Case file · High strangeness
'Etidorhpa': through a Kentucky cave to the Earth's core
Cincinnati pharmacist John Uri Lloyd's 1895 novel tells of a man led by an eyeless, grey being through a Kentucky cave into the hollow interior of the Earth.
1895 CE · 39.10, -84.51 · status: legend
The account
Framed as a manuscript dictated by a mysterious stranger, the book mixes alchemy, Masonic secrets, cave science and hollow-earth ideas. Its title is 'Aphrodite' spelled backwards. It became a cult classic among esoteric readers.
The sceptical view
Fiction, though written as a 'true' account in the style of the time.
Connections in the atlas
- Bulwer-Lytton's 'The Coming Race' and Vril
- Mammoth Cave tuberculosis hospital
- 'The Smoky God': Olaf Jansen's inner world