Fabulous countries

Hyperborea

Hyperborea (literally – "beyond Boreas, the North Wind") is a perpetually warm and sunny North land of an ancient Greek legend, where the blessed mythical people live.

There are many interpretations of the description of the country. According to one of them, the Hyperboreans live a blissful life, having eternal fun and feasts, they are always singing, dancing, playing musical instruments. Apollo is venerated among them; the Hyperboreans are incessantly praising him in their hymns. Even death comes to them as a deliverance from the satiation of life: after experiencing all the pleasures, they jump into the sea and thus took their own lives.

Hyperborea is a subject of many studies, including parascientific or occult ones. Various authors place Hyperborea in Greenland, near the Ural Mountains, on the Kola Peninsula, in Karelia, on the Taimyr Peninsula.

Quivira

Quivira a place, which, according to a legend, could be found in the northeast of North America.

The land was watered by a river inhabited by fish, the size of a horse. On the surface of the river, luxury galleys sailed. People used the golden dishes, and their chief was making his daily rest under a tree decorated with little golden bells which lulled him to sleep with their gentle ringing.

Kingdom of Saguenay

Kingdom of Saguenay (French Royaume du Saguenay) is a country in North America, according to mythology of the Algonquin Indian people, rich with gold, silver and furs.

Following the Indian oral traditions, expeditions of French and French Canadian researchers sought Saguenay to the north of the St. Lawrence River, near the modern district of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (Quebec), over many decades. It may well be so that telling the stories of great riches, Indians only wanted to protect their settlements from the greedy Europeans, dooming them to fruitless searches, diseases and death in the harsh climate of the northern regions. However, in the area of Saint-Jean Lake (from which the Saguenay River originates), there are the mildest and most favorable conditions for economic activity on the entire northern coast that possibly gave rise to the legend of the rich kingdom.

Seven Cities of Gold

The Seven Cities of Gold called "Cibola", which were considered to be in North America, hundreds of miles north of the colony of New Spain (now Mexico).

Rumours of "Seven Cities of Gold" are supposedly were caused by an old Portuguese legend about seven cities founded by seven Catholic bishops who saved Christian sacred objects from the invasion of the Moors in the 8th century. More recent stories, largely, have their root in the reports drawn up by the shipwreck survivors of the failed Spanish expedition to Florida.

Eventually, these travelers returned to New Spain and told how they had heard stories about the cities of great wealth. This encouraged the Spaniards to organized several expeditions to search for Cibola (its territory is associated with the lands within the present-day states of Arizona and New Mexico). And, although, searches were not successful, Cibola repeatedly were shown on maps.

Eldorado

Eldorado (El Dorado) is a mythical country of South America, rich with gold and precious stones. The first legends about this country are connected with the discovery of America.

They have their origin in a custom of the Indian Chibcha people, corresponding to European coronation, when a new chief of the tribe was covered with clay, all his body was powdered with gold dust until he turned into «El hombre dorado» – "a golden man". Then the new chief ceremonially bathed in the lake, leaving precious sand on its bottom.

At different times, the search for Eldorado were conducted first along the coast of Venezuela, then between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers – on the banks of the mythical Lake Parime in Guiana. The search expeditions cost great material expenses and the loss of many human lives, but gave very valuable geographic and ethnographic results.

Prester John Reign

The Land of Prester John was thought to lie in Central Asia, according to the original version.

Prester John was considered to be a Christian ruler of a powerful East kingdom full of marvels, peace and harmony. The legend of Prester John was popular in Europe from the mid-twelfth century, depicting Prester John as a descendant of the Three Magi mentioned in the Bible.

In the medieval Crusaders campaign against Muslims, Europeans repeatedly attempted to find the kingdom of the influential Christian priest-king, seeking the help of the potential ally to capture Palestine. In 117, Pope Alexander III even sent a letter to Prester John via his emissary Philip. The Papal envoy, however, never returned. Since the 14th century, the placement of the legendary Prester John's kingdom was transferred to Ethiopia (in fact, Christianity was adopted there in the 4th century). It should be noted that a number of researchers have found historical prototypes of Prester John.

Lukomorye

Lukomorye ( Old Russian for "Sea Bend"), literally, can be translated from Russin as a bay, inlet, or "curved sea-shore".

In the folklore of eastern Slavs, it is a secret place on the edge of the universe, where the world tree grows. The tree extends to the heavens and its roots reach the underworld; it is the world axis which helps to travel from one world to another. The gods descend and climb up the world tree.

Some studies described an ancient Northern Kingdom "Lukomorye" where people go into hibernation to wake up with the return of the spring sun. The land of "Lucomoria" was also depicted in West-European early maps of Siberia/Muscovy. It, usually, indicates the territory adjacent to the right (east) bank of the Ob Bay. In the Russian historical cartography such a place name is not found. But the toponym is mentioned in The Tale of Igor's Campaign and the Russian chronicles.

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