There’s a patch of countryside along Iceland’s southern coast that was pretty much empty 15 years ago. The family that had owned and farmed the land for decades had moved to Reykjavík, three and a half hours away. A few visitors stumbled upon the area, which—in addition to being an excellent pasture for sheep—is also home to a narrow, steep-sided canyon that looks like it could be straight out of Lord of the Rings. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Things started to change sometime around 2013, when a few intrepid travelers began posting photos of the canyon on social media—sometimes with a geolocation tag attached.