Bhangarh Fort: The Ruined City India Closes by Law at Sunset
There is a sign at the entrance to Bhangarh Fort in Rajasthan, and it is not the work of a tour operator trying to raise a shiver. It was put there by the Archaeological Survey of India, which is a department of the government, staffed by archaeologists, in the business of preserving monuments and issuing tickets. The sign, in English and Hindi, states that entering the boundaries of Bhangarh before sunrise and after sunset is strictly prohibited, and that legal action will be taken against anyone who does. Read that again, because it is the single most remarkable fact in the entire literature of haunted places. Every other site in this genre closes at night because of liability, or vandalism, or because the caretaker wants to go home. This is a national government, in an official notice, at a protected archaeological monument, forbidding human beings to be inside a ruined city after dark. The Survey has never officially said why, and when pressed, its people give the sensible answe...