Places Even More Mysterious Than The Bermuda Triangle

Let's explore some places that are even more mysterious than the Bermuda Triangle itself!

June 24, 2024・

23 min read

The Bermuda Triangle, the place where sailors and aviators sign up to play a never ending game of hide and seek! But if you thought that notorious patch of the sea was mysterious, wait until you learn about the other mysterious locations our planet is home to, that are even more unique, creepy, and downright baffling.

From an island that lures ships to their destruction, to the supernatural zone of silence found in a Mexican desert, let’s investigate some strangeness-filled places that are even more mysterious than the Bermuda Triangle!

Dragon's Triangle

Since the early 1950s, the infamous Bermuda Triangle has struck fear into the hearts of countless seafarers and flight passengers. Over 50 ships and 20 airplanes are said to have mysteriously vanished in that vast tropical area in the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean.

While the more imaginative theorists claim that, those disappearances were caused by alien abductions, or even energy beams from the lost city of Atlantis, most reputable sources argue they’re simply the result of piloting errors and bad weather. Not to mention, that region of the world has especially high levels of sea and air traffic, so it makes sense that the frequency of incidents there would also be relatively high.

But while those explanations might apply to the Bermuda Triangle, there’s an even more perilous oceanic triangle that’s been bewildering maritime historians for decades. The Dragon’s Triangle is a large area in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo, where hundreds of ships have reportedly gone missing since the 1940s.

One report about the triangle claims that, in 1955, the Japanese government sent a large research vessel into the area to investigate those disappearances, only for it to sail straight into oblivion itself, never being seen again!

While the Dragon’s Triangle is often considered a supernatural hotspot, it turns out that many of the ships that went missing there were simply small, vulnerable fishing boats with no radio systems. Plus, the supposedly missing government research vessel was actually sent to investigate a prominent undersea volcano within the Dragon’s Triangle area.

The fact is that the ship sank due to an eruption of that very volcano in 1952 not 1955, as one book claimed. Still, there’s little doubt that the stretch of ocean, also known as the Devil’s Sea, is highly dangerous. The seabed there has an unusually high abundance of undersea volcanoes and methane deposits, which can cause literal underwater explosions and affect the buoyancy of boats, resulting in sinkings.

Nevada Triangle

Spanning over 25,000 square miles of rocky desert between Reno, Fresno, and Las Vegas, the Nevada Triangle is widely regarded as the mountainous counterpart to the plane-snatching Bermuda Triangle. In fact, depending on which news site you ask, it’s reported that anywhere between 200 and 2,000 aircrafts have inexplicably vanished within the Nevada Triangle over the last 60 years.

Many of those have never been found. One such plane to go missing that did eventually turn up belonged to the record-setting aviator Steve Fossett. In September 2007, Fossett and his airplane mysteriously disappeared somewhere in the Sierra mountains, right in the heart of the Nevada Triangle.

Fossett was a highly experienced pilot, who held the title as the first person to fly solo around the entire world nonstop in 2005, so his Nevada Triangle flight should have been a walk in the park.

Officials found no sign of Fossett and his plane until a year later when a hiker discovered Fossett’s ID card and the crash site was recovered a few days later. Sadly, Fossett didn’t ever return home.

While aviation accidents are often down to human or system errors, many have tried to explain the frequency of disappearances reported in the Nevada Triangle. Some of the wilder theories suggest that UFOs are behind those disappearances, especially since the Nevada Triangle’s eastern edge is home to the infamous Area 51.

While that is certainly a creepy coincidence, and the mountains and deserts of the region create a fantastic setting for such a tale, there are some more plausible potential explanations to the mystery of the Nevada Triangle.

The region contains challenging geographical and atmospheric conditions, where high mountain peaks combine with strong Pacific winds to create downdrafts capable of ripping planes right out of the sky.

And since the Nevada Triangle is such a vast, remote area, with extremely uneven terrain, it’s unsurprising that many crash sites are never tracked down. Plus, the upper end statistic of 2,000 disappearances seems to be a wildly exaggerated rumor with no actual evidence to back it up. Still, looking out into those rolling, desert hills, it’s hard not to imagine something otherworldly might exist out there.

Zone Of Silence

For decades, the Mapimí Silent Zone, aka the Zone of Silence, has tickled the imagination of folks with an interest in the weirder side of planet Earth. That 30 miles wide patch of desert in Durango, Mexico, is claimed to possess inexplicable electromagnetic properties that rival those that are rumored to exist in the Bermuda Triangle itself.

Allegedly, the area has caused compasses to bizarrely spin out of control as well as blocking signals from all modern communication devices, like cell phones and plane radios. While you might think plane crashes would occur frequently in that mysterious zone, even stranger flying objects have been discovered there.

In 1970, an American missile fired towards a testing range, randomly flew 400 miles off course and crash landed right in the middle of the Zone of Silence. Nobody knows for sure what happened to make the rocket veer so far off course, but some theorize an anomalous magnetic force pulled it into the zone.

Some passionate locals suggest that magnetic anomalies like that in the area are caused by a large amount of the mineral magnetite in the surrounding rock, or potentially other magnetic materials deposited by meteorites. Indeed, several meteorites are recorded as landing in the zone throughout the 20th century, two of which bizarrely struck the exact same ranch, almost 20 years apart.

There are even more anomalies in the zone of silence, according to locals, including weirdly mutated organisms such as bright purple cacti which only adds to the zone’s extraterrestrial vibes.

However, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, several groups of scientists who’ve been brave enough to actually visit the Zone of Silence for themselves reported no issues with their gadgets or compasses. There’s also the argument that the infamous American missile could have gone haywire due to human error or faulty equipment.

As for the so called mutated purple cacti, they’re really just a species named Purple Prickly Pear, which naturally change shade in response to environmental stresses like drops in temperature and dehydration.

But while the Zone of Silence might have some logical explanations, they’re not enough to silence all the die-hard conspiracy theorists out there. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t kind of hope there’s something more to that eerie spot!

Naga Fireballs, Mekong River

At first glance, the Mekong River, running through the Phon Phisai district of Thailand, doesn’t appear out of the ordinary. But, if you find yourself there at just the right time, you’ll find it holds an extraordinary secret that’s intrigued locals and tourists for many years.

Around late October every year, those otherworldly, basketball sized orbs known as Naga fireballs emerge from the river’s water. Those mystical lights shoot hundreds of feet into the sky before disappearing in the blink of an eye. And while they may look like fireworks, their appearance is a true mystery.

According to local legend, the fireballs come from the breath of giant serpents known as Naga. Those mythical beasts are said to slumber in the murky depths of the river and only awaken around late October each year to honor the end of Buddhist Lent with their fiery breath.

Since those legendary creatures are yet to be sighted IRL, some scientists suggest that the fiery orbs are actually methane or phosphine bubbles, created by decomposing matter on the riverbed. When the methane contacts the airborne oxygen above the water’s surface, there’s a small chance it can spontaneously ignite, flying high into the atmosphere before suddenly burning out.

While you might think a natural explanation makes the most sense, skeptics question how it’s possible that the fireballs recur at such an exact time of year, and note the statistical unlikeliness of such frequently repeated ignitions.

Another argument is that the suspiciously precise timing of the Naga fireballs might mean the whole thing is a carefully planned hoax and fired by flare guns or using tracer rounds to drum up tourism. Still, for some, the presence and movement of the fireballs doesn’t quite seem to line up to a satisfactory degree with either explanation.

Shanay-Timpishka

We’ve learned about one river that shoots fire into the sky, now how about one where the water itself burns with lethal heat? Hidden deep within the Amazon rainforest, in the Puerto Inca province of Peru, flows the mystical Shanay-Timpishka, aka La Bomba.

The temperature of that four mile section of the Amazon River somehow ranges between 113 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit, heats that could easily cause third-degree burns within just one second of contact! While its name translates to ‘boiled by the heat of the Sun’, the true source of Shanay-Timpishka’s heat is shrouded in mystery.

Other boiling water bodies are always located near volcanoes and heated by magmatic systems. One example is the Chinese Spring, situated within the magmatic hotspot of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA.

The strangely bright orange color around that geyser is caused by bacteria known as thermophiles, which thrive in high temperatures. Combined with the contrasting blueness of the boiling pool, it almost looks like an interdimensional portal that I’ll bet any pilot would be nervous to fly over.

But unlike the Chinese Spring, La Bomba isn’t brightly colored, nor is it located in a magmatic area. In fact, the nearest volcano to La Bomba known as Ccarhuarazo is more than 400 miles away.

The best explanation we have is that rainwater seeps extremely deep underground further upstream, where it’s heated by rock skirting the very edge of the Earth’s mantle, before resurfacing through cracks in the Earth, joining the river. While the theory certainly could hold water, it’s probably best to simply admire that from a distance.

Bridgewater Triangle

Spanning 200 square miles between Abington, Freetown, and Rehoboth in southeastern Massachusetts, the Bridgewater Triangle is our next big Bermuda contender. While the Bermuda Triangle is mostly associated with disappearances, our next place of discussion is perplexing polygon and filled with stories of terrifying appearances.

The area has been home to countless reports of ghostly entities, unidentified flying objects, sightings of unnatural animals and humanoids, and even ritualistic animal sacrifice. Most notably, for decades, drivers travelling down Route 44 at night have reported encountering a mysterious figure on the roadside.

Bizarrely, the description of that mystery man is just about always the same: red flannel shirt, dirty jeans, boots, long red hair and a great big bushy beard! Drivers have reported picking him up after seeing him wandering down the road only for the mysterious redhead to climb into the backseat and stare at the driver silently with black, soulless eyes.

He never speaks, but he does sometimes laugh maniacally until the driver threatens to pull over, at which time he suddenly vanishes into thin air right before their eyes. While tales of the Bridgewater hitchhiker are pretty terrifying, a possible explanation for those shared visions could be even scarier.

During long drives at night, darkness and repetitive scenery can lull drivers into a hypnotic state, similar to the state of mind just before entering sleep which can lead to hallucinations. What’s not completely clear is why so many drivers seem to hallucinate the exact same thing in the Bridgewater Triangle, but aside from the possibility of widespread hoaxes, there might be an answer to that.

In their hypnotic state, drivers who’ve heard the legend of the redheaded hitchhiker on Route 44 may hallucinate his appearance, almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy based on what they expect to see.

In darkness, our brains do have a scientifically documented habit of filling the visual blanks, so perhaps it’s not such an impossible explanation as it may seem? Either way, to conquer the mysteries of the Bridgewater Triangle, it seems all you’ll need is a healthy sense of skepticism and regular driving breaks on a long journey.

Hoia Baciu Circle

Within the Transylvanian region of northern Romania lies an unusual forest that’s sure to send chills down your spine thanks to its roster of mysterious disappearances. Hoia Baciu Forest is widely regarded, by those with a belief in the supernatural, as the world’s most haunted woodland, and is rife with abundant stories of the paranormal.

One local legend goes that a shepherd and his flock of 200 sheep inexplicably vanished while walking through the forest, never to be seen again. A five year old girl is also said to have gone missing in those woods, only to reappear five years later, wearing the same clothes and not having aged a day.

Unsurprisingly, there’s little evidence the events in those stories really happened, with no records of disappearances in the forest showing up in Romanian newspaper archives. However, to this day, visitors of the forest do consistently report sudden nausea, anxiety, and feelings of being watched.

Those symptoms seem to ramp up in the area around that ominous circular clearing where trees mysteriously refuse to grow. Scientists have reportedly tested the soil there, and found no chemical anomalies to explain it, so could something otherworldly really be going on there?

Despite their odd appearance, natural patches of meadow within woodlands are actually fairly common and are often caused by shallow bedrocks preventing tree roots from taking hold. And since many of the trees that do grow in Hoia Baciu look strangely warped and skeleton like, it’s unsurprising that visitors often describe feeling a little anxious and creeped out.

Lake Baikal

Not only is Lake Baikal of southern Siberia the world’s largest, deepest, and oldest freshwater lake, but it might also be the most peculiar.

For starters, official Russian state news has claimed that, in 1982, a group of seven Soviet Navy divers were conducting an exercise 160 feet below Lake Baikal’s surface, when they encountered a group of 10 feet tall, extraterrestrial humanoids.

Even stranger is that the figures are said to have been wearing silver wetsuits and spherical helmets. When the divers tried to capture one in a net, the creatures somehow launched a powerful upsurge that sent the divers careening back towards the surface.

Aside from the official nature of the source, there’s zero real proof supporting that fantastical story, and none of the numerous underwater research projects conducted at Lake Baikal since then have discovered anything remotely similar in its frigid depths.

While those aquatic silver aliens seem a little hard to believe, Lake Baikal does host other anomalies that are very real. Every winter, some glistening, 50 foot turquoise sculptures somehow emerge spontaneously across the lake’s frozen surface.

Weirder still, at Lake Baikal’s western shore, some eerie white discs frozen in ice appear to stack themselves upwards from the gloomy depths. Upon seeing those mysterious formations, many might conclude that the lake has supernatural properties after all.

But, in reality, those gem like blocks are naturally forming ice hummocks, pushed out of the lake due to uneven pressure in the packed ice below. Still, it can’t just be me that wants one of those beautiful things as décor in my house, even if it will rapidly melt all over the carpet.

As for those saucer shaped bubbles? They’re frozen pockets of methane, released by a cushion of boggy sediments resting on the lakebed.

So, while the legends surrounding Lake Baikal seem to be on thin ice, the lake remains a truly remarkable and unique natural wonder to behold, even without the aliens. And we can’t ignore the fact that the lake is literally a mile deep at its lowest!

With how insanely deep it is, that location will forever be filled from top to bottom with a real sense of unnerving mystery. For who truly knows what lurks deep down in those dark depths?

Mount Sadahurip Pyramid

You’ve likely heard of the mysterious Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, but you may not know that there’s an even older and bigger ancient pyramid supposedly buried in Indonesia. While the slopes of Mount Sadahurip in West Java are currently used as farmlands, the mountain has a suspiciously precise pyramidal shape.

The boldest theorists claim is that an incredibly old, manmade stone pyramid hides beneath the grass cover, containing treasures from a long lost ancient civilization.

While the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza took place around 4,500 years ago, the rock within Mount Sadahurip has been carbon dated to be around 6,500 years old. So, how is it possible that such an early civilization with primitive stone tools could build such an impressive structure?

Truthfully, there’s almost no reputable evidence aside from its manmade looking appearance that the mountain was crafted by mastermind ancient architects at all. Instead, geologists propose that Mount Sadahurip is actually a volcanic cinder cone, which naturally formed into a smooth sloped structure by the build up of solidified lava.

Information beyond that theory is, unfortunately, scarce, since previous research on the mountain disrupted the farms owned by locals. That led to farmers refusing to allow additional exploration, meaning further investigations are currently on hold.

Spotted Lake

Nestled within Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, lies a marvel of nature truly unlike any other. During summer, the water of Spotted Lake dries up to reveal a hidden leopard print pattern of hundreds of multicolored pools.

While most of our Bermuda Triangle mystery contenders are known for their creepy qualities, this particular lake is often described as the most magical place in Canada.

In fact, it’s considered a spiritually sacred place by the indigenous Okanagan tribe, who believe that each colorful circle possesses distinct healing properties. In fact, Spotted Lake is a saline endorheic lake, which means its water doesn’t drain into a river or creek like most others. When rainwater and snowmelt from the surrounding hills trickle down into the lake, minerals and salts are funneled in too, and accumulate there over centuries.

When the lake water evaporates each summer, it leaves behind walkways of hardened salts between shallow, mineral rich pools. The multicolored hue of each separate pool depends on their different mineral concentrations and can include calcium, sodium sulfate and magnesium sulfate. While the spiritual beliefs attached to the Spotted Lake inspire mystique, the addition of a scientific explanation makes it all the more magical.

Kazakhstan Pentagram

Thanks to the advent of satellite imagery, we can investigate mysterious places from the comfort of our homes. In 2009, a Google Earth image showing a five pointed star and circle etched into the ground in a desolate corner of Kazakhstan went viral online.

Not only is that ominous pentagram over 1,200 feet in diameter, but it’s also mysteriously isolated, with the nearest city of Lisakovsk being over 12 miles away.

Since the inverted pentagram is widely known as a pretty nefarious symbol, associated with the occult Sigil of Baphomet utilized by various Satanic organizations, many online theorists speculate that local cults could be using the site for diabolical rituals.

However, local sources argue that it’s actually just the outline of a harmless lakeside park. Until gaining independence in 1991, Kazakhstan was part of the former Soviet Union, in which star symbols were popularly used to decorate buildings, flags and monuments.

The park’s star shaped pathways were likely installed by the Soviets before being abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union. While that pentagram park might not be fostering unholy cult activities, it still feels a little too creepy for a pleasant afternoon picnic.

Deadvlei

While tales of strange happenings in the Bermuda Triangle date back to the 1950s, our next strange site holds mysteries that can be traced back more than 650 years ago. Enclosed within the enormous red sand dunes of the Namib-Naukluft national park in central Namibia sits an arid, alien landscape known as Dead Vlei.

Strangely, that bone dry expanse contains an unsettling graveyard of blackened camelthorn trees, estimated to have died some 650 years ago. But how did those skeleton like trees even grow in such a barren wasteland? And what mystical force is keeping them standing?

While it might appear like some kind of ancient desert curse is what’s keeping those spooky structures intact, the real answers lie in the area’s geological history. Around 900 years ago, Dead Vlei was flooded when rainfall caused the nearby Tsauchab river to overflow.

The water provided nourishment for the camelthorn trees to grow; but as the climate changed, and the dunes started blocking off Dead Vlei’s river water supply, the white clay and trees dried up and died. The extreme lack of moisture in the area prevents the wood from even decaying, leaving the trees doomed to scorch black under the harsh desert Sun for eternity.

Mir Mine

There is a bizarre, gaping hole located in the town of Mirny in eastern Russia. Known as the Mir mine, the monstrous cavity is almost 4,000 feet wide and over 1,700 feet deep and operated as an open pit diamond mine between 1957 and 2001.

The weird thing is, a no-fly zone has been mysteriously enforced across the airspace directly above the hole. But why? Believe it or not, it’s said that the cavernous pit is somehow capable of sucking passing aircraft out of the sky and deep into its vacuous depths. How?

If a hole is deep enough, the earth will warm the air inside. Due to its lower density, hot air rises compared with the more densely packed cold air that sinks. So the extreme temperature difference between air inside the Mir mine pit and aboveground air creates a lot of movement.

The warm air rising from the Mir Mine is less dense and would give less lift to a flying plane than the cooler air it’d previously been flying through. Since the temperature change would be so sudden, the plane could lose a bunch of altitude and descend into the mine.

Crooked Forest

The Crooked Forest, located in the Pomerania region of Poland, contains a perplexing grove of 400 distorted pine trees. They all bend sharply towards North just above the ground, extend sideways for three to nine feet, then curve back into normal, upright positions. Nobody knows how or why.

Some speculate that strong winds from a snowstorm bent the trees early on during their growth but that doesn’t really explain why the curved trunks are surrounded by a forest of seemingly unaffected trees. Others argue the wood was deliberately shaped by humans, for later use in furniture or boat building.

But if that’s true, it wasn’t recorded in any known documents, and the tools or local techniques used to create such unconventional tree growth remains concealed to this day. For now, that perplexing patch of forest officially remains a mystery.

Magnetic Island

Located five miles off the coast of Townsville, Australia, Magnetic Island offers a wealth of natural beauty but it’s also a treasure trove of bizarre phenomena and unexplained wonders.

Magnetic Island was given its peculiar moniker in 1770 by British explorer Captain James Cook, when a puzzling magnetic pull emanating from the island supposedly began interfering with his ship’s compass.

While that inexplicable magnetic anomaly has never been officially observed again, what we can observe to this day are at least 20 rotting shipwrecks strewn around the island’s shores. That maritime graveyard has led many to label Magnetic Island as Australia’s very own Bermuda Triangle.

Adding to Magnetic Island’s mystique are the countless sightings of a large, unidentified sea beast similar to the Loch Ness Monster. The idea of the legendary Nessie attacking ships around Magnetic Island while on a sunny vacation from the Scottish Highlands sure is fantastical, but it turns out that coastal graveyard may not be all that supernatural.

In fact, while some of the shipwrecks were the result of cyclones, several were actually sunk intentionally by humans, to break up strong ocean waves headed for the island’s shore. Sightings of the Loch Ness Monster like creature could similarly be explained by floating branches or shipwreck debris.

Or, given that the East coast of Australia is a natural home to members of the bizarre Oarfish species, it’s easy to imagine how one such specimen could be mistaken for a supernatural cryptid of some kind.

But even if the air of mystery surrounding Magnetic Island is somewhat of a sinking ship, the tales about it will always have a magnetic charm in my eyes.

Skinwalker Ranch

Amidst the pastures of northeastern Utah lies a 512 acre real estate nightmare known as Skinwalker Ranch. In 1994, Terry and Gwen Sherman purchased that abominable ranch, only to be driven off the property within just 18 months due to an alleged frenzy of paranormal activity.

They reportedly witnessed countless UFOs and heard disembodied voices speaking unrecognizable languages. Their cattle would mysteriously vanish or have their innards inexplicably removed with surgical precision. Terry Sherman even claims he encountered a wolf three times bigger than normal, which had glowing red eyes and was completely immune to bullets!

Those inclined toward supernatural beliefs theorize that, that mysterious creature was a skinwalker of Native American legend from which Skinwalker Ranch gets its name. In fact, locals claim those shapeshifting demons plague the region surrounding the ranch due to a curse laid by the Navajo tribe in the mid 1800s.

In a similarly otherworldly interpretation, online theorists suspect that interdimensional gateways are dotted around the ranch, allowing otherworldly beings to cross over and wreak havoc in our reality.

But skeptics argue that all the frightening occurrences were likely made up by the Shermans. No significant abnormalities were reported at the ranch for at least 60 years prior to the Shermans moving in, and very little reliable evidence in that vein has been gathered since.

Alternatively, it’s possible the incidents could be an example of a shared delusion. That delusion phenomenon has been noted across the world at several points through history, where hallucinations and psychotic breaks spread almost like a psychological virus among isolated communities.

It’s somewhat believable, but perhaps the true explanation lays in something as yet unprovable, possibly even in the unusual geology some claim lays below the Ranch, causing a variety of inexplicable electromagnetic phenomena.

If you were amazed at these mysterious places, you might want to read about places that could be portals to other worlds. Thanks for reading!