Books 📚: Contemporary Non-Fiction: Inspired Traveller’s Guide – Mystical Places (2020)

Some of the least likely retailers are often the best sources to find awesome books on intriguing topics. So, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon this hidden gem Inspired Traveller’s Guide- Mystical Places while perusing the aisles at a Five Below discount store in Phoenix. The chain is mostly known for gifts and trendy items priced at $5.00 or less and geared to “teens and tweens” but also has fun and educational marked down books for all age groups. Mystical Places by Sarah Baxter is such a title with wonderfully interpretive illustrations by Amy Grimes.

The book contains twenty-five stories of places with a strong mystical appeal. A few of them such as Mt. Shasta in California, which is sacred to several indigenous tribes are fairly well known, but so many others are rather obscure, which naturally makes them more appealing to explore. One of these is the Alepotrypa Cave in Greece at the far southern end of the Peloponnese Peninsula, jutting into the Mediterranean Sea. Initially, the lost, legendary cave of antiquity didn’t look like much upon accidental rediscovery in 1958, but after further archaeological excavations began in 1970, it became apparent that the site was more extensive than originally thought. The Alepotrypa or “The Fox’s Hole” as it’s also known was first inhabited several thousand years ago and became a considerable human and animal burial site. Graves inside a cave is chilling (literally and metaphorically) possessing a certain strange mystique all it’s own.

It also comes as no surprise in the distant past that this area was thought to be the entrance to Hades, the god of death from Greek mythology. The vast underground rivers and caverns of Alepotrypa make it easy to understand how ancient peoples such as the Greeks believed in the underworld, where the spirits of the dead travelled to their final resting place. The stalagmites and stalactites that have formed here over thousands of years have a distinct otherworldly cachet about them as well. It’s fascinating to view pictures of the caves online – and then read about Alepotrypa in Mystical Places with an accompanying illustration by Amy Grimes. This is definitely the stuff of dreams – or nightmares as the case might be!

Lost cities and ruins of bygone civilizations also make for spine-tingling, mystical locations. The long abandoned city of Gedi off the coast of Kenya, in eastern Africa is no exception. To enter this lost world, engulfed by tropical vegetation immediately brings to mind tempestuous, Indiana Jones-style adventures of discovery. Although no written records pertaining to Gedi exist, it was likely a bustling trade center during its heyday some 500 years ago, providing the wealth to support a palace and several mosques, along with a protective wall surrounding the town. Numerous tombs also make this an intriguing site to visit. After the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century is when Gedi began to decline – although other forces such as coastal marauders and declining water tables likely played a role in the site’s downfall.

Whatever the causes, Gedi was abandoned around the late 1600s, the remaining coral rock ruins standing in mute testimony to the faded prosperity of days long past. Thinking of nightfall at Gedi, under the moon, gives me shivers while pondering photos of the ancient tombs – and what lurks in the dark…Today the town’s remains are inhabited mostly by monkeys and various bird species which can be seen during tours to the site. Another one of the most outlandish and mystical places on the planet is the Pinnacles in the far reaches of Western Australia – a place so bizarre it may as well be on a planet in the Star Wars federation. This was another place I was quite unaware of until reading Mystical Places and is exactly why I enjoy travel guides of this type!

The Pinnacles are jagged, sharp limestone formations towering above the bleak desert landscape – which nonetheless is mesmerizing with swirling sands vividly colored like bright saffron spice. How these limestone formations came about is uncertain, lost in the mists of time. They appear in widely varying sizes, some of them sticking up only a few inches out of the ground, while many others rise over 10 ft. high. Many of them are an unsettling reminder of primitive tombs and must be very creepy at night – especially under a full moon. The Pinnacles are also a part of Australia’s Nambung National Park and are “a long leap from the norm” in Baxter’s estimation. She also creatively describes this bizarre place as “…more alien than earthbound: part sci-fi, part Salvador Dali, a lot strange.” (Pg. 98)

These formations also look deadly – whether in photos of the formations or from the interpretive illustrations in Baxter’s book. These strange formations appear as razor-like shards of glass punctuating the nightmares of some hapless character from a Twilight Zone episode. Just a whiff of danger seems essential to the mystical allure of the places described in Mystical Places. This makes them irresistible to read and daydream about, and the sampling I’ve mentioned here makes this book essential to any collection of stories about our planet’s otherworldly places.

For more information about Alepotrypa check out: http://www.diros-caves.gr/

To learn more about Gedi check out: http://www.zamaniproject.org. and http://zelenaafrica.com

To explore The Pinnacles, go to: http://australiascoralcoast.com