Mysterious Romania (XVI) The Living Stones

     

                  Living Stones of Costesti

Romania is known to many people overseas as Dracula’s country, (Dracula - the infamous bloodthirsty vampire ruler).

 Few people are aware though, even among Romanians, that nature itself manifests in an odd  way in some places in the country. As mysterious and intriguing as Dracula.

I'll tell you today about  a mysterious cryptid, of geological variety. Cryptozoology fans will be interested to learn that in Romania there are stones which grow by themselves, called Trovants.

This unexplained phenomenon occurs in Costesti, a small Romanian village, in  Valcea County, just south of central Romania. Here  lie dormant a number of stone formations. Dormant, I mean, until it rains.  As soon as the last rain drops wash them, they catch life. They begin a multiplication process. (One may say they have life or alien features.)  Small oval or round blain-like forms start to cover the surface of these stones. People are amazed and locals have called them, “growing stones.”

 It's hard to imagine stones that can really grow, but yes, these stones seem to be alive!    

Science mystery .Trovants is a geological term in Romania which means cemented sand. The name “Trovant” (trovanti) was created and introduced by the Romanian naturalist Gh. M. Murgoci in his work “The Tertiary in Oltenia”.

They grow as if they were alive after coming into contact with water from a heavy rainfall. These stones tend to grow from 6-8 millimeters to 6 -10 meters in size.

Trovants aren’t only strange due to their structure and ability to grow and multiply. They can also move from one place to another.

The explanations for the stones’ movement tend towards the absurd (magnetism, aliens and mysterious energy fields).

Other than that, they also have root-like extensions and age rings visible when you cut the stone, but scientists have yet to find out an explanation to these unique features.

These trovants consist of stone core with an outer shell of sand and after a heavy rain, smaller stones form over the larger ones giving its name of `growing stones’, while others call them living stones which reproduce.

There are theories claiming that these rocks came into existence because of the earthquakes which occurred six million years ago. The sand reservoir was created after the successive sedimentation of the detritic material transported by the rivers.

Presently, this unique discovery remains a popular tourist attraction in Romania. Trovants Museum National Reserve, located inside Costeşti village and run by the Kogayon association, was inaugurated in the year 2004 is now protected by UNESCO.

What do you think? Won’t it be a great subject for a horror story?