Pokaini Forest

Pokaini is an area of forest in Zemgale where the ground carries many hundreds of piles of stones, some small and some substantial, spread across a few hundred hectares of hilly wooded ground. What they are is disputed: a body of popular writing from the 1990s presented them as an ancient sacred landscape with healing properties, drawing large numbers of visitors, while archaeological assessment has identified most of them as agricultural field clearance from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the area farmed and later reforested. Marked trails run through the forest with named stones and information boards, and the site is managed with an entry charge. It remains a place of pilgrimage for some visitors.

What you actually see

• The stone piles - the heaps of stones spread through the forest.
• Marked trails - the routes past the named features.
• The wooded hills - the terrain the piles are scattered across.
• Visitor practice - the offerings and rituals some visitors perform.

When to go

May to October for the trails; the forest is muddy in spring and autumn rain. Weekends bring more visitors. Midsummer around Jani is a busy period for those who come for the site's reputed properties.

Honest expectations

The mystical claims made for the site are not supported by archaeological work, which attributes most piles to field clearance; the on-site presentation does not always make that clear. Trails are muddy. Entry is charged. Mosquitoes are severe in summer.

Nearby

Dobele lies northeast; Jelgava is east.