Vulcan's Forge

Vulcan's Forge (or simply The Forge) was a vast desert on the planet , which played an important role in Vulcan history. The Forge was a natural environment for sehlats. Natural landmarks in The Forge included the Plain of Blood and extensive cave networks. The Forge also contained at least one oasis with deep forests housing many dangers. ()

The environment of The Forge was harsh, subject to electrical sandstorms and possessed geomagnetic instabilities that interfered with 22nd century technology, including scanners, communicators, and transporters. The interference extended several hundred meters above the ground and, while aircraft could fly over it, the interference prevented their scanners from identifying objects on the ground.

According to historical record, The Forge was where Surak began his pilgrimage in the 4th century CE, and his presumed entrance to The Forge was a location known as "Gateway". In 2154, Jonathan Archer and T'Pol traveled to The Forge to track down members of the Syrrannite movement, thought to be responsible for the bombing of the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan. They discovered that the Syrrannites had taken refuge in the T'Karath Sanctuary, until its destruction by the Vulcan High Command. ()

In 2236, ten-year-old Michael Burnham ran away from her foster parents, Sarek and Amanda Grayson. She was located in a forest in The Forge, after her mother appeared from the future to her foster brother, Spock, and showed him Burnham's location. She was rescued by Sarek and the authorities before being slain by a vicious predatory animal. ()

In an alternate timeline, Burnham was killed by the animal. ()

In 2237, a young Spock traveled through Vulcan's Forge during his kahs-wan, or Vulcan maturity test. He had visited the location a month earlier, to prove to himself that he could endure the ordeal. ()

In 2374, Worf proposed that he and Jadzia Dax undertake a hiking trip across Vulcan's Forge for their honeymoon. Dax rejected the idea as entailing too much suffering. ()

See also
 Gateway
 Plain of Blood
 Vulcan's Anvil

Appendices

Background information 
The name "Vulcan's Forge" was based primarily on the Olympian god known to the ancient Greeks (Hellenes) as "Hephaestus" and known to the Romans as "Vulcan," who was called "The Blacksmith Of The Gods." It originated in a Star Trek fanzine from . 

The scenes of Star Trek: Enterprise that are set in The Forge were filmed in the P.W. Gellibrand quarry in , California, on a set built on Stage 9 at Paramount Pictures, and digitally rendered matte paintings. (; ) According to multiple production staffers, The Forge was formed by the nuclear war that devastated Vulcan during the Time of Awakening. To reflect this fact, at one point it was discussed to litter its floor with fragments of rough green glass, similar to those formed at the  nuclear test site in New Mexico. ( text commentary, ENT Season 4 DVD and Blu-ray) "Everybody loved it [....] We could have done it for a wide shot, but to actually [have Archer, T'Pol, and Syrran] walk across it was gonna be far too expensive," explained Garfield Reeves-Stevens. ( audio commentary, ENT Season 4 Blu-ray)

Apocrypha 
The novelization of "Yesteryear" that Alan Dean Foster wrote and published in Star Trek Log 1, his prose conversions of TAS, refers to "Vulcan's Forge" as a Human-coined name for a region that he says is natively known as "the Sas-A-Shar Desert."

The Forge also relates to the space station found in the game Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force, which is made up of many different starship hulls.

External link 
 

de:Glühofen
it:Fornace di Vulcano
nl:Vulcan's forge
pl:Kuźnia
Geography
Vulcan