In continuing my mainland meanderings, which of late have tended to lean toward Heterocera (more by coincidence than design), I found myself on the north side of the continent and atop the peaks and plateaux of the continent’s mountain range as it seeks to encircle the inner sea and its atoll.
It is here, 200 metres above the highway that traces its way around the foot of the mountains, that a mesa-like plateau towers upwards, entirely cut off from the world around it by the sheer cliffs that fall away on all sides, offering not path or foot-borne means of reaching the steplike terraces of its upper reaches and top. Yet despite its seemingly inaccessible nature, this lonely plateau is nevertheless occupied and built upon, being home to a build by Don Setzer (with the aid of Albane Claray and Dante DeVulgaris (Gian Fetuccio)) entitled Meditation Mountain, and offered to the public as a quiet retreat and place of reflection.
This is a curiously fascinating setting, covering roughly a half full region in area, raising multiple questions for those who like to contextualise the places they visit in Second Life – as is often my wont -, whilst also being a place which might be enjoyed purely for its design and setting. Visits begin at the landing point, located at the uppermost terrace of the plateau and directly before the largest building within the location: a massive medieval / gothic style cathedral; a structure responsible (to me at least) for raising the first of the questions concerning this setting.
The landing point sits as a crossroads of paths, one arm of which leads to the doors of the building while its opposite number points away from it and to a terrace looking out over the lowest step of the plateau. The two remaining paths lead visitors to the gardens running along either side of the cathedral. One of these reaches as far as the north arm of the cathedral’s transept, where the mesa abruptly narrows and a cliff drops away, leaving a precarious-looking set of trestle-mounted wooden steps descending to a man-made terrace and seating area as it extends outwards from the cliffs as a high perch.
The path on the southern side of the cathedral parallels a second (and gravel-topped) path marking the edge of a cliff prior to the two roughly meeting. The gravel path then switchbacks its way down the cliff to where a second broad tabletop of rock sits as the home to a further garden. This is dominated by a a Romanesque temple-style building face a copse of trees across a rock incline, grassy paths rising on either side to border (and run under) the trees to jointly and separately offer the way to where the turn towards one another and meet, a fenced meadow to one side, complete with horses quietly grazing, and a walled garden on the other; the latter has its walls and gates so heavily covered in ivy and vines it is almost possible to miss it.
At the western end of the gardens surrounding the Romanesque temple there sits another of the wooden stairways rising back up the eastern end of the cathedral’s bulk. A place connects this to a third such stairway offers the way down to the western end of the setting. This sits as a promontory extending outside from below the cathedral, home to a helipad and waiting helicopter, thus revealing how visitors might otherwise visit this high retreat. This sits before – of all things – a spa pool of distinctly modern design and which itself sits before the gigantic maw of a long cavern running directly under the cathedral.
Open at both ends, the cavern is filled with vegetation, ponds, trails, places to sit and – for those willing to seek it out – the way down to an hidden cave. As open at its western end as at its eastern, the cavern provides access to another broad step of rock, this one covered in wild grass and flowers and reached via a stone bridge spanning a swift flowing stream cutting across the rock between two sets of falls. Stepping stones offer a path across this meadow garden, lading visitors to a rock pool sitting as a home for waterfowl, fish and birds.
Alongside the falls giving rising to the stream sits a path zigzagging its way back up the rocks to another path. This connects back to those at the walled garden and its neighbouring meadow, thus forming something of a complete loop around the setting for visitors to follow.
The fascination with this sitting comes in the question: just how did the cathedral – now given over as a place of introspection and music rather than as a religious centre – come to be here? There are no obvious paths up the high cliffs to reach it; so was its masonry hewn can shaped from the very rocks on the high table on which its stands?
Or is it perhaps only neo-gothic in style and of a far younger age than its design might suggest? Young enough to allow the materials used in its construction to arrive in the same manner as some of its visitors: by air? Certainly, the thoroughly regular cut of its facing stonework and that of the Romanesque temple (itself a salon rather than place of deity worship) suggest modern tools may have played a part. But then why build since a monumental structure in so inaccessible place? How these questions are answered lies within the realm of individual imaginations, so I’ll leave you to visit and create your own back-story to the setting.
There are one or two rough edges to the setting, particularly in terms of texturing and overlaps, and I admit that to may eyes, the wooden stairways detract from the overall design; give the nature of the setting, I’d have thought stone stairways set into / onto the rocks would have been more fitting. But this is just a personal opinion; when taken as a whole, there is no denying Meditation Mountain is an interesting and unique design, one with many opportunities for photography.
SLurl Details
Meditation Mountain (Phasma, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 