Sintra is a unusual place, just outside on Lisbon, it is famous for it's colourful castles, and those are fascinating, but another place which isn't as photogenic, as pretty is a sthort bus ride away.
It's the Poço Iniciático (which means Initiation Well in English) in the Quinta da Regaleira estate.
It's hard to photograph because this well (as most do) goes into the ground, in fact The Poço Iniciático spirals down through nine levels comprising 15 steps each that are reported represent the nine levels of Hell from Dante’s Inferno's (or maybe the 9 founders of the Knight's Templar, depending on what you read) - by the bottom you will end up 27 metres down into the Earth.
As the name would suggest it was used as an initiation right for the Knight's Templar (think the miltary of the Catholic church, with the height of power between 1100-1350. Except of course the well is newer than that, so what were they joining (maybe Dan Brown style the Knights of the Templar still exist, maybe it is something to do with Freemasons, maybe the owner was just a weird dude) the concept was that you head down the stairs into the pitch dark of the earth and then you make your way back out through some tunnels (there are the classic three tunnels, two of which lead to dead ends)
As I walked down there, sandwiched between two of the many tourists, and illuminated by a hundred mobile phone screens it wasn't that scary but it didn't take a huge imagination to consider that is you were alone and it was dark this would be pretty darn freaky.
Even from the bottom looking up it felt like you were indeed, in hell.....
The spiral staircase is built into the walls.
You kind of except a swarm of bats to come flying through (thus making me a superhero as I understand it)
This is at the end of one of the longer tunnels under ground, telling us we were getting close to the surface.
