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The Bélmez Faces

This story was one of the first to "switch me on" to Fortean subjects. I read about it in a book on the unexplained, which I bought at school (one of those book fair events). Really not a suitable book for delicate children - this scared me shitless along with everything else in the book :Givingup:

I used to stare at the kitchen tiles in my grandfather's house and wonder what would appear through the terracotta linoleum :eek:
 
It would be good to get an update (in English). Does any brave investigator fancy a trip to Spain? There would be an excellent FT article in it.
 
ShadyCavalier said:
This story was one of the first to "switch me on" to Fortean subjects. I read about it in a book on the unexplained, which I bought at school (one of those book fair events). Really not a suitable book for delicate children - this scared me shitless along with everything else in the book :Givingup:

I used to stare at the kitchen tiles in my grandfather's house and wonder what would appear through the terracotta linoleum :eek:
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Yes, the Belmez faces put the wind right up me as a kid. Nowadays I am more minded to concur with my grandad's less than convinced, and somewhat brutally worded, conclusion when we pored over a Daily Express article on the faces some time back in the 70's.

These days many of the alleged faces look very much to me like the product of staining and natural efflorescence - although somewhat 'enhanced' in some cases.

Whatever the truth of the matter, it's a mystery to me why it's supposedly been a mystery to so many experts how the concrete could have been marked in such a way - concrete is very susceptible to staining from all kinds of sources, not least household products like white vinegar and lemon juice.
 
I re-read my book on the faces a short while ago, and just can't make up my mind. The way the faces changed over time to become other faces is just weird. The EVP definitely sounds rubbish, and the newer faces after Maria's death just don't look as impressive as the earlier ones.
 
Awesome find. I did not know that some of them still seem to exist!

When I was a child reading the Readers Digest Book of Strange Stories and Amazing Facts I had to skip the pages with the Belmez faces because I found them too scary.

Now I am in my fifties I find them still slightly chilling :)

I wonder why ghost paintings did not catch on? They seem so obvious. Belmez is the only one I can think of. Borley Rectory had ghost writing of course, and that was scary too.
 
What is weird is that the first ones seems very unusual, whereas the later ones just look like graffiti. I can see a scenario like so many hauntings where the initial phenomenon was related to those first few faces, and the rest were faked. The stone itself is also unusual looking where there isn't faces or figures emerging!
 
MrRING said:
What is weird is that the first ones seems very unusual, whereas the later ones just look like graffiti. I can see a scenario like so many hauntings where the initial phenomenon was related to those first few faces, and the rest were faked. The stone itself is also unusual looking where there isn't faces or figures emerging!
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What is not clear from the early photos is just how weird it was - these were dynamic formations where faces would shift and change into other faces and figures over the course of hours or days.
 
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