Category: Uncategorized

Ok, I have to confess. I would never have gotten this one. While I’ve seen photos of the cathedral, I didn’t know its name nor did I know what city it was in. On top of that, I was guessing the buildings around it were more Soviet or Eastern Block, so I was thinking Russia or East Germany.

Many of the people who got it right knew that the rounded corners of the buildings were indicative of Spain, or at least that the roof tops were something you’d see in Spain or Italy. I wasn’t even thinking in those terms.

Then again, I was only able to search for an hour before a correct answer came in…

If I had known more about the Sagrada Familia, I’d have known that the cranes were the give away. It has been under construction for about 100 years now and still isn’t complete.

I’m back from the outback of Australia now and will be in Singapore in a few days. Singapore as free wifi all over the country, so expect the contests to get put up a bit faster for the next five contests or so. Karel as also sent me the remaining contests, so there shouldn’t be any delay.

If you want immediate notification of new contests, you can follow me on Twitter. All the new posts are published there immediately in addition to RSS.

Those who earned my respect on this contest:

• Jeff Steinberg
• Enrique S
• Fergymadrid
• PK
• Charlie My Boy
• ej
• jvo
• RDaneel
• Milosh, Serbia
• Andy McConnell
• Sierralapiedra
• ACG
• Brian T
• Willem
• Michael
• Lindsey
• David S
• Skip (Austin, TX)

The answer to #43 is sort of the analogue to contest #34. It is the Russian (formerly Soviet) space center in Kazakhstan, the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

I got this one pretty quick. The American launch sites have towers along side the rocket. The Soviet ones always had supports at the bottom of the rocket which would open up like flower petals, so they have a bit more of a triangular appearance. Also, the ground looked very dry, so it was a logical first guess. The tracks leading up to the circular cement was also sort of a give away.

Lots of people also found it easy:

• Andy McAllister
• Keith M
• jvo
• Willem
• ACG
• Ben Bayer
• PK
• Stephen Hope
• Devin
• Andy McConnell
• Ewen
• Skip (Austin, TX)
• Enrique S
• Milosh, Serbia
• Brian T
• David S

This one was pretty easy. I guessed it immediately because I was there just a few months ago. It is Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok International Airport.. Hong Kong is tight on land and created an artificial island to house the airport. It opened back in 1998. The Hong Kong airport was recently voted the best airport in the world. I always thought the Singapore airport was pretty nice. I’ll be able to compare the two in about a week or so when I fly into Singapore.

Here is Karel’s explanation for picking this place:

I chose it because some odd 20 years ago I worked for a Dutch dredging
company who was involved in the construction of this island.
Which at that time was the largest civil project ever constructed in the
world.

Lots of people got this one right: (For future reference, please put a unique identifier like an initial or a nickname when leaving an answer. Some first names are very common)

• Brian
• Jeff
• Skip (Austin, TX)
• Willem
• Shawn
• Enrique S
• ej
• Devin
• ACG
• Stephen Hope
• Andy McConnell
• Janna
• Atilla CALISKAN
• David Hill
• PK
• Ewen
• David S
• Chris Christensen
• Ben Bayer
• Fergymadrid
• Wendy N
• Linda Holland
• Brian T

FYI, it might take me a few days to update the leader board. All the raw data is in the comments, however. I’m writing this outside at 4:30am in the Australian Outback in Coober Pedy, SA. My bus leaves in 30 min to Alice Springs.

This contest was the first opportunity for me to play along, as I had no idea what Karel gave me. The answer is Ile Amsterdam. It is a French Territory in the South Indian Ocean near Antarctica.

The process I went through was something like this:

– There was no obvious evidence of vegetation or human settlements (roads, runways, etc)

This gave me the idea that it was probably non-tropical. If it were tropical, there would be trees on it and probably some sign of humans. Most islands of this size would have some human settlement. (It turns out there is some vegetation on the island)

– It was obviously volcanic, even though the middle of the island was covered with clouds.

Most of the islands in the Arctic are not classic volcanic islands like this. I figured it was one of the odd ball islands in the south.

I also know that Karel is from the Netherlands, and I have no idea if that as part of his decision making in choosing “New Amsterdam”, but I went with it. (I also looked in other former Dutch colonies in Indonesia and the Caribbean).

Getting this one right:

• Jeff
• KeithW
• FergyMadrid
• David S
• Skip (Austin, TX)
• Ewen
• Andy McConnell
• Brian T
• Willem
• ACG

This is the first of 10 contests to be run by the previous winner, Karel.

With the conclusion of contest #40, we will be starting the leaderboard over for the next set of 10. I figure I’d take this opportunity to do some housekeeping

• I’ve put up a page where you can see all the past leaderboards. All the correct answers should still be in the comments, so everything should be independently verifiable. I do occasionally make mistakes as I do everything by hand. More people are playing now, so there is greater opportunity for error.
• Karel, the winner of this set, has been extended the offer to pick the places for contests 41-50. I hope that by having the winners pick the next set it will a) give others a chance to win, and b) make putting up new contests go faster. If you don’t know, I’m currently traveling around the world, so I’m often away from internet access for days at a time.
• If you know any other geography nerd friends, please pass the link along. The more the merrier.
• If you get the answer to a particular hard contest, feel free to tell everyone how you figured it out in the answer post. I’m curious as to the process people use. Even when I think I’m going to stump people, more than I expect always come through.
• If you’ve been to one of the places that is a contest, feel free to link to photos in your answer or do a short write up. I’d put it in the contest answer. I currently just use Creative Commons images from Flickr.
• There may be overlap in contests in the future. Most people answer within three days if they answer at all. I often can’t get the answer up that quick because I’m gone. If you see another contest go up before the previous one has been answered, consider them both to the open until the answer is posted.
• Install the latest version of Google Earth if you haven’t. It is really good.