Legends and Folk Myths



World Heritage Sites connected to 'Legends and Folk Myths':

  • Ancient Nara Tame deer roam through the town, according to the legend, a mythological god Takemikazuchi arrived in Nara on a white deer to guard the newly built capital of Heij?-ky?. Since then the deer were regarded as heavenly animal to protect the city.
  • Benedictine Convent of St. John Charlemagne is said to have founded the monastery because he survived a snow storm here
  • Budapest Gellert Hill - St. Gerard (Gellert) was killed by the pagans during the great pagan rebellion in 1046. He was put in a barrel and rolled down into the deep from the top of the hill.
  • Burgos Cathedral The legend of El Cid
  • Chief Roi Mata's Domain Legends around death of Roy Mata
  • Costiera Amalfitana A boat transporting an icon of the Ascention of the Lady heard a mysterious voice 'posa, posa' ('put,put'), so they stopped their ship at Positano's shore and left the icon at its central church. This is the origin of Positano's name
  • Cracow Wawel Dragon; link
  • Curonian Spit Neringa and the creation of the Spit: "According to Baltic mythology, the Curonian Spit was formed by a strong girl, Neringa, who was playing on the seashore."
  • Dolomites King Laurin and his Rose Garden; link
  • Fertö/Neusiedlersee The Turk of Purbach ; link
  • Fortified City of Carcassonne Dame Carcas
  • Garajonay The mountain is named after the legend of Gara and Jonay. For the story: ; link
  • Giant's Causeway Legend of the Irish giant Fionn Mac Cumhaill
  • Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa Dolmen "In Hwasun-gun, South Jeolla Province, there is a dolmen known as "Pingmae Rock," which is related to a legend about the Fairy Grandmother. It is said that when the Fairy Grandmother heard that 1,000 images of the Buddha and 1,000 pagodas were being built at the nearby Unjusa Temple, she picked up a huge stone and headed toward the temple. But along the way, she was told that all the images and pagodas had already been completed, so she laid the stone down there and departed." - www.koreaembassyusa.org
  • Great Smoky Mountains The Cherokee considered the waters of the Oconaluftee sacred. Dora Woodruff Cope, who lived in the Oconaluftee valley near Smokemont around 1900, recalled a legend her Cherokee neighbors told her: ...part of the river was called Ya'nu-u'nata wasti'yi, "Where the bears wash." It was a deeper part of the river, where all the animals came to wash and heal their wounds when they had been hurt by hunters. No white person had ever seen this place because evil had blinded us to its existence. The animals knew how to find it, and diving into it meant instant healing. (wiki)
  • Gyeongju The legend of Silla's founding. "According to the Samguk Sagi, a 12th-century Korean history, Sirim was the site where the child Kim Alji, founder of the Gyeongju Kim clan, was discovered. Found in a golden box accompanied by a rooster, he was adopted by the royal family. His descendants became the later kings of Silla and the forest where he was found was renamed Gyerim, "rooster forest." - wiki
  • Ha Long Bay Cat Ba Island means "Women’s Island" (Cat meaning sandy and Ba meaning women). Legend has it that many centuries ago, three women of the Tran Dynasty were killed and their bodies floated all the way to Cat Ba Island. Each body washed up on a different beach and all three were found by local fishermen. The residents of Cat Ba built a temple for each woman, and the Island soon became known as Cat Ba
  • Haeinsa Temple Foundation myth of Haeinsa temple in 802 by two enlightened monks. (see link for the story, click on "Unesco World Heritages" and then Haeinsa Temple. Scroll down to section "Temple of Reflections on a Calm Sea"); link
  • Hahoe and Yangdong Held as a divine tree in the center of the village. The spirit shrine is called Samsindang. Residents of the town believe the 600-year-old zelkova tree aids fertility and good luck
  • Hal Saflieni Hypogeum Dissappearing school parties and a hidden cave featuring Humanoid beings ; link
  • Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump About a young Blackfoot found with his skull crushed by the weight of the buffalo. ; link
  • Himeji-jo In feudal Japanese folklore, the ghost story of The Dish Mansion at Banch? centered around Okiku's Well, one of the wells at Himeji Castle that remains to this day. According to the legend, Okiku was falsely accused of losing dishes that were valuable family treasures, and then killed and thrown into the well. Her ghost remained to haunt the well at night, counting dishes in a despondent tone. (wiki)
  • Hollókö Called the Raven Mountain due to the legend telling ravens destroyed the constructions of the village during its erection every night
  • Island of Patmos Mythology tells of how Patmos existed as an island at the bottom of the sea and how the island emerged from the water by intervention of Zeus.
  • Jeju There is a crater lake on Hallasan called Baengnokdam, literally "white deer lake." There is a legend attributing the name of the lake to otherworldly men who descend from heaven to play with white deer." - wiki
  • Kazan Kremlin "As the legend goes, the Kazan queen Söyembikä threw herself down from the highest tier [of Söyembikä tower], hence the name." Wiki
  • Kronborg Castle Legendary home of Hamlet
  • Lake Baikal Natives believe that Burkhan, a modern religious cult figure of the Altai peoples, lives in the cave in the Shaman Rock on Olkhon.
  • Liverpool The "Liver Bird"
  • Luang Prabang Luang Prabang's legend of the city spirit guardians - Pu No and Na No; link
  • Mahabalipuram Legend of Seven Pagodas
  • Mount Taishan Legend of Pan Gu
  • Mount Wutai Legend of unburnable Tripitaka making Chinese Emperor convert to Buddhism and built Xiantong Temple
  • Ohrid Region The existence of the ancient town of Lychnidos is linked to the Greek myth of the Phoenician prince Cadmus who, banished from Thebes, in Boetia, fled to the Enchelei and founded the town of Lychnidos on the shores of Lake Ohrid (Wiki).
  • Paris, Banks of the Seine Notre Dame de Paris (Gargoyle)
  • Prague The Golem of Prague
  • Provins Provins recieved its name from the wine belonging to Roman general named Probus (Probi vinum).
  • Puebla China Poblana (the Templo de la Compañía, in Puebla, is known as La Tumba de la China Poblana); link
  • Pyrénées - Mount Perdu Brèche de Roland, an abrupt gap in the crest associated in legend with the defeat of the warrior Roland at Roncevaux in Charlemagne’s campaign against the Saracens (UNEP-WCMC)
  • Queretaro Chronicles of this event [the battle between the natives and the Spaniards], such as that written by Friar Isidro Félix de Espinoza, state that the natives were at the point of winning when a total eclipse of the sun occurred. This supposedly scared the natives and the Spanish claimed to have seen an image of Saint James (the patron saint of Spain) riding a white horse carrying a rose-colored cross. This event caused the natives to surrender. (Wiki))
  • Rapa Nui Rapa Nui mythology
  • Rome Romulus & Remus, the Aeneid
  • Royal Joseon Tombs "The 22nd king, Jeongjo (r. 1776-1800), during a visit to his father’s tomb (Yungneung), found the pine grove around the graveyard withering because of pine-eating caterpillars. In lamentation, the king caught one and bit it to death. Strangely, the caterpillars completely disappeared soon afterward." - nomination file
  • Ruins of León Viejo The murder of Bishop Antonio de Valdivieso in 1550 seemed to mark a turning point in its fortunes: it was widely believed to have put a curse on the town, which suffered from both natural and economic disasters in the years that followed. (AB ev)
  • Santa Ana de los Rios de Cuenca Cuenca is considered a candidate for the mythical city of gold, El Dorado.
  • Segovia The legend that the devil built the aqueduct for exchange of the soul of a girl who has to carry water to the city
  • Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple Legend of a Filial Son (see link for the story, click on "Unesco World Heritages" and then Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple. Scroll down); link
  • Siena According to legend, Siena was founded by Senius, son of Remus, who was in turn the brother of Romulus, after whom Rome was named. Statues and other artwork depicting a she-wolf suckling the young twins Romulus and Remus can be seen all over the city of Siena.
  • Sighisoara Legend of Vlad the Impaler
  • Sinharaja Forest Means 'Lion-King' and refers to a legendary lion who lives in the forest
  • Sulaiman-Too Women who ascend to the shrine on top and crawl though an opening across the holy rock will, according to legend, give birth to healthy children. (Wiki)
  • Taj Mahal Black Taj Mahal; link
  • Takht-e Soleyman Folk legend relates that King Solomon used to imprison monsters inside the 100 m deep crater of the nearby Zendan-e Soleyman "Prison of Solomon"
  • Telc Within the [castel's] chapel in a white marble sarcophagus lie the remains of Zacharias z Hradec and his wife Katharina Valdstejn. According to legend, the young wife was implicated in her own death. She allowed her portrait to be painted while she was pregnant - despite warnings that this meant she would die within a year of her birth.
  • Tokaji Wine Region Fears of Turkish raiders delayed the harvest until the graphes had shrivelled and botrytis infection had seit in creating the noble rot for which the wine is renowned
  • Tower of London The Ravens
  • Town Hall and Roland, Bremen 'Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten'
  • Troy Trojan Horse
  • Upper Middle Rhine Valley Lorelei