Answers to the picture game

On St. John’s Day, we put out a picture game for Propastop readers to practice photo localization. We thank all of the players who tested their skills. Below see the correct answers along with solution processes – we consider the justification of how the results were achieved even more important than the final solutions.

1. The location of the first picture can be found by a simple search on a map or on the Google Maps website. 19 km from Ahaste, 6km from Koonga and 12 km from Vanamõisa, there is a crossroad in the village of Mihkli. With Google Street View, you can verify that it really is the same place.

2. There are three possible clues in the picture to determine the location of the second image. A company called Hilpharakas and a car licence plate 746ART does not provide enough information for finding the correct place using a web search. However, it can be assumed from signs in Estonian that the place is located in Estonia.

The right clues lie in the church towers that stand out behind the trees. A web search reveals that there are two churches with two towers in Estonia, the Kaarli church in Tallinn and the Church of Maarja Magdaleena in Rapla. The Rapla church is similar to the towers in the picture.

You can get an exact address by searching Google Street View. The facade of the church points towards Kevade, Talve and Sauna streets as well as Alu road. The photo was taken at Sauna Street 3 in Rapla.

3. To make it more difficult to solve the third image, it was shown as a mirror image.

When the photo is compared to a map, it can be seen that Pikk Herman tower can be seen between the towers of the Toom church and the Aleksander Neveski Cathedral in a narrow sector in the Old town. The photo could be made from any high rise building in the sector but most likely at the viewing platform of Oleviste Church, which is at the centre of the sector.

When you compare the height of the horizon in the photo and the views in the same direction on Google Street View, you can see that it is at the same height. Although there is a possibility that the picture was taken from a flying drone at the same height as the tower, still it is probably made from the tower of Oleviste church at 50 Lai street in Tallinn.