The Somerton Man (Taman Shud)

On December 1, 1948, an unidentified man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia. He carried no identification. All clothing labels had been removed. A scrap of paper in a hidden pocket read "Taman Shud" ("ended" in Persian), torn from a rare edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The book was found in a car nearby, containing an uncracked code written in pencil. The man was never identified despite international inquiries. In 2022, DNA analysis and genealogy identified him as Carl "Charles" Webb, a Melbourne electrical engineer — but why he was on the beach, how he died, and what the code means remain unknown.