When James Cameron’s AVATAR hit the big screen some obsessed fans experienced post-film depression when the credits rolled and their brains realized that Pandora wasn’t real. These diehard fans, therefore, can take comfort in the fact that the alien landscapes that appeared in the film were born from a real life national park here on Earth — China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. It’s the otherworldly eroded mountains of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park that served as the inspiration for the production designer and visual effects gurus in charge of AVATAR‘s alien scenery, but none the 1,080-metre (3,540 ft) Southern Sky Column which has since been officially renamed “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain” (seen in first three photos just below).
.
Photos via: Business Insider, Daily Mail, Live Less Ordinary, Wikipedia, 20th Century Fox.
The Park That Inspired The Alien Worlds In Pandora, Including Real Life “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain”
Brent Lambert
Writer, editor, and founder of FEELguide. I have written over 5,000 articles covering many topics including: travel, design, movies, music, politics, psychology, neuroscience, business, religion and spirituality, philosophy, pop culture, the universe, and so much more. I also work as an illustrator and set designer in the movie industry, and you can see all of my drawings at http://www.unifiedfeel.com.