The entrance to a dungeon, ruins, or fortress should usually be bold and dramatic. Looking for a way to get your heroes into an adventure in style? Consider these visual feasts.

It may also be helpful to consider where did all these dungeons come from?

Other Ideas

1. A hole in the ground reveals a chamber in a lost complex dug by unknown hands.
2. A sinkhole leads down into the depths to a natural cavern complex with some side passages part-way down.
3. A mysterious set of steps in a gorge lead up to a doorway carved into the rock.
4. A river’s headwaters emerge from a great stone arch in the wall of a cliff in the mountains.
5. Tucked into a rocky badlands is a great stone skull with mouth agape and beckoning.
6. A fantastic ruined castle features great stone knights standing on either side of a large gate in wall.
7. High in the mountains, a rope bridge crosses a steep gorge to a mysterious stone temple shadowed by overhanging rock.
8. Half buried in the sandy desert is an ancient temple, its door open but nearly blocked by a sand dune.
9. An ancient villa on the borderlands has seen its roof cave in, but the remaining walls suggest the cellars beneath it may be intact.
10. When the tide goes out, a set of steps is revealed rising into unknown chambers cut into the cliff.