Landmark of Lore

"Stonehenge
'Tis a magic place
Where the moon doth rise

With a dragon's face"

—Spinal Tap, "Stonehenge"

Looking for a weapon out of legend? The headquarters of an Ancient Tradition? An interdimensional portal? Relics of a lost civilization? The Ancient Astronauts' spaceship? A site of untold mystic power? If they're not in the writer's capital city or hometown, they'll be here, at a Landmark of Lore.

These are the places where people are almost eager to believe almost anything could be found, so many tales swirl around them. Mostly they are either places rich in history, which have been the centre of stories for centuries, or places remote enough that the audience knows little about them.

Sometimes these locations will be turned into a Weaponized Landmark. Compare Ruins for Ruins Sake and Temple of Doom, which may overlap. Probably the result of Small Reference Pools and as such is the Sister Trope to Public Domain Artifact.

Examples of Landmark of Lore include:

• Angkor Wat - A genuine lost temple, deep in remote jungle
• Area 51 - What is the U.S. government hiding in the Nevada desert?
• The Bermuda Triangle - Mysterious area where ships disappear.
• Easter Island - Remote, with enigmatic statues.
• El Dorado - Fabled land of gold.
  • Other "cities of gold", such as Akator, Cibola and the City of the Caesars have also been used.
• The Forbidden City of Beijing - Not actually mystical, but come on! It's forbidden, how can you not want to go see it?
• The Great Pyramid of Giza - Famous Egyptian landmark with a number of astronomically significant features.
  • There are two pyramids at the Giza Necropolis that occur often, the Pyramid of Khufu (formerly largest, by 2 feet) and the Pyramid of Khephren (currently the largest and best preserved one).
• Machu Picchu - An Incan city in the mountains of Peru, abandoned centuries ago.
• Nazca, Peru - Landing strip for the Ancient Astronauts.
• Shangri La - Home of mysterious monks.
• Stonehenge - Ascribed all sorts of mystic powers, usually completely ignoring all the other stone circles around Europe.
• Uluru (a.k.a. Ayer's Rock) in central Australia.

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Notable appearances in media

Anime and Manga

• In one episode of Keroro Gunsou, Keroro and Fuyuki learn that the Great Pyramid of Giza, Stonehenge, Machu Picchu and Easter Island were all built by aliens...but as tourist traps. The Pyramid was a haunted house, Stonehenge was a giant solar-powered camp stove, Machu Picchu was the site of a roller coaster, and Easter Island is a giant whack-a-mole game.

Comics

• Long-dormant aliens burst out of the ground in one Dan Dare comic. British comic? Landmark of Lore? Where else but Stonehenge? (Which, in the future, has been surrounded by development. That doesn't entirely make sense.)

Film

• A certain important giant man was found in the Arctic ice in Transformers. In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, an ancient alien doomsday device was located in the pyramids at Giza.
• In National Treasure, the treasure hunters found a clue in the Arctic ice. After that, the cast were led up and down the east coast of the United States, stopping at Washington, Philadelphia and finally New York, where the great big treasure was finally found.
• Troll 2 features "The Stonehenge Stone", which apparently has the power to create goblins and to kill people. How exactly a massive rock was transported from Stonehenge to a small church in Midwest America without anyone noticing it missing is never explained.
• The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor features Shangri-La with Yetis. Then the Great Wall becomes a bonus Landmark of Lore.
  • In the first two movies, Hamunaptra is an in-universe example. Good news: the stories about it being the resting place for the wealth of Egypt are true! Bad news: so is that story about the cursed mummy!
  • And at the beginning of the first one, you had Thebes with pyramids, which seemed kinda mystical. Apparently, Giza and Thebes were united to create a nice Landmark of Lore.

Live Action TV

• In Stargate SG-1, the Stargate itself was located inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Until it was taken out into the desert and buried, that is.
  • Alien technology acquired off-world is analyzed at Area 51.
  • The Stargate team is based out of Cheyenne Mountain, which is a close relative of Area 51.
• In Doctor Who, buried under Stonehenge is the Pandorica, the ultimate prison. The justification is that it is really old and really important so the ones who made it put some markers there so they could remember where they put it. Oh, and the whole thing is a trap for the Doctor designed to appeal to his curiosity.

Tabletop Games

• Used in the RPG Scion: great landmarks like Stonehenge or Statue of Liberty are called Touchstones, they allow someone to go from the landmark to a place in the Overworld, and then from there to any other point that resonates with that same place. For instance, on could to from Stonehenge in England to the Great Henge, and then go from the Great Henge to Carhenge. Why Carhenge? Because it's the funniest replica of Stonehenge, and it's mentioned explicitly in the book's description of Touchstones.
  • Carhenge is funnier than Foamhenge?

Video Games

• EarthBound had the alien servants of the Big Bad build an Elaborate Underground Base beneath Stonehenge for apparently no reason.
• The old Lucasarts game Zak Mccracken And The Alien Mindbenders, heavily steeped in Ancient Astronauts material, feature all sorts of landmarks that are more than they seem.
• Illusion of Gaia had several mythical locations as special landmarks in the game - the Nazca lines, the Great Wall, Angkor Wat and even the Tower of Babel.
• Shining Force II had an ancient spaceship that had the same outline as the Nazca painting.
• The Omega Stone is essentially a World Tour of these things.

Western Animation

• In an episode of Centurions, Stonehenge is the secret burial site of a perfectly preserved Merlin. (Yes, Merlin). He then wakes up shortly after his discovery to help the Centurions dispatch the villain of the week.