The Shroud of Turin is Number 11 in CNN’s List of Top 11 Mysteries

Every now and then a top list, usually a top ten list, appears in the media or on some blog. Every one is different and this one, a top eleven list from CNN, is no exception. CNN begins its article, History’s big mysteries: Questionable deaths, missing people, monsters:

(CNN) — The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 could take its place at the top of the biggest unsolved mysteries of history.

"This is a very strange event," aviation historian Carroll Gray said. "It doesn’t lend itself to the normal sets of explanations."

Such mysteries are "phenomenally gripping," Gray said. "Things that are unsolved just sort of grab people, especially when you have the common experience of flying."

Answers about what happen to the Boeing 777 and the people on board must come soon, he said. "When you get on the plane the next time, are you going to wonder a little bit about whether you are going to disappear?"

A look at history’s biggest mysteries

But history holds tight to some secrets, leaving us with just speculation, conspiracy theories and educated guesses. A mystery can have a long life, never forgotten and often re-examined.

This is CNN’s list:

1. Who shot JFK and RFK?
2. The mystery of Marilyn Monroe
3. Was Natalie Wood’s death an accident or murder?
4. What happened to Amelia Earhart?
5. Where is Jimmy Hoffa?
6. Who was Jack the Ripper?
7. The ghost ship Mary Celeste
8. What’s the deal with the Bermuda Triangle?
9. Are Big Foot, Sasquatch or Yeti for real?
10. Is the Loch Ness Monster a real creature?
11. Was the Shroud of Turin the burial cloth for Jesus?

And this is the wholly inadequate description of the shroud:

The Shroud of Turin may be the most famous religious relic.

Some Christians believe the shroud, which appears to bear the imprint of a man’s body, to be Jesus Christ’s burial cloth. The body appears to have wounds that match those the Bible describes as having been suffered by Jesus on the cross.

Many scholars contest the shroud’s authenticity, saying it dates to the Middle Ages, when many purported biblical relics — such as splinters from Jesus’ cross — surfaced across Europe. Even the Roman Catholic Church does not insist the shroud was used to wrap the body of Jesus. Its official position is that the shroud is an important tool for faith regardless of its authenticity.

Just before stepping aside as Pope a year ago, Benedict XVI authorized the broadcast of video of the shroud from Turin Cathedral, where the mysterious Christian relic is kept out of sight in a bulletproof, climate-controlled glass case.