Many people think Transylvania is a fictitious l&, like Ruritania or Narnia. It is the birthplace of Dracula. It is the place where dragons live in Harry Potter & the country to which the Pied Piper spirited the children of Hamelin. Indeed, although Transylvania is a real place, truth here is often stranger than fiction. Streams run with silver, the mountains are full of gold, dinosaur nests are found in river beds & haystacks in trees. It is a country of striking cultural contrasts: of Orthodox monasteries, Gothic churches & Communist follies. While the ` King of the Gypsies` lives in a grandiose modern palace, the future King of England has bought a modest peasant`s house in a remote village. Transylvania only recently awakened from the deep sleep of Communism &, though life is now changing fast, traditions remain here that elsewhere died out long ago. Transylvania captures this vanishing world in words & pictures.