The Thai Garden in The Valley

The south edge of the Emerald Valley also has a Thai Garden. Only 15 minutes by car from Morau, or 40 minutes by minibus by a highway, and then a secondary road from Waldihnok.

The Valley's Japanese Park

Just north of Morau, on the edge of the Emerald Valley there are many theme parks. This is the Akashi Asagao Komyoji Pond in the Japanese Park.

Where highways intertwine

The view from the north, just south of the Waldihnok pass . The natural and agricultureal vegetation of the Emerald Valley is so precious that it is extremely complicated to expand the transportation netwrok in the area. The highways are forced to be constructed high up in the air.

The never ending bloom of the Valley

On of the smaller valleys branching off the Emerald Valley - the same abundance of flowering grasses

Paradise Falls of Emerald Valley

This is Paradise Falls of the northern Emerald Valley, on the Yahalma river, where the Braided Rivers region starts (see the Valley Gates, and here and here ).

The Horns of the Emerald Valley

This is a painting of a puzzling rock formation protruding out of nowhere in the middle of the Emerald Valley. The Horns (and The Pillar Pile, in the background) are not sedimentary rock, nor do they have signs of erosion by wind or water. Maybe they were eroded long time before geologists think, and the landscape around them is a lot younger, making the Horns look out of place.

The mystifying view from the Moon Rock Mountain

The Moon Rock Mound tops the Moon Rock Mountain that has one of the most picturesque views of the Emerlad Valley. The Moon rock Mound is a mysterious formation comprised of the island's typical minerals. Almost perfectly spherical, it is 23 meters in diameter, and appears as if it was cut out of the rock, but it is monolithic with the rest of the monolithic mountain, and shows no marks of hand tools, or other meaningful images, except the man-made lines that have been overgrown with mossy vegetation. Nearby Lookout Castle and a sky temple of sorts (see one of the Valley's real sky temples) has been cut out of a convenient pillar. On the bottom of the Valley you can see the Yahalma river and the 130-ft. Moon Rock waterfalls.

The Japanese Lantern Park of the Emerald Valley

When the whole island became fascinated with the Oriental culture (back in the the 10th and then again in 12-13 centuries)the kings have built several Japanese and Chinese temples. After King Kleist restored the national rule, the temples were partially destroyed, and then opened again nut without the attributes of Oriental worship.

These are one of the views of the famous Japanese Lantern Park in the northern section of the Valley, where the Braided Rivers area starts. This is water lilies on the Yahalma river branch.

This setting is almost identical - on Glada River:


And these are the famous lanterns of the Lantern Park.Many of the lanterns have been brought to the island during the period between 12 and 15th centuries.

The perfect green flatness of the Emerald Valley's Braided Rivers

This is just a small gardening section of the lush and fertile Emerald Valley. This small field is located in the braided rivers section of the valley, between the rivers Yahalma and Glada.

The Yahalma Guardians, the pillars below are two of many that are so unique to the Island. The valley has only 5 of the famous pillars. These are natural, even though they appear as if built on purpose on both sides of a river branch that rejoins the Yahalma river that is seen in the foreground. Scientists have a tentative theory that a sudden cataclysmic draining of Glada's mountain lake (that was 600-900 meters deep in some places) sent catastrophic amounts of water scouring the paths of the river, carving a new landscape out of mountains nearby and in the Valley.


Further north, the mountains that separate the Valley from the Atlantic ocean, encroach on the braided rivers area. Though the rivers and their branches are shallow, nevertheless there is moderate shipping to be found, mainly for transporting tourists and the Valley's agricultural products. After a major rain the rivers become loaded with silt, as seen here. The minibarges are tied up at many of the shoals in the braided rivers.


This is the pristine look of the untouched braided rivers section. Actually, the islands are used to grow nut trees.

There is another spectacular view of the valley and its braided rivers here.

This is Emerald Valley's Tolkien paradise

Emerald Valley is magic, sunny, and emerald-green with lush vegetation. I think this is where Tolkien illustrators foresaw the setting for the books. See for yourself:


This veranda is on a branch of the Yahalma River. The Valley is a flat plateau nestled between the forbidding Northern Mountains, the cliffs guarding the city of Waldihnok in the north, and the natural squeeze where Morau-Slaatblau cities are located.

The mysterious waterfall temple of the Emerald Valley

This temple is sheer mystery. It was built in the late 12 century. Its orientation gives no clues, there are no openings for sighting stars. There are no inscriptions or dedications. All three towers are hollow, sealed and empty, and the bulges are covered with intricate pattern of interlaced fine mosaic and inlaid yellow and blue beads of cyalith and krypton rock, offering no distinct images or symbols. Attland's historians and other academics conclude that such a temple must be an early Noahide meditation site, considering the nearby waterfall. The location is on one of the branches of the braided Yahalma river, on one of the last waterfalls miles before the northern outskirts of the city of Morau.

The Sky Temple of the Emerald Valley

The spring sunset over the Emerald valley and one of its own two sky temples. Back in the 10-11 century CE the temple tower was smaller, the main dome less colorful, and it served the island-wide cult of the Queen Linga worship. King Kleist, her grandchild, cleansed the island of Christianity, that was partially the result of the decadence caused by the queen worship. The king also rededicated the island's temples back into their original Noahide rite.

Further in the distance, true to the real landscape, the painting shows the faraway, Eastern Sky Temple.

The Emerald Valley, The Valley Gates

Long time ago the area of the Emerald Valley was a lake. When the Glada mountain lake emptied catastrophically, the rushing waters flushed the lake and together the waters ran off further along Glada and Yahalma rivers, causing changes to the confluence of the rivers at their joint mouth in what is now Miklasgard City. The lake bottom became a fertile ground for the new Emerald Valley. When the enormous amount of water rolled down the Glada river, it encountered the ridges rising out of the lake and joining the mountains. The waters punched these holes, and also chiseling away some of the rock, forming the Valley Gates, which are also the real gates to the Valley and its fertile wetlands.



Least to say, besides emeralds, sapphire, diamonds (the root of the Yahalma river's name) and gold (what Glada river stands for) titanium, tungsten, and coal, the Valley is one of the most fertile regions of the world, hosting most unusual selection of crops - grapes, apples, pears, peaches, berries, as well as Attland's exotic vegetation and gourmet crops - coffee tree; vanilla, balm and iris orchids; meal (muel) tree; and nectar lily.
Besides exotic trees, the Valley is rich with most unusual views and sights, like these unique river fields, whose shape and fertile soil resemble many river deltas. These river fields are actually medium-sized, perfectly flat islands that are used for crops. Most of the Glada and Yahalma river lengths split into these fields, contributing to the riches of the Valley.

On the Yahalma River side there is also the mysteriously exotic Cycad Valley, rich with the prehistoric cycad trees

I am going to post more photos and art of the Emerald Valley, espcially about the temples and other strange formations.