Two mysteries. One way to think.

In a history photo guessing game, you estimate when a real photograph was taken and where its scene belongs on a map. The useful skill is not knowing every famous event. It is noticing a detail, proposing an explanation, then looking for another clue that could confirm or challenge it.

When&Where gives you five photographs and scores the year and location separately. These guides help you work through both questions, whether you are taking your first turn or reviewing a difficult result.

Try the free introductionWatch a roundSee the rules first

Look closely: three photographs, three stories

Follow a border around a neighborhood, read the edges of an opening-day crowd, and distinguish a new bridge from its opening ceremony. These illustrated studies show which details you can see and which need a source record. Each includes a short evidence exercise.

A border seen from above

The Berlin Wall beyond the famous crossings

Read a 1989 aerial photograph of the Berlin Wall at Steinstücken. Separate visible border clues from the history supplied by the archive.

Read guide A crowd with a date

Sydney’s opening day, beyond the postcard view

Study Hall & Co.’s photograph of the Sydney Harbour Bridge opening on 19 March 1932. Learn what crowds, inscriptions and archive records can establish.

Read guide Two clues in one frame

Aircraft over a newly completed Golden Gate Bridge

Examine the Navy photograph of PBY aircraft over the Golden Gate Bridge in May 1937. Learn why a month, a landmark and an opening date are different clues.

Read guide

Choose the skill you want to improve

Start here

Read the whole photograph

A first-pass method for separating what you see from what you think it means.

Read guide Find the when

Build a better date estimate

Combine independent clues, set a plausible range and avoid misleading image dates.

Read guide Find the where

Go from scene to map pin

Use terrain, street geometry and viewpoints to narrow a location with confidence.

Read guide Make it a daily discovery

Know your free daily challenge

Understand the reset, saved attempts, streaks and your leaderboard choices.

Read guide Understand your result

What makes a location score fair?

See how documented targets and uncertainty allowances affect your score.

Read guide

A small routine for a better guess

  1. Name three things you can see.

    Describe them without naming an event yet: a tram, a river bend, a sign in a particular script. An observation gives you something you can check.

  2. Make the date and place support each other.

    A building may narrow the city; its state of construction may narrow the period. Keep an alternative in mind when the evidence is weak.

  3. Use the reveal as feedback.

    Compare your strongest clue with the credited source. Keep one lesson for the next photograph instead of only remembering the answer.

Real photographs, checkable answers

Our worked examples use photographs already shown in the public introduction. They reveal those example answers; they do not publish today’s challenge. Historical facts link to their source records, while reasoning exercises are labeled as examples. Read how WhenWhere selects and credits photographs and how location uncertainty is handled.

Ready for a shared puzzle? The free daily challenge gives signed-in players the same five photos for each UTC date. For longer sessions, browse historical collections and check the free and Plus features.