Meet the gods, giants, and ambulatory volcanoes behind your favorite works of nature!
Plate tectonics, erosion, termites. These scientific explanations for how mountains, volcanoes, and their ilk are created are all well and good, but where’s the drama? What about the less accurate but more exciting explanations for some of the world’s most incredible natural wonders? If you like your origin stories with a little more narrative flair, discover the myths and legends that explain how these natural wonders came to be.
CRATER LAKE
In the case of Crater Lake(Oregon), the myths about its creation echo the tumultuous geological history. Thousands of years ago, Mount Mazama stood in the place where Crater Lake is today. In Klamath legend, Llao, the god of the underworld, was standing on Mount Mazama when he spotted and fell in love with a woman. But when she refused to go live with him in the underworld, he burst through the top of the mountain and fire rained down on the people below. Skell, the god of the upper world, did battle with Llao, eventually driving him back inside the mountain. Llao then filled the crater with water.
DEVILS TOWER
There are a couple of variations on the legends surrounding the creation of Devils Tower (Wyoming), but all of them have an ursine element. According to Kiowa legend, seven sisters were being chased by bears. The girls climbed on a rock and one of the girls asked the rock to take pity on them and save them. The rock suddenly grew into a towering pillar. But the bears continued to climb and scratch at the sides of the pillar. So the rock continued to grow into the sky where the seven sisters became the seven stars that make up the Pleiades. In Sioux legend, two boys are chased by a giant bear. The boys ran as far as they could but, exhausted and with the bear still in pursuit, one of the boys prayed to the Great Spirit to save them. The rock rose up into the sky and, though the giant bear scratched at the sides of the rock, it eventually gave up. The boys were then helped down from the rock and back to their village by a giant eagle.
FAIRY CIRCLES
In the Namib Desert, parts of the grasslands are a patchwork of barren spots known as “fairy circles.” According to local myths, the spots are footprints that have been left behind by gods or spirits. And while some of the other formations and phenomena on this list have solid scientific explanations, the exact truth behind what causes “fairy circles” is still not fully understood.
NORTHERN LIGHTS
In Norse mythology, the spectacle of the Northern Lights (Scandinavia) is caused by light reflecting off the shield and armor of the Valkyries as they lead valorous souls into Valhalla. In the Sámi tradition, the lights are also associated with death, but instead of representing an aspirational afterlife, the lights were something to be feared. Sámi legend says the lights are the souls of the dead and were potentially a bad omen.
MOUNTAINS OF MONTALBAN
The legendary figure Bernardo Carpio is sometimes characterized as a giant or sometimes a man of supernatural strength. Either way, he is credited not only with creating a gorge in the Montalban Mountains (Phillippines) but with earthquakes. It’s said that he was trapped between Mt. Pamitinan and Mt. Binacayan, and when he tried to escape them by pushing the mountains apart he created the gorge where Wawa Dam is currently located. Other versions of the story say that Bernardo is trying to keep the mountains from crashing into each other.
Salar de Uyuni
This legend involves two phenomena - The Tunupa Volcano and Salar de Uyuni,the world's largest salt flat (Bolivia).In Aymara legend, volcanoes once walked and interacted with one another. The volcanoes were all male except for one—Tunupa. When Tunupa gave birth to a smaller volcano there was just one problem: It was impossible to know who the father was because Tunupa had been courted by all the other volcanoes. The other volcanoes fought over who the father was, eventually stealing Tunupa’s son and hiding him away. The gods, incensed by the volcanoes’ fighting, took away their ability to walk and talk. Devastated and separated from her son, Tunupa wept and wept, her tears and breastmilk covering the surrounding land, creating the salt flats.
Two mountains – one of diamonds, one of gold – are said to surround the City of the Caesars in Patagonia, hidden deep within the Andes. There are many different theories as to who inhabited the city, ranging from 10-foot giants to Spanish shipwreck survivors, from the last of the Incas to ghosts. The riches said to have lined the streets brought many a conquistador to his death in search of the city. Civilizations of the sixteenth century believed adamantly in the existence of the City of the Caesars, but many now believe the myth developed from an illusion of shifting ice.
None of the other wonders of the mythical world are probably as iconic than the Lost City of Atlantis. First introduced in 360 B.C. by Plato, the city of Atlantis is said to have been located on an island in front of the Pillars of Hercules. Since then, archeologists have searched dutifully for the city over the span of thousands of years, which, though leading to several promising discoveries, has never led to anything concrete.
A reference to this Islamic Sodom and Gomorrah, a city buried in the sand for its detestable sin, occurs only in the Koran. Because of this, it should come as no surprise that the Iram of the Pillars has long been thought to be a myth. However, many still search for it.
Deep within the Amazon, lies the origins of the myth of a prosperous pre-Columbian metropolis, ‘Z’. However, it wasn’t treasure that set early conquistadors in search of this lost city. In 1753, a Portuguese explorer documented a rather advanced, European-like civilization, in which many inhabitants were said to be engineers, creating a complex city full of beautiful bridges and roads. The metropolis’ advanced state is what drew many explorers, including the well-known British adventurer Percy Fawcett, who vanished in search of 'Z'.
MYTHICAL WONDERS
While all the wonders above are proven to exist, there are some wonders that remain mythical. As if we don’t have enough magic and wonderment in the real world around us, myths and legends still fascinate us and fire our imaginations, and if there is a place associated with the fantastical stories, some of us are intent on finding it. So, just what are the wonders of the mythical world that send people off on a quest?
The mythical Ciudad Blanca, ‘White City of Gold’ is said to have been nestled in an obscure area of Honduras. The city’s fabled riches have drawn the greedy since the 1500s. Thus, everyone from pirates to obsessives to adventurers have set out to find this place, providing, along the way, varied accounts of a land filled with golden statues, white stone, monkey gods and bloody sacrificial offerings. Still, though nothing material has come out of each intrepid expedition, hope for the city’s existence has been renewed by a recent high-tech laser fly-over, which revealed a topographical irregularity in the area, prompting many to believe the ruins of this mythical city may just exist.
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the “Devil's Triangle”, encompasses about 440,000 sq mi between Puerto Rico, South Florida and Bermuda. It's reputation began in the mid-19th century, after numerous claims of abandoned ships and strange disappearances were reported. Among the disappearances documented is the complete vanishing of a United States vessel, the USS Cyclops, in 1918. But not only ships are vanishing - numerous aircraft have flown into the oblivion of the Triangle, prompting much media interest in the area. However mysterious, for many of the cases blamed on the Triangle’s paranormal powers, often the mystery might be explained away logically, with weather, mechanical problems, or the inexperience of the missing vessels’ crews. Still, the myth continues to run rampant in conspiratorial minds.
Myths aren’t just fairy tales or legends—they’re an honest attempt to explain mysteries. - John J. Geddes
