Feb 17, 2022
Hacktoria: Geolocation 14 (Walkthrough)
Hacktoria: Geolocation 14 (Walkthrough)
This is the second post about Hacktoria.com geolocation challenges, It’s also a walkthrough about a #geolocation #GEOINT challenge.
So lt’s see how I’ve solved this Geolocation challenge N° 14.
The used photo is not sharp as usual and it’s making RIS (Reverese Image Search) more difficult to find similar location quickly. BUT some words this time on one of the the signs is readable and it’s saying “THAI HOUSE”. So let’s start trying some cominations now with RIS and “THAI HOUSE”.
When it comes to RIS with some additional words. I prefer using Google Images compared to other competitors.
So Like I said, let’s use RIS with Google Images (Not Google Lens), then change the proposed words by “THAI HOUSE”, then scroll down and click on Visually similar images, look at the image we have got by combining the image with additional words.
Unfortunately, the Facebook post doesn’t exist anymore, BUT we know it’s in a country called “Bahrain” so we have something to use in our search and dig deeper. We know that it’s the correct location by looking at the two images and observe the buildings, the signage and other Arabic words written next to the Thai House.
So, this time we will check on Google Maps, and while we know it’s Bahrain and it’s a small country, I guess we will not find a lot of similar location called “Thai House”.
On Google Maps, I’ve used “Thai House Bahrain” as a search phrase. there are four (04) results only. I’ve zoomed on the first result to see if I can use Google Street View, but no it’s not available!
But wait, the signage on the thumbnail is very similar to our challenge image, and as alternative way of searching, I’ll try to find some Images uploaded by Google Local Guides for this location.
Clicked on the thumbnail, and went to the left side on Google Maps screen, scolled down to see shared pictures in this location and clicked “All” for all pictures related to this site.
Bingo! the image for this location very similar to our challenge and it was taken in a similar angle also, but at night.
So, let’s try find our city in question, by going back to Google Maps, we will notice that the city name is “Manama” and it’s the capital of Bahrain.
Went back to Hacktoria.com and typed the answer and voila! it’s 100% correct answer!
I hope you’ll find some useful information in this walkthrough.
