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.
Historic Rome · Pompeii and Herculaneum · Historic Florence · Venice
and its Lagoon · Piazza del Duomo, Pisa
1
Historic Rome
Rome rewards looking at several periods together. The Forums and
Pantheon recall the ancient city, while churches and public
buildings show how later generations reshaped it. Choose a small
part of the historic centre and follow those changes on foot: the
interest lies as much in the connections between monuments as in
each landmark.
Buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, these towns bring Roman
life down to a human scale. Streets, houses and painted interiors
help you imagine people going about ordinary days. Compare the broad
urban remains of Pompeii with the smaller area of Herculaneum,
rather than treating them as interchangeable ruins.
Florence makes the Renaissance feel like a city rather than a
chapter in a textbook. Its cathedral, churches and palaces reflect
centuries of artistic work, including the city’s rise under the
Medici. Look at how buildings address their surrounding squares; art
here helped shape public life as well as private collections.
Venice’s setting is part of its history. A city spread across small
islands grew into a maritime power, and its buildings reflect that
long relationship with water. Alongside the famous views, notice the
smaller structures and the spaces between them. The whole urban
fabric matters, not only the grandest palaces.
The Leaning Tower is only one part of Pisa’s cathedral square. The
cathedral, baptistery and cemetery complete a group of medieval
monuments whose influence reached beyond the city. Give each
building a moment of attention. Seen together, they explain more
about Pisa’s architectural ambition than the tower’s unusual angle
alone.
