What is the name of the dream city in “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”? The answer is Boston.
Randolph Carter repeatedly dreams of a magnificent city at sunset, filled with marble buildings, gardens, fountains, terraces, and old rooftops. He cannot reach it and begins a dangerous journey through the Dreamlands.
Carter travels to Kadath because it is the unknown mountain where the gods of earth reside. Kadath is therefore not the dream city itself; it is the place Carter hopes will reveal the city’s location.
At the story’s climax, Nyarlathotep explains that the city Carter longs for is connected to his childhood memories. The closing passage identifies it with the earthly city and landscape that shaped him: Boston and New England.