Unusual Places in India

Bhangarh is a place on way from Jaipur to Alwar city in Rajasthan state of India. Today Bhangarh is known for its ruins where nobody dares to stay after sunset.

The local folks say that due to a curse the whole town was vacated overnight. According to the story of the curse, if the town was ever rediscovered the township would not be found, but only temples would show up.

True to the story only temples dot the landscape and even far up on the mountains only shrines can be seen. It is said that nobody returns from there who stays after dark.
By the Government of India rules there has to be an office of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) beside every historical structure in India. But even government authorities did not dare to open an office there. They opened their office about one kilometer away from the ruins of Bhangarh. Even this office is close to a temple because of this myth. ASI has put a signboard at Bhangarh saying, "Staying after sunset is strictly prohibited in this area."

People who visit this place out of tourist interest say that there is a strange feeling in the atmosphere of Bhangarh, which causes sort of anxiety and restlessness.

It is said by the local villagers that whenever a house has been built there its roof has collapsed. It seems to be true because inside Bhangarh all the houses are without a roof and even at the closest village where people reside, they still have roofs made of straw but not bricks.

Roopkund is a place in Uttarakhand state of India, and it is the location of about three to six hundred skeletons at the edge of a lake-Skeleton Lake in the Himalayas.

In 2004 a team of Indian and European scientists set off to the location to gain more information on the skeletons.The team uncovered vital clues including jewellery, skulls, bones and a preserved body. DNA tests on the bodies revealed that there were two groups of people, a short group (probably local porters) and a taller group who were closely related. Though the numbers were not ascertained, it is believed that three to six hundred people perished. Radiocarbon dating of the bones also accurately pinpointed the time period to be in the 9th century predating the earlier inaccurate tests. After studying fractures in the skulls, the scientists in Hyderabad and London determined that the people died not of disease but of a sudden hailstorm.
With landslides in the area, some of the bodies made their way into the lake.What is not determined was where the group was headed to. There is no historical evidence of any trade routes to Tibet in the area or any places of pilgrimage.

The story goes that Qamar Ali was born into a family of middle-class Moslems whose men-folk prided themselves on their muscular prowess. Qamar Ali, unlike his aggressive older brothers, was introspective and gentle. When he was scarcely six, he became a disciple of a Sufi Pir (great teacher) who lived nearby, and spent his days in meditation and fasting. Before long, throngs of devotees began to flock to his doorstep drawn by the young Sufi mystic's compassion and miraculous powers of healing.

Qamar Ali died in his late teens but as he lay on his deathbed, he requested that a circular stone weighing 200 pounds, be placed near his tomb. According to the legend, he said: "If eleven men place their right index fingers under the stone and then jointly call my name, I will cause it to rise higher than their heads. Otherwise, neither singly nor together will they be able to move it more than two feet off the ground. Let it be a symbol," he said to his brothers, "a reminder of my message that spiritual power is greater than brute strength. As Allah the Merciful, has loved you, so should you love all men of every caste and creed. For we are all brothers on the same journey. Think of this when you call my name and raise the stone."

Marble steps lead up to the Dargarh (shrine). Qamar Ali Darvesh was a celibate and in deference to his chastity, women are not allowed inside the mausoleum.
The tomb is covered in gold brocade and garlands of white, sweet smelling mogra blossoms.

There's a resident mullah (priest), an elderly man wearing a white skull cap,who sits in his small office. He is friendly enough, but blasé about visiting journalists. "Some TV crews have been here," he says in Hindi. "A team of Japanese scientists spent a week studying the stone, but they too were baffled."
He continues " At first nobody believes this and present me with whole lot of alternatives like What if non-Moslems try to lift the stone? What if there are more than eleven men? What if the entire hand is used, rather than just the tip of a finger? What if they yell something else, or even something similar such as 'Tamar Wali Arvesh'? "
But he says firmly "none of that will work".
That is the magic of Qamar Ali Darvesh.

The "magnetic hill" is located on the Leh-Kargil-Baltik national highway, about 30 km from Leh, at a height of 14,000 feet above sea level. On its eastern side, flows the Sindhu, which originates in Tibet and goes to Pakistan.
A group of journalists, visiting Leh to cover the Sindhu Darshan festival, were surprised when they had a first-hand experience of the hill.
The local administration has put up a billboard near the hill, stating that if a vehicle is stopped at a particular spot on the road and the engine is switched off, it will not slide down but move up.

When the Swaraj Mazda in which the journalists were travelling reached the particular point with the ignition switched off, the vehicle actually started moving upward at a speed of more than 20 km. Considering it to be a mere fluke, the journalists made the driver take the vehicle back to the same point. The same thing happened again. The exercise was repeated several times with the same result.