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The novels of Jules Verne known as Voyages Extraordinaires are narrative novels that regularly feature ruins, whether real or imaginary. As a matter of fact, these ruins differ from each other above all depending on whether they are produced by man or by nature, i.e., the mere passage of time. Then they exemplify a metaphoric support that emphasizes the beauty of landscapes encountered in unknown regions where a different dialectic of space and time is at work. Eventually, they may be considered genuine gateways to parallel worlds that are often accessed after a long descent (to the center of the earth or to the bottom of the oceans), thus illustrating one of the main schemes analyzed by Gilbert Durand in his book Les Structures anthropologiques de l’imaginaire.