Choose a continent, then guess its highlighted countries.
Choose your adventure
About Karshvar
I built Karshvar to make discovering the world easier for people who
love reading history. My biggest difficulty was always geography:
from Anatolia to the Caucasus, from the Iranian plateau to
Byzantium, I kept losing track of where important events happened.
So I started studying geography, and this game grew out of that
learning. It is both a way to test myself and a step toward the
offline companion I wanted for exploring the world. I plan to add
more historical features over time.
Karshvar takes its name from an ancient Iranian word related to
today’s Persian word for country. In Avestan cosmology, the world
was described as seven regions.
Giza and the pyramid fields · Ancient Thebes · Historic Cairo · Abu
Simbel and Philae · Saint Catherine
1
Giza and the pyramid fields
The pyramids are the familiar starting point, but the wider burial
landscape gives them context. Around ancient Memphis, royal tombs,
temples and smaller burial structures reveal how much effort went
into preparing for the afterlife. Look beyond the skyline and
imagine the people who planned, built and maintained these places.
At Luxor, ancient Thebes brings temples and royal burial grounds
into one story. Karnak and Luxor show the public scale of religious
life, while the valleys of the kings and queens reveal another world
of ritual and remembrance. Thinking about both sides makes this more
than a collection of impressive buildings.
Egypt’s history continues far beyond the pharaohs. Historic Cairo
grew from the tenth century into an important centre of Islamic
life. Mosques, schools, fountains and bathhouses bring different
parts of the city’s past into view. Notice how buildings made for
worship, learning and everyday needs share the same urban landscape.
The temples at Abu Simbel and the sanctuary of Isis at Philae tell a
second story alongside their ancient one: a modern rescue. An
international campaign protected these Nubian monuments from rising
Nile waters. Their survival invites you to consider both the skill
of their original builders and the work needed to preserve historic
places.
In Sinai’s mountains, Saint Catherine offers a different setting
from Egypt’s river cities. The monastery was founded in the sixth
century and holds important manuscripts and icons. Its walls belong
to a wider sacred landscape associated with Jewish, Christian and
Muslim traditions. Read the buildings together with the mountains
around them.
