Click here for a full-size version of this week’s map.

This map is a dot map of the countries of the world. (Do you need a refresher on what a dot map is? Visit our “Basics” page for a quick primer.) There are 100 dots on this map, representing the top 100...something. As always, your job is to figure out what this dot map represents.

Stumped? Check back Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for hints about where to focus your investigation. The answer will be posted on Monday, April 2, 2018. Good luck!

Tuesday’s hint: The first thing you might notice about this map is that most of the dots are in areas that are fairly mountainous.

Wednesday’s hint: With dot maps, we often talk about places where you can find clusters of dots. But on this map, the most interesting collections of dots are in strings rather than clusters. In several places on this map, you can see a string of dots running almost in a line. Can you figure out why?

Thursday’s hint: One potential future dot that might have to be added to this map soon will be in Ethiopia. Its creation has triggered a major diplomatic dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt. There have even been reports that Egypt might drop bombs on Ethiopia. Why?

Friday’s hint: Wednesday’s hint mentioned that there were several places where you can find strings of dots. The reason for this is that those strings follow the paths of rivers. One such river is the Karun River in Iran. Another is the Yalong River in China, which is a tributary of the Yangtze. What would you find if you tried to take a boat down one of these rivers?

Answer: Click here to see an explanation of the answer to this week’s map question.

Next map: Click here to try out our newest map question.