In Buzău Land, near the village of Terca, we can see a rare and spectacular phenomenon: the Eternal Flames. These are natural fires that burn almost ceaselessly, straight from the earth. The source of these flames is methane gas that reaches the surface after journeying from a depth of 3 km. Get ready for a bit of a climb, but also for a breathtaking landscape and for many good stories. The flames, burning since before memory, will greet you at the end of the hike.

Here we can find a lot of places with mud volcanoes. Some of the volcanoes give rise to mud flows, while others generate small explosions. They are completely harmless, but they mimic at a small scale the eruptions of volcanoes from Hawaii or Stromboli. Whether it’s cones and calderas, or tall and dwarf volcanoes, you can see the eruptions with your own eyes! The good news is, you’re perfectly safe as long as you don’t disturb the sleeping dragon. What’s that? You didn’t know about the dragon?

Yes, your guess is right! This time we’re talking about real volcanoes. Join us for a trip to discover the petrified ashes that were erupted over 10 million years ago. The ash is made of microscopic crystals and glass shards, broken during volcanic explosions, then thrown into the atmosphere and carried by the wind around the globe. We know that these particular ash deposits were brought by the winds, and we also know they came from afar. However, we have no clue where the volcanoes were located. In any case, get ready to see white, green, gray or even pink ash layers.

In Romanian they are called “trovanți”. The word comes from Italian, and means strange stone of unknown origin. We can find a lot of them in Buzău Land, as well as on Mars. We’re not sure how the Martians call them, but here they are known as Old Ladies and Old Men. We have a lot of stories about them, too. Locals tell us about the mischievous spirits dwelling inside these stones, while geologists talk about the prehistoric delta where the sand was deposited. Either way, we all know they are the Children of the Earth. Come and find out why!

If you decide to go on a picnic in Buzău Land, don’t bother to bring salt along. Here you’ll find, literally, mountains of salt. You have the opportunity to explore one of the largest salt deposits in the world, to walk through white valleys and canyons, to take pictures of crystals and salt stalactites, to make soup with brine coming directly from the earth, and to eat a lot of seaberries, because they also like salt and tend to grow all over it. After a visit to Buzău Land, you’ll never forget how stones taste.

If you know where and how to look, you might just find a piece of amber, a gemstone that’s actually the fossilized resin of prehistoric trees. There used to be 13 amber mines here, where people extracted grains as small as a nail, but also as big as a pumpkin. You’ll find pieces that are yellow, orange, green or black. The most precious amber, however, is the red variety known as rumanite, which is found only in Buzău Land.

If you’re a history enthusiast and enjoy a good mystery, Buzău Land will give you plenty of reasons to spend many sleepless nights. For one, you can find a lot of strange symbols, drawings and inscriptions in Cyrillic, but also in an undeciphered alphabet, on rocky cliffs and boulders scattered throughout forests. However, the most remarkable are the rock-hewn dwellings, carved in stone by a mysterious people who came here in the Late Antiquity. Later on, Christian monks made them their homes. We’ve documented over 20 rock-hewn dwellings so far, but many more must be hidden in the mountains. Can you discover more?

What would it be like to go to the beach in the mountains? What would it be like to visit the bottom of a sea without a diving suit? What about crossing a sea without a boat? In Buzău Land you can do all these in a way you’ve never imagined before! Tens of millions of years ago, this place was far from being the mountainous area we see today. It was the abyssal plain of a prehistoric sea, a few kilometers deep. Over time, the mountains started growing and the sea gradually dried out and shallowed. Buzău Land became a coastal area, rich in deltas, lagoons and lakes. Then, it grew into the hilly and mountainous area we enjoy today. Many rocks and fossils are witnesses of this complicated history, and you can explore, discover and decipher their stories.

Did you know that in the last 100,000 years there have been three great ice ages? The last one ended almost 12,000 years ago. At about that time, we humans began to cultivate fields and gave up our old nomadic lifestyle. This turning point in human history has left many visible marks all over Buzău Land, including glacial valleys, lakes formed by the melting of ice, polished and eroded rocks, or huge boulders carried by glaciers and left in places where you would never expect to find them. Here you’ll see all kinds of ditches and niches carved into stones. Did people make them in Antiquity, or was it the glaciers in prehistory?

Buzău Land is a completely rural area, which has long been isolated from other places. A unique culture was born here, and is still alive today, with its ancestral traditions and lifestyles. We can still find a lot of traditional villages, people who live in the middle of forests, and communities coexisting in harmony with nature, still relying on old sustainable techniques. If you want to feel free and discover the joys of living a simple life, Buzău Land can offer you this experience.

Buzău Land is one of the wildest places in Europe. Here we have vast forests, secular trees and a rich biological diversity that includes over 60 habitats and all three great predators: the wolf, the bear and the lynx. Whether you want to explore the northern forests or the open, rolling hills to the south, whether you’re interested in mammals, reptiles, birds or insects, this is the place for you. You’ll have rich experiences and the chance to observe local animals and migratory species from the Mediterranean. Did you know that a plant the dinosaurs used to eat 65 million years ago, is still growing here today?

An area such as Buzău Land has many hidden treasures, whether it is stories, recipes, tales or legends, or ethnographic, archaeological and geological riches. If you spend enough time with us, you can discover them all. But if you’re in a hurry, if you simply want an introduction to Buzău Land before you start exploring, if it rains outside or if you simply want to meet some of our best storytellers, then visit our museums! We always open new visiting points, and each one is unique and interactive.