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Real Locations that should be fantasy


Eosin

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Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

 

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Sigiriya was constructed on a rocky outcrop 650 feet (200m) above the jungle, initially as a 3rd century BC Buddhist monastery. Then 800 years later, King Kasyapa built an opulent palace there and covered it in frescoes. The palace was surrounded by gardens, pools and a mirrored wall that was polished so brightly the king could see his face in it.

 

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Sigiriya means lion and the city is fronted by a huge lion entrance – sadly missing its head.

 

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Climb-the-Sigiriya-Rock-Fortress-e150607

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  • 6 months later...
  • 8 months later...

My search-fu has grown weak-- likely from lack of use.  ;)  It took me a ridiculous length of time to find this thread.

 

At any rate, someone on Imgur has posted a lengthy series of photos of some of the enclosures in Zimbabwe, including several of the Great Enclosure.

 

Yes; yes; I am sure you've seen pictures of this place before.  _However_, only two of these photos have modern-looking people in them; the rest are completely people-free.  ;)

 

If you're the sort that likes actual pictures as props for a location, snap them up before the poster does a house cleaning.   :)

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/jqMMqtw

 

 

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  • 8 months later...
On 7/10/2022 at 1:16 PM, tkdguy said:

An axis mundi connecting the mortal world to the Sky Realm of the spirits. Or the spot where the Old Ones can re-enter the worlds when an eclipse happens directly over the spire.

 

Rocky shell over an ancient superweapon/defense system, like in the ST: TOS episode "This Side of Paradise."

 

Phallic symbol, site of rituals the mods probably wouldn't let us describe.

 

The hill where the giant Dobre-Kaleha shouted defiance at the gods and was turned to stone for his blasphemy.

 

I could go on.

 

Dean Shomshak

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  • 2 months later...

Rivers of Life is a PBS series about, duh, notable rivers. The Zambezi in Africa sounds like it would fit well in a Fantasy world. Here's a link to the episode:

 

Rivers of Life | Zambezi | Season 2 | Episode 1 | PBS

 

Highlights include:

*Headwaters are a spring in a sacred forest.

*But the flow is intensely seasonal. In an exceptionally flat plains region, the rainy season turns the Zambezi from a river into an immense shallow lake, a cycle of wet and dry that shapes the lives of the inhabitants. Not magical as such, but this could be a cool location and culture.

*Further downstream, the Zambezi flows through spectacular gorges with many rapids and Victoria Falls, the widest waterfall in the world. At least that's the case in the rainy season; in the dry season it's just a few trickles going over the cliffs. Local name is "The Smoke That Thunders." Obvious home for a god or nature spirit.

*As the water level drops after the rainy season, there's one spot where an underwater ledge of rock creates a permanent standing wave -- a breaker that never breaks. One can surf the Zambezi Wave. Perhaps you must do so if you want a boon from the God of the River, or it's a gate to another plane.

*The next stage is a broad river valley with abundant wildlife. The show visits a safari resort where the wildlife has learned that people won't hurt them. Watch the family of elephants troop through the resort's lobby to reach a mango tree. Temple of the Elephant God?

 

(The next episode, about the Danube, did not have so much Fantasy potential. Though one might do something with the water-filled cave network beneath Budapest.)

 

Dean Shomshak

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Along the same hydrological lines, the Bay of Fundy, between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, has the highest tides in the world, up to 16 meters (52 feet). The tides have two highs and two lows each day; in a 12-hour period 100 billion tons of water flow in and out of the bay, nearly twice as much as all the rivers of the world combined over the same period. High tides create a tidal bore in most of the rivers into the Bay, causing them to reverse their flow. The Petitcodiac River has the highest tidal bore, up to two meters. In 2013 surfers rode it a record 29 kilometers (18 miles).

 

Other notable features of the water system include the Reversing Falls, a series of rapids near the mouth of the Saint John River; the Old Sow whirlpool, largest whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere at 76 meters (250 ft.); and Cape Enrage, southern tip of an island with sea cliffs up to 50 meters (145 ft.) and a nearby large reef which causes severe riptides.

 

Below are example photos of high and low tide around the Bay.

 

Bay_of_Fundy_High_Tide.jpg

Bay_of_Fundy_Low_Tide.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

Want lost civilizations? The Amazon has 'em! Until recently, most archeologists thought the Amazon jungle had been inhabited only by small bands of hunter-gatherers. But then some archeologists bothered to look... Amazonian civilizations didn't follow the paradigm of, say, Egypt and Mesopotamia -- centralized states with sizeable cities -- but there's evidence of networked towns, extensive earthworks, and agriculture to support relatively large populations. Though the agriculture looks different, too. It's the latest from NOVA: "Ancient Builders of the Amazon."

 

 

 

Dean Shomshak

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On 10/7/2022 at 2:18 PM, DShomshak said:

Rivers of Life is a PBS series about, duh, notable rivers. The Zambezi in Africa sounds like it would fit well in a Fantasy world. Here's a link to the episode:

 

Rivers of Life | Zambezi | Season 2 | Episode 1 | PBS

 

Highlights include:

*Headwaters are a spring in a sacred forest.

*But the flow is intensely seasonal. In an exceptionally flat plains region, the rainy season turns the Zambezi from a river into an immense shallow lake, a cycle of wet and dry that shapes the lives of the inhabitants. Not magical as such, but this could be a cool location and culture.

*Further downstream, the Zambezi flows through spectacular gorges with many rapids and Victoria Falls, the widest waterfall in the world. At least that's the case in the rainy season; in the dry season it's just a few trickles going over the cliffs. Local name is "The Smoke That Thunders." Obvious home for a god or nature spirit.

*As the water level drops after the rainy season, there's one spot where an underwater ledge of rock creates a permanent standing wave -- a breaker that never breaks. One can surf the Zambezi Wave. Perhaps you must do so if you want a boon from the God of the River, or it's a gate to another plane.

*The next stage is a broad river valley with abundant wildlife. The show visits a safari resort where the wildlife has learned that people won't hurt them. Watch the family of elephants troop through the resort's lobby to reach a mango tree. Temple of the Elephant God?

 

(The next episode, about the Danube, did not have so much Fantasy potential. Though one might do something with the water-filled cave network beneath Budapest.)

 

Dean Shomshak

I am so going to use part of this.  I have a plains area called the Divided Plains as a river splits it in half.  OHHH yeah!

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