On the right side of Prahova rises the rocky massif of Bucegil, imposing and serious, a real stone fortress. Consisting of conglomerates and limestones, the waters here have carved a very well-developed karst relief with gorges and caves. The Bucegi massif is clearly demarcated from the surrounding regions by limestone cliffs of over 500 - 1000 m. They are part of the Southern Carpathians and are of the same age, 100 million years, as the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caucasus and the Himalayas.
The stone fortress of Bucegi holds a leading place in the chain of the Romanian Carpathians both by the grandeur and diversity of the views it offers and by the great richness of the flora, which includes numerous rare elements of great scientific value. Codri Bucegilor, and especially the forests of the Sinaia region, sheltered many outlaws fighting for justice in the distant past.
Apart from Nicolae Grozea from Brebu, the legend also tells about the outlaw Ioan Fluieraș, famous for his exploits throughout the Prahova Valley, loved by the locals and who offered him shelter when needed. The outlaw captain Stanciu al Bratului was also well known. A folk song says that they took the path of the forest after the men of the dominion tortured their father because he could not pay the burdensome dowries.
In front of Poiana Țapului village, on the left side of the road, the Piatra Arsă mountain appears, whose name is linked to a legend. Once upon a time the clouds fell over the Prahova Valley, the hills rose, the valleys swelled and the road between Muntenia and Transylvania was closed, because the shepherds from Tara Bârsei with their flocks had nowhere to cross beyond the mountains. But the Bârsan shepherd knows that you are not alone in his world and that Romanians are as many as the leaves of the forest on one side and the other of the Carpathians.
With a voice of cheers he called in the four parts of the world and so many Romanians had come that from dawn to dusk it was enough for them to raise between Vârful cu Dor and Jepi a mountain of clay taken from the Prahova Valley. The shepherds then piled logs of cut wood on top of it, set it on fire, the clay turning into rock. Since then this mountain has been called Burnt Stone.
The imposing silhouette of Caraimanului (2384 m) dominates the city, and a 48 m cross was erected on its top in memory of the Romanian soldiers who fell in the First World War.
Caraiman, dark and menacing, rises among the other mountains, with its steep cliffs, of which a piece seems to have broken off and hangs midway.
This bagpipe-like piece has a story handed down by tradition.
The huge mountain, with its jagged rocks, was once the home of a powerful sorcerer. When he blew his pipe, everything around him grew green and blossomed. With a good soul, the giant had a large family, and the children adored him. However, when it came time to divide the fortune, the children broke into a bitter quarrel. In an attempt to reconcile them, the Caraiman offered each of them an equal share. But this brought even more harm, because the lazy, reduced to poverty, envied the industrious, who had become rich. A battle ensued in which many perished.
Unable to reconcile them, the giant father grieved and wept so much that his tears became rivers to the sea. Furthermore, the children, now adults, rebelled against their father and tried to steal the bagpipes while the giant was sleeping. At that moment, there was such a strong storm that the earth and the sky were unrecognizable.
It is said that the giant now sleeps with his bagpipe at his waist, being a block of rock bent in the middle. Sometimes, when the storm breaks out in Valea Prahova, you can hear the sweet sound of bagpipes.
Source: Bucharest-Brașov on Prahova Valley (Ministry of Tourism, 1976)
