
September 13, 2021
Generation Xers (and other people of a certain age) remember when Time-Life Books was, just, constantly advertising their Mysteries of the Unknown series, quite often on late-night or syndicated TV. Since I am one of those children of a certain age™, as I've become more stable financially I've been looking for the books in the series, and at one point I found the entire set on eBay; Mystic Places is the first volume of more than 30 in the series, and I'm pleased to note that it's every bit as sensationalistic and gleefully absurd as the late-night commercials made the books seem.
While the editorial staff at Time-Life maintains a mostly fact-based approach to the subject matter (specifically, the supposed "enigmas" of the Pyramids, the Nazca Lines, Stonehenge (and other Neolithic sites and barrows), Atlantis, and the "Hollow Earth")—insofar as the editorial staff for at least the majority of the text relies on actual photographs (Marilyn Bridges' aerial photography of the Nazca lines and similar sites is a real standout), actual documented fact, and the like—they also giddily, and with a tone akin to relaying juicy gossip, compile seemingly all the pseudoscientific theories about all of these sites, almost without exception and no matter how ludicrous, whether ancient aliens, conduits for amazing psychic powers, or similar (albeit most entertaining) bullshit. Time-Life leaves virtually no stone along these lines unturned, and Mystic Places' bibliography shows every sign of that very phenomenon, and its cited consultants being as renowned "experts" in these fields as there ever were, most notably (for me at least) one of the co-authors of one of the most ridiculous examples of pseudoscience ever published (even if it did produce one of Stevie Wonder's more interesting albums). If Mystic Places were predominantly a litany of pseudoscience and the like, it would be tiresome; as it stands, however, the tone is sufficiently rational, and there's more enough identifiable—and interesting—truth (more or less; at least truth as it stood based on the evidence available in the late 1980s and early 1990s) in Mystic Places that, at the very least, it's entertaining, much along the lines of Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran's equally-extensive Weird U.S. series.
Where Mystic Places really seems to fall down, however, is in the mad racism that far too many people in the 1980s seemed to blithely display. (My god, the 1980s were just, so, so racist, as this book shows all too frequently.) Most egregiously, all the editors' discussion of "ancient aliens" and (usually European) ancient advanced civilizations that allegedly introduced unexpectedly superior technology seemingly everywhere almost willfully assumes that ancient people of color couldn't possibly have the advanced technology that their extant structures would suggest, and mostly elides the fact that many, if not most, of the artifacts described in Mystic Places aren't mysterious because three-dimensional chess is in play, but rather merely because so many of the artifacts' creators didn't think to record the how of their endeavors, usually in turn either because it wasn't important to them or because they simply assumed it was sufficiently common knowledge that there was no need to report it. (Perhaps the most salient case in point along these lines is ancient Pharaonic references to the land of Punt: It has become abundantly clear that contemporary [i.e. ancient] Egyptian references to Punt almost universally didn't describe where it was located, under an assumption along the lines of "What idiot wouldn't know this bit of common knowledge?", akin to contemporary [i.e. modern] references to the United States; in 2021, however, as much as four millennia removed from the earliest references to Punt, we don't actually know where Punt was located—and by the same token, we don't at all know whether readers in the 61st century will know what the United States were.) Likewise, given that the overwhelming majority of human history remains unrecorded (after all, Homo sapiens existed for millennia before the introduction of writing), just because the writers and "experts" of Mystic Places don't know the origins of the Pyramids, or Nazca lines, or what-have-you, it doesn't mean that their origins must be supernatural or occult or extraterrestrial in nature—and such assumptions are chauvinistic at best and outright racist at worst.
Don't get me wrong: Mystic Places in particular and Mysteries of the Unknown in general are indeed entertaining, and Time-Life Books all but states outright that the information in these books is indeed primarily intended for the purpose of entertainment. Time-Life's main claim to fame is arguably their photographic images, so compellingly presented in Life magazine for so many years; as such, perhaps the most compelling parts of Mystic Places are the pictures in it, particularly the archival art and photographic pieces presented therein. If a reader can get past the distressing chauvinism of the pseudoscience presented in the text, they really can glean something interesting from the work as a whole.
While the editorial staff at Time-Life maintains a mostly fact-based approach to the subject matter (specifically, the supposed "enigmas" of the Pyramids, the Nazca Lines, Stonehenge (and other Neolithic sites and barrows), Atlantis, and the "Hollow Earth")—insofar as the editorial staff for at least the majority of the text relies on actual photographs (Marilyn Bridges' aerial photography of the Nazca lines and similar sites is a real standout), actual documented fact, and the like—they also giddily, and with a tone akin to relaying juicy gossip, compile seemingly all the pseudoscientific theories about all of these sites, almost without exception and no matter how ludicrous, whether ancient aliens, conduits for amazing psychic powers, or similar (albeit most entertaining) bullshit. Time-Life leaves virtually no stone along these lines unturned, and Mystic Places' bibliography shows every sign of that very phenomenon, and its cited consultants being as renowned "experts" in these fields as there ever were, most notably (for me at least) one of the co-authors of one of the most ridiculous examples of pseudoscience ever published (even if it did produce one of Stevie Wonder's more interesting albums). If Mystic Places were predominantly a litany of pseudoscience and the like, it would be tiresome; as it stands, however, the tone is sufficiently rational, and there's more enough identifiable—and interesting—truth (more or less; at least truth as it stood based on the evidence available in the late 1980s and early 1990s) in Mystic Places that, at the very least, it's entertaining, much along the lines of Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran's equally-extensive Weird U.S. series.
Where Mystic Places really seems to fall down, however, is in the mad racism that far too many people in the 1980s seemed to blithely display. (My god, the 1980s were just, so, so racist, as this book shows all too frequently.) Most egregiously, all the editors' discussion of "ancient aliens" and (usually European) ancient advanced civilizations that allegedly introduced unexpectedly superior technology seemingly everywhere almost willfully assumes that ancient people of color couldn't possibly have the advanced technology that their extant structures would suggest, and mostly elides the fact that many, if not most, of the artifacts described in Mystic Places aren't mysterious because three-dimensional chess is in play, but rather merely because so many of the artifacts' creators didn't think to record the how of their endeavors, usually in turn either because it wasn't important to them or because they simply assumed it was sufficiently common knowledge that there was no need to report it. (Perhaps the most salient case in point along these lines is ancient Pharaonic references to the land of Punt: It has become abundantly clear that contemporary [i.e. ancient] Egyptian references to Punt almost universally didn't describe where it was located, under an assumption along the lines of "What idiot wouldn't know this bit of common knowledge?", akin to contemporary [i.e. modern] references to the United States; in 2021, however, as much as four millennia removed from the earliest references to Punt, we don't actually know where Punt was located—and by the same token, we don't at all know whether readers in the 61st century will know what the United States were.) Likewise, given that the overwhelming majority of human history remains unrecorded (after all, Homo sapiens existed for millennia before the introduction of writing), just because the writers and "experts" of Mystic Places don't know the origins of the Pyramids, or Nazca lines, or what-have-you, it doesn't mean that their origins must be supernatural or occult or extraterrestrial in nature—and such assumptions are chauvinistic at best and outright racist at worst.
Don't get me wrong: Mystic Places in particular and Mysteries of the Unknown in general are indeed entertaining, and Time-Life Books all but states outright that the information in these books is indeed primarily intended for the purpose of entertainment. Time-Life's main claim to fame is arguably their photographic images, so compellingly presented in Life magazine for so many years; as such, perhaps the most compelling parts of Mystic Places are the pictures in it, particularly the archival art and photographic pieces presented therein. If a reader can get past the distressing chauvinism of the pseudoscience presented in the text, they really can glean something interesting from the work as a whole.
August 28, 2013
My high school had some of the books in this acclaimed Time Life series and I loved reading them. This inaugural volume discussed Stonehenge, Atlantis, the pyramids, the Nazca lines, and the hollow Earth theory.
Granted, none of the more wild theories can be proven by science. But this can really provide for entertaining reading AND and make you really think whether or not we know everything about our world.
Granted, none of the more wild theories can be proven by science. But this can really provide for entertaining reading AND and make you really think whether or not we know everything about our world.
April 16, 2016
If you're interested in the stories of what Stonehenge is about, if there is life in the center of the earth, the missing city of Atlantis, and things of that nature, you'll love this book. There is no conclusive evidence of all these mystical places, but the theories are awesome to read and the pictures are very cool to look at. I enjoyed it. Some things are just not meant to know about factually speaking, and so the debates will continue.
August 23, 2017
Who knows what is really out there? Time-Life, as always, takes readers into a great informative look at mysterious places and the unknown. Always the great pictures you would expect and a bit of history of all.
June 12, 2018
I've had this book for a while and all I ever did was look at the pictures. Well, now I've finally read it. It's great. Read it. The final chapter "An Interior World" is a trip. The rest of the series is available on amazon.
June 15, 2016
“Proving that such places or things do not exist is not enough. It is hardly relevant. The mysteries will remain as long as there are those to ponder them.”
June 6, 2020
So far, my favorite of the MOTU series. I think I liked this one because there is some grounding in reality. The pyramids exist, Stonehenge exists, the Nazca glyphs exist. There's quite a bit of real history here before it veers off into la la land. To be completely honest, a lot of the wacko theories about these ancient monuments are pretty fun to read about and enough of the real facts are there to let you make up your own mind. Sadly, Shirley Temple does not play a role in solving any of the ancient mysteries.
November 29, 2024
I grew up watching the weird, cool commercials for this series of Time Life Books, so I couldn't resist when I found a used copy in an occult store. While I bought it mostly to cut apart for collage pictures, I did read it first, and I was surprised to find that this was fairly well-researched and touched upon many historical figures whose scholarship influenced a lot of the crackpot occult stuff I'm repulsed/ fascinated by. The pictures were just so-so--I'm keeping it more for the fascinating story of the woman who documented the Nasca lines more than anything else.
August 20, 2025
I'm beyond OBSESSED with this series, god knows what I'd pay to get my hands on the series in its Arabic or English. this series of books was the literal definition of the forest my burning curiosity devoured back in middle school.
August 24, 2019
Great for the excitement of the unknown.
November 23, 2021
Interesting
February 24, 2025
Definitely dated being published in the late 1980s, but fun to read.
October 21, 2020
This is a 1980s Time-Life book that, true to Time-Life, takes an in-depth look at the history, legends, study, and hooey surrounding mysterious locales. Chapters cover Atlantis (and similar lost continent legends), Stonehenge (and other megalith sites), the Great Pyramid, the Nazca Lines and other earth pictures, and "hollow earth". There is also a picture essay "chapter" on the Bermuda Triangle and I was honestly pretty annoyed it didn't get more coverage than the others. Overall, this was a fascinating read, although the Stonehenge chapter got a little dry, and the hollow earth chapter wasn't that interesting to me. Great illustrations too.
3.5 stars rounded up.
3.5 stars rounded up.
October 25, 2017
It was..........ok, I guess.
February 16, 2017
Pretty basic book, but fascinating content.
May 2, 2016
The "brothers" of these books - Hauntings and Phantom Encounters - can be enjoyed even if you don't believe in ghosts, souls or life after death. You can read them like you read Edgar Allan Poe, or considering that seemingly normal people all over the world have these kind of experiences, well... However you look at it it's an interesting phenomenon. But this..?
30 pages of Plato's free flying fantasies about Atlantis (while the intriguing and real case of the Mary Celeste gets a small notice and a very large picture), occult hocus pocus about the pyramids, new-age nonsense concerning megaliths, the infamous Bermuda Triangle, theories about the world being hollow! For crying out loud!
The ideas in this book range between poppycock and twaddle, and the people mentioned between gullible and insane. And if you've got any sense at all, you'll take my advice and give this rubbish a very wide berth indeed!
30 pages of Plato's free flying fantasies about Atlantis (while the intriguing and real case of the Mary Celeste gets a small notice and a very large picture), occult hocus pocus about the pyramids, new-age nonsense concerning megaliths, the infamous Bermuda Triangle, theories about the world being hollow! For crying out loud!
The ideas in this book range between poppycock and twaddle, and the people mentioned between gullible and insane. And if you've got any sense at all, you'll take my advice and give this rubbish a very wide berth indeed!
March 23, 2015
An entertaining read, Mystic Places will take you from an in-depth look at Atlantis myths, a very brief overview of the Bermuda Triangle, the secrets of the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, the megaliths (specifically that of Stonehenge), the fascinating earth pictures such as those on the Nazca plateau, and, finally, the stories surrounding the potential interior world of the Earth. This book provides a relatively well-rounded view of scientific, mythical, and sometimes outrageous (think precursor to the show Ancient Aliens) meanings behind these fascinating features of our planet and species.
August 29, 2012
I greatly enjoyed this installment of the 'Mysteries of the Unknown' series. It gives a lot of background history and information about the people who have tried to explain these places, and the theories they eventually come to. Certainly recommended for anyone who is as intrigued by these landmarks as I am.
November 4, 2016
I like this book a lot I recommend to people that love unsolved or solved or historical mysteries. This book talks about "SPOILER" Atlantis, The Bermuda Triangle, and The Stonehenge. My favorite part about the story when the book was stating very interesting theories about how Atlantis fell I would state some of the facts but then i will be spoiling the book super bad.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2010
I got this book for a song as a gift for Mike Miley whom I was about to visit in California. Like most Time-Life books, particularly the ones in this series, the text is sophomoric, but the pictures are often beautiful.
September 21, 2015
Pretty good. Exposed some con artists but also showed that there are things we can't explain. History of some places and people are lost, but that should not stop us from trying to unravel their history.
January 21, 2016
No matter the subject Time Life series books always does a very good job of presenting the facts and the history without a biased opinion. These books are always an interesting and informative read. Recommended
July 11, 2008
Wonderful stuff. Somehow I have acquired 3 copies of this book, so if two people i see in real life would like a copy, let me know :)
August 4, 2012
Lots of exciting new subjects to research. This book is an absolute gem. Definitely a keeper. =)
November 18, 2013
So many things!
I love things!
OooOooOooOooOooooo
I love this book.
I love things!
OooOooOooOooOooooo
I love this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews