2. BHANGARH FORT INDIA
Enfolded by the rises of the Aravali Hills and baked by the
Rajasthani sun, the old bulwarks of the Bhangarh Fort are said to
echo with the ethereal presence of one cursed princess and her
would-be captor, the wizard Sinhai.
It’s said that Sinhai tried to ensnare the young royal by offering
her a love potion.
The plan backfired, the wizard ended up dead, but not before he
could lay his hex on all the inhabitants of Bhangarh.
Today, the Mughlai complex once trodden by Madho Singh I is
considered one of the most haunted spots in India.
No one is allowed to enter after dark, and locals have even
reported deaths as a result of the continued curse!
3. CROOKED FOREST POLAND
Just south of the unpronounceable city of Szczecin on Poland’s extreme
eastern haunch, a stone’s throw west of the border with Germany, a small
clutch of just over 400 pine trees has been garnering the attention of Atlas
Obscura types and off-the-beaten-track travelers for years.
The entire forest appears to be bent over almost 90 degrees at the trunk,
before twisting back straight again and growing vertically into the Slavic sky.
Debate has raged as to what caused the unusual wood to come to look like
it has, with theories as wide ranging as torrential snowstorms and
lumberjack growing techniques.
4. HIGHGATE CEMETERY ENGLAND
If you choose to navigate the crawling vines and ivy shoots, the looming oak
trees and the lichen-spotted tombstones of London’s Highgate Cemetery, then
beware: this is considered by many to be the single most haunted place in the
United Kingdom (Tower of London omitted, of course). The setting is certainly
enough to curdle the blood, with age-old angelic figures hiding amidst the
shadow growth, gargoyles laughing from the crevices, and endless rows of
tombs running into the distance.
5. STONEHENGE ENGLAND
Set deep in the middle of the verdant lowlands of south-central England,
where Salisbury Plain emerges in peaks and troughs of heath from the oak
forests, Stonehenge has long oozed mystery and magic.
Created an estimated 5,000 years ago, this circular conglomeration of huge
megalith stones is thought to have been made with unique bluestone material
that could only have been quarried from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire,
some 200 miles away in Wales.
Mystery surrounds both how the Neolithic people managed to transport such
huge rocks all that way, and as to the purpose of the building.
Today, it’s wrapped up in Arthurian legends and attracts Pagans for the
summer solstice.
