Crooked Forest, Poland

A clump of 400 trees in Poland's Krzywy Las, or "Crooked Forest", are curiously twisted, combining science fiction with ecological aberration. The trees curve out at 90 degrees, forming a weird J-shape with a potbelly floating just above the ground. The trees are likewise well-kept, with all of their bends facing northward. Nobody knows how the trees got their unusual shape and structure, and the theories about them range from plausible to fantastic. The most compelling genesis idea is that the trees were buried by heavy snow while they were young. Others, however, feel that the gravitational force of the location affected the trunks.

According to one theory, the trees were sculpted by foresters after they were planted in 1925-1928. They apparently planned to make furniture out of bent forms and bent the trees when they were 10 years old. The foresters severely limited the trees' development by denying them vertical growth. The trees were most likely abandoned after WWII began in 1939, leaving a lasting ecological effect for decades to come.

Despite whatever previous causes warped them, every single tree in the Crooked Forest has the same hook-shaped bent and lofty stature. The trees continued to thrive, relying on the one branch that remained to perform the function of the other missing branches in order to survive. Whatever happened, it had to have happened to every single tree, because they all had the same deformed characteristics. Because of the area's abandonment by residents during WWII, the world may never know how the trees came to be this way.