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.
Between the Caspian Sea and the mountains, Derbent guarded a narrow
passage. Its Sasanian fortifications explain that geography in
stone. Follow the relationship between the citadel, the walls and
the old town to understand why this location mattered.
On the Volga, Bolgar preserves the memory of the Volga Bulgars and
later powers. The archaeological landscape is a good place to
explore cultural exchange. Look beyond individual monuments to the
river setting that helped connect people and ideas.
This working monastery in Sergiev Posad is historic rather than
ancient. Its churches and defensive features developed over the
fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. Notice the contrast between the
enclosing walls and the richly composed religious buildings within.
Pskov’s medieval churches offer a quieter kind of architectural
discovery. Compact forms, domes, porches and belfries sit among
gardens and walls. Look for these recurring details rather than
expecting one enormous monumental complex.
Kazan’s fortress brings several historical layers into one place.
Surviving buildings largely date from the sixteenth to nineteenth
centuries, with earlier remains beneath them. It is especially
interesting for understanding how Tatar and Russian traditions meet.
