The Pit
The site of an ancient ruin of immense scale, The Pit is what its name implies: a pit.
However, there are a few details that make this landmark stand out. The first is the scale: the radius of the circle describing the outer edge is 20 kilometers.
The second are the two installations that sit to perfectly along a line going from North to South. These installations seem to be either processing facilities or power stations, according to the best guesses of the wrights who have visited the site. Part of their function in the past was to create machines and other objects out of hard light, but these functions have long since ceased to function.
Next, there's the pit itself. Curving steadily down until the pit walls are vertical, the sides of the pit are covered in strips of material that don't seem to serve much of a purpose until a Commander of the Royal Army visited the site. He immediately recognized them as being very similar to ablative plates he'd seen on machines and armour found in previous world dig sites. This only raised further questions; if it is armor, why isn't it blocking the hole? Some of the bands are missing, exposing strange blocky machinery that is slowly crumbling to dust.
Once the pit walls reach vertical, they describe a circle with a radius of 5 km. At this point the pit seems to drop endlessly into the earth. However, no light can be seen at the bottom; no magma or fire from the interior of the Ninth World. Wherever this pit leads, it might not be on this planet.
There are pathways that can be taken that will lead an explorer to the pit proper. Once there, another strange sight reveals itself. There is a spiral staircase that leads down into the pit. However, it is made of free-floating blocks of stone, each 5 meters wide by 10 meters long and 2 meters thick. Each floats in the air, apparently able to support large amounts of weight. These blocks also float half a meter apart from their closets neighbours when viewed from above, so some agility and a certain fearlessness when it comes to heights is recommended for those who wish to explore. The surface of each block is 1 meter higher than the next, all the way up to the first block which rests 1 meter below the lip of the pit.
Whatever numenera is responsible for keeping the blocks afloat has slowly been losing power over the years. A number of blocks are missing, having long since fallen into the pit. Some of the blocks still rest upon their neighbours beneath them, making getting past a little tricky.
Set into the sides of the pit at semi-regular intervals are chambers of various sizes. Some are little more than resting spots, some are bored deep into the rock, extending for kilometers into the crust of the earth.
Another thing to note about The Pit is that no matter how far down people have explored, the temperature remained constant. The furthest expedition, which travelled for several days and reached nearly 5 kilometers down into the Pit reported that the temperature was the same as on the surface.
Lastly, the pit seems to be not entirely tethered to this reality. Parties who travel into the pit at different times don't meet each other, even when it should have been impossible for them to miss each other. Additionally, whatever the temperature is at the surface when a party enters the pit is the temperature they feel for their entire stay within. This was tested by two parties of explorers. One left at noon on a hot day in the month of Clearing with enough supplies to last them a year. The other left a few months later, when the weather had shifted with the seasons to be colder. Each party had strict plans on how they would explore that should have had them meeting up in various different locations. However, when the first party returned they reported that they had never run into the other party, and that until they stepped out of the pit the temperature had remained the swealtering heat of summer. When the other party returned, they reported much the same; but with cold instead of warmth.
