I think that certain environment/phenomena/circumstance can appeal to aspects of a humans psyche, pull at certain strings and aspirations within them.
Foreknown knowledge of a place, such as where a great battle once occurred, though overgrown now by fen. One's imagination and sentiment wells within themself.
When coming to great works such as the Pyramids, Easter Island, or Stonehenge, again the mind or the heart can be effected.
Coming to view the majesty or terror of nature can evoke such, I'd argue, the mountains view, a terrible storm.
Personally I'm rather fond of a butte in my home city, which overlooks part of a state park, the beach, and an island.
Perhaps it was the exercise working my blood and breath on my way to the top, or the view which evoked similar emotions in me as the stars.
But it's a place that'd often leave me in a subdued state of awe and thought.
The Beautiful and the Sublime