Welcome to the Devil's Town! 😈 - one of the most impressive wonders of nature.

There are many legends that are still passing among the people, and they became a part of this mystique tourist attraction, which is visited by 50,000 tourists yearly.
Mysticism of the town are the sculptures that are believed to be petrified wedding guests, the red color of the Red Well - naturally associated with the blood, the acoustic phenomenon, an old church near the sculptures and the change of the Yellow River flow, as the most recent miracle of nature.

Devil’s town

Devil’s town (Đjavolja varoš) is a natural monument located in the southern Serbia, on the south slopes of the mountain Radan, near Kursumlija (or, around 300 km from the capital - Belgrade). More precisely, in the village with the also strange name – Djake (Albanian word ˝gjak˝ - meaning blood).
Creepy? Just a bit 👀

map

The first legend (one of many)

This area used to be a very calm and peaceful town with a lot of religious people who enjoyed their lives. Of course, that was making Devil upset that he had to do his work. He created a Devil’s water with an ambition to ruin family ties between inhabitants and to make people forget their immediate ancestry with a goal of committing incest.
The water had influence as he wanted. They arranged a marriage between brother and sister.
The fairy that was protecting the town couldn’t clear people’s minds, so she prayed to God for help. He sends a strong storm on the earth which ended with turning bride, groom, and guests to stone.

The acoustic phenomenon is bizarre sounds (whistles, howls, cries, etc.) that wind gives moving between the towers. No one ever dared to stay here overnight. Too spooky.
People are telling stories that sometimes they can hear the music from the Devil’s town, like on the wedding parties…

Devil’s Town represents one of the most attractive natural wonders in the world. There is just a few more similar (in USA – Garden of the Gods; in Europe in the Alps), but this is the only place with a significant number of towers, that are larger and lasting for decades.

It was a nominee in the New Seven Wonders of Nature campaign

The peculiarity of Devil’s town is definitely the picturesque soil formations situated between the two gullies: Devil’s Gully (Đavolja jaruga) and Hell’s Gully (Paklena jaruga). But the complete town is comprised of one more phenomenon – two strangely named wells: Devil’s Well (Đavolja voda) and Red Well (Crveno vrelo).

A lot of devils here, right? 😝

Devil’s Well and the Red Well

Those are two springs located beneath this soil formations.
Devil’s Well is springing out in Devil’s gully – the left side of the watershed that divides the two gullies.

the left side of watershed (middle of this picture) - Devil's Gully; the right side - Hell's Gully

Devil’s Water (Đavolja voda) is extremely acidic (pH 1.5) and with high mineral concentration (some minerals are present up to a thousand times more than normal).
Red Well (Crveno vrelo) is less acidic (pH 3.5) and less mineralized, but due to iron oxidation, it has a markedly red color.

Because of the flat terrain, the water overflows going straight to the Yellow River (stream), leaving the colorful pattern on the ground...

... and very slippery...
I've experienced it, very hard.😏

On the second picture you can see ˝the trail˝ I've left, and I got some red marks on my clothes and more... I had to wash my hands in the Yellow River.

The Yellow River

Just a few years ago (2014) it happened another strange thing in Devil’s Town. The Yellow River has overflowed its banks. It flooded the base of the sculptures in the Devil’s Gully, but they are not damaged.
The river pulled out the trees with its roots, scattered heavy rocks and sand all over the place, and in just one night, its flow has been changed.

Water from the wells is not drinkable, but it is often used in the traditional medicine by the people around this area. It cures infection and surface wounds.

The other kind of wounds, those on the soul, visitors believed can cure in the nearby Church of St. Petka. There is a belief that if you put a piece of white cloth soaked with your regrets or soul pain on the trees that are in front of the church, all the worries will stay in the town.
White cloths stay on the trees for 7 days when are buried in the ground, so the suffering stays there forever.

St. Petka's Church

The second legend

written on the board close to the church:

One of the legends of the Devil's Town has it that the figures represent petrified devils, which the people carried on their backs for a long time, enduring evil and misfortune. Spending the night next by the St. Petka's Church, the people got rid of their demons which reminded petrified.

The church is built on the place that was the shrine of the Germanic tribe – the Saxons, miners who were brought here in the 13th century during the reign of Stefan Uroš I.
Mining was extremely important and very well developed industry at that time. There are three mine groves in the surrounding terrain from the medieval Nemanjić dynasty, where the ores of iron, copper, lead, zinc, gold, and silver were exploited. Only the one mine has been investigated, and it has 800m in length.

Geology of the soil formations

These unusual towers (pillars) represent a peculiar rock formation created by a rare form of soil erosion that started centuries ago. The erosion still forms new towers and also have made many disappeared. It looks like the place is alive, controlled by Devil. Who knows... 😇
Millions of years ago, this area was under the volcanic activity. We can see that through the colorful rocks that constitute the towers and through the volcanic rocks andesite (the most common volcanic rock after basalt) that are representing ‘caps’ or ‘heads’ of the towers.

Andesite solid stone blocks weight 100kg and more, standing on the 20-30cm peak of some towers.
Incredible!
They form caps which protect towers from the raindrops while the earth around them erodes slowly and due to the steep position, it is washed away leaving these mystical sculptures. As bigger the caps are, as better protection and longer life towers will have.
After they lose their protective "cap", relatively quickly they disintegrate, but equally quickly they are formed through water erosion.

Started with the men’s influence by cutting down the forests in this areas, and adding a
combination of steep location, soil content, rain, wind, sunlight, etc. it is enabled this to happen.
At least, people had some part in this unique nature architecture.
Now we have 202 towers, between 2m and 15m in high and up to 3m wide at the base.

The “Devil’s Town” is put under the protection of the state in 1959 and in 1995. It was declared a natural monument of great importance by the Republic of Serbia Government Decree, and it was put under the first category of protection – NATURAL MONUMENT. In total, 67ha were put under protection. Currently, a request for protection of 1014ha is reviewed by the RS Government
Devil's Town website

😇Adventurists and adrenalin seekers – you are more than welcome 😈

Photo Addition

Thank you for reading!