A portal to another world?

There seem to be quite a few of those lately.
But this one - the village of Bugarach, in the south of France (near Rennes-le-Chateau)- has the distinction of fast becoming one of the centres of the approaching culmination of the 2012 frenzy. In case you miss it, a film is being made about it.


However, it is the nearby mountain, the Pech de Bugarach (or Pech de Thauze, as it was previously called), that is supposed to be the centre of power - (another) magic mountain.

The Pech de Bugarach (or Pech de Thauze) as seen from the village of Bugarach.

(The village is just behind your "back". Turn around and you'll see it.)

 
At least one person, Daniel Bettex - a Swiss airport security officer - did enter "another world" at the Pech de Bugarach. Quite literally. He died there.
 
If you travel almost exactly 100 kilometres to the west, however, you will find another suspected "portal to another world": the castle of Miglos. Little seems to be known about this particular aspect of the picturesquely ruined chateau; the information comes from this website you have already visited (we hope).


But, if nothing else, the link above, leading directly to the castle, will provide you with glorious panoramic views from the castle itself. And time spent for beauty is always a good investment. :)


P.S. Most of the (at the time of this writing still relatively few) websites that carry the story about Bugarach mention the apparent similarity between the place names Bugarach and the Bogogorch alluded to by Nicholas Roerich, a famous Russian-born traveller and mystic (not to mention a fabulous painter), in his description of a particularly dangerous mountain range in the Altai.
 
This speculation appears to be quoted verbatim from Michel Lamy's book, Jules Verne, initié et initiateur (1984), p. 203. 


I do not have Roerich's book, so I don't know whether he ever explained the etymology of this place name. However, it strikes me that it sounds uncannily similar to the Russian words bog (бог, God, with the final o possibly acting as a possessive pronoun, i.e. belonging to) and gora (гора, mountain): God's mountain(s).
 
Please, note that I am by no means knowledgeable in Russian; nobody in this team is. But I thought I'd mention it all the same. If others can speculate, why shouldn't we?

Anyway, I doubt very much that the vague similarity between these two place names is anything more than that: a passing similarity.
But I could be wrong. Of course. It wouldn't even be the first time.



IF YOU LIKED THIS, YOU MIGHT LIKE: The 33 Cosmic Portals

If you want to report a perceived dimensional anomaly, please do, but read this first.