Map #109: February 4, 2019

Difficulty Level: 6

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

This map is a dot map of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. (Do you need a refresher on what a dot map is? Visit our “Basics” page for a quick primer.) This map was created by Dallas, who previously created Map #86. This week’s map should be fairly straightforward, but Dallas also made a much more difficult companion map. The companion map has blue dots as well as red ones. We’ll give hints and points as always for the regular map, which is to say the map with just the red dots. If you would like a higher degree of difficulty, you can also attempt to explain in your submission what the blue dots are; if you’re right, we’ll give you three bonus points. We will give only one hint for the blue dots, tomorrow, in the form of another map. 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, February 11. Good luck!

Tuesday’s hint: Dallas staggered the red dots a little bit so that you can see places with overlapping dots. In one such place, five dots are all in the same city. That city, if you can find it, would certainly help your investigation of this map. And as for the one promised hint for the blue dots, click here to see a map that links some of the blue dots to some of the red dots.

Wednesday’s hint: This map covers a historical topic. And while the dots may appear at first glance to be scattered far and wide, they actually correspond to what was once a distinct historical area. Can you think of something that covered land in North Africa, the Middle East, Spain, Italy, and the Balkans?

Thursday’s hint: Tuesday’s hint mentioned a place with five dots. That place was once called Sirmium; today, it is located in northern Serbia.

Friday’s hint: See that dot in Libya? It corresponds to the site of Leptis Magna, which was once one of the biggest cities in Africa. That dot would have been added to this map in the year A.D. 193.

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.