elephants' graveyard

plural elephants' graveyards

1. A place where, according to legend, older elephants instinctively direct themselves when they reach a certain age, in order to die alone.
2. broadlyA place where lost objects or people end up, and from which there is no escape.

   I suppose every garden has one: an elephants' graveyard of discarded labels.

   2012, Katerine Swift, The Morville Year

   2 more examples

   John F. Williams, Paul Clifford. low rate, on the other hand may mean that the legal department is an "elephants' graveyard," from which no escape is possible.

   1984, John F. Williams, Career Preparation and Opportunities in International Law, page 94

   I actually wonder for a moment if my kind has an elephants' graveyard where those of us free to do so withdraw as our lives dwindle down to the ninth one's final moments.

   1997, Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat with an Emerald Eye: A Midnight Louie Mystery, page 56