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"They call this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, the air from his lungs producing wisps of condensation in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have gone missing here, many believe it's an entrance to a different realm." The guide is guiding a guest on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient native woodland on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here go back centuries – the forest is named after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a flying saucer suspended above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But don't worry," he states, facing his guest with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from across the world, curious to experience the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being among the planet's leading destinations for supernatural fans, this woodland is facing danger. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are expanding, and developers are campaigning for permission to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Except for a small area containing locally rare specific tree species, this woodland is without conservation status, but the guide hopes that the company he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the local administrators to recognise the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius recounts some of the traditional stories and reported ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account describes a five-year-old girl disappearing during a group gathering, only to reappear half a decade later with no memory of the events, having not aged a day, her clothes without the slightest speck of soil.
• Regular stories describe smartphones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Reactions range from absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors state noticing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, perceiving ghostly voices through the trees, or sense palms pushing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the accounts may be hard to prove, there are many things before my eyes that is undeniably strange. All around are plants whose stems are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Different theories have been proposed to clarify the abnormal growth: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radioactivity in the soil cause their crooked growth.

But research studies have found insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's walks enable guests to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. When nearing the meadow in the trees where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO images, he hands the visitor an ghost-hunting device which registers electromagnetic fields.

"We're entering the most active section of the forest," he says. "See what you can find."

The trees abruptly end as the group enters into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the work of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a place which fuels fantasy, where the line is indistinct between fact and folklore. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to frighten nearby villages.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith situated on a cliff edge in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – appears solid and predictable in contrast to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for causes nuclear, climatic or simply folkloric, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the line between reality and imagination is very thin."