🔗 Share this article Venturing into the Globe's Spookiest Forest: Contorted Trees, Flying Saucers and Eerie Tales in Transylvania. "Locals dub this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a tour guide, his exhalation creating wisps of mist in the chilly night air. "Countless individuals have gone missing here, many believe it's a portal to a parallel world." The guide is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth local woods on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca. Hundreds of Years of Enigma Stories of strange happenings here extend back a long time – the grove is called after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu came to global recognition in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a unidentified flying object floating above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest. Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But no need to fear," he adds, addressing his guest with a smirk. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate." In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest. Modern Threats Although it is among the planet's leading destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of the region – are expanding, and construction companies are pushing for authorization to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes. Aside from a limited section home to regionally uncommon oak varieties, this woodland is not officially protected, but the guide is confident that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's value as a travel hotspot. Eerie Encounters When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius tells numerous traditional stories and claimed supernatural events here. A popular tale recounts a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family outing, then to return after five years with no recollection of her experience, having not aged a day, her attire lacking the slightest speck of soil. More common reports explain mobile phones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods. Feelings range from absolute fear to feelings of joy. Some people report observing strange rashes on their arms, perceiving disembodied whispers through the forest, or experience fingers clutching them, despite being convinced they're by themselves. Scientific Investigations Despite several of the accounts may be hard to prove, there are many things visibly present that is undeniably strange. All around are vegetation whose bases are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes. Multiple explanations have been given to account for the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or typically increased radiation levels in the ground cause their unusual development. But scientific investigations have found inconclusive results. The Famous Clearing The expert's excursions permit guests to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the meadow in the forest where Barnea took his renowned UFO pictures, he passes the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields. "We're stepping into the most active section of the forest," he states. "See what you can find." The trees suddenly stop dead as they step into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the creation of human hands. Between Reality and Imagination Transylvania generally is a place which stirs the imagination, where the division is unclear between truth and myth. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, shapeshifting vampires, who rise from their graves to haunt nearby villages. Bram Stoker's well-known fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure located on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle". But including folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – feels solid and predictable compared to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for factors radioactive, environmental or simply folkloric, a hub for human imaginative power. "Inside these woods," the guide says, "the division between fact and fiction is very thin."