I know it is fictional, but HP Lovecraft refers to he “plateau of Leng”, as mentioned in the “Necronomicon”, which was written by the “mad Arab., Abdul al-Hazrad”.
Where was "Leng"supposed to have been. And what was awful about the place?
Alternately central Asia, the Antarctic, or an another plane of reality altogether.
Leng on Wikipedia.
Given it’s use in At the Mountains of Madness I have to go with it being in Antarctica. The Wiki article mentions it only briefly but the novella makes it clear that is what the explorers found.
As for what is awful about it? I could tell you, but then everyone reading this thread would have to make a 1d6/1d10 SAN check and I don’t think many of them could stand it. Just look at Great Debates; most of those guys don’t have the points to spare.
It wasn’t so much the plateau itself that is accursed, but the ancient monastery, with the head lama whose face is never revealed, that is evil incarnate.
That, and the Mi-Gos.
Yes, its placement has been inconsistent (though it could be retconned as it being one of those places where dimensions intersect, so it appears in several). Small correction: it is the Tcho-Tchos, not the Mi-Gos (the Mi-Gos are the truly bizarre “Fungi from Yuggoth”).
Hey, I haven’t really read any unadulterated Lovecraft since I was fifteen. The details get fuzzy, but I thought the “abominable Mi-Gos” lived in the cold mountains, and Tcho-Tcho was HPL-ish for “Filipino immigrants.”