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Real Locations that should be fantasy


Eosin

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Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy

 

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/1405237-Scientific_base-Ile_Kerguelen.jpg

Ooh, looks like some weather coming in from Antarctica!

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/7000/7465/Kerguelen_TMO_2007046_lrg.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy

 

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.

 

Ball%27s_Pyramid2.jpg

 

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

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Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy

 

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

 

Devils_Marbles.jpg

 

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.

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Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy

 

The Land Of Chocolate ... or rather, the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, in the Philippines.

 

chocolate-hills-philippines.jpg

 

Another curious geological formation, just as striking as the tepuis I posted about some months back. Only 50 sq.km of these tho.

 

Like the tepuis, these are erosional remnants, but in this case the limestone mounds are covered in grass that turns brown in the dry season. I was pointed to these by the Planetary Society Blog, because the rover Opportunity is currently exploring the Chocolate Hills on Mars. Wikipedia has a good page on this more local version.

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Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy

 

Different angle' date=' probably. :)[/quote']

 

No, though the confusion is understandable - St. Michael's Mount is a place in Cornwall, that looks a bit similar to Mont St Michel form some angles (though it's firmly on the mainland, not sitting out in the middle of the tidal flats!). I guess that's why it got a similar name.

 

cheers, Mark

 

Edit: Scooped!

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Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy

 

I'm glad this thread has been revived. It's one of the great ones on these forums, and I never tire of revisiting it. :D OTOH I now feel pressure to contribute more to it, sooo....

 

For those of you who might have naively thought the most recent Mummy movie contained anything original ;) , check out the real Terracotta Army of the first emperor of China.

 

The city/temple complex of Angkor in Cambodia is perhaps the grandest and most famous "lost city" in the world. The "Angkorian Sites" links at the bottom of the page lead to many remarkable images, but I think this aerial view of the great temple complex of Angkor Wat may be the most spectacular: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Angkor-Wat-from-the-air.JPG#file

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