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.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Vampires are common folkloric feature in the Eastern Europe. Bulgaria feared the vampires in the middle ages as much as the aviators feared gremlins in the first half of the 20th century.
More like murder victims graves or people whose bodies were impaled after they died graves.
Salem Massachusets all over again
So was an alien spacecraft crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico and it created a tourist attraction; and a certain Pope declared that Peter the Apostle was buried under St.Peter's Bassilica and it created a tourism industry.
marvelous
Romney vs Frankenstein (Obama)
Put simply, better the devil you don't know. Vote Romney
pfft! As if. I'll take Frankie over the Count any day.
No way, Jose! Barack for President!
Someone with a name like Chaney (Cheney) would say that. You must be a 1 percenter.
I don't understand how politics is being brought up out of this article
Romney aka Romania...Blood sucking vampire aka Bain Capital ( Count Romney)..that makes sense...
more fearsome of the brain-dead political zombies who can only contribute this type of garbage to every non-political article.
Is there not something better you can contribute to society? There are better things in life than politics and snotty comments on a a cnn board.
This doesn't work, I was stabbed through the heart after I died but I'm still here.
Liberals, you will all become conservatives right after you are mugged for the first time.
Why would that affect somebody who survive an iron rod through the heart?
Hey hole..i was mugged for eight years with Bush/Cheney and gang...nuff said...
The Dude Abides!
...it really tied the room together.
I knew vampires were real. We should hunt them
" Big lines for vampires could pump even more "blood" into the country's expanding tourism industry." Looks like the vampeditor could not control his.... excitement !! HUHUHUHUHU HAA HAAA HAAAA HAAAAA !!!
Oh brother, zombies in the West, vampires in the East. Who's up next?
Did the skeletons have fangs?
Here in America we have our own vampires who strike every April 15th. They're from the Internal Revenue Service.
"I vant to drink your blood! Bwaaaa Haaaaa Haaaaa!"