Back to the homepage

Careful... Vakeyn is watching at you

Bec Cresin

(Piedmont's Magick)

"Steep rose the ridge / ghostly peaks climbed the sky"
(Genesis 2, 2)

Scusa, preferirei leggere il testo in Italiano text.

The Bec Ceresin (in piedmontese: Bec=Beak, Ceresin=I don't know) is a rock in the Valleys of Lanzo (outside Turin).

Legends says that near the Bec ancient & arcane witchcraft meeting were held.

Is it true? Is it false?

Let's discover it...

Click here to open the full-sized image (341x545 pixels, 24Kb): View from downhill (village of Pialpetta).
The Bec Ceresin (visible in the center skyline) is about 640 meters (or an unknown number of feet) higher.
It may appears a short trip, but the truth is different.
Click here to open the full-sized image (581x610 pixels, 114Kb): Starting from Turin, the road to the Bec is marked in red.
The road touches the underlined towns.
If you get lost, remember that your destination are the three Valleys of Lanzo:
Val di Vių, Val d'Ala e Val Grande (that concerns us).
The red square at the end is the area is covered by the next map.
Click here to open the full-sized image (744x595 pixels, 118Kb): The Sentiero Italia [Italia Trail], part of the Gran Tour des Alps (that crosses all the Alps),
starts from the village of Migliere.
The Bec Ceresin is underlined on the left.
The line on the right is 1 Km long, divided in hundreds of meters.
The area marked with a X is the one with the stone structures (more on this later)
Click here to open the full-sized image (899x589 pixels, 87Kb): Shortly after the village of Migliere you will find this roadsign.
Follow it, and good luck.
Click here to open the full-sized image (910x582 pixels, 101Kb): After crossing a bridge over the Stura, you will see this rock.
Caution: the times shown are much too optimistic.
From here on the trail is marked (sometimes) with the red symbol GTA.
Click here to open the full-sized image (354x543 pixels, 24Kb): My climbing has took about 2 hour and half.
The trail, as the Santa Fe Trail, is dotted with the skeletons of those who didn't make it.
The silence is impressive, and can induce strange feelings. I remember I thought:
"If at once a velociraptor would come out from the trees, in which direction should I jump?"
Click here to open the full-sized image (723x478 pixels, 68Kb): After 2 hours and half, and a litre of sweat, your steadfastness will be rewarded.
You will emerge in the plain, where you will admire on your right the Bec Ceresin,
and on your left (photo) the "Pera Cagna" or "Roc del Diao" (Bitch Stone or Devil's Rock).
Apparently this is the place of the ancient arcane ceremonies.
Click here to open the full-sized image (356x541 pixels, 59Kb): Straightly in front of the Roc del Diao you will note this tree. My thoughts were:
1) This is the biggest birch I've ever seen;
2) This is the highest (intended as altitude) birch I've ever seen;
3) Coupling this with the Roc, here we have something magick.
So I take a photo.
My Mum saw it and said: "But this isn't a birch, it's a yew".
Oh, well.
Click here to open the full-sized image (902x592 pixels, 80Kb): This is the view towards the other side of the plain.
The photo has been taken from the Alpe di Trione (the houses at height 1649).
Please note the stupendous blue of the sky (a little spoiled by the scanner).
In the background you will see the stone structures, detailed ahead.
Click here to open the full-sized image (378x590 pixels, 41Kb): Again from the Alpe di Trione, this is the fall.
The noise of the water is the only sound you will hear in all the plain.
Well, beside the buzzing of the insects.
Click here to open the full-sized image (904x589 pixels, 102Kb): The weirdest characteristic of the plain are these strange stone structures.
They are somewhat similar to mounds.
Its difficult to understand (for me, at least) the reason behind their construction.
Click here to open the full-sized image (907x588 pixels, 99Kb): View from the other side of the plain.
The Alpe di Trione is in the upper right, the fall outside the field of vision on the right,
the Roc del Diao on the left background. In the foreground, the mysterious structures.
Click here to open the full-sized image (906x585 pixels, 83Kb): The Bec Ceresin raises over the mounds.
Who knows the weird ceremonies that these stone had seen, before the dawn of civilization?
Click here to open the full-sized image (908x585 pixels, 88Kb): It's apparent that the mounds are aligned in some way.
Maybe an alignement with Sigma Draconis, at the time of the Age of the Lion?
Click here to open the full-sized image (907x594 pixels, 98Kb): Photographic Miracle (self-timer).
Although not fully visible, the author is wearing its beloved Confederate kepė.
Possibly the Rebel who ventured eastward the most?
"General Stuart told me to march that way, and so I marched..."
Click here to open the full-sized image (382x591 pixels, 40Kb): Detail of the Bec. I'm told that the trees on the top of the rock are typical of the Pyrenees,
but apparently are the only ones of their kind in Italy.
Click here to open the full-sized image (380x589 pixels, 35Kb): Another detail.
Click here to open the full-sized image (600x600 pixels, 40Kb): From the series "It was many a time ago".
The same place, circa 1981.
Beloved hairs, where have you gone?

Back to the homepage

This page hosted by Get your own Free Homepage