Many famous stairs have their own history. But some of them don't lead anywhere. These structures excite the imagination of people, make them come up with terrible stories that there was supposedly such a person who once climbed a Mysterious Stairs and disappeared forever. Some of them are located far away in the woods. There are no settlements nearby. There is no apparent logical reason for the stairs. Who climbed them and where climbed is not entirely clear. They differ greatly in style, age, condition. But they are united by a mystery. Perhaps they were once part of a vanished city. But many of them look brand new. As if they were just put in the forest yesterday. Such stairs are found in different parts of the world - in Portugal, Norway, the Philippines, the USA, France and many other points.
Italy
So, the first Mysterious Stairs dates back to the seventh century BC.
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| Stairs in the woods |
Etruscan pyramid of Bomarzo. It is a single stone monolith with a staircase leading up to a small platform. Scientists suggest that this is the altar on which the Etruscans performed their sacrifices or wondered while watching the stars. But no one knows exactly what actually happened on these stones.
Cambodia
Fast forward to the Cambodian province of Siem Reap. There is a 2,000-foot staircase that climbs the Phnom Kulen mountain range.
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| Stairs in the woods |
Archaeologists date it to the 9-13th century. However, they do not provide any answers as to who built it and why. Perhaps it led to the now defunct city of Mahendraparvata. This city has long disappeared into the jungle. In addition, there were quarries on the Phnom Kulen plateau for the construction of the temples of Angkor. Could it be that King Suryavarman II built a staircase for construction workers in the 12th century?
USA
In Chesterfield, New Hampshire, there is Madame Sherry's staircase. It has no mystery, but there is a curious story behind it.
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| Stairs in the woods |
Antoinette Sherry, the star of the Parisian music hall of the 1920s, built her castle in order to have a place to relax in the summer. Her hideout was more like a large country house with a stunning stone staircase decorated in a Roman style.
Madame Sherry lived on a grand scale. What rumors did not go about her. It was rumored that in her house she arranged chic carousing. However, the period came when she squandered all her fortune and faced poverty. There was no money for the maintenance of the castle, and it began to slowly collapse. In 1962, the house burned down, leaving only the staircase and part of the foundation, reminiscent of the former greatness and fleetingness of life.
Philippines
There are ladders that are best never climbed. One of them is located in the Philippines and is called the "Ladder of Lost Time". The legend associated with it says that one day, a man looking for people accidentally came across this staircase in the jungle. She interested him. In addition, it seemed to him that there might be a good vantage point at the top. And he decided to get up.
The ascent consisted of two stairs. The first was a stone structure with decorative patterns, the second was more like a pile of rock. The detective did not see any people, but he met a mysterious dog, which was not at all friendly. He hurried up. Finding nothing there, the man returned home. And then unexpected news awaited him.
His co-workers were surprised to return. It turned out that the man had been fired from his job five years ago, declared missing, and his wife had remarried. The man could not believe what he had heard, because he had only gone to the forest for a couple of hours.
Sweden
Another great legend tells of a ghostly staircase. One day, two Swedish students went on a hike. After a few miles, they came across a staircase. On the one hand, she aroused curiosity, but at the same time one of them felt that it was not necessary to contact her.
But students wouldn't be students if they didn't try to climb on it. The moment one of them reached the top, there was a deafening, piercing cry. The students, descending in a hurry, rushed to run at breakneck speed. When they stopped to catch their breath, one of them thought that someone had put a hand on his shoulder. Assuming it was his friend, the guy looked around. There was no one around. His partner was far behind and ran far. Then he remembered that the touch was very cold.
Never climb unknown stairs!
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| Mysterious stairs in the woods |
The staircase is used as a symbol in different cultures. It symbolizes the vertical - the connection between earth and heaven, heaven and hell. In mythology, various types of stairs are mentioned - stone, iron, rope, gold. The number of steps also has a symbolic meaning. Stairs of seven steps are often mentioned in myths. They can go directly from the sky, or along the trunk of the World Tree of Life. Many ritual structures are built in the form of stairs. Think of the ancient Egyptian pyramids or the Mayan and Aztec pyramids. Climbing stairs is always associated with risk, instability. According to the Bible, the ladder connected God and man, but after the Fall, the connection was interrupted.