Map of the Pridelands?

[crownofsimba]

So I have been working on a (very very VERY rough) map of the Pridelands for future reference in writing and I think I have the very general form of it from at least the first (and nominally third) movies?

It's incredibly rough but I might make a better version of it later, mainly I wanted to get the locations correct.

We know that Pride Rock faces directly east from the scene where Mufasa and Simba watch the sunrise. From this scene we also know that the watering hole is directly to the east of PR and that a river flows from the east before curving south (it zigzags more in universe, again simplicity). We also know that the Elephant Graveyard would then be to the southeast, probably bordered by mountains (which I will add later.

The gorge is, I think, to the west of PR, since when Simba goes into exiles he walks into the setting sun AKA the west, and if he was leaving the Pridelands it would make sense that the Gorge seems to denote their west border? SP also indicates this but I did not inculde SP locations yet. We also know that there is a river (maybe) that flows through the gorge, and that it leads into the Oasis. For the position of the Oasis, I think it has to be in the northwest since when Simba goes to it he apparently is approaching it westward, but when he comes back to the Pridelands he comes from the north (since PR is facing the left).

We also see in the return scene a dried up river that flows from the north down and probably around PR, since we didn't see it in at the beginning. Also ignore the fact that everything is made of ovals, I will go make up shapes for the actual lands later. The outlands would probably be in the southwest corner on the other side of the Gorge, especially since I headcanon that Simba had the dam from SP built in order to reinvigorate the Pridelands, but that might cause geographic changes? Or maybe the gorge floods in heavy rains.

[crownofsimba]

OH MY GOD I was rewatching SP and the Upendi sequence completely obliterates all geography I will have to ignore it.

[Carl]

It sounds good, except that Scar said the Elephant Graveyard was over a rise on the northern border when he was talking to Simba about it.

[crownofsimba]

OH NO

I accidentally deleted the file so I'll remake it as a paper copy and scan when I next have access to a scanner (in like 3 weeks) but I'm not really sure what to do with that?

Because it is very clearly not in the north its definitely south of Pride Rock unless the northern border extends more southward than Pride Rock.

Which means that even the first movie is internally inconsistent about this stuff. What would be more canon? Dialogue or actual imagery?

[TheLionPrince]

[quote="Julie Skywalker"]It sounds good, except that Scar said the Elephant Graveyard was over a rise on the northern border when he was talking to Simba about it.

[/quote]

The filmmakers were very inconsistent with the location of the Elephant Graveyard with Simba referring to it as the "shadowy place". When Simba and Mufasa are at the top of Pride Rock viewing the sunrise, Simba (and later Mufasa) walks over to the right when he first mentions the "shadowy place" implying that is located there. Because the sun rises in the east, that would mean that anything on their right side would be south.

Mapping it out on Microsoft Paint will probably explain it better than words:

PrideLands_geography.png (5.21 KiB) Viewed 2219 times

[quote="crownofsimba"]Which means that even the first movie is internally inconsistent about this stuff. What would be more canon? Dialogue or actual imagery?[/quote]

I would rely on the actual imagery. Plus, Scar is a proven liar.