Here's a "triangle" that is not really a triangle, but may be just as mysterious and perhaps dangerous as the one purportedly devouring ships and planes in the Bermudas. It is the name the locals give to a densely wooded area covering about 40 - 50 km2 around the lake Bohinj (pron. BAW-Hin) in the heart of the Julian Alps, in Slovenia.
Unfortunately, there is very little information about the mysterious goings-on to be found online, and practically none in languages other than Slovene. That means we can only offer you a very brief "briefing" on the place, based on what we know from reliable local sources.
Apparently quite a few people have vanished in this area. Not really surprising considering the terrain: lots and lots of unpredictable twists and turns and holes in the ground, some possibly leading to subterranean caves, not to mention the extensive woods themselves. And it is significant that most of the vanished seem to have been visitors, i.e. people foreign to the area. But not all of them. Some were reputed to be very familiar with those woods.
And while the remains of some were found, years later (and in some cases unusually far away from the place they had been last seen), there seem to be quite a few cases where no trace of the vanished was ever found.
(Among the latter is - so far - a British minister, Rev. David Fox, who disappeared in 2008. There are much older disappearances that remain unsolved, with no leads or traces.)
Größere Kartenansicht
What caught my attention most of all was the following story. (It seems to be at least two decades old, possibly much older.)
A couple - husband and wife - were walking along a path in the woods. Suddenly they encountered a rock barring their way. They walked around it - the wife from one side and the husband from the other. In doing so the husband allegedly vanished into thin air. Just like that. According to his wife, he never emerged from the other side of the rock.
Naturally the area was searched, but apparently no trace of the husband - or his remains - was ever found.
Does it sound familiar?
If you've been reading this blog, it must have rung a bell. Exactly the same is said to have happened in the famous case of Paula Welden's disapperance in the "Bennington triangle", in Vermont, USA.
The Alps, as mountains in general, can be notoriously "voracious" when it comes to unsuspecting - and reckless - humans roaming around. (Read about the Untersberg if you dare.)
But some disappearances truly are baffling.
Is there something in the composition of the rocks - their geo-magnetic forces, perhaps - that messes with people's minds and/or obstructs the search for them afterwards?
(Magnetic fields can do such things. See Is it the fault lines' fault? for more on this.)
More on the possible causes for such phenomena on some other occasion.
Meanwhile, if you know specific stories of unexplained disappearances in this area, please do let us know.
This stone-faced pretty gal gazing languidly on the hikers below - a wonderful mimetolith that nature carved into the face of a mountain (Prisojnik) - is not actually visible from Bohinj, as far as I know, but it is so picturesque, and relatively nearby, that I just had to include it here. It is the so-called Heathen Maiden (Ajdovska deklica), and there is a legend attached to it. Of course. However, the legend transcends the scope of this blog.
If you want to report a perceived dimensional anomaly, please do, but read this first.
6 comments:
I heard about that couple. They were Austrian tourists in the version of the story I've heard. I don't remember when exactly it was that I learned abut this story, but it must have been in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
The story about the couple, that parted only for a brief moment and went around the rock is not confirmed it is only a gossip that is going around Bohinj. But there is a similar confirmed story about a couple that parted, because the wife took easier path than her husband (famous painter) and that was the last time they saw each other. His body was found several years later. There are plenty of other missing persons, even people that have lived in the area for their whole life. Some of the disappearances were never explained and some are also no longer listed on Slovenian official site for missing persons - the reason could be because the terrain is quite dangerous and after five years they were pronounced dead without evidence.
Thank you so very much, Anonymous and Larose!
If you hear about any new goings-on, please do tell.
P.S. Please, forgive the delay in comment moderation. Obviously it has nothing to do with the comments themselves.
We would love to have automatic approval enabled, but it's impossible due to the insane amounts of spam we get.
I know the Bohinj area well and am not aware of any specific supernatural occurrences but many of the walks above the lake to its north and west are pockmarked with sink holes which can consume unwitting hikers, who presumably would end up washing through the extensive subterranean cave system to their doom.
As with any walk in the Alps hikers can overreach themselves and overestimate their abilities, which often leads to injury, disorientation, or worse. Some of the paths which perhaps David Fox used are treacherous, particularly on the Komarca approach above the Savica waterfall. This path, admittedly in a poor state of repair, was apparently closed after a confirmed death of a hiker using it only this year.
The suicide rate in Slovenia is high; it therefore wouldn't surprise me if many disappearances in the area are voluntary in nature, in effect choosing an area of outstanding natural beauty as the place to 'end it all'. I am not though suggesting or ruling out this happening to Reverend Fox, with the combination of at times difficult terrain and an overestimation of his abilities being the most likely cause for his disappearance. It should also be no surprise that bodies of hikers are often never found or only discovered many years later. After all, 'Otzi' the Iceman was discovered in 1991 on the Italian-Austrian alpine frontier nearly 5,300 years after his demise.
Hello,
so sorry for the late reply and thank you very much for the comment!
I totally agree that many - probably most - of the disappearances (not just there but in mountainous areas in general) are not supernatural at all. The terrain can be treacherous, with many crevices.
There is also the possibility, albeit remote, that some of those people *wanted* to disappear (not necessarily through suicide).
I've been following the "triangle", and I see there have been a few additional disappearances since Rev. Fox's. Whatever the reason, some really do seem bizarre, to say the least.
We hope to continue this blog when time permits, and if so, the goings-on in the "Bohinj triangle" will be updated accordingly.
Thanks again for stopping by!
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