The discovery of the graves of suspected vampires in Bulgaria may turn into a tourism gold mine, according to local news reports.
During excavations of a monastery in the city of Sozopol, Bulgaria's National Museum of History says it unearthed two skeletons that showed the deceased person had been stabbed through the heart with an iron rod.
"This was (the) customary way (in) Bulgarian medieval tradition to deal with people which were presumed to be vampires," the museum's website says.
People at the time of the burial of the skeletons, about 700 years ago, thought that stabbing the corpses multiple times with an iron rod through the heart would prevent the dead from rising and attacking the living, museum director Bozhidar Dimitrov said, according to a report from the Sofia News Agency.
Dimitrov said more than 100 such "vampire" burials have been discovered in Bulgaria over the years, according to the Sofia News Agency.
But headlines of the latest find have piqued interest in the U.S., Europe and Asia, the report said, and tour operators are fielding inquiries about what it called "vampire vacations."
Already, people were lining up at the excavation site at the monastery of St. Nicolas the Wonderworker, the Sofia News Agency reported.
Big lines for vampires could pump even more blood into the country's expanding tourism industry. Bulgaria led the European Union last year in the increase in hotel occupancy by foreigners, with numbers up almost 20% over the previous year.
No stats on how many of those folks slept with the lights on, however.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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zombies are better. hahaha.
ironically i have been watching 'True Blood' and thought this was interesting.
They're not real vampires because their abdomens don't sparkle in the daylight.
Wish I was still stationed over there so the trip would be easier......oh and I wouldn't be surrounded by people who can actually play six degrees of seperation between 700 year old remains and idealistic ploticial parties in the U.S. You people crack me up. Not everything revolves around fighting over dems and GOP. May be you guys should sign up to see the vamps in Bulgaria and just take the day off the soap box.
This happened 700 years ago? It's no doubt OBAMA's fault!!
Has someone forgotten that these are humans? And that these corpses should be treated with respect?
u know the funny things .. and it was a fake finding ... sure it must be said, the director of the office for tourism in Bulgaria ins't stupid .... the tourists are, and he knows it.!
First we have zombies in Miami, now this? I wonder if those "vampires" glittered like in those atrocious movies...
Yeah, and only a 700year gap between events! Stay tuned for more thrilling coinsidences!
"I'm sure that Nancy Pelosi is a vampire because she sucks!"
LMAO you made my day!
honey, what do you wanna do for vacation this year? Sweetie, I would really like to see those "dead" vampires in Sozopol, Bulgaria!
Every Republican and their Greedy As Helll Big Business Pig Friends are easily all Vampires... they sure suck the life blood out of every single solitary American's bank account and desire for a fair political and financial system.
As a matteer of fact, the whole post is absurd.
This is NOT representative of my views at all.
We don't need no stinkin vampires,they all suck don't they,nothing good to have,its all imported!!!
I give up. I've been around since Bella Lagosi vampire movies and still haven't seen a real live dead vampire. What I have seen are some living creatures that come in the classification of Aliens such as Grey's, Tall Whites and Amphibians. They are enough to jar you back into reality.
cool article - kev might like it too!
You can't blame those people 700 years ago. Their logic was sound. If you pound an iron spike through a dead person, he will not come back to life and attack the living. I bet they had a 100% success rate with that plan.