Walden is set at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, where Henry David Thoreau lived from July 1845 to September 1847. This route follows the book from his cabin site to the railroad, Concord's jail, Flint's Pond, Baker Farm and Brister's Hill.
Thoreau compressed his two years into a single calendar year in the book. The stops follow the order of its chapters, and most of the paths and ponds can still be walked around Walden Pond State Reservation. Several spots in the woods are only approximately placed on the map.
Gone Girl is set in the made-up town of North Carthage, Missouri, but David Fincher shot it almost entirely in Cape Girardeau: The Bar on Themis Street, the Common Pleas Courthouse, the old federal building and the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge over the Mississippi.
The route follows Nick Dunne's first days as the husband of a missing woman, from the bar to the press conference, the vigil, the police station and the bridge. One stop, the Drury Lodge, is marked approximately: it has closed and the pin sits on its street.
The moai of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) were carved at Rano Raraku quarry and raised on platforms such as Ahu Tongariki and Ahu Akivi, and the island's legends explain them: a founder who landed at Anakena, seven scouts turned to stone, statues that walked, and a birdman race at Orongo.
The route follows those stories from the landing beach to the quarry, the restored platforms and the cliff village above the sea. Oral traditions are told as traditions, not as proven history.
Jack the Ripper's Whitechapel murders of 1888 happened along a few Whitechapel and Spitalfields streets: Durward Street (then Buck's Row), Hanbury Street, Berner Street, Mitre Square and Miller's Court in Spitalfields. Five killings are generally attributed to the unidentified murderer.
This route follows the canonical victims in date order, with the Goulston Street graffito and the Ten Bells pub. Some sites are gone or renamed, and Miller's Court has no pin.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is set in St. Petersburg, a town based on Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up: the Boyhood Home, Cardiff Hill and Mark Twain Cave.
Five stops follow the novel from the whitewashed fence to the cave where Tom and Becky Thatcher get lost, on the Mississippi's west bank. Jackson's Island, the pirates' hideaway, has no identified real model, so that stop marks the town and the river.
Zodiac (2007) is set around the San Francisco Bay Area, from Vallejo and Lake Berryessa to Presidio Heights and the San Francisco Chronicle. The film follows the real Zodiac Killer case.
This route walks five places from the film in story order, from the July 1969 attack at Blue Rock Springs Park to the police hunt. Several scenes were shot in Los Angeles, which is noted where it matters.
A Plague Tale: Innocence is set in Aquitaine in 1348, with landscapes inspired by Saint-Émilion, a town gate modelled on Carcassonne and a final cathedral based on Reims. Its sequel, Requiem, moves to Provence and Marseille in 1349.
The route follows Amicia and Hugo de Rune from their family estate through plague-ridden France to the Order's city of Marseille. Most pins are real stand-ins or regions, and each stop says how close the game comes to the real place.
Little Women is set in a Massachusetts town loosely based on Concord, and Louisa May Alcott wrote it at Orchard House, the Alcott family home that is now a museum. Follow the March sisters from Concord to Washington, Nice and Lake Geneva.
The route visits Orchard House and The Wayside, where the Alcott family lived and acted out scenes later used in the book, then follows the story abroad: a Washington hospital, the Promenade des Anglais in Nice and Chillon on Lake Geneva. The Concord stops are the real houses behind the March family's home.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) is set in Detroit and Beverly Hills, but most of it was shot around Los Angeles: the Biltmore Hotel downtown, Beverly Hills City Hall and the Athenaeum in Pasadena.
Detroit detective Axel Foley travels to California to find the killer of his friend Mikey. The route follows him from the opening chase and his apartment to the hotel, the police station, Maitland's club and the final shootout. Only the Biltmore, City Hall and the Athenaeum are places you can visit.
Company of Heroes is set in Normandy in 1944, from Omaha Beach and Carentan to Cherbourg, Saint-Lô, Mortain and Chambois. Its Able Company missions follow real battles of the Normandy campaign.
The route follows the game's single-player story in order, pairing each mission with what the real fight there looked like. The game simplifies events.
Atlantis comes from two dialogues by Plato, Timaeus and Critias, and searchers have placed it at Santorini, the Strait of Gibraltar, Spartel Bank, Doñana in Spain and the Richat Structure in Mauritania.
This route starts with Plato's own frame in Sais, Egypt, then visits five of the proposed locations. Every pin after the first is a theory, not a find.
The Trail of Tears was the forced removal of the Cherokee from their homeland in the southeastern United States to present-day Oklahoma. This route follows it from the capital at New Echota, Georgia, through Red Clay, Fort Cass and Blythe Ferry in Tennessee to Fort Gibson.
Each stop ties to a documented moment: a treaty signed by a minority, a council that rejected it, the camps of summer 1838, a river crossing and the arrival in Indian Territory. Some sites are memorials today and others are only markers; the Fort Cass and Fort Gibson pins are approximate.
Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is set around 1790 near Tarrytown, New York, and you can visit its places today: Philipsburg Manor, Patriot's Park, the Old Dutch Church and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Ichabod rides to a party at the Van Tassel farm, then home through a haunted glen and over a bridge by the church. The route follows his night, with Raven Rock first. Some places are only visitor tradition, and each stop says so.
Pretty Woman is set in Los Angeles, mostly around Hollywood Boulevard, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, with one night at the San Francisco Opera.
This route follows Vivian and Edward's week in story order, from the Hollywood street where they meet to the opera house. Some scenes were filmed elsewhere, such as the Ambassador Hotel lobby and the Cicada dinner, and the stops say so.
Overwatch (called Overwatch 2 until February 2026) sets maps in real places across Africa and Asia: the Temple of Anubis is on the Giza Plateau near Cairo, Petra is in Jordan, Busan is in South Korea, and Neon Junction is inspired by Tokyo.
This route follows ten maps west to east, from Morocco to Tokyo, with the mode, the date each arrived and the real place behind it. Other routes cover Overwatch maps in Europe and in the Americas. Aatlis has no pin because Blizzard names no city in Morocco; Oasis and Suravasa pin only their country.
Overwatch (called Overwatch 2 until February 2026) sets its American maps in real places: Midtown ends at Grand Central in New York, New Queen Street is Toronto, Havana is in Cuba, Paraíso is Rio de Janeiro and Hollywood is a Los Angeles movie lot.
This route follows seven maps west to east from Hollywood to Rio, including Dorado, a Mexican town whose look came from a photo of Italy. Other routes cover Overwatch maps in Europe and in Africa and Asia. Pins mark a real model place, not a copied district; Dorado and Runasapi have no pin because they are invented towns with no named real place.
Overwatch (called Overwatch 2 until February 2026) sets its European maps in real places: King's Row is a London neighborhood, Circuit Royal is Monte Carlo, Colosseo is Rome, Rialto is Venice and Esperança is inspired by Porto.
This route follows eleven maps west to east, from Grímsvötn in Iceland to Volskaya Industries near St. Petersburg, with the mode, the date each arrived and the real place behind it. Other routes cover Overwatch maps in the Americas and in Africa and Asia. Pins mark a real model place or landmark, not a copied district.
War Thunder's tank maps are based on real places: Stalingrad Tractor Plant, Bastogne, Hürtgen Forest, Cologne Cathedral, Berlin's Reichstag, Novorossiysk, Volokolamsk, Breslau (Wrocław), Darwin Hill in the Falklands and the Fulda Gap.
The developers say how close each map is to its original, from rebuilt photographs of the Stalingrad factory to a layout only inspired by the real ground. This route follows ten of them in the order of their history, with a short note on what happened at each real place.
Maps are classed here as exact only where the developers copy a real district; the rest are marked approximate.
Look Back is set around the hometown of manga artist Tatsuki Fujimoto, Nikaho in Akita Prefecture, and the live-action film of 2026 was shot mainly there, from the cherry-tree lane at Kunpuen to Nikaho Station. The story follows Fujino and Kyomoto, two girls who draw manga together. It became an anime film in June 2024.
The route follows the story from Fujino's childhood walks in Nikaho and the bookshop in Hirasawa, to the rebuilt bedroom sets at the station and the Smile centre, and on to the art university in Yamagata where the story turns.
Seven Samurai was filmed at Toho Studios in Tokyo and in Shizuoka and Hakone, because no single location could cover the whole area.
Kurosawa's 1954 film has one mountain village, but it was stitched together from different places: studio rice fields in Setagaya, a valley above the Tanna Tunnel, a mill site in Izu, a waterfall in Shizuoka and a mountain pass in Hakone.
The stops are approximate because the screen village never existed as one place.
Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi) was born in Shikoku, studied in Xi'an and founded Shingon Buddhism at Jingo-ji, Tō-ji and Mount Kōya, where he is entombed at Okunoin.
The route follows the monk from his birthplace at Zentsū-ji to Qinglong Temple in Tang China, then back to the temples near Kyoto and the mountain retreat he asked for in 816. It ends at his mausoleum, where monks still bring him meals.
Where was Yamatai, the kingdom of Queen Himiko? The two leading answers are Yoshinogari in Saga, northern Kyushu, and Makimuku beside the Hashihaka Kofun in Sakurai, Nara.
The route follows the Wei Zhi account of Himiko from Iki Island and the Shikanoshima gold seal to the two rival sites, and ends at the burial mound often linked with her grave. The location of Yamatai is still unsettled.
The Great Buddha of Nara at Tōdai-ji was the work of Emperor Shōmu, who also ordered a temple in every province and moved his capital from Heijō Palace to Kuni-kyō and Shigaraki.
After smallpox, rebellion and poor harvests, Shōmu turned to Buddhism for protection. This route follows him from Nara through two short-lived capitals and a provincial temple in today's Tokyo, back to the Eye-opening Ceremony of 752. Some sites are only ruins or remain approximate.
Prince Shōtoku's temples in Japan run from Tachibana-dera and Asuka-dera in Asuka to Hōryū-ji and Chūgū-ji in Ikaruga, plus Shitennō-ji in Osaka.
The route follows the regent who promoted Buddhism, from the place said to be his birthplace to his palace site at Ikaruga and the embroidery made after his death in 622. Several dates rest on temple tradition rather than firm records, and the birthplace is marked as traditional.
