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⬅️ Previous capture (2023-12-28)
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Where In The World? • Puzzle #198 • 2023-02-14 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Western Sahara)
This is the first time I can recall that I've seen the same country two days in a row.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #197 • 2023-02-13 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Western Sahara)
The largest territory (by land area) on the United Nations' list of non-self-governing territories. Western Sahara stands out on many political, economic and cultural maps by its absence.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #192 • 2023-02-08 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Canada)
Where In The World? • Puzzle #191 • 2023-02-07 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Zimbabwe)
Where In The World? • Puzzle #190 • 2023-02-06 ✅❌❌❌❌⬅️ ✅✅❌❌❌➡️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↘️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Sierra Leone)
Tricky! I originally thought this country was at the southern end of some peninsula, and that led me quite astray. Two wildly- but intentionally-wrong guesses (Hong Kong and Honduras) clued me in to west Africa, and another guess (Cape Verde) helped me pinpoint Sierra Leone. The nation's shield-like shape should help me recognize it in the future.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #188 • 2023-02-04 ✅❌❌❌❌⬆️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↘️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Faroe Islands)
I always get thrown off regarding what WitW considers or doesn't consider a country. I knew right away this wasn't an independent nation, but it took bouncing around the Atlantic a litter to figure it out.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #187 • 2023-02-03 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: France)
France's star-like shape makes it very easy to recognize.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #186 • 2023-02-02 ✅✅❌❌❌↗️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬇️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Andorra)
These tiny countries always look so strange to me when magnified to the size of larger nations like France or Belarus. I don't really know what features to look for either--I just use proximity to other countries to help narrow it down.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #185 • 2023-02-01 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Thailand)
Where In The World? • Puzzle #184 • 2023-01-31 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Croatia)
Where In The World? • Puzzle #183 • 2023-01-30 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Madagascar)
Where In The World? • Puzzle #180 • 2023-01-27 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Vietnam)
Those in tune with 20th-century American history will be well-acquainted with Vietnam. The shape of the country resembles to me the sail of a boat, left too loose and pulled hard in the wind, with a crow's nest on top.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #179 • 2023-01-26 ✅✅✅❌❌↘️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↗️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Brunei)
At first I thought this was an island, given the two disconnected regions of land. It then occurred to me that the smaller region to the east might be a exclave. My first guess was Armenia, then Christmas Island. It was only after realizing Christmas Island is near Borneo that the correct answer came to me.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #178 • 2023-01-25 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Togo)
Where In The World? • Puzzle #177 • 2023-01-24 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Ethiopia)
The best clue to recognizing Ethiopia is the arid Somali region to the east of the country, which sharpens to a large point. Somalia fits onto this point like a jigsaw puzzle.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #176 • 2023-01-23 ✅✅❌❌❌➡️ ✅✅❌❌❌➡️ ✅✅✅❌❌↖️ ✅✅✅❌❌⬅️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↙️ ✅✅✅❌❌⬅️
(Answer: Palau)
No hope. The high-resolution photo shows a tight cluster of islands to the northeast, and a few tiny ones scattered around the south: these clues can help to figure it out next time.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #175 • 2023-01-22 ✅✅✅✅🤏⬅️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↘️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬅️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↙️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↘️ ✅✅✅✅🤏➡️
(Answer: North Macedonia)
Rough. I think North Macedonia was a very early puzzle, and I didn't get it then either. For purposes of future triangulation, North Macedonia is directly between Bulgaria and Albania.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #174 • 2023-01-21 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Sri Lanka)
Where In The World? • Puzzle #173 • 2023-01-20 ✅❌❌❌❌⬅️ ✅✅✅✅❌↖️ ✅✅✅❌❌⬅️ ✅✅✅✅❌↖️ ✅✅✅❌❌↖️ ✅✅✅✅❌↖️
(Answer: Nauru)
Nothing could have helped me here. Nauru is a pretty featureless blob of an island.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #170 • 2023-01-17 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Argentina)
Argentina is easily recognizable by its general rough-ice-cream-cone shape and the eastern half of Isle Grande de Tierra del Fuego that sits just southeast of the mainland.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #169 • 2023-01-16 ✅❌❌❌❌↘️ ✅✅✅✅❌↘️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Heard Island and the McDonald Islands)
At first I wondered if this was going to be some unguessable Caribbean island, so I went for the first one I could think of. It turned out that guess was almost antipodal to the real answer! Heard Island is the large eastern island, the one with two bays and a bulbous peninsula on the west-northwest side. The McDonald islands are the much smaller dots to the west.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #168 • 2023-01-15 ✅✅✅✅❌⬅️ ✅✅✅✅🤏➡️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↖️ ✅✅✅❌❌➡️ ✅✅✅✅🤏➡️ ✅✅✅✅🤏➡️
(Answer: Togo)
Not a chance. Next time, look for the very small strip protruding out from the northern prefecture of Tône.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #167 • 2023-01-14 ✅✅❌❌❌↗️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↗️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↖️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Lithuania)
Yet another country of which I vaguely recalled the outline, but I couldn't pin down for sure. My first guess was Brazil, which was WAY off. To me, the shape of Lithuania almost resembles a squished Africa.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #166 • 2023-01-13 ✅✅✅✅🤏↖️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Myanmar)
I had a strong initial impression that this country was in Southeast Asia, but I couldn't quite recall where. My first guess was Thailand, which borders Myanmar and also has a southern area that juts out from the rest of the country on the Malay Peninsula.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #165 • 2023-01-12 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Maldives)
The Maldives are easily recognizable due to the archipelago's strong north-south orientation. The orientation is the result of a volcanic hotspot in the Indian Ocean, which created newer islands to the south as the Indian tectonic plate moved north.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #164 • 2023-01-11 ✅✅✅✅🤏↗️ ✅✅✅✅🤏➡️ ✅✅✅✅🤏➡️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↖️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬆️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬆️
(Answer: Anguilla)
I had absolutely no hope for this one. All I ca do is remember that it's close to the Virgin Islands and that the main island of Anguilla is in the southeast.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #163 • 2023-01-10 ✅✅✅✅🤏⬅️ ✅✅✅✅❌⬅️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬅️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↖️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬅️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Cayman Islands)
Just under the wire! The Cayman Islands were an answer once before, which made the shape familiar to me, but I don't seem to have recorded it back then, so I couldn't remember it specifically. The hook-shaped western island of Grand Cayman should be recognizable in the future.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #162 • 2023-01-09 ❌❌❌❌❌➡️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Bahamas)
There are only a few countries that consist of many small islands. My first guess, a guess I knew would be wrong, was Indonesia--which is almost antipodal to the real answer. The only country I'm aware of in the Western hemisphere with a geography that scattered is the Bahamas.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #161 • 2023-01-08 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Austria)
Where In The World? • Puzzle #160 • 2023-01-07 ✅✅✅✅❌⬅️ ✅✅✅✅🤏➡️ ✅✅✅✅❌➡️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↖️ ✅✅✅✅❌↖️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬆️
(Answer: Cameroon)
I really had no hope for this one: I would have just kept rattling off guesses until I'd exhausted every country in Africa. Cameroon has a very striking shape to me. It looks almost like a rooster.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #158 • 2023-01-05 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Zimbabwe)
For a moment I thought this country was Antarctica, until I paid closer attention to the shape of the western border near Victoria Falls. I find the history of Zimbabwe, and Rhodesia before it, quite fascinating.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #157 • 2023-01-04 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Philippines)
Even in ASCII form, it's easy to see how fragmented a country the Philippines is.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #156 • 2023-01-03 ✅✅✅❌❌⬅️ ✅✅✅❌❌➡️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↘️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Liberia)
I made the mistake of assuming the northeast border of this country was a coast, rather than the southwest border. My first two guesses, Ethiopia and Guyana, were equally far away in opposite directions! Sierra Leone was my third guess, which shares a border with Liberia.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #155 • 2023-01-02 ❌❌❌❌❌➡️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↘️ ✅✅✅✅❌⬆️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↙️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Cambodia)
To be honest, I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to get this one right. Cambodia completely slipped my mind for some reason: I kept thinking that the answer wasn't Thailand, Vietnam or Malaysia, but my mind blanked on all the other countries in the area.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #154 • 2023-01-01 ✅✅✅✅🤏⬇️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Belarus)
It's hard to describe the shape of Belarus, but it stands out to me enough that when I saw it today, I knew it was some European country. My first guess was Estonia, which I knew was wrong, but it would get me pretty close.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #152 • 2022-12-30 ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Iran)
Admittedly, I primarily know the shape of Iran due to how much I look at the Caspian Sea on Google Earth.
Where In The World? • Puzzle #151 • 2022-12-29 ✅✅❌❌❌↗️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬇️ ✅✅✅✅🤏↙️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬅️ ✅✅✅✅🤏⬅️ ✅✅✅✅✅🎉
(Answer: Andorra)
Almost didn't make it! When I have no idea what country I'm looking at, I usually guess Paraguay or Uruguay, just to get a bearing. That directed me to Europe, but I had to hop around a bit, going from the Netherlands to Slovakia, San Marino, Monaco, and finally Andorra. I really need to learn my European geography better.
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[Last updated: 2024-05-16]