The picture below illustrates something that I still find novel about Southwest Virginia, simply because it is so different from the interminably flat landscape of my native Long Island.  When viewed from a distance, mountainside buildings have the illusion of being at the level of treetops.

Those look like really nice townhouses, and they are indeed on level ground.  (There is a road beyond them.)  But their position at the top of that rise makes them seem a little bit like mountain fortresses to the kid in me.