Real Locations that should be fantasy

[Trebuchet]

Those pictures of Spider Cave they've got on the site don't do it justice. That "Tight squeeze" is about 30 feet long, maybe three feet wide, and about 18" high... and filled -- FILLED -- with spiders. Millions of them. Billions of them. On the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor, in your hair, in your clothes... a thirty foot crawl on your belly through a chute so tight you cannot turn around, cannot back up, cannot see anything except that tiny circle of light from your helmet...

I highly recommend it.

If I ever needed proof spelunkers are insane... the woman is actually smiling like she's enjoying herself.

"Yes, let's all crawl through the tiny underground passage too small to turn around in and filled with spiders! It's fun!"

[Lord Liaden]

I've been to Kutna Hora (the bone cathedral in the czech republic). It's very strange, but not really worth the drive from Prague IMO.

From a tourist's point of view, that may be a fair assessment. Of course its main benefit to us here is as evocative fantasy imagery. I daresay that photos from this plus the Museum of the Dead could add up to one deeply unsettling necromancer's lair for PCs to stumble into.

[Lord Liaden]

If I ever needed proof spelunkers are insane... the woman is actually smiling like she's enjoying herself.

"Yes, let's all crawl through the tiny underground passage too small to turn around in and filled with spiders! It's fun!"

Look at it this way: after starting out like this, the rest of your day almost has to be an improvement.

[Mirgos]

A couple of places from my childhood - an old souterain in Dundalk & Milner's Tower in Port Erin, Isle of Mann. They just seemed so evocative they inspired me. When I'm trying to write I just try to remember how I felt then. If I went back now I'm sure it would be disapointing but the memory lives.
http://www.iomguide.com/right-photos.php?482

[teh bunneh]

If I ever needed proof spelunkers are insane... the woman is actually smiling like she's enjoying herself.

"Yes, let's all crawl through the tiny underground passage too small to turn around in and filled with spiders! It's fun!"

Yep, pretty much.

Actually, it was pretty fun...

[Gawain]

Native Americans say it's a sacred place. Geologists say it's the eroded remains of a volcanic intrusion. But the Devil's Tower looks to me like a druid or wizard's stronghold.

Devil's Tower, Wyoming
Devils Tower National Monument

[GoldenAge]

There's an interesting place that I visited as a child right in the middle of Missouri... Elephant Rocks

More pics here and here.

(Sorry if this local has already been posted)

[Lord Liaden]

Native Americans say it's a sacred place. Geologists say it's the eroded remains of a volcanic intrusion. But the Devil's Tower looks to me like a druid or wizard's stronghold.

Devil's Tower, Wyoming
Devils Tower National Monument

Hmm... close up it looks rather like those basalt formations in the British Isles. And don't those holes piercing its sides look like windows?

[Lord Liaden]

There's an interesting place that I visited as a child right in the middle of Missouri... Elephant Rocks

More pics here and here.

(Sorry if this local has already been posted)

And here, with more shots of humans next to them for scale. And nope, you're the first one to point this out.

IMO if you squint a little, they look like game pieces for titans.

[Mirgos]

Hmm... close up it looks rather like those basalt formations in the British Isles. And don't those holes piercing its sides look like windows?

Do you mean the Giant's Causeway?

[Lord Liaden]

Yes, and Fingal's Cave and the Cliffs of Ulva in Scotland. (See my post #25 upthread.)

Use the three of them together with the Devil's Tower, and you'd have all the visual elements for one grand island fortress of enchantment.

[Mirgos]

Aye that's right - all one geologic formation. But it always seemed like it could be a Mythos creation. Perhaps the remains of some megaweapon from the Permian (or something like that)

[Chris-M]

Lake Nyos in Cameroon would be a nice addition to this list as well. Not only is it a beautiful/interesting place unto itself, but it's deadly -- having once killed every living creature within a 15-mile radius through completely natural processes.

[Mirgos]

Was that the one where the cloud of CO2 spread out after a quake?

[Chris-M]

Was that the one where the cloud of CO2 spread out after a quake?

They're not 100% certain that it was a quake that caused the massive release (although that seems quite likely to me), but yeah, that's the one.