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.
Hegra · Hima Cultural Area · Hail rock art · At-Turaif · Historic
Jeddah
1
Hegra
Hegra’s Nabataean tombs turn sandstone outcrops into monumental
architecture. Their carved façades are the main attraction, but
inscriptions and wells broaden the story. Look for differences
between façades rather than treating every tomb as the same design.
Hima records the passage of people along old caravan routes. Rock
drawings and inscriptions preserve different voices across many
centuries. The variety of scripts is a reminder that desert routes
carried stories and languages as well as goods.
At Jubbah and Shuwaymis, human and animal figures connect today’s
desert to much older landscapes. These are rock-art sites, not
ruined cities. Spend time with individual scenes and consider what
they suggest about the people who made them.
At-Turaif belongs to a later historical chapter, not the ancient
world. Its palaces and urban remains reflect Najdi building
traditions and the history of the first Saudi state. Notice the
earthen architecture and its relationship to the oasis setting.
Jeddah’s old town tells a story of Red Sea trade and pilgrimage. Its
distinctive tower houses represent a much later period than Hegra.
Look closely at the façades and projecting wooden screens that give
the streets their character.
