Arma 3: The Island Behind Altis

The game's island was first called Limnos, and its largest settlement, Kavala, corresponds to Myrina. The real town is the island's capital, built around a shallow bay split by a promontory and the ruins of a Venetian castle. In September 2012 two Bohemia Interactive developers were stopped by police just metres from their hotel here, then held for 129 days on suspicion of spying. The arrest turned a holiday into a diplomatic case and pushed the studio to rename its island Altis.

Location precision: Town-centre pin: the game's Kavala stands for Myrina as a whole.

Visitor guidance: Myrina is the island's capital and main harbour; the castle promontory rises directly above the old town.

The game puts a ruined fortress on the hill above Kavala, and the hill above Myrina carries one of the largest castles in the Aegean. Its walls stand on a volcanic, rocky promontory above the town and harbour, and the old core below is named Kastro after it. In July 1770 Russian forces under Count Orlov besieged the castle for three months. The ruins still look straight down the bay and over the two halves of the town.

Visitor guidance: The castle stands on the promontory above Myrina, directly above the old town.

South of Kavala the game hides a chapel in a hillside cave under the name Agnos Panaglotis. It is a close counterpart of Panagia Kakaviotissa, the church on Mount Kakkavos that has no roof at all. Monks from Agios Efstratios took refuge here in 1305. The chapel is a few kilometres from Myrina, and it was one of the places Buchta and Pezlar visited on the holiday that ended in their arrest.

Visitor guidance: The chapel is on Mount Kakkavos, a few kilometres from Myrina.

In the north of Altis, east of Thronos and north of Abdera, the game keeps a miniature desert: the Ammothines dunes. Their model is the Pachies Ammoudies of Lemnos, which the developers reproduced very faithfully. The real dunes cover about seven hectares, three kilometres north of Katalakkos and close to Gomati beach. They are a small nature reserve: rabbits dig in the sand, and hoopoes and quails are regular visitors. The game's desert sits in the same north-western corner of the island.

Visitor guidance: The dunes lie 3 km north of Katalakkos, near Gomati beach.

On Lemnos, the game's amphitheatre is the ruin of Hephaistia, once the island's ancient capital and named for Hephaistos, god of metallurgy. The real theatre dates from between the late fifth and early fourth centuries BCE. It was rebuilt between 2000 and 2004, and in 2010 Sophocles' Oedipus Rex was performed there after 2,500 years. The theatre holds 200 people in the main area, with another 1,000 outside. The rest of the ancient city is fragmentary.

Visitor guidance: The theatre is part of the Hephaistia archaeological site on the island's northern shore.

The game's main airport stands on the real Lemnos airport, eighteen kilometres from Myrina. The real field opened in 1959 and shares its ground with a Hellenic Air Force base. In Arma 3 the airport is the prize of the NATO offensive: in August 2035, after an assault on the heavily guarded field fails, NATO launches Operation Steel Pegasus. The in-game airport has a civilian terminal, but it is first of all an air base. The real field still serves the island.

Visitor guidance: The airport lies 18 km from Myrina.

On the east side of Lemnos, Moudros looks across a wide bay that served as an Allied base in the First World War. The armistice between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire was signed here on 30 October 1918, a piece of history the game's own Limnos background borrows. The East Mudros Military Cemetery holds 885 Commonwealth burials from the Gallipoli campaign, including 148 Australians, 76 New Zealanders and 85 unidentified men. The town remains a small port on the bay.

Location precision: Town-centre pin: the stop is the town and its bay, not one building.

Visitor guidance: East Mudros Military Cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

South-west of Lemnos, Agios Efstratios is the real island behind Stratis. In the game it is a military island of sparse installations and a small airfield, its civilian settlements abandoned after a civil war; Bohemia's own description adds a radar facility and security troops. The real island is quiet and dry, with about 300 people, and was used to house political prisoners from the 1930s. A 7.1 earthquake in 1968 demolished most of its houses, which were replaced by concrete prefabricated buildings. Year-round ferries still call at its one port.

Location precision: Island-centre pin: the game's Stratis stands for the whole island.

Visitor guidance: Year-round ferries connect Agios Efstratios with Lemnos and the mainland.