Here’s a another bit of trivia. I always thought the ‘Three Sisters’ at Echo Point, Katoomba, Australia, were quite unique, especially in their mythological history. Scientifically they are seen as a sandstone rock formation created by wind and water erosion. Indigenous Australian Dreamtime story tells us that three sisters, ‘Meehni’ (922m), ‘Wimlah’ (918m) and Gunnedoo’ (906m) lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. They had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers did not want to accept this law and decided to use force to capture the three sisters, causing a major tribal battle. In the pursuing fight a shaman from the Katoomba tribe turned the sisters into stone to protect them. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, he was killed in the fighting. As only he could reverse the spell, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle.
By browsing Google Earth for some unrelated reason, I came across a Google Earth Community site called ‘neon‘. This guy actually did a bit of research on the term ‘three sisters’ and found it showing up quite a bit in mythology, geography, and many other aspects of culture ranging from the arts to economy. Viewing his site on Google Maps (click on the link on his site) shows a number of ‘three sisters’ reference locations in North America, the British Isles, Southern Africa and Australia (where he got the three sister story a bit wrong 
).
Intrigued, I did a bit of googling myself: the term shows 11.3 million results - not too bad . I’m sure it is possible to not only deduct pattern and group them around topics such as music, plays, painting, architecture, business, legend etc., but also trace them back to a web of layers ranging from cosmology to mythology to different aspects of history and science. For example: in eskimo mythology, the Kadlu were three sisters who lived in the sky and made thunder and lightning by scrubbing sealskins together. Mythologies all over the world contain references to Three Sisters (see the sites on Wyrd Myths or Pagaian Cosmology with references to the triple goddess); or what about the mythology of Shakespeares Weird Sisters. In terms of geography, many mountains, river and island clusters all over the world are called Three Sisters. Anyway, I’m not planning to become an expert on this topic, so here are just three pictures from geological formations with the same name like the Echo Point one.
Three Sisters
The first one shows a triple volcanic mountain cluster, which is part of the Cascades Range in Oregon. The oldest North Sister last erupted in the Pleistocene; The youngest and tallest South Sister (3158m) erupted only about 1600 years ago. In 2000, a satellite discovered that there was a deforming uplift 3 miles south of the South Sister, which could mean that the mountain is awakening again. The Sisters were named Faith, Hope, and Charity by early white settlers.
The next photo shows a trio of peaks near Canmore, Alberta, Canada (elevation 2694-2936m). They are known individually as Big Sister, Middle Sister and Little Sister. The trio was originally named The Three Nuns because they were seen as resembling three praying nuns after a veil of snow was left on each after a snowstorm.
The last one finally was taken of the Three Sisters that are part of the Monument Valley, which is located on the southern border of Utah with northern Arizona. The valley lies within the range of the Navajo Nation Reservation. Again, wind and water erosion created this formation. I am not sure about the origins of the name ‘Three Sisters’, but corn, beans and, squash, being mainstays for most nations in the Americas, are known by this name. According to Indian mythology, it is the womb of mother earth from which the Three Sisters emerge to provide sustenance to her people.
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June 29th, 2007 at 12:27 am
very cool Paul!
