STONE BOTHERING

There are places in the world that hold an ancient stillness, a kind of quiet conversation between the earth and time. Itá Letra in Paraguay is one of those places. Hidden within the hills of the Guairá department, near the small town of Villarrica, this site seems to whisper in a forgotten tongue. It is a place where stone remembers, where symbols carved long before the Spanish arrived continue to puzzle and inspire those who make the journey to see them. To visit Itá Letra is to step into the mystery of Paraguay’s deep past. It is not a grand site filled with tourists or signposts. It is modest, quiet, and yet hauntingly powerful. The rock faces covered in ancient markings rise from the green landscape like open books written in a language no one has yet been able to read. The site has been known to local people for centuries. The Guaraní, the Indigenous people of the region, have long considered the area sacred. They knew of the stones, called them “Itá Letra,” and believed that the...

There are places where stone feels alive. Not just old or weathered, but truly awake, shaped by deep time and human touch, carrying stories from before history into our own age. The Belogradchik Rocks in northwestern Bulgaria are one of those places. Rising from the earth in strange, almost sculptural forms, they seem less like geological features and more like sentinels keeping watch. Among them, the Belogradchik Fortress stands like a secret written in stone, a reminder that long before maps and nations, people understood the power of landscape and built with it, not against it. Belogradchik lies in the far northwest of Bulgaria, near the Serbian border, surrounded by the Balkan Mountains. The town itself is quiet and unhurried, its red rooftops blending into the rust-colored rock that looms above. It is the kind of place where you can still hear your footsteps echo. Above it all, the Belogradchik Rocks rise in towering formations, some over 200 meters high, glowing deep orange and p...

Samhain, pronounced sow-in, is one of the most significant festivals in the Celtic calendar. It marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, a threshold between light and darkness, life and death. Celebrated from sunset on October thirty first to sunset on November first, Samhain is a time when the boundary between the living and the dead is believed to be thinnest, allowing spirits to walk among the living. This ancient festival has influenced modern celebrations such as Halloween, yet its roots run far deeper into Celtic spirituality, mythology, and the rhythms of the land. Samhain originated among the ancient Celtic peoples of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. Its name comes from the Old Irish word Samuin, meaning summer’s end. It marked a turning point in the Celtic year, the shift from the light half of the year to the dark half. For early communities who lived closely with the seasons, this was not only a spiritual event but also a practical one. It sig...

In the far west of Cornwall, just outside the village of St Buryan, stands one of Britain’s most atmospheric ancient circles. Boscawen Un Stone Circle sits quietly in a field, surrounded by gorse and bracken. Boscawen Un is one of Cornwall’s most beautiful and intriguing prehistoric monuments. The more time you spend here, the more you sense that it was built with intention, not only in relation to the sky above but also to the living land beneath it. Boscawen Un stands about a mile west of St Buryan, near the tip of Cornwall. The name is Cornish and is thought to mean “the pasture of the elder tree.” It is fitting, because the site has a natural, living feel to it. You approach by walking along a small track that cuts through fields and hedgerows until suddenly the land opens, revealing a ring of weathered stones in a grassy clearing. Unlike some of the more exposed moorland circles such as The Merry Maidens nearby, Boscawen Un feels protected and hidden. It sits slightly sunken into ...

There are places in this world where silence feels alive. The Plain of Jars in northern Laos is one of them. The air carries a stillness that seems to hum just beneath the wind, as if the stones themselves are remembering. Spread across the highlands of Xiangkhoang Province, thousands of massive stone jars rest upon the grass, their mouths open to the sky. They have stood there for centuries, maybe millennia, silent witnesses to the passage of time. To walk among them is to enter a riddle. The Plain of Jars is a landscape that blurs the boundary between archaeology and myth. The jars are not arranged in neat lines or geometric plans, but scattered like thoughts across the land. No one knows with certainty who built them or why. Yet their presence feels deliberate, purposeful, almost sacred. Every jar holds the weight of a story that has slipped away from history but still lingers in the stones. The location The Xiangkhoang Plateau lies in north-central Laos, a region of rolling hills a...

In the quiet fields of southern Ohio, a serpent lies coiled upon the earth. It does not hiss or strike, nor has it moved in a thousand years, but its presence is undeniable. This great effigy of earth and clay, known as Serpent Mound, winds for more than 1,300 feet along a high ridge above Brush Creek. From above, its form becomes unmistakable, a serpent’s sinuous body, tail tightly coiled, its head turned toward an oval feature that some say represents an egg, the sun, or even the cosmos itself. Serpent Mound is not simply a monument of soil. It is a message written in the landscape. It is one of the most extraordinary ancient constructions in North America, and perhaps the world. It raises profound questions about the people who built it, their understanding of the universe, and the sacredness they found in the earth itself. The Location Serpent Mound rests in Adams County, in the rolling hills of southern Ohio. The mound occupies a high plateau overlooking Brush Creek, a tributary o...

There are moments in travel when time feels as though it folds in on itself. When the past becomes so tangible that you could reach out and touch it. For us, one of those moments happened at Borth Beach on the coast of Wales. We had come in search of the legendary petrified forest, the one that sometimes emerges from the sea. We didn’t know if we would actually see it. The tides rule this place, and most of the time the forest lies hidden beneath sand and waves. But that day, we were lucky. The tide was low, the sea calm, and as we walked across the wet sand, the dark stumps of ancient trees began to appear before us. The Ancient Forest Borth is a small seaside village on the west coast of Wales, just north of Aberystwyth. It sits along Cardigan Bay, a stretch of coastline known for its wide sandy beaches, dunes, and ever-shifting patterns of light. On most days, Borth looks like any other quiet coastal village, windswept, peaceful, and a little raw. But under its beach lies something ...