1 Kyros: So the Vast Stone Desert doesn’t have anything actually impassable like a giant wall of fire or anything?
2 Kyros: It’s just like a desert that we need supplies and water to cross?
3 City Guard 1: If it had anything like that it’d be called the Vast Stone Desert with Giant Wall of Fire, now, wouldn’t it?
4 Kyros: Hmm. I always wanted a place named after me.
4 Alvissa: Don’t even think about it!

You can do a lot with fantasy geography. You don't need to stick to boring^[1] old real world landforms and physically plausible features. You can throw in a giant wall of fire that never goes out. A desert made of glass. Rivers that run uphill. Mountains that float in the air. A perpetual maelstrom. Islands that move around. Mountain ranges that literally are the bones of ancient monsters.

Make your fantasy world fantastic in its landscapes to throw off the air of the mundane.

[1] Not to geographers.