Breast-shaped hill

A breast-shaped hill is a mountain in the shape of a human breast. Such anthropomorphic geographic features are to be found in different places of the world and in some cultures they were revered as the attributes of the Mother Goddess, like the Paps of Anu, named after Anu, an important goddess of pre-Christian Ireland.^[1]

The name Mamucium that gave origin to the name of the city of Manchester is thought to derive from the Celtic language meaning "breast shaped hill", referring to the sandstone bluff the fort stood on; this later evolved into the name Manchester.^[2][3]

Mostly breast shaped hills are connected with local ancestral veneration of the breast as a symbol of fertility and well-being. It is not uncommon for very old archaeological sites to be located in or below such hills, like in Samson, Isles of Scilly, where there are large ancient burial grounds both on the North Hill and South Hill,^[4][5] or Burrén and Burrena, Aragon, Spain, where two Iron Age Urnfield culture archaeological sites lie beneath the hills.^[6]

Also the myths surrounding these mountains are ancient and enduring and some have been recorded in the oral literature or written texts; for example, in an unspecified location in Asia, there was a mountain known as "Breast Mountain" with a cave in which the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma (Da Mo) spent a long time in meditation.^[7]

Travelers and cartographers in colonial times often changed the ancestral names of such hills. The mountain known as Didhol or Dithol, Woman's Breast, by the Indigenous Australian people since time immemorial, was rechristened Pigeon House Mountain by Captain James Cook at the time of his exploration of Australia's eastern coast in 1770

"Mamelon" (from French "nipple") is a French name for a breast shaped hillock.^[8] Fort Mamelon was a famous hillock fortified by the Russians and captured by the French as part of the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War of the 1850s. The word "mamelon" is also used in volcanology to describe a particular rock formation of volcanic origin. The term was coined by the French explorer and naturalist Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent.^[9]

Contents 1 Africa 2 Antarctica 3 Asia 4 Europe 5 North and Central America 6 Oceania 7 South America 8 Gallery 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Africa

East Africa

• Naasa Hablood in Somalia
• Mount Elgon on the Uganda-Kenya border
• Sweet Sixteen, Matthews Range (Ldoinyo Lenkiyio), Laikipia district, Rift Valley Province, northern Kenya.^[10]

Mauritius

• Trois Mamelles mountains in the west of Mauritius

Seychelles

• Mamelles Island, Seychelles

West Africa

• Deux Mamelles, Pointe des Almadies, Cap-Vert, Senegal

Antarctica

• Una's Tits at the entrance to the Lemaire Channel, Graham Land
• Nipple Peak, Palmer Archipelago, Graham Land
• Hemus Peak, Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands

Asia

Cambodia

• Sroh-Plom Mountain, "Virtuous Woman's Breast Mountain", located close to Senmonorom, Senmonorom District, Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia.^[11]

Middle East

• Tell Sader al-Arus (translation from Arabic: "Breast of the bride") is a mountain in the Golan Heights

Philippines

• Bundok ng Susong Dalaga, "Maiden's breast mountain", looking like a reclined woman, Western Mindoro, Philippines.^[12]
• Bundok ng Susong Dalaga, two huge conical hills resembling the female breast, which are the highest peaks of Talim Island, Philippines.
• Kagmasuso, among other breast shaped hills in San Andres, Catanduanes^[13]
• Chocolate Hills, unusual geological formations in Bohol
• Ilihan Hill, "Watery Breast", a religious pilgrimage site about four kilometers from Jagna

Thailand

• Khao Nom Sao (เขานมสาว), "female breast mountain", a mountain located in Ranong Province, Thailand.
• Khao Nom Sao, a round hill east of Phet Kasem road in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province.
• Khao Nom Sao, a mountain in Chumphon Province.
• Khao Nom Sao, a hill in Phang Nga Province, part of a greater mountain system.
• Khao Nom Nang, (เขานมนาง), an isolated large hill in khao Kala, Nakhon Sawan Province.
• Khao Nom Nang, an isolated hill in Khok Samae San, Lopburi.
• Khao Nom Nang, the name of two hills west of Doeng Bang Nam Buat, Suphan Buri.
• Khao Nom Nang, a hill north of Pak Phraek, Kanchanaburi.
• Khao Nom Nang, a hill at Huai Krachao, Kanchanaburi.
• Khao Nom Nang, a hill between Nong Pet and Chong Sadao, Kanchanaburi.
• Khao Nom Wang (เขานมวังก), a small hill just east of the main road at Panomwang, also known as Khao Phanom Wang, Phatthalung Province.
• Khao Nom (เขานม), was one of the former names of Khanom, a district of Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, due to the surrounding mountains.^[14]
• Ko Nom Sao (Thai: เกาะนมสาว, lit. female breast island) are twin islands located in the Phang Nga Bay,^[15] Phang Nga Province, Thailand.
• Ko Nom Sao in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province.^[16]

• Ko Nom Sao, an island off the shore in Chanthaburi Province.^[17][18]

Europe

British Isles

• Mumbles The two islands (on one of which stands a lighthouse) off the southeast corner of the Gower peninsula, Swansea, Wales
• Beinn Chìochan in the Grampians, Scotland
• Bennachie in Aberdeenshire, Scotland
• Mam Barisdale in Knoydart, Scotland
• Mynydd Llanwenarth near Abergavenny, Wales
• Mount Keen in Aberdeenshire / Angus, Scotland
• A' Chioch in Ben More, Isle of Mull, Scotland
• Mam Sodhail, on the northern side of Glen Affric, some 30 kilometres east of Kyle of Lochalsh
• Mam Tor, near Castleton in the High Peak of Derbyshire, England.^[19]
• Samson, Isles of Scilly
• Twmbarlwm near Risca, Wales
• Paps or Maiden Paps are rounded, breastlike hills located mostly in Scotland:
  • Paps of Anu, near Killarney, Ireland
  • Paps of Fife in Scotland
  • Paps of Jura, on the western side of island of Jura, in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland
  • Paps of Lothian in Scotland
  • Maiden Paps, twin hills in Caithness, Scotland
  • Maiden Paps, twin hills in the Kilpatrick Hills, Scotland
  • Maiden Paps, twin hills south of Hawick in the Scottish Borders, Scotland
  • Maiden Paps, another name for the Tunstall Hills near Sutherland, Tyne and Wear, England
  • Maiden Paps, another name for the Schiehallion, Perth and Kinross, Scotland
  • Pap of Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands

Denmark

• Marens Patter (Maren's Tits), a pair of twin hills that has functioned as a landmark for seafarers since the bronze ages.

Greece

• Breasts of Aphrodite in Mykonos, Greece

Spain

• Tetica de Bacares or "La Tetica", a 2,086 m high mountain in the Sierra de Los Filabres, Spain.^[20]
• Tetas de Liérganes, Cantabria
• Tetas de Viana, La Alcarria, Guadalajara Province
• Puig de Mamelles, Felanitx, Mallorca
• Ses Mamelles, another name for the 714 m high Puig des Castellot, Escorca, Mallorca
• Turó de la Mamella, a mountain near Vacarisses, Catalonia
• Burrén and Burrena^[21] near Fréscano, Aragon

North and Central America

Canada

• Squaw's Tit in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta

El Salvador

• San Vicente, also known as Chichontepec, the mountain of the two breasts in Nahuat, a stratovolcano in El Salvador

Guadeloupe

• Deux Mamelles, Guadeloupe

Mexico

• Tres Tetas Mountain or El Chichión in Costa Grande of Guerrero, Mexico

Puerto Rico

• Cerro Las Tetas in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico
• Tetas de Cerro Gordo in San Germán, Puerto Rico

United States

• Bubble Mountains, in Acadia National Park of Maine. ^[22]
• Nippletop, in the Adirondack High Peaks of New York. During the later 19th century, it was euphemistically renamed "Dial Mountain", a name now officially applied to another nearby peak.
• Pinnacle Mountain, Arkansas. During the colonial and early American periods, the mountain was known as "Mamelle" mountain. "Mamelle" is a name commonly applied in the French-speaking parts of the world to a breast.^[23]
• Tetilla Peak, Caja del Rio, New Mexico. "Tetilla" is Spanish for "nipple".
• Teton Range. French-Canadian trappers named the Grand Teton Mountains around 1820. The distinctive peaks appeared as Les Trois Tetons (The Three Breasts) seen from the north^[24]
  • Grand Teton
  • Middle Teton
  • South Teton
• Twin Peaks (San Francisco, California). When the Spanish conquistadors and settlers arrived at the beginning of the 18th century, they called the area “Los Pechos de la Chola” or "Breasts of the Indian Maiden" and devoted the area to ranching.^[25] When San Francisco passed under American control during the 19th Century, it was renamed "Twin Peaks".

Oceania

Australia

• Pigeon House Mountain, NSW, Australia

New Zealand

• Saddle Hill, Dunedin, New Zealand

South America

Argentina

• Cerro Tres Tetas, Argentina^[26]

Bolivia

• Cerro Tres Tetas in Potosí, Bolivia

Chile

• Cerro de Las Tetas, Chile

Colombia

• Cerro La Teta, La Guajira, Colombia
• Cerro de Las Tetas, Serranía del Perijá, La Guajira, Colombia

Peru

• Cerro Tetas, Chiclayo Province, Peru

Uruguay

• Cerro Batoví in Uruguay. Batoví means breast of a virgin in the Guaraní language.^[27]

Venezuela

• Tetas de María Guevara, Isla Margarita, Venezuela
• Teta de Niquitao, Trujillo State, Venezuela^[28]
• Cerro de Las Tetas, Tinaquillo, Cojedes, Venezuela
• Cerro las Tres Tetas, Barquisimeto, Venezuela

Gallery

See also

• The Sleeping Lady
• Maiden Paps
• Mamucium
• Monadnock
• St Melangell's Church, Pennant Melangell
• Mamelon (fort)
• Mamelon (volcanology)

References

External links

• Stuart McHardy, The Goddess in the Landscape of Scotland
• Breast-Shaped Hill Picture
• Philip Coppens, The Gododdin triangle
• Yakima Herald-Republic - State Changes Name of Hill (Squaw Tit) to Pushtay
• Mark Monmonier, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame