Calm Lands scenery ?

I was taking in the sights in this area today and was wondering about behind the cliffs, its kinda blury in some areas and it looks like it could be clouds then some water and possibly desert like cliffs.

It's kinda confusing because the mountain is just beyond it so it would make some sence that it is very high altitude but the calm lands being above the clouds ???

Anyone know what the backdrop is ? Also does anyone know if the "zones" represent true scale to the characters or what. obviously they could not detail the whole locations cause it would take years but its something I have been wondering about, like in 11 most of the zones seem to be true scale but in past ff games the outside world does not always work that way but in x and x-2 it seems they may have gone for true scale.

Thanks

I can't vouch for XI and I don't remember any clouds in the calm lands, but I got the feeling that all of the locations in X were in scale with one location leading directly to the next. This was done to give the feeling of a pilgrimage without the abiltity to wonder around aimlessly.