History Main / LostWorld

* {{Atari}}'s ''Pinball/MiddleEarth'' pinball takes place in one of these, complete with [[PantheraAwesome feral cats]], [[StockDinosaurs bloodthirsty dinosaurs]], [[KillerGorilla giant apes]] and [[{{Kaiju}} even bigger monsters]].

They are usually found in remote locations, such as the center of large and barely explored continents (usually DarkestAfrica), the polar ice caps, or mysterious islands. They are often home to [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis lost civilizations]] with amazing LostTechnology, or to [[LivingDinosaurs prehistoric animals that have managed to survive unchanged]]—aside from the fact that they [[KillAllHumans suddenly find humans delicious]]. Some Lost Worlds are [[EverythingTryingToKillYou almost ludicrously dangerous]] and populated by fearsome monsters, and still others are {{Magical Land}}s where AllMythsAreTrue. Prone to being destroyed by [[ApocalypseHow volcanic eruptions, floods, quakes, and/or bombs]] [[CataclysmClimax at the end of the book/film/series]], with the protagonists barely escaping.

** ''The Lost Continent'' (originally known as ''Beyond Thirty'') - the titular continent is Europe, in an AlternateHistory in which UsefulNotes/WorldWarI never ended because eventually no organized government was left to make peace. The United States never entered the war, and in fact made laws forbidding any ship to cross certain lines of longitude (hence the original title).

* ''The Diamond as Big as the Ritz'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald is all about an isolated pocket of fantastic wealth hidden in Montana. It's been successfully hidden by its wealthy, urbane, and autocratic owners for generations - but by the time of the story airplane overflight becomes a problem ...

* Gaia's Navel in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' is at the center of an inaccessable island (you have to be flown there). It's basically 65,000,000 B.C. from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' in the modern day - it even has a younger {{Expy}} of Ayla, Leah, who joins your party [[spoiler: and is implied to be her mother]].

They are usually found in remote locations, such as the center of large and barely explored continents (usually DarkestAfrica), the polar ice caps, or mysterious islands. They are often home to [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis lost civilizations]] with amazing LostTechnology, or to prehistoric animals that have managed to survive unchanged—aside from the fact that they [[KillAllHumans suddenly find humans delicious]]. Some Lost Worlds are [[EverythingTryingToKillYou almost ludicrously dangerous]] and populated by fearsome monsters, and still others are {{Magical Land}}s where AllMythsAreTrue. Prone to being destroyed by [[ApocalypseHow volcanic eruptions, floods, quakes, and/or bombs]] [[CataclysmClimax at the end of the book/film/series]], with the protagonists barely escaping.

* The {{Ghostapo}} (Nazi occultists) believed, among other things, that the Earth was a hollow sphere with a second sun in the center. Another civilization thrived in the inner Earth which could be accessed through a giant hole in the polar cap. Predates the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] though; an old alchemical aphorism states: ''Visita interiora terrae rectificando invenies occultem lapidem''. (Visit the interior of the Earth to find the PhilosophersStone.) This goes back at least to the period of TheChymicalWeddingOfChristianRosenkreuz.
** Actually, the Hollow Earth theory wasn't just held as true by the Ghostapo, it was a ''very'' popular theory when it was introduced. It explained the subtle magnetic changes that the Earth experienced, and why Magnetic North sometimes changes. Combined with the fact that few people had ever been to either of the poles...

** The Vaults of Orv, the deepest level of the [[BeneathTheEarth Darklands]] far below the surface of Golarion, consist of a series of enormous caverns, each with its own unique (and often quite hostile) environment. Unlike the rest of the underworld, they were made artificially by an advanced race far in the past to serve as arks or experiments of some sort. They’re quite varied, ranging from the nation-sized geode known as the Crystal Womb to the subterranean peaks of the Midnight Mountains to the enormous Sightless Sea. The closest match to this trope would be Deep Tolguth (once connected to the surface Tolguth by long since collapsed tunnels), a tropical cavern full of jungles and swamps home to giant insects, dinosaurs and other monsters, orc and human cavemen, and a city of hostile LizardFolk. [[http://pathfinderwiki.com/mediawiki/images/8/8e/Orv_monster_battle.jpg An illustration of it]] has a giant ''Tyrannosaurus'' fighting a tentacled monster in a jungle.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Fun on a Bun", Fry falls into a hole in a German glacier and discovers a secret tribe of Neanderthals, along with wooly mammoths, [[MisplacedWildlife saber-tooth tigers and giant sloths]].

* Shambala (sometimes Anglicized as Shangri-la,) a retreat somewhere in the Himalayas that's home to advanced technology and many demi-gods and saints.
** Although it is widely considered to be more like a metaphorical "state" and not a physical place.
* Lemuria, which was believed to be somewhere in the Pacific.

* {{Atari}}'s ''Pinball/MiddleEarth'' pinball takes place in one of these, complete with [[PantheraAwesome feral cats,]] [[StockDinosaurs bloodthirsty dinosaurs,]] [[KillerGorilla giant apes,]] and [[{{Kaiju}} even bigger monsters.]]

* The ''[[DeathWorld Zendikar]]'' setting in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' is an entire ''plane'' of this, complete with mystical artifacts and [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom horrible death at every turn]] for everyone from [[{{Mooks}} Goblins]] to ''[[PhysicalGod planeswalkers]]''. [[spoiler: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that it doubles as the [[EldritchAbomination Eldrazi's]] [[SealedEvilInACan can]].]]

* The titular Hollow Earth of ''TabletopGame/HollowEarthExpedition'' is all about this trope, featuring never ending jungle, lost civilizations, dinosaurs, and increased healing rates.
** ''Secrets of the Surface World'' supplement. One of these exists on a plateau in the Amazon rain forest. A British expedition reached it and returned, without any proof of their findings but with a fortune in uncut diamonds (a ShoutOut to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel ''Literature/{{The Lost World|1912}}''). There's a hint that the plateau connects to the Hollow Earth mentioned above.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' has the Vaults of Orv deep below the surface of Golarion. One illustration has a giant Tyrannosaurus fighting an eldritch abomination in a jungle.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': The world is full of unexplored or once-civilized places, but the Exalts can take it to the extreme: when [[EldritchAbomination She Who Lives in Her Name]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroyed ~90% of the world]], bits and pieces of it were thrown back into The Wyld; theoretically an Exalt with strong Wyld resistance can journey in it find things that were lost, up to and including ''worlds''.

It's worth knowing that some elements of this have happened in RealLife, even recently. However, they certainly don't match the scale of a true LostWorld. For example, you might have a tribe that has had no interaction with the outside world for hundreds of years, but not, say, an entire civilization. When it does happen, the LostWorld had been isolated for millennia due to some geological feature which made travel in and out too bothersome to try: the 3 miles wide crater of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Bosavi Mount Bosavi]] is almost a textbook case, as it had been thoroughly explored just in 2009, [[TruthInTelevision which ended with discovery of at least 40 previously undescribed species]].

* Doyle's ''Literature/TheLostWorld1912'' was adapted as [[Film/TheLostWorld a silent film in 1925]], with effects by Willis O'Brien, who also worked on ''Film/KingKong1933''. The film was also adapted in 1960 (with [[SpecialEffectsFailure Giant Lizards in Makeup]] playing Dinosaurs), 1992 (with its own sequel--with Handpuppet Dinosaurs) and 1998 (pilot for the above mentioned TV series).

** Caspak (aka Caprona), a LostWorld within MysteriousAntarctica, the setting for the novel ''Literature/TheLandThatTimeForgot'' and its sequels.

** Several recent authors such as James Rollins or Jeff Long have followed Verne's example, placing their modern LostWorld tales underground, to justify such places having gone undiscovered.

* The Hy-yi-yi islands, home of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snouters Snouters,]] are a LostWorld without the ruins. Lots of goofy-looking critters, but for once they're not trying to kill you.

* The ''Series/{{Danger 5}}'' episode "Lizard Soldiers of the Third Reich" has [[MadDoctor Joseph Mengele]] performing sinister experiments in a LostWorld tropical plateau [[MysteriousAntarctica in Antarctica]] where dinosaurs, dinosaur-men, jazz-loving ape-men, and NubileSavage women coexist. After Danger 5 arrives there, we receive a [[{{Technobabble}} ludicrously nonsensical explanation]] for how the plateau has been isolated for 65 million years.

** Although it is widely considered to be more like a metaphoral "state" and not a physical place.

* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game-setting of ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'' has a long history with this trope, featured in such classic adventures as "Isle of Dread" or "Night's Dark Terror". The Hollow World boxed set converted the interior of the planet into a massive LostWorld a la Pellucidar, chock full of prehistoric creatures and lost civilizations.

* Although dinosaurs are not exactly unknown in the rest of the world, Un'Goro Crater of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has a distinct LostWorld design.

*** And as of ''Mists of Pandaria,'' the Isle of Giants.

* ''Franchise/{{Ultima}}'' loves this trope almost as much as Creator/DCComics:

** ''Worlds of Franchise/{{Ultima}}: VideoGame/WorldsOfUltimaTheSavageEmpire'' is set in Eoden, a copy of Doyle's Lost World complete with lost tribes, dinosaurs, and a "Dr. Livingstone, I presume" moment.

-->'''Father Time:''' I forget nothing! There's an occasional typographical error in temporal accounting but . . . ''Dinosaurs?'' Are those '''''DINOSAURS!?!''''' ''Someone get me temporal accounting! Stat!''

* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon 2: Explorers of Time/Darkness'' features one of these in the penultimate level, the aptly-named Hidden Land. The Hidden Land is so-called because it is ''only exists within a split second of time,'' meaning that [[TimeStandsStill time must be stopped]] before it can be visited.

* ''Literature/TheLostWorld'' was also adapted as an A&E miniseries, in association with the ''WalkingWithDinosaurs'' guys, starring Bob Hoskins, James Fox, and Peter Falk. It was a bit more faithful to the source, but - more importantly - the deviations they made were [[AdaptationDistillation actually effective]].

** ''Secrets of the Surface World'' supplement. One of these exists on a plateau in the Amazon rain forest. A British expedition reached it and returned, without any proof of their findings but with a fortune in uncut diamonds (a ShoutOut to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel ''Literature/TheLostWorld''). There's a hint that the plateau connects to the Hollow Earth mentioned above.

[[TropeNamer Named after]] ''Literature/TheLostWorld'' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this is, naturally, a geographic location off all maps.

* Doyle's ''Literature/TheLostWorld'' was adapted as [[Film/TheLostWorld a silent film in 1925]], with effects by Willis O'Brien, who also worked on ''Film/KingKong1933''. The film was also adapted in 1960 (with [[SpecialEffectsFailure Giant Lizards in Makeup]] playing Dinosaurs), 1992 (with its own sequel--with Handpuppet Dinosaurs) and 1998 (pilot for the above mentioned TV series).

* ''Literature/TheLostWorld'' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the TropeNamer.

* The "Lost World" level in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', located in the middle of the Mystic Ruins jungle.
** Speaking of Sonic... The Lost Hex, from the appropriately named ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'', is a PatchworkMap FloatingContinent made out of hexagonal pieces.

** The later ValiantComics run and the [[VideoGame/{{Turok}} video games]] {{retcon}}ned it into being AnotherDimension called the Lost Lands, and promptly threw a ton of other things into said lands such as robots, aliens, and demons.
* {{Tintin}} discovered a lost pocket of the Inca civilization in ''Prisoners of the Sun''.

* ''DonaldDuck'' has used this trope ''so'' many times. Usually when Scrooge dragged Donald and his nephews along to search for treasures.

* Atlantis from "The Atlantis Enigma" in BlakeAndMortimer. An empire created before recorded history, it was destroyed (along with much of the Earth's surface) by a falling meteor and the ensuing tidal waves; the survivors eventually build a new empire in vast underground caverns under the Atlantic, which is what Blake and Mortimer discover. They've progressed to the point of becoming an AdvancedAncientAcropolis, mastering anti-gravity technology, laser weaponry, and space travel, among other things.

* Franchise/TheDCU has "Gorilla City", with its own phlebotinum ("invisible force fields") used to hide it, and populated by ''[[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys telepathic apes]]''. It's appeared on TV in both ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''.

* Another LostWorld in TheDCU is "Skartaris" (a world located within the hollow Earth, accessible through a portal in the Arctic wilderness), which is the setting of Mike Grell's ''ComicBook/TheWarlord'' (though other DC Universe characters would visit there from time to time as well). An episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' is set there.
** Skartaris is named after the Volcano through which Creator/JulesVerne's adventurers made their ''Journey to the Center of the Earth''.
** Skartaris was {{retcon}}ned into being AnotherDimension. It cannot actually exist within the Franchise/DCUniverse's Earth, which isn't hollow.
* A third [[Franchise/TheDCU DCU]] example: Themyscira, also known as Paradise Island, home to Wonder Woman and the Amazons.
** Retconned into being able to travel around the world and through time itself.
*** Not much of a retcon- see Wonder Woman's [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] adventures.
* And a fourth: Dinosaur Island, the setting for ''The War That Time Forgot'' series. In ''[[ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier New Frontier]]'', Dinosaur Island turns out to be [[spoiler:an ancient and malevolent organism called the Centre]].

* TheDCU has "Gorilla City", with its own phlebotinum ("invisible force fields") used to hide it, and populated by ''[[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys telepathic apes]]''. It's appeared on TV in both ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''.

** Skartaris was {{retcon}}ned into being AnotherDimension. It cannot actually exist within the DCUniverse's Earth, which isn't hollow.
* A third [[TheDCU DCU]] example: Themyscira, also known as Paradise Island, home to Wonder Woman and the Amazons.

* ''Franchise/{{Ultima}}'' loves this trope almost as much as DCComics:

* The ''LostPlanet'' series takes place on a literal LostWorld, populated by giant creatures and hidden treasures.
* ''Return to Mysterious Island'' and its sequal play this fairly straight, the second game moreso than the first.
* The Lost City of Z from ''{{Conduit 2}}''.

* Creator/KarelZeman's ''Journey to the Beginning of Time'', a Czech film that was syndicated to American TV, most notably on ''GarfieldGooseAndFriends''.
* The ''Danger Island'' segment from ''TheBananaSplits''.

* Kinkao in ''PairOfKings''.

** ''The Lost Continent'' (originally known as ''Beyond Thirty'') - the titular continent is Europe, in an AlternateHistory in which WorldWarI never ended because eventually no organized government was left to make peace. The United States never entered the war, and in fact made laws forbidding any ship to cross certain lines of longitude (hence the original title).

* Neverland, from J.M. Barrie's ''Literature/PeterPan''.

* The "Lost World" level in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', located in the middle of the Mystic Jungle.
* The Lost Hex, from the appropriately named ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'', is a PatchworkMap FloatingContinent made of hexagonal pieces.

Two frequent lost worlds are the DesertedIsland and (in older works) MysteriousAntarctica. Often a key element in a JungleOpera. May contain a CityOfGold. Overlaps with HollowWorld, with the internal and external surfaces loosing knowledge of eachother.

Two frequent lost worlds are the DesertedIsland and (in older works) MysteriousAntarctica. Often a key element in a JungleOpera. May contain a CityOfGold. Overlaps with HollowEarth, with the internal and external surfaces loosing knowledge of eachother.

Two frequent lost worlds are the DesertedIsland and (in older works) MysteriousAntarctica.
Often a key element in a JungleOpera. May contain a CityOfGold.

* ''{{Superfriends}}'' (1973-74) episode "The Mysterious Moles". Deep under the earth is the Bottomless Cave: a gigantic cavern filled with plants, lakes and dinosaurs.

* In the ''SpiderRiders'' franchise, a place aptly named the "Inner World" exists deep beneath the earth in a gigantic cavern filled with plants, an ocean and giant humanoid insects.

* The MarvelUniverse distills this trope into a place known as the "Savage Land." It is a tropical jungle ''in the middle of [[MysteriousAntarctica Antarctica]]'' filled with strange creatures, prehistoric beasts, warrior tribes, incredible civilizations and other great pulpy stuff.

* There are two such places in Steve Alten's ''Literature/{{Meg}}'' series. The first one is the Marianas Trench, which is where the titular Megalodons are found. Its [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]], as people already knew of its existence, it just contained a prehistoric creature or two. Playing it much more straight is the Panthalassa sea in the sequal, Hell's Aquarium. Its a primordial sea contained under a rock ceiling at the bottom of the pacific ocean, and is home to an abundance of ancient sea creatures which have formed a comfortable food chain.

* The "Lost World" level in ''SonicAdventure'', located in the middle of the Mystic Jungle.

* ''EVEOnline'' recently jumped on this trope with wormholes that open up into "Sleeper" space. Along with several other races they were thought to be extinct. WildMassGuessing ranges from time loops to returns to Earth's galaxy though they are much more advanced now. WordOfGod has been very silent on the matter. Also Earth itself qualifies due to the collapse of the Eve Gate.