UFO over Nova Zagora (January 2016)

On 15 January 2016 a bulgarian news site run a story about a UFO sighting near the city of Nova Zagora that happened a day earier. A reader claimed that he witnessed a military jet chasing a strange object. Soon this UFO case went global.

It even appeared in the popular site "Mysterious Universe":

Bulgarian Jets Chase UFO Near Mysterious UFO-Shaped Building

One of the comments stated this:

"Looks like an A-10, I doubt the Bulgarians fly them, so the pic is fake."

But that is not correct. There are american A-10 in Bulgaria. They participate in military excersises.

Meanwhile I found another interesting article in another website. It was published 4 days earlier on 11 January 2016. Here is the translation:

„Unknown” airplane alarmed websites. It turned out this was air drill

“24 chasa”, 11.1.2016

Today afternoon an unknown airplane alarmed planespotting websites with its strange movement.

Ministry of Defense commented for “24 chasa” that it is probably a plane participicating in the NATO international aviation drill that started on 4th January.

For this excersise for the first time USA sended to Bulgaria ten planes А-10 that supports infantry. But in this case it might be КС-135 air tanker.

According to online map flightradar24.com the plane came from north and after reaching Stara Zagova it began its strange movement. First it headed toward Hisaria and Panagiurishte, then turned toward Burgas and over Karnobat it turned again toward Sofia. Then it started to make circles over Sliven and Straldja. In 16:30 the plane approched borders of Turkey and Greece. In 17:00 it switched off its transponder and dissapeared from the radar.

The plane mostly circles over military training ground in Novo Selo which means that it was doing operative tasks in the aviation drills, commented from Ministry of Defense.

http://www.24chasa.bg/Article.asp?ArticleId=5226275

I am very sceptical about this sighting. I doubt it is an unknown craft on the picture. No other witnesses came forward and no video was realised. Probably it was just another military jet seen from a different angle or maybe even a bird.

Personal stories from Bulgaria (Ghosts)

A young woman sent me this story in 2013

Ghost in an apartment building in Veliko Tarnovo (2010)

...But the story is very interesting and I still wonder if it is possible. It was exactly 3 years ago. I was working in a flower shop whose owner was the father of the boy involved. His name is M. and his girlfriend is D. They rented an apartment, they have lived together and they had no troubles till this moment. Only the rent was strangely low, that is very strange for a city like Veliko Tarnovo where rents are quite high.

All started one night with the wake of their dog. It started to bark toward the door. Almost every night this animal barked toward the empty space and nobody was able to calm it. They did not pay big attention to this until one morning M. found his shoes in front of the mirror. Whereever he put them in the evening on the next morning they were always next to each other in front of the mirror.

My friends became worried. D. did not want to stay alone in the apartment unit. They stopped to turn off lights in the night, TV was always on, the dog continued to bark against the void. One day in the shop D. made a scandal to M. She accused him that he was in the apartment with other woman because the bed was a mess. At that day M. did not leave the shop at all so I and other collegues calmed D. One night M. saw a girl around 10-12 years old in the mirror. They called a priest to make a ritual but the girl showed up one more time and again only M. saw her. They went to an old woman who told them to buy some clothing and to give it to a girl the same age as the ghost. They did that but I don't know if it worked as I left this job at that time. I have heard that ghosts of children do not leave easy. M. and D. talked to their neighbours in the apartment building. They asked if some kind of tragedy has happend in this unit but nothing of that kind has happend. One of the famous mediums in Veliko Tarnovo [name withheld] lives two floors under their apartment. I call them witches because they non-stop call ghosts of the dead and maybe she is the the reason why the ghost of the girl appeared.

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I received this in 2013.

One friend has a house in Botevgrad. It is one of the oldest and it is home of strange "activity". My friend's mother has a photo album with pictures of people who should not be on the photographies.

This picture is taken in this house and it shows a ball that was not present at the moment.

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A young woman sent me some stories from Varna and around

This story is from January (2013). The grandmother of one of my friends has died. I had a medical operation in January and I slept at my friend's home. At one night when he was in the bathroom, I heard that someone is opening and closings furniture lockers as if he was searching for something. I thought it was my friend but he was still in the bathroom. Also the place where the old lady used to sit and to watch TV was always warm.

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Mall Varna is close to the cemetery and a lot of people claim that they have seen ghosts there. One collegue told me that he has seen a shadow of an old man in front of the elevator.

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But the most interesting story is this.

In Spring of 2007 we did christening of my cousin and I was godmother. The priest was very nice. He is a real holy man, he helps addicts. When he talks you feel so peaceful.

I am interested in religion and I went again to him. There were some old ladies in front of his house who told me some unbelievable stories how the priest helped and cured them. At first I didn't believe them.

The priest invite me in a room and we talked. Then a couple came in. The woman looked sick and pale as if she was very ill. The man explained how they went to doctors but they did not find anything. Doctors told him it was all psychological. The man did not believe in magic but he has heard about the priest and they decided to come.

The priest started to talk and in the same time the woman felt bad. She told him to stop talking. We all were stunned but the priest said that she was not the one that was talking. He went to take some holy water. When the priest returned he told the man to hold his wife and she started to writhe just as in the movie "Exorcist". He sprayed her with the water and some steam started to rise from her. This was impossible! I was very frightened! Soon she calmed. The priest said that the unholy spirit was still not chased away and she should come again. Then the priest and the man went outside to talk. I was with the woman and she told me that she knew there was something in her but nobody believed her.

Later I heard that the priest chased away the evil spirit and even helped the couple to have children. I wanted to find again this priest but he has moved to another village.

Personal stories from Bulgaria (UFO)

These are some of the sotries I've received from the readers of my blog.

In 2010 a young boy sent me this story:

It was August 2009 around 22:00. Me and my father were in a villa near the city of Ruse. We went outside and my father spotted something in the sky, he showed it to me. It looked like a plane in the night but it was stationary. I just decided to go inside to take binoculars when it started to move! It made a circle and passed right above the house. It formed something like a spiral. Everything was white. Then it vanished. We heard that there was a hole in the ground on the place where it vanished.  The soil inside was frozen.

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In 2011 I received a story from a young girl about a UFO sighting in Gabrovo from 2008:

We were in school (2nd grade elementary school) and one of my schoolmates was looking through the window. He said with wonder that a military jet is chased by an oval object. All rushed to the window to see what is going on and to see if he was lying. Something was really chasing the plane. There was not enough room for me on this window so I rushed to another one. I looked through the window that was facing the Maths high school. I think I saw the object to fall behind that school.

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I received this story in 2013:

Around 5 years ago me and my girlfriend were in Aiazmoto - this is a park with alleys and benches on a hill close to the city of Stara Zagora. It was summer and we were sitting on a bench and we were talking. We were 18-19 years old at that time. There were no lights around and we were watching the night sky. There were some stars between the trees. I was looking at a star - not the brightest but bright enough. We both were looking in that direction. We talked about half an hour when exactly this star made a move like a falling star leaving a trail. It seemed that this movement is not down but up toward space. The trail was short. A second later everything was gone. I looked at my girlfriend and ask her if she has seen the same. She told me "yes". We stayed there 2-3 more minutes but the star did not appear again. There were no clouds, there were no trees there to hide it - it just dissapeared. We talked a little about that then we felt scared and we left.

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These photos were sent to me by a reader of the blog. All of them are made in 2013. I have cropped and zoomed some of the objects.

First 2 photos are taken over Rupite. They look like classical UFO known as "flying saucers".

Next picture is taken on 17 September 2013 over Belasitza mountain.

Another picture from Belasitza mountain (Spring 2013)

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UFO over Dolna Dikanya (8 august 2013)

We (me and my husband) were on our villa in Dolna Dikanya. My husband does not believe in UFO or in God. We were outside around 20:00 and we were smoking and talking. There is a small hill to the right that is called Radzovitca. Suddenly a UFO appeared from there - a bright light. We were horrified and stunned.

We watched these lights - they moved slowly, without noise, they were very bright. They passed over our house. They made rapid zigzag movement and my husband said that this was a UFO. He said it - he who don't believe in UFO!

We were not able to sleep that night from fear. We heard that neighbours have seen them too but no one is talking. On the next day a helicopter was circling there - I don't know if it had any connection to the UFO sighting. I think that military knows but they are silent too.

From that day my husband believes in UFO.

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I received this story from a young man in 2013:

I think it was 2006 - I was on holiday in Burgas in the summer. My dad was out to a restaurant with a friend but I was not feeling well and I stayed at the room. I turned on the TV. At one time I went out to the terrace. I looked at the sky. It was beautiful and I felt very good. There was a tall hotel building in front of me. Suddenly something like light emerged behind the hotel. I did not pay attention because I thought it was a helicopter. But then for just a second a lot of new thoughts crossed my mind. Thoughts which I never imagined that I would think. Then I realised that the object had no typical movement of a helicopter or an airplane. It was silent and moved like a car with a drunk driver - you can not predict the course of its movement. These are some of the thoughts I mentioned:

"I did not realize that God could have created everything, not only for people because the earth is only a very small section of the entire cosmos. Like pin between the needles"

This fluttered in my mind very quickly. Immediately I ran home and I took my camera and started shooting. Here comes the surprise - in the pictures ther was only the sky. Naked sky, nothing else. I saw the camera focusing on the object and it was right in the frame but the picture showed only naked sky. I was dumbfounded, I was scared, I looked up and I saw part of it passes over the building. It was something like three knotted balloons that change color and rotate. The colors were blue, yellow, green , etc. but I was in shock and could not remember them all. Since then I know we are not alone in space. I do not feel surprise but rather awe.

Mysterious places in Bulgaria: Markova mekhana

The remains of the fortress Markova mekhana (bulgarian: Маркова механа) are located 600 meters from the pass Gate of Trajan. More often this fortress and the whole place are called "Gate of Trajan" too. It dates from the time of the Roman empire. In ancient times it was called Stipon. Archeological excavations took place there in 1975.

Years before the excavations people from villages Gorno Varshilo and Dolno Varshilo were passing near the remains of the ancient fortress on their way to cities of Kostenetz, Samokov and Ihtiman where they were selling their production of grapes and cherries. Near the fortress, when it got dark, people started to hear some strange hissing. In the villages people started to talk that these noises are made by samodivas.

In the folklore samodivas are unearthly beautiful creatures, but in most cases hostile to people. They live in the mountains and only come out at night in the woods and on the roads. They can enchant passengers. Therefore the inhabitants of the two villages were very careful when they were passing near the Gate of Trajan.

After the excavations, hissing stops. It is assumed that it was caused by a vortex of air in a semi-open tunnel, which has been blocked by the other side.

The area itself has a very bloody history. The Gate of Trajan is one of the few passages between the field of Sofia and the Upper Trakia Valley. Therefore, all rulers fiercely defended the pass, starting from the Thracian tribe Bessi. After them Romans and Byzantines were the next to rule this pass. It is believed that the passage is named after the emperor Trajan.

Here in 986 bulgarian tzar Samuil defeated the Byzantine army. Here for 7 years, Bulgarians hold against Ottoman invasion. The countless hordes of Ottoman turks finally managed to capture the Bulgarian fortress but many of them died.

In the winter of 1443-1444 the crusaders of Vladislav Varnenchik reached the Gate of Tajan in his first campaign against the Turks. The next year he decided to go through Northern Bulgaria, knowing very well how difficult it is to capture this passage. 

In the time of the Ottoman Empire the passage is full of bandits. Nothing helped against them neither quartered Turkish army garrison, nor that Bulgarian villages Klissura (now extinct) and Vetren who were exempted from some of the taxes to the Empire in exchange for guarding the pass against bandits. Ultimately during the Middle Ages, the pass was abandoned because of banditry and people began to use the way through Momin prohod, Kostenetz and Belovo.

In 1877-1878 in the passage of Trajan, Turks dug trenches and were preparing for a decisive battle againt the Russian army, but because of the disorganization and panic they fled to Pazardzhik giving this strategic area without a fight.

Are the ghosts of all who died there still haunting this place?

The area has another peculiarity. In 1969 a small plane fell there. Rescuers were looking four days for it. It turns out that there is an "air hole" over this place. Since then, planes do not fly over there. So It can be called the "Bulgarian Bermuda Triangle."

Most of the information for this material is taken from the book of Miho Tchervenkov - "City of  Kostenetz and the valley. Book One: from antiquity to 1878."

I live in this region, and I know about some of the things described in the book of Miho Tchervenkov, but others were new even for me. Still for others I have different information. I have heard that the "air hole" is not over the Trajan Gate, but near the village of Verinsko. During the communist era a grain warehouse was built there so in case of a war with Western world, it would be hard for the enemy aircrafts to bomb it. But maybe I am wrong or there are two "air holes" - over Verinsko and over The Gate of Trajan.

Finally some pictures of the fortress Markova Mekhana from Wikipedia: