A few kilometers from my house, there is a place named, in the local language, “The opening to Nothingness.” I always look for the opening, when I’m there, but I never found it. Many legends say that in some places, there are doors leading to other dimensions, other realities. Of course, they don’t always call them like that, but the local legends always mention something: entering to the Fairy realm, gates of Hell…

About the latter, the Atlas Obscura did already a good job at spotting 11 of them. Yes, there are at least 11 entrances to Hell, or the Underworld, or however you want to call it, from our good old material Earth:

• The Cape Matapan caves (Greece)
• The volcano Hekla (Iceland)
• The Ghost City of Fengdu (China)
• Lacus Curtius, a stone well in Rome (Italy)
• The cave of Actun Tunichil Muknal (Belize)
• The Gates of Guinee in New-Orleans (USA)
• Pluto’s Gate at Hierapolis (Turkey)
• The monastery of Saint Patrick’s Purgatory in Lough Derg (Ireland)
• The pond of Chinoike Jigoku in Beppu City (Japan)
• The Seven Gates of Hell in Hellam township, Pennsylvania (USA)
• The cave of the Sibyl in Naples (Italy)

I found a few other spots which could qualify as entrances to the Underworld:

• The Mefite, in Irpinia (Italy)
• The Necromanteion in Parga (Greece)
• The Devil’s Sinkhole, Rocksprings, Texas (USA)
• Mount Etna, Sicily (Italy)
• The Door to Hell, Derweze (Turkmenistan), a more recent man-made “door”
• The old sewer drain in Clifton, New Jersey (USA)
• The Twins Cave near Jerusalem (Israel)
• The inner sanctum of the temple of Apollo in Delphi where the Pythia had her visions (Greece)

Not all dimensional doors led to the Underworld, though. Some are “only” leading to other worlds. Some megalithic monuments are supposed to have that kind of power, like Stonehenge, or the gallery graves.

Some caves are also known to have mystical properties which could be explained by inter-dimensional connections, like Merlin’s cave in Tintagel or Hob Hole in Runswick Bay (UK). Some also believe that the Tor hill in Glastonbury hides an entrance to the fairy realm.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll find more dimensional doors in space. Some are probably waiting for our colonists on Mars, maybe on Titan and Europa too. In the meantime, I’m still looking for the dimensional doors close to home. After all, fairies have to come from somewhere, right?

Merlin’s Cave at Tintagel, Cornwall, UK