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The Elephant Graveyard is a location seen in The Lion Kingfranchise. It is a barren wasteland filled with the remains of elephants who have died. Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed and their clan used to live there.
Background[]
The Elephant Graveyard is located beyond a rise that marks the northern border of the Pride Lands, and was supposedly discovered by the first king. It is a dry, barren, rocky wasteland, perpetually covered in fog that casts a shadow over the area even in the daytime. Bones of dead elephants litter the landscape. The area is geothermally active, containing many steam vents.
The graveyard is named after the various elephants whose skeletons litter the area. It is also known for the numerous geysers that were located there. The graveyard is visible from Pride Rock as a shadowy area. It has been speculated that part of the reason the elephant graveyard is such a terrible place is because the hyenas live there, especially considering what they did to the Pride Lands during their residence there.
The graveyard has two "districts": the graveyard district where most of the bones of dead elephants lie with only a few boilers, which is where Simba and Nala visit; and the geyser district, which has geysers, boilers, and suffers from earth tremors and explosions of lava. This is where the song Be Prepared is performed.
Appearances[]
The Lion King[]
One morning, Mufasa takes his son Simba to the top of Pride Rock and, in the expanding light of the sun, shows the young cub the vast expanse of the Pride Lands. However, when Simba asks about a "shadowy place" he sees in the distance, Mufasa gravely responds that it is beyond their borders, and that Simba must never go there.
Simba's uncle Scar, however, is actively planning the cub's death. After having arranged with three hyenas named Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed to kill Simba once he induces him to go the location. He plays upon Simba's curiosity about the "shadowy place" and desire to prove his bravery by "accidentally" revealing that it is an Elephant Graveyard. Impressed, Simba is determined to go there, despite his father's instruction. He invites his friend, a female cub named Nala, along. The two cubs trick their mothers into letting them leave Pride Rock, ostensibly to go and see something interesting by the watering hole. Simba's mother, Queen Sarabi, insists that Zazu chaperone them. The cubs, however, manage to lose the hornbill. In their glee, they playfully tackle each other. However they do not notice how close they have come to the graveyard and, while playing, both of them fall down a slope, into the area.
Looking around amidst the elephant bones, they approach an elephant skull. Nala comments to Simba about the trouble they could get into by coming to the graveyard, but Simba is unconcerned. They move to investigate the skull. A very nervous Zazu catches up to them and urgently tells them they all have to leave immediately, as they are in very serious danger. Simba airily brushes him off, responding that he laughs at danger. However, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed then appear, slinking towards the two cubs and the hornbill, making no secret about their intention to devour them.
The cubs try to escape and the hyenas chase them through the graveyard, managing to catch up to Zazu. They take him to one of the geysers (which they call the "Birdie Boiler") and explode him out of the graveyard. After catching back up with the cubs, the hyenas resume the chase. Simba and Nala are seen riding down an elephant spine and climbing up a massive hill of bones. They are later cornered against a gigantic rock wall. But just as the hyenas are about to swoop in for the kill, Mufasa rescues them. After the hyenas run away in fear, Mufasa orders Zazu to take Nala home. Mufasa scolds his son for deliberately disobeying him, and expresses disappointment in Simba for getting himself nearly killed and putting Nala in great danger. As Simba tells his father that he was attempting to show bravery, Mufasa reminds him that being brave does not mean that one should go looking for trouble. He then admits about being scared himself because he almost lost his son, and he and Simba eventually reconcile.
Later, the hyenas are seen in a different part of the graveyard. This part of the graveyard has a greenish tint to it and is littered with geysers. Scar performs Be Prepared while in the graveyard, and numerous hyenas join in. This is the last time the graveyard is seen in the movie.
The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride[]
Some years after Scar's death, when Zira is planning to overtake the Pride Lands, she sends Nuka and Vitani to fetch fire from the Elephant Graveyard. The two go to the graveyard, and Nuka comments that it was even creepier since the hyenas ran off, suggesting that he has been there before. (Additionally, Nuka's comment suggests the Hyenas have abandoned the Elephant Graveyard for unknown reasons). Vitani rolls her eyes and Nuka insists that he wasn't scared. But when he hears one of the geysers hiss, he lets out a yelp and leaps off a rock ledge. Vitani put down the sticks on the geyser, then light their sticks on fire and leave the cavern that Kiara started her hunt, Nuka laughing maniacally and excitedly as he goes.
The Lion King 1 1/2[]
- “I mean, sure it needs a little work, but it's got good bones. Heh-heh-heh. After all, this is an Elephant Graveyard. And, who would ever come to an Elephant Graveyard?”
- ―Timon
When Timon and Pumbaa are looking for a new home, Timon decides to settle in the Elephant Graveyard, after Pumbaa asks where they should go. Timon tries to convince himself as well as Pumbaa that the graveyard would make a good home, but falls into an elephant skull in the process. He claims that the place needed a bit of cleaning up, but that it would eventually be home sweet home, since it has "good bones." Shortly afterward, Timon and Pumbaa see Mufasa rush by to rescue Simba and Nala from the hyenas, and they barely get out of the way in time. Shaken up, they then go to a different part of the graveyard, on which Timon comments that the steam is good since it's water, and that water is mandatory. Timon seems happy in the place, but Pumbaa isn't as optimistic, especially when they are confronted by Scar's army of hyenas singing. Timon and Pumbaa quickly leave, river-dancing as the hyenas are goose-stepping so as to blend in and not be seen.
The Lion Guard[]
When Simba and Nala were cubs, they made it past Zazu to reach the Elephant Graveyard, surrounded by elephant's skulls, bones and old geysers. They took a look around before they went inside the biggest elephant skull when Zazu came to stop them. He told them the Elephant Graveyard is too dangerous and Simba laughed about it when he thought of its danger. When three hyenas, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed came and surround them and afterward began to chase them suddenly Simba and Nala were trapped at the walls and Simba tried to roar to protect Nala, but the Hyenas were laughing and teasing him. Simba gave another roar and it sounded like the noise of an adult lion's roar. It was Mufasa, who came to rescue the cubs and he told the Hyenas to never go near his son again and they ran away after that. He was disappointed that his son disobeyed him and took the cubs back home to the Pride Lands. Later that night, Scartold his henchmen he had a plan to murder Mufasa and Simba for good to take over the throne.
Years later, after Mufasa is killed, and Simba runs off into exile from the Pride Lands, the hyenas, (who are now living at Pride Rock under the reign of Scar) begin to lose their faith in Scar. Once Simba returns as an adult and defeats Scar, they betray and kill their master, before being engulfed in a fire that broke out during the fight via one strike of dry lightning.
Now the graveyard is abandoned by the hyenas, as many of them are burned alive in the fire, whilst others run away from the Pride Lands, not returning to the wasteland, leaving it dormant of hyenas. Their descendants, led by Janja live in the Outlands, which strides along the borders of the Graveyard and the Pride Lands.
Battle for the Pride Lands[]
The Elephant Graveyard appeared in one of Rafiki's paintings in The Lair of the Lion Guard.