Simion Saveanu -"An exciting travel in time"

Two researchers tried to solve the question regarding the mysterious human figures from Carpathian Mountains. They made an analysis of the compounding parts and of the material that links the so called "statues".

At 200 - 300 m from Babele chalet we met an huge human head, with empty orbits, with a mysterious smile and a physiognomy delicately digged in stone. It was the famous Sphinx. I stayed at the chalet several days. I often and carefully observed that face. Sometimes, when I was alone, I had the feeling that a mysterious aura surrounded the area.

I could hardly believe that the "statue" was not the result of some talented human hands, but the creation of Eol, the God of Wind. One afternoon I noticed a man insistently looked at it. After a while, he said: "Yes, for me there is no doubt! Do you see the Dacian shaped hat ? Do you also observe the stone block from which it was made ? I am almost sure that it had been added, the same as the other rocky fragments, all of different colors. I would not be surprised if behind this giant face sometimes there was a secret entrance. The strange crowded rocks over there could be the prove for this theory..."

Dimitrie Camtemir in "Descriptio of Moldaviae", talking about the Ceahlău Mountain, noted: "Right on the top one can see an ancient statue, [..] showing [...] an old woman with 20 sheep ... It's hard to say if the nature wanted to amaze us or if the statue is the creation of a talented artist".

At the beginning of the century, Nicolae Densușianu advanced some daring hypotheses. He wrote a pre-history of the Dacians, and he was sure that in the ancient antiquity the Pelagic nation made lots of statues in the Carpathian Mountains. One of his conclusions was: "The most important mountain from the Middle Carpathians is Bucegi. This high and distinguished unique mountain, was a very famous one: in ancient antiquity he was the Saint Mountain of the Pelasgian people ".

In my way I met another wonderful "sculpture": a pigeon. Its head, the wings and the legs were very easily to observe, as if sometimes they were carefully made by a human being.

Nicolae Densusianu said: "On the highest level of the Omu Mountain there is a high column, usually surrounded by clouds, and another neighbor peak on which one can still observe the most important simulacrum of the prehistorical world, a human figure sculptured in the rock. This titanic figure from old Dacia's mountains [... ] it's very probable to be the representation of the supreme Divinity worshiped by the Pelasgian people."

This matter was also in the attention of Emanuel de Martoune (1873 - 1955), former member of the Science Academy from Paris and president of the International Geographical Union. He made a lot of researches in Romania. His visits here are testified by two of his works: "La Walachie" (1902) for which got the great price of France Academy and "Recherces sur l'evolution morphologique des Alpes de Transylvanie" (1907). After his trip to Omu peak, he noted: "One can see that the giant rock represents a human figure of 20 m height. The rock has tree parts: a superior one( the stony portion which lays on the forehead) made of the remains of a big calcareous block, just like the inferior part which begins at the mouth. Beneath them there are some conglomerates made of grit stone which form the forehead and the cheeks. At the bottom we can observe the same grit stone."

When I reached Om. Peak, I first took a look at that "Column" and then I searched for the neighbor giant rock with human face. The block of stone from the plateau appeared majestic to me, although his royalty was partially eclipsed by the chalet.

I have been told by the other researcher I met that during the month of November, at sunset, when there are no clouds on the sky, one can see how the rock's shadow on the plateau becomes a human head with its eyes pointing the front of the valley.

The Peruan Daniel Ruzo, a full of pas researcher, interested in all the unusual phenomenons one can see in the mountains, was very impressed by the Margahuasi plateau, where, at 4000 m high he saw hundreds of sculptures and other creations made on the rocks. He was pretty sure that they represented symbols used by ancient people who lived there. From that moment he traveled all over the world, for years, to observe other similar phenomena. For Daniel Ruzo, the Sphinx, Om. peak and all the other unusual shapes noticed in the Carpathian Mountains are rocks chosen by humans for their strange shapes and then "modified" by them. In his opinion, the eyes of the Sphinx were not made by chance. The direction of his sight must be related to an ancient belief, to a myth, to a idea still very hard to discover.

The idea that men reshaped some rocks already "worked" by nature is also agreed by university professor Traian Naum. The also considered that the famous statues from Eastern Island and those made by the Aztec, Maya and Inca people in America are meant to still overwhelm our possibility of understanding.

On the Căliman Mountains there are two human trunks higher than 15 meters: "Moșul" (The old man) at North and "Maresalul"(The marshal) . The rocky old man has a special characteristic: three different faces looking towards the three roads which reach him. Professor Naum and the geologist Butnariu tried to solve this puzzle. They first followed the distinct skylines of the volcanic conglomerates. Then they made several analyses of the component blocks and of the ligand material made of volcanic ash. We could say, that at least the initial form was the result of natural phenomena.

Cristian Prischak made some photographic images which he suggestible called: "God's sunset", "Nepherti", "The Twins", etc., all being pictures took from Călimani Mountains. Although he is a scientific researcher, we can see by the names he gave to his photos that some doubt seems to have come into his soul.

Dan Brăneanu, a scientific researcher, has a lot of images from the mountains. The first "sculpture" he considered to be the work of a talented artist was the one he saw at Topleț, in 1974. In his opinion the fact that the Sphinx from Bucegi and the one from Topleț are placed in two important historical areas, proves that man had for sure a role in their genesis.

At the bottom of Tampa Mountain, on the way to Poiana Brașov one can see a rock with human face. He called it "the Sphinx from Solomon's rock". The poet Toma George Maiorescu said about the mysteries from "Valea Dracului" (a valley near Hoșița - the place where George BrâncușI was born): "Somewhere in this ancient Carpatho-Danubian territory, there is a Wonder Valley. A hand filled with mad altruism gave it, everywhere along, light which melted with the stones" .

Is it just a coincidence the fact that this place is situated on the lands where the greatest Romanian sculptor was born ? [ ..] Is this amazing stony Universe made by nature or is it the result of the talented ancient artists?

The art criticist Ion Frunzetti noted that it's hard for him to admit that the nature was able to create so exactly shapes which remained so well some paleolithic images of fertility.

Costesti is an old sand exploitation, located at 7 km of Horezu, on the National road 67, between Ramnicu Vilcea and Tirgu Jiu. Such figurines were also discovered in the Gorj area. At Costești, one can see all the steps that explain the genesis of the "abstract statues". Their formation consisted in the solidification of the sand made by the contact with solutions rich in calcium carbonate. This is the way in which resulted spherical or irregular forms with diameters bigger than 1 m. The aleatory association of these initial formes gives birth to different statues of this kind. Some irregular particles were fixed at their surface, the final look being similar to an "elephant skin", as we can see near Topologu Motel, on the road to Râmnicu Vâlcea. At Horezu the objects used as ornamentation or for magic purposes have been put together by man, but we can not be sure of this for all of them. We must make the distinction between some nature's curiosities and men's work .This is quite possible. It seems that the most appropriate term underline both human intervention and the old age of these mountain "statues" is the word "paleo - glife", derived from the Greek language and which means ancient statues. Concerning the small creations such as those found at Costesti, the most proper terminology would be "paleo-figurines". Many theories have been made . For know, the answers are not totally known, but it's very well that more and more people come to see the Carpathians and these "statues". Who knows, maybe one of them will be able to find the answers raised by their mysterious creation. .

English version by Nora Rusu.