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78 clues · 36 countries.
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78 clues · 36 countries.
Showing 78 clues across 36 countries.
The Holy Spirit Cathedral features prominently in the coverage. Its two towers can often be seen from far away.
Prayer flags near the road are typically seen in Bhutan.
The majority of Cambodians are Buddhist. Temples are common throughout the country. Temple architecture is highly decorative, with ornamented roofs. You might also see Buddhist flags.
NOTE: Thailand and Laos are also majority Buddhist. Temples in these countries can look similar.
Angkor Wat is a massive temple complex built by the historical Khmer Empire. It is located just north of Siem Reap and has extensive trekker coverage. It can be recognized by its dark, weathered stone buildings. While this location is unlikely to show up in competitive maps, it is extremely common in GeoGuessr’s official Cambodia map.
The Ruins of Cartago is the remains of a large Catholic church near the centre of the city. The POI is one of the first things to show up when you zoom into the city.
Egypt has very sparse coverage. The entirety of the coverage is in Generation 3, made with a trekker camera. Trekkers can be recognized by the fact that the camera is lower to the ground, having smaller blurs, and no car shadow.
Instead of learning a lot of country-specific clues, it is more practical to simply memorise what the trekkers look like. There are seven sections of coverage, each centred around historic places of interest, ranging from the Pyramids to Coptic churches and medieval citadels.
The coverage is limited to two general areas:
Cairo: four trekkers.
Alexandria: three trekkers, two of which are fairly far outside the city to its southwest (Monastery of Saint Mina and nearby archeological excavations).
Inside the Citadel, you can see the Ottoman-era Mosque of Muhammad Ali. It has light grey domes and very tall minarets.
NOTE: This mosque looks superficially similar to the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul.
The trekker in and around the Hanging Church consists of two parts that look fairly different from each other.
Outside the church, the trekker is walking around a normal urban Cairo street. At most points, you will still see the church complex, its spires with crosses, and historic sandstone walls. But you will also see apartment buildings, shops, and normal pedestrian traffic.
This trekker can be found just east of Giza, near the map label Fustat.
At a certain point, the trekker moves from the street into the Hanging Church. Inside, you will see a beautiful courtyard with religious mosaics and two white church spires.
The monastery complex of Saint Mina consists of several large, palace-like buildings in a somewhat modern, Arabic style. Most of the buildings have several spires crowned with Christian crosses.
The Abu Mena Heritage Site is a major excavation area southwest of Alexandria, just south of the Saint Mina monastery. In the middle of the site, you can find a small, yellow wooden chapel.
The village of Kirkjubøur at the southern tip of the main island can be recognised by the black houses, almost all having grass roofs. The town also has a small church ruin.
Marseille’s street signs will usually feature the city’s emblem, a variation of the Greek cross. The white border will usually be interrupted at the top, even when the cross is absent.
Near the southern tip of the territory, you will be able to see the minarets of the Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim Mosque, the southernmost mosque in continental Europe.
These types of miniature churches, put on small pedestals, are often found along Greek roads and are unique to Greece.
A trekker featuring several Mayan temples can be found just west of the town of Tikal.
It is worth mentioning that while there are other Guatemalan trekkers featuring Mayan ruins, this is by far the most prominent and contains the largest and most intact temple structures.
Gurdwaras, which can typically be recognised by their white domes and ornate walls, are most common in Punjab. You can also sometimes recognise them by the Sikh Khanda symbol, which represents the religion.
Buddhist prayer flags are found in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Architecture in Bali is unique because it was influenced by old Balinese culture and Hinduism. The most important thing to look for are these crown-like roof pinnacles, found everywhere in Bali. Guardian statues and slit-drum towers are common too. Andesite, a dark, volcanic rock, is a common building material in Bali. You can often see gates, walls, and other intricately carved ornaments built from this material.
Indonesia is religiously a Muslim majority country, so seeing churches, and other Christian signs, is a good clue for these regions.
Bnei Brak is an ultra-Orthodox Jewish stronghold, which can be seen only by looking at the people around. There will usually be people wearing Jewish religious clothes.
You can find these ‘Shisa’ guardian lions and house plaques with these specific characters in Okinawa. The colour and shapes of both can vary.
The majority of Kyrgyzstan’s population is Muslim. Hence, you will see a lot of mosques throughout the country.
Laos is a majority Buddhist country. Buddhist temples are a common sight. They can be recognized by their ornate decorations, often with gold leaf detailing.
NOTE: Thailand and Cambodia are also majority Buddhist.
Luang Prabang is the former royal capital of Laos and a UNESCO heritage site. The city has a lot of historical architecture, including several temples. Many buildings make use of traditional dark wooden architectural elements. There are also some buildings dating back to French colonial rule of Laos.
Almost all the tripods focus on showing historical mosques. These tripods usually have an indoor part and an exterior part, which are sometimes not connected to each other.
These mosques have a recognizable look: they are made out of mud bricks and adobe plaster. The walls of the buildings are decorated with wooden sticks. Inside, you will usually see the same adobe walls, and prayer rugs on the floor.
The exterior parts of the mosque tripods can look like a normal street. These will sometimes have enough information available (when moving) to be included in pinpointable maps, like A Community World.
This guide has separate sections for the pinpointable and non-pinpointable coverage. You can choose to study only the coverage that is relevant for competitive maps, or all the coverage. Note, however, that the interiors of the mosques are not considered pinpointable, even though they are covered in the section next to their respective exteriors.
The Niono mosque is located in a busy area by the side of a wide, sandy and fairly dirty road, with trees right by the walls of the mosque.
It is most easily located on the map by first looking for the “Centre Commercial” slightly north of the centre of Niono.
The inside of the Niono mosque can be recognized by its fairly detailed “European style” pillars, which is not found in any of the other Malinese mosques with coverage.
The roads around the Sidi Yahiya mosque are a mixture of sand and tiles shaped like slices of bread, which within Mali, is unique to this coverage.
The surrounding buildings are mostly built of bricks having a peachy orange colour with a brown undertone. This can also be found around the other two mosques with coverage in Timbuktu. The area generally looks busier than around the Djingareyber mosque.
The interior of Sidi Yahiya mosque is recognized by the yellow painted walls combined with the bottom of the walls, which consists of unpainted bricks. The mosque has a courtyard, with walls made of bricks and a floor made of bright, square tiles.
Coverage outside of the Djingareyber mosque in Timbuktu features brick buildings and a paved street with rectangular tiles.
The inside of the Djingareyber mosque can be characterised by yellow painted walls, wide round archways, and red carpet.
The Sankoré Mosque is surrounded by very sandy ground. The mosque itself has a prominent pyramid-shaped tower.
The Sankoré Mosque has richly decorated doors, which are made of wood adorned with metal details.
The interior of the Sankoré Mosque has blue carpet, yellow painted walls, and a fairly low ceiling supported by wooden beams.
The exterior of the mosque in Gao can be recognised by the large desolate space outside the walls, the ground consisting of reddish dirt, and some trees in the background.
The inside of the Gao mosque consists of undecorated corridors with low roofs. You can see the pyramid shaped structure, with a very large number of dry branches sticking out of it, from the courtyard.
The Djenné mosque has a very recognizable front, with some distant trees and a clear sky. The mosque is surrounded by low houses, making the area look fairly open.
The interior of the Djenné mosque is quite dark, with a high roof and narrow corridors with gothic arches. There is also a large courtyard with sandy ground and brown wooden doors along the walls.
The Mopti mosque is similar in style to the Djenne mosque, but has trees growing closer to the walls and a slight amount of clouds in the sky. The streets with coverage around the walls of the mosque also appear more narrow than the ones in Djenne.
The interior of the Mopti mosque can be recognised by the somewhat open space, with a high roof, no arches, and a blue carpet across the entire floor.
In the north west of Bamako, you can find a tripod inside an empty modern mosque. The interior’s light blue walls and pink floor make this location instantly recognizable.
The coverage on the exterior is in the mosque’s yard. The outside walls are made of concrete, and are painted yellow and orange.
This coverage is severely misplaced, being actually located in an unidentifiable rural area, rather than inside Bamako.
Inside the Sankore mosque coverage in Timbuktu (but not connected to it), there are several misplaced locations: The inside of a tour business actually located in Bamako, a classroom, a couple of streets and some other miscellaneous places.
A thick cross can be seen on the back of signs in Chihuahua.
Decorated piles of stones, known as ovoos, are used as ceremonial markers or shrines throughout Mongolia and are common to see.
This type of white-painted Buddhist stupa, sometimes with painted eyes on the sides, are only found in Nepal.
Gable ends decorated by carvings of gods, goddesses, and other religious symbols, usually painted in a golden colour, are mostly around Kawasoti, west of Bharatpur.
Mosques are concentrated in a few muslim majority spots in southern Nepal.
In the east, just around Janakpur.
In the east, just around Birgunj.
In the west, just around Nepalgunj.
In the east, around Biratnagar and west of the Koshi river.
Poles with a cross attached near the top are common in the east.
Nigeria is mainly Christian in the south, and Islamic in the north. As such, seeing women in hijabs and men in muslim attire is more common in the north.
Obituaries in Bitola are horizontal and can be either light or dark blue. The cross is in-between the border, leaving a gap in the rectangle.
Obituaries in Ohrid are horizontal and either red or blue. The cross is underneath the border, which is unique to Ohrid when the obituary is red.
Obituaries in Veles are vertical and blue. Veles has the largest variety of obituaries, but will never have the pattern in the corner like the ones seen in Strumica. They are also the only city that will have the cross above the border when blue.
Obituaries in Tetovo are vertical and black. There are 2 main types found in the city, one with the cross above the border and one with a thick cross in-between the border.
Coverage in Pakistan is extremely limited, only being found in Punjab around major temples and tourist attractions.
Due to the number of distinct coverage spots, this section will only focus on the parts that are considered pinpointable.
Hiran Minar is a small temple, completely surrounded by a small lake with a single bridge connecting it to land, can be found just northwest of the city of Sheikhupura.
The coverage around the shrine of Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah, in western Kasur, can typically be recognised by the mosque with a large green dome, and two smaller green domes on top of the minarets. While the mosque itself isn’t visible from all of the coverage, the minarets can be seen from most spots.
While most of the Philippines is strongly Christian, a region of western Mindanao is majority Muslim.
Images and statues of ancient Roman soldiers can be found on the island of Marinduque.
Poland is one of the most Catholic countries in Europe. You can often find Christian shrines on the side of roads. Blue-white and yellow-white Polish Catholic flags also sometimes appear.
While mosques can be found everywhere in Russia, they are by far most common in areas with a Muslim majority, mainly in much of south Russia as well as Tatarstan and Bashkortostan.
Historical buildings in Mari El often have a unique architecture style. You will frequently see design patterns that include green roofs, red brick sprinkled with white stone details. Local churches commonly feature a similar style.
A church and another building made of white painted wood can also be seen in Grytviken.
The Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James in English), is a network of pilgrim's ways across Europe leading to the shrine of apostle James (Santiago in Spanish) in Santiago de Compostela.
These paths are frequently marked with a yellow scallop on a blue background. Markers can be found both in traffic signs and in waystones.
It is common to see pilgrims hiking or biking along these routes, particularly during the summer.
NOTE: Markers for it can be found all over Europe, going as far as Lithuania, but are much more common the closer you are to Santiago.
The country is majority Buddhist: 70% of the population practise this religion. Throughout the country, you will often see signs of the religion, including temples, Buddha statues, stupas and the Buddhist flag.
NOTE: Thailand, Cambodia and Laos are also majority Buddhist.
A substantial minority of the population adhere to other religions: Hinduism (13%), Islam (10%) and Christianity (7%). These religions have strong regional distribution patterns; see the region-guessing section for more information.
These maps shows the distribution of each of Sri Lanka’s four main religions. This can help with region-guessing when you spot a house of worship or other symbol associated with one of the religions.
Buddhism is found in most of the country but is mostly absent from the north and some parts of the east coast.
Hinduism is predominantly found in the north and parts of the east, as well as around the town of Nuwara Eliya in the central mountains.
Islam is strongest on the east coast, but not a majority in any district.
Christianity is mostly confined to the northwest, and is strongest around the town of Mannar.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
The presence of the Tamil script is strongly correlated with the distribution of Hinduism (though not all Tamils are Hindu and vice versa).
There are two groups that use the Tamil script:
Native Sri Lankan Tamils, who predominantly live in the north and the east.
Indian Tamils, who mostly live in and around the central Nuwara Eliya district.
Note that it is not uncommon to find bilingual Sinhala and Tamil signs far outside the area where Tamil is the predominant language. However, Tamil-only signage can be a strong indicator for one of the Tamil-majority areas.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
The Swedish church flag has a red cross on a yellow background with a crown in the middle, and is often found near churches throughout the country.
Rock walls are mainly found in the south, with the largest concentration being in several coastal areas, on Öland, and on the southern and northern tips of Gotland.
Beware that rock walls around churches and cemeteries are common further north.
Houses on Gotland are commonly made of limestone and often have a dirty-looking white facade. Churches on Gotland are very distinct looking, with either grey walls or white walls with grey corners, a large portal around the door and small windows typically divided in two by a pillar.
The majority of Muslims in Thailand live in the very south of the country. In these areas, you will often see Islamic religious attire, Jawi script, based on the Arabic script, on signs and mosques.
Trekkers can be found all over the country, even in places far away from the area with car coverage. Coverage includes archaeological sites, forts, mosques, and a Star Wars set, among other things.
Turkey is a Muslim-majority country, and as such mosques can be found in most towns. In particular, tall minarets are extremely common and a good clue for the country.
Baptist churches are very common in the United States. Similar to mobile homes, these are more common in the Southern Plains and Southeast United States, but can be found in all 50 states.
NOTE: Baptist churches are rare in Canada.
Single graves in the middle of agricultural fields can be found in the Red River Delta.