Machu Picchu, Kish and Petra … delving into some of the historical references in H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘At the Mountains of Madness’.
In his novella 'At the Mountains of Madness', H.P. Lovecraft compares the architecture of the Elder Things to the art of Nicholas Roerich. Lovecraft was somewhat overly fond of Roerich's paintings, mentioning the artist no less than seven times in the course of the story. However, he sometimes abandons Roerich in favour of different, real-life, analogies for the ancient cyclopean architecture. In doing so, he reveals some interesting things about how exactly he envisaged the lost Antarctic city, and also the range of subjects in which he was interested.
One of the better-known places that Lovecraft mentions is Machu Picchu, the Incan city "rediscovered" in 1911 by Hiram Bingham III. Bingham's expedition was considered an important, and exciting, discovery. It was well publicised in newspapers as well as prestigious journals such as National Geographic, where it was made the cover in April 1913. (More recently the city, and its photogenic llamas, have become the cliche of a thousand tourist selfies.)
Lovecraft didn't only follow the more sensational archaeological discoveries of his day. He was also aware of other discoveries, such as the Mesopotamian city of Kish, whose mud brick walls he compares to the crumbling structures built by the Elder Things. Kish was an important Mesopotamian city, dating from at least 3200 BCE, but today is nowhere near as well-known as the nearby city of Babylon.
The Oxford-Field Museum expedition that Lovecraft refers to was a real collaboration between Oxford University and the Field Museum of Chicago, who jointly excavated the site between 1923 and 1933. (A short film of the excavations can be seen here.) Lovecraft specifically mentions the 'foundation-walls of Kish as dug up by the Oxford–Field Museum Expedition in 1929'.[1] It isn't entirely clear what he had in mind.
Source: H. Field, The Field Museum-Oxford University expedition to Kish, Mesopotamia, 1923-1929, Chicago: Field Museum, 1929, plate II
According to Henry Field's publication of the expedition, it seems that the main activity of the 1928-29 season was a deep shaft sunk into trench Y, in an attempt to reach the foundational layers of the city.[2] However, the work of this season did not expose any monumental architecture. The walls that Lovecraft describes sound more like those uncovered in previous years, such as those of the temple of Nabonidus, or of the ziggurat. They're fairly impressive, and well-preserved, examples of Mesopotamian mud-brick buildings, but they don't exactly scream "otherworldly architecture".
Staying in the Middle East, Lovecraft also compared one of the buildings in the Elder Things' city to 'the well-known Snake Tomb in the ancient valley of Petra'.[3] Petra was an important trading city built by the Nabataeans, whose rose-red buildings are well-known to modern tourists and movie-goers alike. (The finale of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, for example, was filmed in the ancient city.) Just like Machu Picchu, the city had been "rediscovered" by a European explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, in 1812.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
I've seen various pictures doing the rounds online of something that purports to be the Snake Tomb. However, that structure, or rather structures, are the Obelisk Tomb and the Triclinium. The Snake Tomb itself -- which, apparently, isn't quite so well-known after all -- is found nearby. It is actually very plain on the outside, and the name comes from the decoration of the interior of the tomb.
'The Snake Tomb is carved into the rock with a narrow entrance and no outward display, but inside 12 graves are cut into the floor -- clearly a family affair. On one wall there is a rough relief carving of two snakes attacking a four-legged animal (a dog?)'[4]
Photo: copyright Dick Osseman
The actual Snake Tomb doesn't bear much resemblance to Lovecraft's 'fantastic conical monument carved out of the solid rock'.[5] Perhaps Lovecraft confused the Snake Tomb with the Snake Monument. The Snake Monument is not a tomb, but it was carved from the solid rock. It may originally have formed a large monolith, but all that remains today is a square base supporting the broken carving of a large snake. It does bear some resemblance to Lovecraft's description.
'a singular monument... an obtuse cone, produced by the coils of a spiral... standing on a vast square pedestal or altar''[6]
Photo: Keith Martin
Lovecraft doesn't only describe the buildings of the Elder Things in terms of man-made structures. He also compares them to natural wonders, including the so-called "Garden of the Gods", a national park in Colorado famous for its interesting geological formations.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Just like the mud-brick walls of Kish, the Garden of the Gods doesn't immediately seem the most obvious inspiration for an otherworldly place. If he had known about the region of Cappadocia in Turkey, I suspect that Lovecraft would have mentioned that instead. The hills there are honeycombed with cave-houses, and the rock formations known as "fairy chimneys" are impressively odd-looking. (Although maybe HPL would have found them a bit too phallic!)
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
When the members of Dyer's expedition first see the city of the Elder Things as a mirage, Lovecraft compares it to the illustrations of the whaler Scoresby. William Scoresby was a real person, and he was actually a lot more than just a whaler. According to Wikipedia, he was an explorer, a scientist and a clergyman. While he did go on whaling expeditions, he also used them as an opportunity for exploration and scientific research. Sailing off Spitzbergen in 1814, he encountered weird mirages which he described and illustrated in his publication of the voyage.
Source: W. Scoresby, Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-Fishery, Edinburgh & London, 1823, plate II.
'the mountains along the whole coast, assumed the most fantastic forms; the appearance of castles with lofty spires, towers and battlements, would, in a few minutes, be converted into a vast arch or romantic bridge.'[7]
Scoresby witnessed such optical effects on more than once on that voyage, and again on subsequent voyages. Even if it did not breed Lovecraftian madness, the real-life Arctic was certainly a place of bizarre phantasmagoria.
1 H.P. Lovecraft, The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, ed. L.S. Klinger, Norton, 2014, p. 511.↩
2 H. Field, The Field Museum-Oxford University expedition to Kish, Mesopotamia, 1923-1929, Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1929, pp. 23-25.↩
3 H.P. Lovecraft, The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, ed. L.S. Klinger, Norton, 2014, p. 511.↩
4 J. Taylor, Petra, Amman: Al-'Uzza Books, 2005, p. 44.↩
5 H.P. Lovecraft, The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, ed. L.S. Klinger, Norton, 2014, p. 511.↩
6 C.L. Irby & J. Mangles, Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Syria and Asia Minor, London: T. White and Co., 1823, p. 433.↩
7 W. Scoresby, An Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History and Description of the Northern Whale-Fishery, Edinburgh: A. Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson and Co., 1820, p. 386.↩
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