Update: Lost World has closed and Beguile no longer exists as a region name.

I’m the first to admit I’m not the world’s greatest SL photographer, but I love finding places in SL that are both interesting to explore and can make excellent backdrops / subjects for photography; and if they have a hint of a story of their own – so much the better.

One such place that combines opportunities for in-world photography with the hint of a mysterious back story is ! Lost World !, created by Lolmac Shan.

This is a fabulous build covering the region of Beguile that calls out to photographers and machinima makers alike.Here you’ll find the ruins of … what? a great house? An Abbey or religious centre? A castle? A once-thriving port? ..

You arrive in the middle of the ruins, standing at the crossways of two ancient walkways. Before you lies the ruins of a great hall (Lolmac’s store), the roof long gone, the supporting arches starting to collapse themselves. From here, it is up to you as to where you go…

Behind you, a short distance away, the ruins stand sentinel in a losing battle against the encroaching sea; aches stand in isolation, their winged gargoyles facing inland as waves crash against weathered and deformed stone carvings beyond, fallen columns and walls littering the waters, while here and there further fragments of whatever once stood here rise from what has become their own little islands in the fight against the incoming sea.

A little further along the coast stands another building, looking for all the world like a covered dock where ships may have once sought shelter while offloading their cargoes. Here is a hint of a possible religious element to the place: a great winged figure  – an angel? – seems to stand guard before the arches of the building, face set sternly towards the ocean…

Further inland, there are other hints of a religious nature, and what appears to be the remnants of a great abbey, complete with what seem to be a flooded cloisters…

But look up and across the quiet, blue water, and the gigantic stone face staring back at you suggests that if this were a place of religion – it might just have been one that embraced violence and strange rites…

It is these contradictions that make ! Lost World ! so alluring; it is if nothing is quite what it seems. Having looked upon the great stone face, with its horned and barbed helm, it is hard not to look on the winged figure on the shoreline and not imagine it to have a more sinister purpose, or at the gargoyles atop the flooded arches without finding them somehow more menacing, as if standing guard to prevent anyone leaving this place…

And there are secrets to find within this place, if you are prepared to look; and not all is in quite the ruinous state as seems to be the case…

But even with these sinister or mysterious edges, there is no denying ! Lost World ! is a mesmerizing place, and considerable thought and creativity has gone into its development, making it a marvellous location for filming and photography. The careful visitor is liable to find a veritable treasure-trove of detail while exploring on foot – although at times an airborne look helps one fully appreciate the build as a whole.It may not be as extensive as some, but the balance it exhibits is sublime.

This is a place I love to come to simply because it is so beautiful and yet thought-provoking. It’s a place I can visit and wander and dream up stories; it’s a place I love to photograph, and it’s a place where I can always find some corner or nook, and simply watch the passing world and quietly observe those who also come to visit…

And despite the undertones of sinister mystery, this is also a place for romance in all its many forms. Here you can sit with a loved one and whisper quietly to one another amidst the tumbled walls and pillars, or you can wander together through the trees and along the banks of the waterways, or dance together as the sun sets behind you…

But don’t simply take my word for it – why not pay a visit yourself?

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Update June 6th 2012: Sadly, Al Andalus Alhambra, Second Life, closed on June 6th 2012. My slideshow of the build will remain on this site as a reminder.  

It is one of the most stunning palaces in the whole of Europe, one that brings together light, life, culture and geometry in a stunning tour de force of medieval Islamic architecture – albeit one forced to incorporate western European styles as exemplified by the Palacio de Carlos V. It is the Calat Alhambra, al-Qal‘at al-Ḥamrā’, the Red Fortress.

Occupying the top of the hill of the Assabica in southwestern Granada, the palace symbolised the height of the Islamic presence in Spain, with Granada itself the last of the great city-states of Islam within Spain to ceded itself to Christian rule when Ferdinand and Isabella conquered the city in January 1492.

Christian history would have us believe that the reconquista of Al Andalus – the Moorish name for Spain – was a Christian fight against an invading and oppressive Islamic nation – yet nothing could be further from the truth. Alhambra in many respects stood at the pinnacle of some 700 years of progressive Islamic rule in Spain which saw places such as Cordoba recognised as remarkable centres of learning for all – some 70 public libraries lay within its walls at a time when the rest of Europe saw books and learning the reserve of religion and those who ruled, while the teachings of ancient Greece – so thoroughly embraced by the people of Islam – were often regarded as heretical by the church.

Alhambra takes its name from the rich red clays of the soil upon which it is built, rather than from any bloody elements of its history – although in some respects the fortress did initially grow out of bloodshed: following a particularly violent meeting between the Muladies and Arabs, the latter fled south to take refuge in a red castle on or near the site during the rule of ‘Abdullah ibn Muhammad (r. 888–912). In the 11th Century, and in a bid to preserve a Jewish settlement, the ruins of the red castle were rebuilt by Samuel ibn Naghrela, although accounts of the time state it was easily overrun.

However, the Alhambra we know today was started by Ibn Nasr, who fled south to avoid persecution by King Ferdinand III of Castile. In 1238, he arrived at the palace of Bādis and set about enlarging the Alhambra into a palace complex fit for a sultan.

And it is this citadel palace that is beautifully brought to life by the Al-Andalus Community Project. Spread across two regions, Al Andalus 1 and Al Andalus Generalife, which themselves reflect the layout of the Nasrid dynasty’s citadel, the build is quite simply stunning.

The citadel comprises several distinct elements: the Royal Complex comprising the Patio de los Arrayanes (perhaps Alhambra’s most famous element), Patio de los Leones, Salón de los Embajadores, Sala de los Abencerrajes, over thirty watchtowers, living spaces for staff, as well as outlying pavilions located in the Palacio Generalife, or Garden of the Architect (Jennat al Arif in arabic). Much of this has been reproduced in the Second Life build, which avoids any of the reconstruction undertaken post-reconquista and attempts to represent the Alhambra at the pinnacle of its glory as a centre of rule and of culture – although there is a concession to another great Moorish building to be found within its walls.

There are a number of teleports to the build that can be found in Search. These include Patio de Los Leones, the auditorium (which appears to be under the Patio del Mexuar), and just inside the original entrance of the Puerta de la Justicia, in the la Plaza de los Algibes.

Where you roam from any of these is entirely your choice – there is a lot to wander around, and no set order in the direction you may opt to take. There are numerous notecard givers to be found around the citadel, each of which provides more detailed information on the section you are visiting.

While there are some doubts that Alhambra’s growth beyond the original expansion started by Ibn Nasr was seen as a part of some over-arching plan for the citadel, the original royal complex was exquisitely designed over successive generations using a geometric progression based on a simple Pythagorean principle to achieve the stunning and harmonious design evident in the complex as a whole. The progression was based on the relationship between the length of a side in a square with that of its diagonal, and is elegant in its simplixity and magical in its meaning.

To explain: take a square and then measure the diagonal between two corners. This measurement becomes the long side of a rectangle with the same base length as the original square. Now take the diagonal of the rectangle and use that as the long side of another rectangle, again with the same base length as the original square. Now take the diagonal of that rectangle, and make it the length of the long side of a third rectangle.

When you do this, you get two intriguing results: the first is that the diagonals of all four progress through the square roots of 2, 3, 4 and 5. The second is that the third rectangle is exactly twice the height of the original square.

This approach to building the Alhambra is repeated around the original royal complex, and is perhaps most notable in the Patio de los Arrayanes, where the Torre de Comares rises behind it, to form a perfect geometrical and symmetrical design that is reflected perfectly in the water of the Patio’s infinity mirror. It lends the Patio an even greater feeling of sitting in harmony with nature.

The use of this progression is in evidence elsewhere within the royal complex, both in the buildings and in the layout of the courtyards and gardens. Similar geometry is also evidence in varying forms within the ornate wall coverings and carvings.

It is also something that has been captured in some measure in the Second Life reproduction.

Take the Patio de los Leones, for example (right). Here the progression using the square and rectangle can clearly be seen. The lower section of the pavilion (up to the bass-relief) is the square. The diagonal of this square gives the elevation of the wall to the eaves of the pavilion. It’s a very subtle nod to the original, and it is sad in some respects that the nature of Second Life, where scale is compromised by things like the average height of avatars (7+ feet) and the default placement of the camera, that this ratio / progression isn’t always obvious or achievable throughout the build.