Real Locations that should be fantasy

[DusterBoy]

The Stone Forest Formation

Oh. My. Gosh. Dat is just incredibly wonderful.

[IndianaJoe3]

The Stone Forest Formation

Very pretty. It reminds me of Azshara in WoW.

[Bismark]

Very pretty. It reminds me of Azshara in WoW.

…and now it is my new desktop wallpaper

[Lawnmower Boy]

Islands. (Mostly from Wikipedia rather than some gorgeous photography sites, sorry.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skellig_Michael
It may turn out that this is a "real place that is actually a fantasy location," but the odds are slim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Kilda,_Scotland
And my favourite,
Kerguelen land (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Islands)
Here's the view of the "capital" from sea.
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/1405..._Kerguelen.jpg
Ooh, looks like some weather coming in from Antarctica!
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ima...007046_lrg.jpg

[L. Marcus]

I like this one: Lapporten -- the Sami Gate mountain pass in Abisko, Lapland

[DusterBoy]

I like this one: Lapporten -- the Sami Gate mountain pass in Abisko, Lapland

Excuse me. The noise you just heard was my jaw hitting the floor. That is an awesome picture.

[L. Marcus]

Yeah, well, imagine being there ... ! I think it's along the King's Trail. I've gotta go there someday ...

[Nevenall]

<incant>This thread will live!</incant>



Gaping Gill is a cave in Yorkshire where a stream falls into the main cavern.

[Drhoz]

Ball's Pyramid is an erosional remnant of a shield volcano and caldera that formed about 7 million years ago. Ball's Pyramid is 20 km (13 miles) southeast of Lord Howe Island in the Pacific Ocean. It is 562 m (1844 ft) high, while measuring only 200 m (656 ft) across, making it the tallest volcanic stack in the world..... Like Lord Howe Island and the Lord Howe seamount chain, Ball's Pyramid is based on the Lord Howe Rise, part of the submerged continent of Zealandia.



It also has land lobsters, or walking sausages. The huge and very, very rare (less than 30 individuals in the wild) Lord Howe Stick Insect, extinct everywhere else until they were rediscovered under a bush on the island and bred in captivity

[Drhoz]

Karlu Karlu, aka The Devil's Marbles - gigantic precariously balanced granite boulders in the middle of the Australian Outback



more pics here

and this intriguing little potential plot hook -

One of the marbles was removed from a formation in 1953 and taken to Alice Springs to form a permanent memorial to John Flynn, the founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Australia. At the time, this was seen as a way of remembering his link to the outback, but in later decades it was a source of great controversy because the rock was removed from a sacred site without the direct permission of the tribal elders. In the late 1990s, a boulder swap was arranged, and the missing marble was removed from the grave, cleaned, and returned to its original place. The grave is now marked with a similar boulder donated by the local Arrernte people.

[L. Marcus]

This might've been posted before, but I don't really care -- it's so orwsum ...

[Escafarc]

Blackgang Chine Bazaar at the Isle of Wight's Blackgang Chine Amusement Park.

[teh bunneh]

Marcus, what's that a picture of?

[L. Marcus]

It's a French town, off the coast of Normandy I think. I can't recall the name of the place as of now ...

[Drhoz]

It's a French town, off the coast of Normandy I think. I can't recall the name of the place as of now ...

Not St Michael's Mount - similar, but the central building is wrong