Faces of Belmez

This month Minnie is exploring the alphabet by digging out the unusual, often unexplained and alternative way of thinking. Stories of creatures, places and mysteries that have been passed down to us through centuries tease our imagination, live in our dreams and dare us to explore the impossible. Join Minnie each day as she discovers something unusual in the alphabet.

"Mirror, mirror in the floor, tell me who you so adore."

In August 1971, Maria Gomez Pereira discovered a strange image of a man's face that had appeared on her kitchen floor. A few days later she had the floor ripped out and replaced it only to find that the face reappeared in exactly the same place within a week.

Faces of Belmez

 Before she got the chance to rip out the floor a second time the slab was removed and preserved by local authorities. Investigations into the site on which the house was built revealed that the site had once been a graveyard and as such it was decided that the floor of the house should be excavated to see what lay beneath. After digging down some nine feet, human remains were found and promptly removed and the floor was once again replaced. After just two weeks a variety of new faces once again appeared on the floor.  Hoax or not, the faces of Belmez created quite a stir in this little Spanish town.