Delving into this Planet's Most Ghostly Forest: Gnarled Trees, UFOs and Chilling Accounts in Romania's Legendary Region.

"People refer to this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, the air from his lungs forming wisps of condensation in the chilly night air. "Numerous visitors have gone missing here, many believe it's a portal to a parallel world." Marius is guiding a guest on a evening stroll through what is often described as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of strange happenings here go back centuries – the grove is called after a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a UFO hovering above a round opening in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But rest assured," he continues, addressing the visitor with a smile. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from worldwide, interested in encountering the mysterious powers reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be one of the world's premier destinations for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and developers are campaigning for permission to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Except for a small area housing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, persuading the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their boots, the guide tells various local legends and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story describes a little girl disappearing during a family picnic, later to return five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, without aging a moment, her clothes shy of the tiniest bit of dust.
• More common reports detail cellphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses include complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals state seeing unusual marks on their bodies, perceiving unseen murmurs through the forest, or sense fingers clutching them, even when sure they are alone.

Study Attempts

While many of the stories may be unverifiable, there are many things visibly present that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are plants whose bases are bent and twisted into unusual forms.

Different theories have been proposed to clarify the deformed trees: strong gales could have altered the growth, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But research studies have turned up insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's excursions permit visitors to engage in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the clearing in the woods where Barnea captured his well-known UFO images, he hands the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most energetic part of the forest," he comments. "Try to detect something."

The trees suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and looks that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the work of people.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a place which fuels fantasy, where the border is unclear between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise regional populations.

The novelist's well-known fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – an ancient structure situated on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – seems solid and predictable in contrast to this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for factors radioactive, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a hub for creative energy.

"Within this forest," the guide says, "the division between reality and imagination is extremely fine."