Wirthis Blog

  SPOILER ALTERT: I will solve today's Unzoomed.com here! First round:  Paved roads but also dirt roads quite many red/brown colors on the ground, not a lot of vegetation (there are some trees). short shadows, so close to the equator again (or a bit north of)? general impression hints towards Africa, southern Asia, maybe Central America? A few buildings stand out, a square one with a dome south of the marker (B1) on a hill (?), there is a football/soccer ground (dirt/sand ground) to the southeast, and a larger building northeast. City close to the equator, I am guessing in Africa due to the quality and general look-and-feel of the image. I'll go with Lagos, Nigeria, that I almost selected yesterday and seems to be a good choice in the center of the continent.

 SPOILER ALTERT: I will solve today's Unzoomed.com here! First round:  River (due to bridge), park, no really outstanding buildings. General theme does not look European: super irregular building patterns, white roofs, brownish ground. A market (?) northeast of the indicator Very short shadows, so close to equator South-east of the indicator there is a larger white building with a dome - I am guessing this is a mosque? (B1) City close to the equator, in a country with strong Muslim population. Lacking any better option, I am going with Nairobi, Kenia (I wanted to take Lagos, Nigeria, but as a Nigerian city recently was the answer, decided to take some other option).

 SPOILER ALTERT: I will solve today's (2024-02-18) Unzoomed.com here! First round:  Many small houses in an irregular pattern. Lots of white roofs, some red roofs. Ground surface partly green, partly brownish-dirty. Both hints don't point to Europe, rather Afria, Asia, Souther America? Right lane traffic on paved roads. Many white trucks (or busses), overly many just grouped in parking lots? To the left of the center marker, and to the right. There are two interesting roundabouts, one on the bottom center (R1), one on the top left (R2). Top left one is bigger, has flagpoles all around it (you can see their shadows). Speaking of shadows: they clearly go "down" (south), strongly indicating a city in the southern hemisphere (assuming the map is not rotated). That now mostly points to Africa or South America south of the equator. I guess: major city in the southern hemisphere, not too big or prominent. My first thought was Buenos Aires (Argentina) - it feels more South

SPOILER ALTERT: I will solve today's Unzoomed.com here! First round:  There is a castle (B1) in the image center. Greenish copper roof. Looks "European". Green grass in the parks, road conditions and color, general style of buildings, a none-too-strict grid, all confirm Europe. Roads: Cars drive on the right (rules out UK), bottom right shows "27" written on the road several times (direction indicator to highway 27?), and top right shows a "Bus" lane. Very few PV visible on rooftops, so rather north (Scandinavia?) For major Scandinavian cities I miss water bodies - for cities like Helsinki, Stockholm, Kopenhagen, Oslo, etc., I would expect to see some river or beachfront. The building (B2) just right to the castle seems to have a familiar structure next to the road.  Wild guess: B2 reminds me of the European Court of Justice in ... uhm ... Strasbourg? So let's try Strasbourg, France.

I recently found an awesome new online game: unzoomed.com . One riddle is shared every day, and it goes like this: You are shown the satellite/aerial image of an undisclosed city. It's quite zoomed in, so you are shown something like a square kilometer of the inner city center (less than half a square mile). No descriptions are given, no labels, landmarks, etc. Based on what you see, you can make a guess which city this might be. The input text box helps you with auto-correct and suggesting actually existing cities. For instance, this is what you see today (February 17th, 2024): So, what city could that be? Make a guess, type it in the textbox and click "Try"! If you guess correctly, congratulations, you have solved today's mystery! Most likely, though, you will guess incorrectly. Then, two things happen: Firstly, the game will tell you how far away you were from the correct guess (in miles or kilometers). And secondly, the game will zoom our a bit further, and you ma