Lord Liaden Posted June 30, 2008 Report Share Posted June 30, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy As it turned out, Turkey/Anatolia is an absolute treasure-trove of bizarre stuff. As you'll see below: Fairy Chimneys, most common in the Cappadocia region of Turkey, are huge cones of soft rock with hard rock caps. Many of them have been carved out as houses, very obvious from the image gallery at the bottom of the page. The great underground city of Derinkuyu, built in the 8th-7th Centuries BCE, extends 85 meters below the earth, with room for thousands of inhabitants. Many more photos here, including one more view of a fairy chimney settlement. Finally, Mount Nemrut, site of a great 1st Century BCE tomb. The many seated statues around the tomb were deliberately defaced, their heads removed and left lying on the ground around the site. I'm not sure whether they were originally left upright or set that way by modern archaeologists, but the effect is rather ghoulish. Additional photos here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulf Posted June 30, 2008 Report Share Posted June 30, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy The Externsteine in Germany ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externsteine ) For more pictures send me an PM. Got some from my trip with Roter Baron. The Dragon´s Rock ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drachenfels_(Siebengebirge) ) Especially the legend about the Dragon´s Rock is a good Hook for an adventure ^^ Wulfi with 2 suggestion from good ol germany [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externsteine][/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTaylor Posted June 30, 2008 Report Share Posted June 30, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy Greece has some very strange topography, if you've seen For Your Eyes Only you've seen some; China has the same sort of Karst topography, with rocky outcroppings like tall, thin plateaus surrounded by flat plains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted July 5, 2008 Report Share Posted July 5, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy I don't think there is enough rep to supply this thread. Great stuff guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted July 5, 2008 Report Share Posted July 5, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted July 5, 2008 Report Share Posted July 5, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy I've been to Kutna Hora (the bone cathedral in the czech republic). It's very strange' date=' but not really worth the drive from Prague IMO.[/quote'] 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirgos Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gawain Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenAge Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirgos Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirgos Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris-M Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirgos Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy Was that the one where the cloud of CO2 spread out after a quake? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris-M Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirgos Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy Perhaps it was Bokrug creating a new Sarnath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eosin Posted July 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy I got a few more edited and posted tonight. Maybe tomorrow will be more productive and I can work through my list and get back to adding the stuff posted here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTaylor Posted July 8, 2008 Report Share Posted July 8, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy Heres one, I am not sure if you got it listed or not: Mima Mounds in Southern Washington The swath of grassy humps known as the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve spins a mystery as yet without an ending. And with any good story, context is critical. A single 6-foot-tall-by-30-foot-wide mound in a grassland prairie is but a mound. But acres upon acres of mounds, sharing similar shape and size and packed in clumps like eggs in a carton? What are they? Why are they here? No one knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy Whoa! Ground goosebumps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy I know we've referred to a number of caves already on this thread, but for that reason I think this one has particular potential: Movile Cave in Romania had been completely cut off from the outside world for 5.5 million years, until accidentally broken into in 1986. Although not large, the cave complex has a complete self-contained ecosystem based totally on chemosynthesis, including 33 unique species. More data here: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5771/ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_n12_v52/ai_18166990 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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