Anomalous zones — mystical places on the map
Stretches of ground with a reputation for things going wrong: instruments disagreeing, engines cutting out, people losing their way. A few have an explanation — a magnetic anomaly, escaping gas, an unlucky current — and the rest do not have one yet.
58 places
Darvaza Gas Crater
A burning gas crater some 70 metres across in Turkmenistan's Karakum desert. By the common account geologists set it alight expecting the gas to burn off in days — it has been burning since 1971.
Dyatlov Pass
A slope in the Northern Urals where nine experienced hikers died in February 1959. A tent cut open from the inside and unusual injuries have fed dozens of theories, from an avalanche to weapons testing.
Mapimí Silent Zone
A patch of northern Mexican desert where, by local account, radios fall silent and compasses misbehave. The reputation dates from a US missile crashing here in 1970; tests have not confirmed any radio anomaly.
Racetrack Playa
A dry lakebed in Death Valley where stones move by themselves, leaving long trails behind them. The puzzle was only solved in 2014: thin sheets of ice push the rocks along under a light wind.
Oregon Vortex
A hillside in Oregon with a tilted cabin where balls appear to roll uphill and a person's height seems to change from spot to spot. A classic "mystery house" — the effect comes from sloped planes and a missing true horizon.
Devil's Sea
A stretch of the Pacific south of Japan known as the "Dragon's Triangle", a Pacific counterpart to the Bermuda one. Its reputation came from fishing vessels lost in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Tunguska Event
In June 1908 an explosion over the Siberian taiga flattened some 80 million trees across more than 2,000 km². No crater was ever found, and the cause has been argued over for more than a century.
Area 51
A closed US Air Force range in the Nevada desert that officially did not exist for decades. Secret aircraft testing and total secrecy made it the centre of global UFO mythology.
Skinwalker Ranch
A ranch in Utah known for decades of reported UFO sightings, unexplained phenomena, and mysterious livestock deaths. Named after the skin-walker of Navajo folklore.
Hoia Baciu Forest
A forest in Romania often called the world's most haunted: bent tree trunks, reports of UFOs, unexplained lights, and visitors losing their sense of direction.