It’s hard to understand how a Bulgarian woman who died more than two decades ago can have such a hold on so many people, but that’s the reality of Baba Vanga, often referred to as the “Nostradamus of the Balkans.” We’ve reported on her 2018 predictions, including that China would become a superpower and we’ll discover a new energy source on Venus, as well as why there’s no reason to take her predictions seriously, but next we’ll examine her background.

Baba Vanga has been credited with predicting 9/11, the rise of ISIS, and the Boxing Day tsunami, among other world events, creating a huge cult following that has persisted since her death in 1996. She was born back in 1911 in present-day Strumica, Macedonia, in what was then the Ottoman Empire before being ceded to Bulgaria the very next year. As a child, she was thrown into the area by a tornado into a nearby field, in what she described as one of the pivotal events of her life. She lost her sight because of it, and was brought to a school for the blind in 1925 as a teenager.

Baba Vanga claimed that invisible creatures gave her incredible abilities, providing her with information about the world around her. Followers have claimed that her subsequent writings predicted the break-up of the Soviet Union, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and even Topalov’s victory in the world chess tournament.

Vanga claimed that she could see and talk to people who died hundreds of years in the past. She’s even said that there are aliens living on the Earth.

In 2011, a documentary was released called Vanga: The Visible and Invisible World that attempted to understand who she was as a person. And Channel One Russia produced a 24-episode biographical TV series on her.

Today, her legend continues to live on, fascinating generations of people around the world.