I’ve been going back and re-reading some of H.P. Lovecraft’s horror stories–which I haven’t read in years, so long that I’ve forgotten almost everything about them except the shapes and names of some of the monsters in them.
One of the stories I reread is The Call of Cthulhu, which is a lynchpin of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.
For those who may not know (and this is forbidden knowledge, remember), Cthulhu is an evil alien entity who is presently asleep in the sunken city of R’lyeh in the Pacific Ocean and who is destined to wake one day and basically kill everybody. Oh, and an evil cult worships him and is trying to wake him up again.
I was intrigued by the fact that The Call of Cthulhu gives the exact latitude and longitude of R’lyeh:
Latitude: S 47° 9 Min.
Longitude: W 123° 43 Min.
So–in an age of MapQuest–plunked the numbers into MapQuest, which promptly spit back the following map, revealing the exact location of the sunken city of R’lyeh where dead Cthulhu lies dreaming.
UPDATE: Down yonder an alert reader pointed out that the original map showed R’lyeh on the wrong side of the international date line. Turns out I had failed to enter a minus sign for the West longitude. Here’s the correct map:
BEWARE! HIC SUNT DRACONES!!!
Well, that’s nice place to be hiding from the throngs of Cthulhu devotees…is warm there this time of the year (Austral Summer).
ain’t exactly in the pacific ocean …
Never read much Lovecraft. Tended to like A.E. van Vogt much more. Maybe I should check HP out. But Wilkie Collins is up next!
Great story. Here is a link to it online:
http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecallofcthulhu.htm
I don’t know much about these things, but isn’t that on the wrong side of the international date line to be a west longitude?
You’re right!
Problem fixed!
Does anyone know a website with satellite images of earth that would let us zoom in at those coordinates?
Jimmy, if you like Cthulhu stories, be sure to check out Charlie Stross’s A Colder War. A definite must for Lovecraft fans.
This is what I love about Blogs. They are self correcting as a whole.
C’thu is located, GOOOOD !
Let’s phone to N’yarlathotep and visit our fellow C’thulhu, Jimmy !
Ever play Call of CthulhuWorlds of Cthulhu.
http://www.worldsofcthulhu.com/
Iä iä!
OOPS. Meant to type:
Anyone try finding Cthulu’s location on Google Earth?
I just did. And there are several interesting shaped depressions in the area, according to the NASA photograph…
That is near of Isla de Pascua, an island that belongs to Chile!!!
(Sorry if my english is so terrible… I speak spanish)
Hehe, Bloop!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop | 50° S 100° W (South American southwest coast).
Ironically, and interestingly enough, not very far at all from the Rlyeh coords.
There’s a little food for thought!