This image was created in 5 days from scratch for the Nvidia NVArt March 2008 competition.

http://events.cgsociety.org/NVArt/02/index.php

The competition required to create a "fusion between architecture and landscape". I was inspired by greek "meteores" as well as other sources both real and fantastic.
"Imagine you've made a long journey, walked over an incommensurable distance through unfriendly places. And then you finally got there. The wind gets quieter, and you walk the final steps over the bridge, towards the fortresses and temples that still stand against the elements. You've arrived, you're safe."
The picture shows two dwelling complexes built on top of large rock formations, part villages, temples and fortresses at the same time. The image itself has been built using some form of "lego concept", being composed by a few pieces modified, retexturized, scaled and stretched in every way. As you can see, time constrains took some toll over the quality of both the render and the composition: The foreground is definitely lacking detail, and the mid left part of the image show some unresolved composition lines.