The most mysterious place that you have been

I went to the Plain of Jars in Lao once.  Not exactly a plain but over a thousand giant jars spread over many kilometres with three major clusters, the largest 200-300 jars. Nobody knows how old they are or even how they were made, let alone their reason for being.

They're really difficult to get to, on the Vietnam border. It two days on dirt road by land in the dry season, 4-5 days on barge in the wet or two hours by prop plane not meeting IAA standards and landing at an airstrip in the mountains with no ground radar. (but they do insure the passengers to the value of $150 each in local currency. It's on a huge sign above the departures door you see as you board the plane)

The area itself had more bombs dropped on it by the USAF during the Vietnam war than were dropped in the whole of WWII by all sides. As you approach it from the air it's like you are flying over the moon with all the craters. Many of the bombs dropped were cluster bombs so hundreds of tightly packed mini craters also are common.

Upto half a million civilians were killed in the genocide of this neutral country (20% of the population) mostly peasant farming communities and villages. Today including cluster bomblets there are around 2 billion UXB's in the country and about 15,000 people a year are either crippled or killed by UXB's the highest numbers being children.

In the locals villages, parts of the buildings often  include bomb parts. Sometimes the central supporting pillar could be a 1000LB bomb shell case. Many villages still have UXB's close at hand. One village was discovered to be just 100 metres from a 2000 bomb which if goes off would kill everyone. However the UN bomb disposal team was unnable to attempt to defuse it because to this day the US government refuses to give details of any bomb still in use in it's arsenal to the bomb disposal teams, so they can only diffuse certain bombs.

 

Edited by Paul

i would have to say Peral Harbor.

xhat it's called in English) jumped over the ruins of a wall. The very scene gave me a very peculiar feeling. Serene.

Edited by Styrbiorn - 22-Oct-2007 at 11:00

the open steppe of Mongolia, and of course tghose large ancient Irish slab tombs.

Religious buildings are mysterious indeed.

The Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim may be the most mysterious place i have been.

Its quite dark in there and completely silent(when there are no tourists).With big pillars holding the roof up(may remind the LOTR fans of Moria) and catacombs the cathedral has a mystical atmosphere.Many claim to have seen a ghost of a monk there and they say that if you run several laps around the cathedral at midnight a monk will start running after you.

Another place I have visited that has an aura that I can't explain is a mansion in the southern part of Sweden. This place was inhabited by a very cruel man, who did really bad things to his family. Everyone who lives in that area says that it is haunted by him. I have been there several times at different hours of the day and night and every time I have felt very uneasy, kind of like the place doesn't want me there.

Once me and a friend from a different part of Sweden who hadn't heard the stories about this place went there, and he also felt very uneasy and unwelcome there, without knowing anything about the place.

It is placed in very beautiful surroundings, on a peninsula at a lake, so most people would probably like it, but I have never met anyone, whether they know about the history of the mansion or not, who feels at ease there.

I don't know why it affects people this way, nor do I make any claims that the place IS haunted, just that it makes almost everyone who has been there feel uneasy.

Istanbul...

Ageana Island in Greece.

I was on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem two months ago, and I've always wondered what is left in those cisterns and such below, and what could be found through archaeological excavations there, if it was not such a sacred site at present. It was also a really interesting place to visit.

Originally posted by TheARRGH Well...I was vacationing in the area of Friday harbor--in the San Juan islands--a while back, and I can say that the forest is beautiful by day--but I have never been in such a terrifying place at nightfall. Maybe it doesn't count. I mean, it's just a forest. Not a building, or ruin, or whatever.But you want creepy and/or mysterious? Forget mansions. Forget any building, ever. Walk through a real forest in the middle of the night.There is no substitute.Or, better yet, don't.

I did this two times, I walked alone from 0.00 AM to 5 AM by a mountainous forest (it was a road leading to two hermitages). It was the most terrfying experience but also the most wonderful. First time I used a lantern but second time I walked at the moon light. First time the forest was full of flying glow worms. They were at 2-3 m one of another.

The road was in the area where I took the picture in my signature (the hermitages are at the foot of the mountain in the background).