Category: Contest

A reader writes:

The cars and the parking lot look European. The mountain and the foliage look tropical. I suppose SE Asia isn't out of the question. I'm thinking Oceania because the photo immediately reminded me of the two weeks I spent in Noumea, New Caledonia for work a few years ago. Not many tall buildings there, except for some hotels by the beach. If I'm right about Noumea, then the most likely building is the Gaston Bourret Hospital, 7 Avenue Paul Doumer. I don't have the skills of some of your contestants, but when I've had a good guess it's been based on a gut feeling.

Another writes:

It's likely not right, but that looks an awful lot like the former Amador Air Base in Panama.  It's a military looking installation, and Central American as well.  The large buildings on the left aren't at all familiar, and having left the place in '99, am hoping they've been built since the American military left.  If it's not Panama City, could it be Soto Cano in Honduras?  (I'll never understand how to find such places on Google without spending hours, but admire the tenacity of those who have the time and ability to do so.)

Another:

We have a tall, circa 1970’s precast concrete building with horizontal concrete louvers as the balcony railings.  Also the palm trees and inconsistently trimmed topiary means we are somewhere warm.  I’ve been to a few places in Central America and the Caribbean where the view from one side of the hotel faces a beautiful beach and the other side looks out on the local city where the hotel staff lives.  I think that might be what we are looking at. Since the car is driving on the right side of the road that eliminates the British Virgin Islands and all the other warm-weather former colonies.  We can also eliminate a small bucolic village or eco sensitive place since there is a big, old concrete building in the middle of it.   My guess this week is Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, which seems to have similar terrain with views to mountains in the interior.  But honestly, it wouldn’t shock me if it turns out we are in Pondicherry, India where they also paint their curbs black and white.

Another:

Based on the black and white curb stripes, it's typical British ex-colonial. Hills in the background. Vegetation. Islamabad, Pakistan?

Another:

Juarez, Mexico? Just taking a wild guess here. My mother grew up in El Paso, which is just across the border from Juarez. I remember visiting my grandparents growing up. Their house was walking distance from what is now UTEP. We would walk to the track to watch my grandfather run a mile every morning. I remember looking at the "mountains" and climbing very steep hills. From the porch of their house, we could see over the city of El Paso. At night, it was a beautiful scene with the city lights.

Another:

Grrrrr. I've spent *way* too long on this one (four hours). 

The photo said "South Africa" to me … so there I went, searching every last image with plateaus, flat-top mountains, towers, white license plates, even striped barricades. Nada. I'm still trying to figure out what that is in the center: a game preserve? golf course? Who knows.  The closest I came was Colesberg, South Africa, but that's not the Coleskop in the background. I'm probably in the wrong country, because it also looks a bit like Western Australia. So, I know I'm wrong but I'm throwing my hat in the ring – I will know the answer to the VFYW contest one day!!

Another:

It reminds me a lot of Guilin, China, especially the sugar loaf hills and the fog/smog.

Another:

As a longtime follower but first time submitter of the VFYW-contest, I was happy to recognize this morning this week's contest window, of which I am 90% sure is at the Hermes Palace Hotel (formerly known as the Swiss BelHotel) at Jalan Panglima Nyak Makam, in Banda Aceh, Aceh Province, on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. I am guessing 5th floor?

A couple years ago I was trying to do my part in the reconstruction efforts after the devastating tsunami that struck the province, and it was in this hotel that I had a rather frightening experience. Defying the just imposed sharia law in that province (not valid in the rest of Indonesia) I had just finished having a great time with a single lady (I was single as well) in one of the hotel rooms of this hotel, when someone knocked quite fiercely on the hotel door. Having been scared  by stories in the newspapers here (I live in Jakarta) about unmarried couples being caned and punished in other medieval ways, it wouldn't be overstating to say we panicked. She fled in the bathroom while I hastily put on the first clothes that I could find.

If it had been the newly instated religious police, our efforts would have been useless, but luckily it was just the laundry service.

Another gets the right continent:

I showed this photo to my wife, who has never seen a VFYW contest, and she immediately said Gaborone, Botswana, so I'm going with it.  Like reading a putt in golf, sometimes you gotta go with your first impression.

Another sends a photo:

Another:

I rarely submit to this contest, but I'm pretty sure I've seen that big rock in person.  I went to Abuja, Nigeria, in 2005, and that rock looks suspiciously similar to its landmark rock, Aso Rock!  I don't know how to do anything fancy like put arrows on maps, but I will submit a few links that show quite unscientifically why I think I'm correct (and they do nothing to pin point the actual place the photo was taken from). This link shows houses near the rock with a similar colored roof as one in the photo. This link shows a pole much like one shown in the pictures. My guess is that it was taken from the Nicon Hilton Hotel in Abuja, 14th floor.  Failing that, probably from one of the upper floors of the Supreme Court building.

Another notes:

At the base of Aso Rock are various military barracks.  Aso Rock is also a metonym for political power, in the same way that "Westminster" and "Washington" are in the UK and the US respectively.

Another who correctly answered Abuja:

I recognized it pretty quickly. Was travelling around Nigeria with some friends from Edinburgh University in 1989, had been in hospital in Kaduna (where by chance the doctor had graduated from Edinburgh also) so I hung out here for a day or so while we recuperated. Attached is a photo of the hotel with the rock behind, overlooking the car park. From here you can see the photo is taken from the southern most of the three arms of the hotel, just below the entrance canopy facing slightly north of east. Zoom out and you can see the rock approx 5km away. Looks to be six floors or so above the lobby.

Another:

First time entry.  The picture taken was from the circled location in the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, Nigeria; I'm guessing from around the 5th floor, pointing toward Aso Rock.  The outcrop in the backdrop was reminiscent of Table Mountain in Cape Town, though less sharp in its features.  The flatness surrounding the outcrop also reminded me of Ayer's Rock in Australia.  A quick search on Wikipedia informed me that Ayer's Rock is a geographic formation known as an inselberg.  None of the inselbergs listed on Wikipedia looked like matches, so I moved on to monoliths, a less technical but more widely used term.  As soon as I opened the page for Aso Rock in Nigeria, I knew I had hit paydirt as it was clearly the outcrop dominating the background.

Finding the exact location proved more difficult.  I thought the four radio towers visible in the picture would be the biggest help in determining a location, but they proved little help.  However, the building on the left edge of the image was over ten stories, so I started looking for skyscrapers in Abuja.  I found a website with many beautiful images taken throughout Abuja but the image of a man in front of an ornate fountain caught my eye, the hotel in the background had the same distinct window design as that found on the edge of the photo.  I searched the Google Maps overlay of Abuja for "Fountains," as soon as I zoomed in on a hit at the Hilton, I knew I had my spot.

Another sends the above photo and writes:

Unfortunately the VFYW is not facing the pool, which sneaking gin into, and not paying the outrageous entry fee for, is a key part of expat life in Abuja. It is also the only side there seems to be photos available of on Google, hence the inadequate photo attached.

Another:

This picture was taken from one of the West facing windows (2nd or 3rd floor just above the lobby) at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja Nigeria. The communication towers across the street and the red roofed building are in the diplomatic zone. In the distance you see Aso Rock at the foot of which is the presidential Villa, the houses of parliament and the supreme court. The picture below hopefully supports this:

Another:

I followed returns during last year's Nigerian presidential election lockdown there. Later I remember caller after caller on talkback thanking the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Commissioner, Professor Jega, for delivering democratic elections to Nigeria. There was a palpable sense of excitement and achievement, somewhat sullied by the violence of the next week, but still a great outcome for the democratic process in West Africa.

Another:

I just had the same experience I've read about so many times. I never have an idea where these places are, but I looked for a second at this picture and immediately knew that this was a picture of Aso Rock in Abuja from the view of the Transcorp Hilton. (By the way, the hotel makes some killer suya (spiced, pounded-thin chicken). I want to eat some right now.

This is a special picture for us. My wife's parents have lived in Nigeria for 29 years. Life was never easy, but it was manageable. Due to all the changes in government and the unstable environment, it's gotten even harder for them. We haven't seen them for two years. But my wife's mom was finally able to leave the country and visit us here in the US. She just got here two days ago, and we're enjoying our time together.

I don't have the patience to search for the exact room, but I'm sure someone actually will. I thought I'd at least share my excitement even if we don't win.

Of the dozen or so readers who responded with the Abuja Hilton, only one has correctly answered a difficult window in the past without winning:

Yes!!! I knew this one the moment I saw it.  The hill in the background is Aso Rock and Abuja is surrounded by a number of such formations.  I was there on business about a year ago and it's one of the first things that you notice on the drive in from the airport – these massive rocks just bursting from the ground.  I would assume that whoever took the picture is also there on business (Nigeria doesn't exactly have a thriving tourism industry) and despite the fact that Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria, there are limited options for hotels that one would find acceptable.  The Hilton is the first choice for many and is where I assumed the picture was taken.  Google Earth bore that out easily:

I'm going to say that it's from the 5th floor.

Congrats, we'll get a free book out to you shortly. Details from the submitter:

The room (third floor) faces east, across Shehu Shagari Way at the National Arboretum and the mountains beyond. I work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and attended the World Customs Organization's Policy Commission being hosted that by Nigeria Customs.  The Policy Commission is an annual meeting of Customs administration leaders to decide program and budgetary matters for the WCO's coming year.  Being my first time in Africa, I was disappointed by the security measures required (i.e. I saw a lot of the hotel's bar and restaurant, and nothing else – anything outside the hotel required security escorts and the hotel itself is a within a gated compound).  This visit occurred before the recent fuel-subsidy cuts that have lead to the deadly protests/riots.  However, there was even at that time the concern that our international conference would be targeted by Nigeria's factions.

The security situation aside, I cannot tell you how welcoming and gracious our conference hosts, Nigeria Customs, were.  The local dancers, music, extremely welcoming local dignitaries, the ceremony of welcoming sashes and other small gestures, and other events they hosted put the conference schwag and cocktail mixers that are the norm at United States conferences to absolute shame.  It was a great privilege to travel on behalf of my country, and I hope to return to Africa sometime in the future.

(Archives)

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.

A reader writes:

Based off of the well-concealed trucking logo, the weather report for Thursday, the architecture and the layout of the city, my best guess is that you're on Broadway Street in Missoula, Montana. 

Another writes:

I’d like to be able to say “we don’t need no stinkin’ clues” – and I will continue to protest that you have such low expectations of your readers – but I don’t think I have got it this week, even with your help.  The buildings feel very much like the Yesler / Pioneer Square area in Seattle and that would fit with the pile of containers over by the nearby port.  But that giant viaduct highway (Alaskan Way?) divides the port from the downtown buildings and I don’t think Seattle has those single pole parking meters anymore either.  So I’m at a loss on a specific location, and probably have the wrong city too.  But it did snow in Seattle last Thursday (trapping my inlaws here in Alaska for another couple of days) so I’ll stick with this guess.

Another:

This is killing me. I lack the crazy place-hunting ability of the people that usually win these, but Seattle was drenched in snow which started to melt Thursday night. And the area looks like the converted industrial SoDo neighborhood, which I've biked through hundreds of times. I just can't find these buildings anywhere – somewhere near I-5 I guess?

Another:

I'm actually late leaving on a trip, so I don't have time to get into this photo as much as I want to. However, living in the Pacific Northwest that looks very much like my Thursday night. The city and architecture are too big to be anything but Seattle, Vancouver, Tacoma or possibly Olympia. I know Vancouver pretty well and that particular truck yard does not look familiar paired with those buildings. It could easily be Georgetown in Seattle with that architecture, but the city lights behind don't look right for Georgetown's lowland location. So I'm going with Tacoma.

Another:

My guess is Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It would be in the Warehouse District, which is along East 6th Street between Minnesota Avenue to the west and Webber Avenue to the east, with the Big Sioux River a stone's throw away:

The semi trailers in the lot are for Montgomery's Furniture, which is the big furniture chain of eastern SoDak with big storage HQ in Sioux Falls. The area is crawling with railroad over/underpasses, one of which is shown down the road. I checked with the National Weather Service climate records for Sioux Falls and that location received several inches of snow over previously bare ground, hence the "first snowfall of the season" aspect to the scene.

Of course this could be completely wrong, so there.

Another:

Incredibly this week’s view is also reminiscent of the Harmony Mills image: Lots of snow and a truck with a logo prominently in the foreground.  This time I couldn’t find the trucking company or the tractor-trailer logo.  What I did find on Google, though, is that people really love to post images of jack-knifed tractor-trailers.

We’re in a desolate industrial zone on the edge of an urban area.  In addition to the tractor-trailer parking lot, one mid 20th century building across the street appears boarded up and the one on the left looks abandoned as well. There’s also an overpass that looks like it could be for freight trains. I’m imagining the person who sent in the view had a flight cancelled and then got stuck at a seedy hotel on the wrong side of the tracks.

This might be the bleakest VFYW ever.  Checking the NOAA.gov maps for last Thursday night shows a broad swath of snow across the northern US and southern Canada.  The Pacific Northwest isn’t bleak enough.  Neither are Minnesota, Wisconsin or the Dakotas.  And Canada, across the board, is too nice. I’m guessing the photo is taken somewhere along the axis of bleakness that runs from Buffalo through Cleveland to Detroit and then Gary, Indiana.  I'll go with Detroit?

Next week, someplace exotic or festive, please.

Another:

First off, I love the VFYW contest. But I don't usually have the time to stalk Google Maps to make decent guesses. But this one was easy for me: it was taken in downtown Columbus, Ohio. The photo itself is a view of the Arena District. It looks like it was taken from the Nationwide Insurance building, looking out onto a constructions site that will soon be a new office building for the company. It's funny seeing that image. I used to work in that very building and recently left my job at Nationwide and moved to Portland, Oregon. That snow makes me remember one of the reasons I decided to move west.

Correct state, wrong city. Another:

Something about that picture just screams downtown Cleveland to me, but I'm not sure about those "M" trailers. It looks like Lakeside Avenue facing west and the Warehouse District. I used to park right around there but my current office is a few blocks to the east so I'm not sure what construction may be taking place in that area. The highway is in the right place – that would be I-90 West. The weather is right. It snowed hard from about 3 til 6 on Thursday, then let up.

Another nails the correct city:

Dayton, Ohio! This picture shows the Montgomery Paper semi parking area, looking east along E. 3rd St. from one of the loft apartments on the south side of the street. It is just a block and a half from where I work!

Another local:

My family is from Dayton, and I was a reporter for the Dayton Daily News for a few years (and then the Cleveland Plain Dealer) before eventually finding my way to law school. It is the Montgomery Paper Co. trucks that give this one away. If you're ever in Dayton, you see these trucks a lot.

Another was more technical:

I guessed that the word on the container in the rear starting with "Mon" & ending with "ry" was "Montgomery", and the other word beginning with "Pa" was "Paper". Googling "Montgomery Paper" gives the address: 28 Wayne Avenue, Dayton, Ohio. Google-mapping that address shows buildings similar to the picture.

Another tried a different tack:

I made out the "Montgomery" on the trucks first and thought the next word began with either "Pa" or "Fa." Thanks to Google's auto-complete function, I was able to come up with Montgomery Paper. Google Maps then brought me right to Dayton and East 3rd Street. There's a big sign on the building, but I had to go around the corner to see a clearer version. I then googled the phone number and "lofts" and "dayton."

The only other VFYW I got so quickly was in Camden, New Jersey. Guess I have an affinity for Rust Belt towns.

Another:

I'm living in Texas now, but I miss the Dayton area, even though it's fallen on hard times lately.  A century ago, it was the Silicon Valley of the US, the hub of innovation and invention: the cash register, the automobile's electric starter, and so much more. I used to joke that Dayton was the most famous of US cities Americans seem to vaguely think they've heard of once.  Many famous celebrities left just as soon as they found out where they were (Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Dave Chappelle, Phil Donahue …) Indeed, its a little known fact the Wright brothers invented the airplane just so they could fly away.

Yes, I joke, but it's the knowing humor of someone who longs for home and misses it deeply, despite the tough patch it's going through.  Dayton is a great place to be from.

Another gets more specific with the location:

The view from the window is Third Street in Dayton, Ohio; specifically E. Third Street next to a lot that Montgomery Paper uses to store their tractor-trailers.  I would hazard to guess that the picture taker was standing in an apartment/loft at The Cannery.  On the street level you will find the K-12 Art Gallery, Therapy Cafe, Basically British Tea House and Square One Hair Salon.  Directly across the street you will find St. John United Church of Christ.

Another notes:

The Cannery at Webster Station in historic downtown Dayton is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Here is a link to an informative video about the area history and development project. This is a wonderful example of urban revitalization.

The winner this week was the only reader to guess the correct floor at The Cannery:

I found Dayton pretty quickly thanks to the Montgomery Paper Co. clue on the trucks, but nailing down the street address has been tough. Here's my best guess at the window, on the sixth floor:

I did discover that across the street at St. John's United Church of Christ, the Dayton Gay Men's Chorus presented "Celebrate" on December 3rd. So, if the street address here is wrong, it's still a good entry for The End of Gay Culture meme.

Congrats, we'll get a book out to you shortly. Exact details from the submitter:

This picture was taken from my sixth floor loft in downtown Dayton, OH on Thursday evening. The address is 500 East Third Street and I am looking east down East Third Street above the Montgomery Paper tractor trailer parking lot.

One final email, from an especially tech-savvy reader:

The location is Dayton Ohio, on 3rd Street in the neighborhood of St John's Church of Christ. The trucks all belong to the Montgomery Freight Company (Dayton is in Montgomery County, Ohio). Sears St is the cross street on the left side of the picture, and the church is just out of the frame to the left. The photograph was taken on an upper floor of the industrial building at roughly 600 3rd street. Judging by the lack of a fire escape in the photo, the position of the trucks, and the angle of the windows in the buildings on the north side of 3rd street, I'm going to assert that the window is the one circled in the picture below:

This week was probably the easiest contest ever. Here's how you solve it, at least on a Mac:

1: Click on the photo from The Dish
2: In the new window that appears, right click on the picture and select "Open Image in New Tab"
3: Look closely at the URL in the new tab. Remove the characters "-800wi" from the end of it, and reload the tab.
4: Download the higher resolution picture to your desktop.
5: Open the image in Preview.
6: From the Tools menu, select "Show Inspector"
7: The little window that pops up has a button that says "GPS" on it. Click there.
8: The window will change to a tiny map of the world, with a button at the bottom that says "Locate.." Click there.
9: The browser will open with the coordinates of where the image was taken (on an iPhone 4, at 8:53PM on the 19th) in Google Maps. Notice that the altitude and image direction are also specified. 

Fish. Barrel. But fun. I've been trying this trick for weeks now and this is the first time it's worked!

(Archive)

Clue: The photo was taken on Thursday.

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.

A reader writes:

The times when I’ve correctly guessed this contest, I’ve had a solid hunch from the get-go that bears out with 10 or 15 minutes of googling.  However, this time I’m stumped.  The flatness of the city, the mountains in the background, the red tiles, the obvious certain level of poverty, the mosque – it all says Central Asia to me.  And yet I can’t find anything that quite lines up with it.  That’s why I’m going with my best guess, Yerevan, Armenia.

Another writes:

Much tougher this week. This looks like part of a sprawling city nested near mountains, in a relatively green valley, with mosques. I’m going to go with Tehran, Iran, and call it a day.

Another:

Wow, lots of clues in this one.  Based on the apparent angle of the sunlight and the concentration of particulate matter in the atmosphere, it appears to have been taken in a city of approximately 200,000 residents at a latitude of between 35 and 40 degrees.  That eliminates most of Canada.  The hanging laundry visible foreground appears to be primarily whites, indicating in the populace a degree of piety not typically associated with any of the G7 nations.

Obviously many will focus on those round structures with the minarets, but I’m ignoring those, as they appear to have been photoshopped in.  For me the giveaway is the guy standing on the roof, who looks just like one of my old college buddies, Steve. He recently traveled to Norway, but that would be too obvious, so based on recent news developments plus a secret feeling I can’t describe I’m going to guess that this photo was snapped from one of the non-existent uranium enrichment facilities located in Sabzevar, Iran.

Thanks for another great contest, I wasted my whole Saturday on this, etc. etc.

Another:

Tuzla, Bosnia? I just googled red roofs and minarets and there’s a strong suggestion it’s Bosnia. Seems small to be Sarajevo, and maybe too dense to be Banja Luka. If I’m right, I have no idea what window it is.

Another:

The red-tiled roofs suggested Europe, and the two mosques that are visible further suggested the Balkans.  After some initial searching, I came across this mosque in nearby Evpatoria, Ukraine, that is identical to the mosque on the left of the VFYW picture. Interestingly, the mosque’s name appears to have several different spellings or versions on various websites, including Djuma-Djami, Juma-Jami or Cuma-Cami mosque.  Also interesting is the number of Ukranian mail-order bride websites that appear during searches related to this mosque (which may require some explaining to my wife).

Another:

Well, it’s a Muslim country. And I think the real hint is in the uniform high-rise buildings we see in this valley.  It looks like classic Soviet-style architecture, so this has to be a former Soviet Republic.  Just doing a Google image search of cities in former Soviet Central Asia countries (Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent, etc.) shows that Ashgabat, Turkmenistan lies in a green valley with low hills to the side, so I’m going to go with that.

Another:

Homs, Syria? Wild guess. The mosque in the center of the picture looks close enough to Khaled Ibn Walid pictured on Google images. Whenever I poke around the VFYW contest, I run into reminders that people every where are the same – planning birthday parties, going to the coast for a quickie vacation, having friends in town stay at their apartment, etc. Syria is no different than US; people just want to live in peace and be left to their DVRs and grocery shopping.

I often think about a Syrian I knew 40 years ago, Khalid, a Syrian Warren Beatty. He managed the diner where I worked while going to college. He was handsome and devastatingly charming. Married to a Londoner who looked like Jean Shrimpton, he was boinking several of the waitresses. When he came into the diner to “manage” he would always put money in the jukebox and play Jim Morrison’s “Love Street”, a beautiful song about women as shrines of joy and magic. I dearly hope Khalid and his family are safe, wherever they are.

Another:

This one feels like the Harmony Mills contest three weeks ago except that instead of not being able to find the exact 19th century chimney, I can’t find the exact 19th century minarets.  Two mosques in the view means it is a Muslim country.  Red clay tiles on pitched roofs and deciduous trees eliminates Middle Eastern and African countries.  That leaves European countries.  Bosnian and Kosovo cities don’t feel quite as dense as this city.  I’ve really enjoyed Google-touring mosques in several Turkish cities but couldn’t find a match.  Based on terrain I’m going with somewhere on the outskirts of Ankara.

Another Ankara entry:

So, I work for a bank and have the crappiest, most outdated software available (maybe that should tell me not to waste time/resources while I’m supposed to be working, but I honestly don’t have time to spend on this at home).  In any case, let’s say I won’t be making you a video … ever.  Although last week‘s winning entry was pretty awesome, I’m concerned it has set the bar too high and now we need to submit holograms or some tardis-based script as an entry.

So with my limited resources and wild stabbing at the map, this looked like Turkey to me.  Ankara, specifically.  Mainly because that mosque on the left looks like Maltepe Cami (photo attached) and I think the submitter’s pic could have been taken from the hillside (photo/google search) looking over both Maltepe and minaret from Haci Bayram on the right.  Of course, Maltepe doesn’t have a double dome, so I’m probably in the wrong city. Nice try, though.  Maybe I’m close, who knows. I hate this contest.

Another:

Ten minute search today, which is only enough time to guess that we are in Turkey.  I wanted it to be Cappadocia, where I spent a memorable February weekend with the flu in a freezing hotel room built into the caves.  However, it is clearly not there.  I’m guessing Ankara because it still feels like interior Turkey and we are in a larger city, even though the plain in the background is probably too flat.  But that’s my guess and I’m sticking to it …

Another:

Interesting. From a distance, I thought South America, but then noticed the prominent mosques in the foreground.  Given that, and the mountain range, I lean towards a Moroccan or Turkish Window.  I have a feeling it’s a bit more Turkish, not Istanbul though, nor a picture from Ankara which is on the plateau.  Hard to imagine a mountain range on top of a plateau.  So, I’ll go with the 3rd largest Turkish City, Izmir.

Hey Andrew, why not pitch this to a TV executive as a game show idea?  Points could be based on miles away from the actual site, and sum up distances away from a series of pictures, and person with lowest score wins.  Could be part of your growing legacy and get American people interested in the world.  Alternatively, an app game.

Several more Turkish cities were submitted, but only two readers nailed the correct one:

The view appears to be from the top floor of an abandoned structure sometimes described as the Darphane in Manisa, Turkey (38° 36′ 28.55″ N  27° 25′ 45.07″ E).  The attached PDF file has the details behind my guess. Specifically, the view is from the top west window on the north side of the Darphane in Manisa, Turkey.

The PDF contains a spectacular slideshow (one of the slides seen above), but the other Manisa reader has also entered and correctly answered more contests in the past, so he wins this week:

Ok, this had to be Turkey, no doubt about that, and after a bit of checking out a number of midsize provincial cities things fell into place: Landscape, buildings, and the redbud trees suggest it must be a relatively prosperous town in the western part of the country. The mosque in the center gives the orientation, roughly looking north to northwest. The mosque itself is a sultanic mosque, because it has two minarets, and the architecture suggests an early classical Ottoman mosque. Behind it we see two other large domes with lanterns, obviously a Turkish bath, most likely built as part of the mosque complex, in order to generate income for the upkeep of the mosque.

Where are those? Bursa, the old capital, looked promising, but the single-dome mosques of Bursa are too small, and too archaic, and the way the city extends towards the north did not fit. Edirne, the second capital after Bursa? No, the whole layout of the city is different. Manisa (in Greek: Magnesia), where the Ottoman princes in the 16th century held a provincial governorship in preparation for their office? Bingo.

So the mosque turns out to be Sultan Camii, that is, that of Sultan Süleyman, who ruled 1520-1566, built in 1522, in honor of his mother. A double bath (i.e. with separate sections for men and women) and a hospital were added later, I’d estimate still in the 16th century.

Another mosque is visible to the right, with one of its minarets just sticking out behind the right rear corner of the apartment building in the middle. This is the Muradiye Mosque, built in 1585 by Murad III, the last prince who was called from Manisa to ascend to the throne of the Ottoman Empire. When the Ottoman princes were no longer sent to the provinces for training, Manisa lost its special status.

The perspective to the Western minaret of the Muradiye gives away the point from where the image must be taken: the little domed structure on 2003rd St. indicated in the screenshots from GoogleMap [above], which might house a fountain or a tomb – I can’t tell.

Despite much traveling in Turkey I have never been to Manisa. This is a nice reminder that it would be worthwhile.

Congrats!  We will get a VFYW book out to you shortly. From the reader who submitted the contest photo:

It was taken from the second floor of a ruined shop on 2003rd Street in Manisa, Turkey, just past the Seljuk-era Ulu Camii mosque. The name of the neighborhood is Ishakchelebi, after the ruler of the Saruhan emirate who built the Ulucamii (Great Mosque) in 1366. It is still open to prayer. The domed roof of the building is intact but we had to climb up through a hole in the second floor. The view is toward the plains of the Hermus River and away from Mount Sipylum. Manisa is the site of the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC, at which Rome conquered the Seleucid Empire based in Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey).

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You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.

The video entry – a VFYW first – that took the prize this week is worth reposting, since many readers missed it buried in the results yesterday:

For those wondering about the voiceover, it's Harrison Ford from Blade Runner. Original scene here. The reader who made the video writes:

My family's company imports windows and doors, and I've taken thousands of photos of windows all over the US, and ordered hundred of copies of our own promotional Blurb books. Now I'll have a book of windows that someone else had to do all the work on.

A reader writes:

I was disappointed in myself for not being able to pinpoint the location of last week's photo in my hometown of Chicago, so I said I would definitely figure out this week's. Everything about this week's photo screams France.  The upside white-with-red-border pedestrian yield sign, the Nivea retail store, the older downtown buildings with no sign of World War II damage, the light rail system, the tall slender fire hydrant, the cars on the American-style sides of the road. But if only I could read the name of the retail store!  Either way, I will provide as my submission Strasbourg, France, along the Boulevard de la Victoire.

Another writes:

I'm going to guess that this week's entry is L'viv, Ukraine, somewhere near the center of the city … perhaps off of Freedom Square?  I lived in L'viv for six weeks during the summer of 2009, studying Ukrainian at Ivan Franko National University and working on my M.A. thesis, and I spent a lot of time wandering around the city.  I don't have much to go on except a gut reaction toward the buildings and the fact that the bit of window I can see reminds me of some of the newer window types I've seen there, but the last time I had a feeling of recognition toward one of the VFYW pictures, it was of Kyiv, Ukraine, and I was correct … but didn't send in my entry.  I may be totally off, but at least I won't lose for lack of a submission this time.

Another:

There appears to be a DM market on the right-hand side across the street. So that narrows it down to about eight countries in Europe. I didn't see any trams like that in Germany when I was there. I thought maybe Vienna, but the trams I saw on Google's street view didn't match. The buildings look they could be Prague and they do have trams with grass, but I couldn't find this one. But I did see similar markings on the street. So I am going to go with Prague. I consulted my European tram expert and he thought similarly.

Another:

Judging by the bike lanes crossing the tram tracks, I'd say there's an excellent chance that this is Rotterdam, or else somewhere in the Netherlands.

Another:

This looks a lot like Cottbus, Germany.  For some reason I took a vacation there in December of 2010 and this strip looks extremely familiar.  It was covered in snow, but looks right.  For a random vacation spot, it was absolutely delightful.  Even if this isn't the correct answer, I highly recommend anyone looking for an out of the way place to visit, put Cottbus on your list.  No tourists, near Dresden and the people were extremely welcoming to two 20-something Americans during the New Years holiday.

Another:

The obvious clues in the picture are the distinctly Central European architecture, the city's cleanliness, and the public transit system running parallel to the major street.  The other obvious clue is the Nivea storefront on the opposite side of the street.  A quick Google search told me that there are only three of these in the world – in Berlin, Hamburg, and Dubai.  Dubai's out, for obvious reasons.  Google maps quickly told me that Hamburg was also not correct.  The map and street view of Berlin looks similar but not exact.  (I'm hoping the dissimilarity between the picture and Google Map's street view of Unter den Linden in Berlin can be chalked up to an old street view picture and recent construction on the light rail line, the street, and some of the buildings' architecture.)

Another:

I'm guessing that the photo was taken in Pozna?, Poland. The only clue that I could latch onto was the blue Nivea sign. It was curious, because I've never seen a Nivea store before. Google maps told me that there are only four places in the world with Nivea stores – Berlin, Hamburg, Poznan and Tres Cantos, Spain. Google's street view made it seem like it wasn't either of the two German cities, since the Nivea stores would be much larger there. There was no street view for Poznan, but the images of the Polish town's city square, like the following:

… made it seem like the architecture may match with the long windows and the balconies. I couldn't really get any further than that – the boxed trees was a tantalizing clue that lead nowhere. It's possible that there are other, smaller, Nivea stores in Germany that just aren't on Google map's radar, but I suspect that the photo was taken from Poland.

Another nails the right city in Europe:

It took me so long to find this Nivea shop.  I probably found all the other Nivea shops in Europe before I got this one.  Did you know that Nivea occasionally opens pop-up stores in different European cities, which means there are even more locations to check? Anyway, this Nivea shop is in Budapest, Hungary, and the photo was taken across the street from the K9 Residence on Károly körút 9.

Dozens of readers got that correct address, making it one of the easiest contests in a long time. One writes:

Greetings from Germany. The unique blend of German Jugendstil and Belgian Art Nouveau architecture reminded me of eastern Europe, not to mention the mix of old and new buildings. The picture was most likely taken from the hotel "K9 Residence" in Budapest. It is located on the Small Boulevard (or Kiskörút) in downtown Budapest, just a few minutes walking distance from the Déak metro station, which is the central hub for the three metro lines in Budapest. Judging from the angle the picture was taken from, my guess would be the 2nd floor:

Another:

There is a photo at TripAdvisor taken from virtually the same angle. I’m sure others have gotten this already, but I’m so psyched that I finally got one!

Another:

I was just in Budapest this summer and passed right by this place!  I can't even believe it, I usually can't get anything right (and sadly just skip over the photos after giving them a cursory glance).

Another:

A search of Google Images for "nivea store europe" turns up this image, which quickly leads to this one, which appears to be taken from almost the same spot as the VFYW.

Another:

Based on photos from the residence's website, I'm guessing that the photo was taken from the "studio apartment in K9" in "Image 1 of 5", the one with the yellow window curtains.

Another:

The street appears to have been redone since they took the overhead views on Google Maps and there are no available street-view pictures, so I don't have one to insert. I suspect that this is going to be relatively easy given the fact that a picture of the store appeared on Flickr, but I suggest going to this page, where a VFYW competitor is looking for a clue and another tells him off – hilarious.

Another sends a street-view picture:

Another writes:

Taken from the K9 Residence at Karoly Korut 9 in Budapest Hungary. For the first time I decided to try one of these, and it turned kind of boring quickly.  I even got my wife to join in.  We were thinking Germany based on the Nivea and identified DM drugstore logo on the corner.  But then we did the obvious thing of throwing the image into image-based search (is this against the rules?).  I was actually hoping to identify the red signed store.  But instead up came the image from someone's personal travel blog.

As an aside, my wife was reading all morning when I invited her to join me on my first contest search.  She goes to your blog and sees the headline "Is Reading Anti-Social?" and then glared at me.

Another visual submission:

Another reader:

I was really excited that I figured this one out, but then I realized the significance of solving it today, January 7th.  27 years ago I was in Budapest on a college trip.  While I was there, my brother was doing a routine flight from Chicago to Moline delivering mail.  It was so cold that night, that the throttle on the plane froze.  There was nothing he could do.  I had to make it back for the funeral from Hungry via Frankfurt, NYC, to Chicago.  It took two days, and when I landed, I was greeted by friends of the family with a bag of black clothes to put on.  We went straight to the funeral as I changed in the back seat.  The day my brother was buried is also my mother's birthday.  January 7th.   I was meant to solve this weeks VFYW, because it gave me time to think of my brother.

Another:

I have never been to Budapest, but it is on my list. My great-grandmother (or, more likely great-great grandmother as my grandmother was likely the daughter of the woman who was her 17-year-old sister…) was a Jew from Budapest who converted to Lutheranism to marry my great-grandfather. They came to the states in the very early part of the 20th century. I have always been intrigued by this strange lineage, and so Budapest holds particular romantic appeal for me.  It was enjoyable to troll around looking at photos of it online this weekend, so thank you!

Another:

OK, I realize that if you sent a hard-copy book to everyone who won this week, there would be a deforestation problem.  But still, thank you for this nice easy one: after years of abandoning half-hearted VFYW attempts, this picture had so many clues I couldn't not chase it down.  Finally, the thrill of discovery!  Thanks for taking a week to cater to the dilettantes. 

We were facing an incredibly difficult determination of this week's winner until we came across this brilliant video submission – a VFYW first:

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Creativity and diligence wins the day. From the submitter of the contest photo:

It was taken last week from an apartment on Károly körút 9, along a main road on the Pest side of Budapest. The apartment is part of the K9 Apartment complex and the photo is taken from apartment number 410. The building is about 150 meters from the Dohany Street Synagogue – Europe's largest functioning synagogue. 300 meters in the opposite direction you will find the Vaci Ucta – the popular pedestrian street full of shops, cafes, and, this time of year, the incredible Christmas market. I have attached two other photos for fun: one that looks out the other direction from the window and one of the front of the building (although I don't know which window it is from that angle).

I am a DC native (grew up in Takoma Park) and currently live with my family near Nice, France where I teach history/economics at an international school. We normally spend the Christmas break with family members who come to visit, but this year we were "alone" for the first time so we decided to  take an American-style road trip during the week between Christmas and New Years. We headed east and spent seven days visiting capital cities in eastern Europe – including Ljubljana, Zagreb, Bratislava, and Budapest. We stayed in Budapest for two nights and the K9 Apartments was where we stayed.

It was one of the best weeks we have ever had: almost 3000 km, 5 European capital cities (Vienna being the 5th), lots of coffee breaks for my wife and I so the kids could run around, great food, amazing history, and best of all – the chance to get out and see parts of the world that we had never seen before. Sort of a big, week-long "View From Your Window".

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You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.

A reader writes:

Brick university buildings, park, bike lanes, huge crane and parking garage in the distance – I'm pretty sure that's Ann Arbor. I'd pinpoint it better, but the whole city pretty much looks like that, and if I had time to go on such a quest I wouldn't be spending New Year's Eve working on a dissertation.

Another writes:

Ok, my first attempt for 2011! After looking at the pole banners, the colors, and the flat landscape, I immediately thought of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. And then on the campus map I discovered Palmer Field. After reading about all the construction that has been going on, I feel fairly confident that I am in the right spot. I also feel fairly confident that is either the Life Sciences building or one nearby located on Washtenaw Avenue. The view is an upper floor looking north toward Couzens Hall and the Cardiovascular Center.

Yes! I entered before the strike of midnight!

Another:

When I first saw this picture I figured that it had to be New Jersey, based on the housing and skyline, and based on the density of the buildings. It reminds me of either Hamilton Park in JC or Weequahic Park in Elizabeth and Newark. I'm probably way off and it's some obscure city in the former Soviet bloc.

Another:

European cars driving on the right, a soccer goal in the park, the trees and architecture all point to continental Europe. I'm sure those yellow and blue bus stop signs will be a better clue to someone else … I'm going to guess that this is Prague and the exact location or something in the view is connected with the late Vaclav Havel.

Another:

Given that Tuesday is the Iowa Caucus, and that this picture is of the flattest land I've ever seen, I'd have to say that this is somewhere in Iowa … not Des Moines (not "big enough"), but Cedar Falls? I'm still a bit too full from my New Year's Eve dinner to spend time searching this one out, but I'd eat my hat if wasn't Iowa.

By the way, I want to thank the staff for a great year of window views. I have seen places that I would never have visited and some that I definitely will NOT be going to.

Another gets the right city:

No Google maps, no image searching – just the way my heart almost skipped a beat when I first saw the photo of my favorite city, Chicago. I'll be disappointed if that's not Chicago because it will mean that I've lost my feel for my former home, but that architecture, those alleys, that park – no, there's no way I'm wrong.

Another nails the right location:

I've been hoping for a Chicago one for a while so I could get it! I've lived here long enough to know the place inside out. This is shot from an upper floor window – I'll guess 9th floor, near the southeast corner of the building that stands nearest the intersection – of the Mount Sinai Hospital at 15th Place and California Avenue. The view is south-southwest along California Avenue, encompassing some homes and the large park, which were the two clues I needed to pinpoint this.  

The overall feeling of the photo – a gridded, denser, older, colder city, with development stretching farther than the eye can see and a horizon dotted with tall structures – gave me a strong sense that it would be Chicago. Once I looked in more detail, I noticed the red brick three-flat building to the far left, a housing type and architectural style that is fairly unique to Chicago. At this point, I knew I had to find it.

The mix of housing styles, presence of surface parking and at least one obvious vacant lot, narrowed the scope down to the city's less wealthy south and west sides.  Chicago has a number of large parks, linked with boulevards, that ring the central area, an "emerald necklace" that has recently been submitted as a whole for listing in the National Register. The distinctive curved roadway in the park, once a horse carriageway, was a good sign that it would be one of these stately old parks.

I immediately ruled out Jackson and Washington Parks, near the University of Chicago, where I work, as the view wasn't familiar. I then began working my way clockwise along the boulevard system, looking for large surface parking lots near tall buildings adjacent to parks. I thus ruled out Sherman Park, Gage Park, and McKinley Park, before arriving at Douglas Park in the North Lawndale neighborhood, where I found the features I was looking for. I was then able to confirm the precise locale by looking at the bike lane on California Avenue (which I've ridden), the soccer field in the park, and the configuration of windows on a couple of the houses.

North Lawndale is a rough neighborhood with an interesting history. Mount Sinai is a holdover from its days as the principal Jewish neighborhood of Chicago. It essentially became all-black in the 1950s, and then was devastated by riots in the 1960s, from which it has not yet recovered.

Another sent the above photo. Another writes:

The park at the right of the photo is Douglas Park, where I have played far too many soccer matches for my now mid-30s joints to recall.

A shot of the park:

Another writes:

Checked in New Year's Eve day when I remembered that it was also a VFYW Saturday (you are more reliable than the mailman) and was delighted to take one look out the window and know it was the Chicago's West Side. Until a couple months ago I lived about two miles north of this window and spent a number of years walking the wide boulevards along Humboldt Park (Douglas Park's sister due north). I've enjoyed getting, if not winning, windows in Auckland, Jakarta, and Casablanca, but this one put a smile on my face. Thanks, I miss that town.

Another points out, "In Google Maps, the white cars are even in the street view":

Another notes:

One interesting thing I noticed while doing my research is that the person in the light-colored building to the bottom left of the photo must be very paranoid. The building is blurred out in all the Google Street View pictures, so they must have contacted Google and complained.

Another reader:

This one is easy for me: Mount Sinai Hospital.  I'll guess 12th floor. To the right is Douglas Park. Also to the right, on the south end of the park, is St. Anthony's Hospital. The fact that Mt. Sinai Hospital (Jewish) and St. Anthony's (Italian) exist within blocks of each other is a vestige of the days when people of different ethnicities wouldn't go to the same hospital. While Mt. Sinai was originally Jewish, it is now a significant provider to the poor and working-class Blacks and Hispanics in the area.

I've worked as a social worker, researcher and lawyer in this part of town for years, and I often drive down California past 15th Street to go to the main Cook County Criminal Courts Building (the largest unified criminal courts system in the world, or at least it used to be). The tall, ugly brutalist court administration building is obscured by smoke, directly to the south.

Another provides more details on the jail system:

Known as "26th and Cal" or "Cook County" to Chicagoans. You definitely don’t want to find yourself there. Fuck that. A DOJ report found that Cook County had systematically violated the constitutional rights of inmates (see here).  Specific alleged violations that have resulted in Federal sanctions and/or class action lawsuits include:

– Systematic beatings and rapings by corrections officers
– Inmates forced to sleep on cell floors due to overcrowding and mismanagement
– Rodent infestation and injury caused to sleeping inmates by rat and mouse bites
– Failure to provide adequate medical care, including failure to dispense medications 

Cook County has held several infamous criminals including Al Capone, Tony Accardo, Frank Nitti, Larry Hoover, Jeff Fort, Richard Speck, Matthias St. John, and John Wayne Gacy.  It was also the setting for the musical Chicago.

On that note:

Another reader:

Needless to say, as a Chicagoan I knew it was Chicago instantly – the grayness of the city streets, matching the dirty sunset.  Nelson Algren, the City's poet laureate (in all but name), said it best in his incomparable Chicago: City on the Make: "Yet once you've come to be part of this particular patch, you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real."  And if you can look at this photo and still love this place, then I reckon he was right.

On to guessing the correct floor of the hospital:

I have been playing VFYW for a month, have been close every week, but this time I think I have the answer! It looks like this is taken from the top (11th?) floor of the Mt Sinai Hospital in Chicago, looking north from the middle window of the bay protruding from the north facade. I can't find a floor plan of the building but guessed the middle window because the other two, as corner rooms, would seem to have more light. The view looks onto the parking lot with hospital shuttle buses and shows Douglas Park to the right. Key clues for me were the flat terrain, the rowhouses and the architecture of the building in the background on the park.

So very close. Another gets the right floor:

There were lots of hints in this week's photo, but the final giveaway was the sign at the bus stop across the street. That blue-white-blue design is fairly unique to the Chicago CTA, and eliminates cities like Detroit, whose signs are red and black.  Chicago has a ton of parks, but a tablet PC and Google Earth make this kind of search fast and easy. 

To identify the window, I noted that the it looks directly down the west side of the alley on the far side of the parking lot. Next, I looked over the top of two of utility poles, and noted where they intersect the street. Google maps doesn't have bird's eye views of Chicago, but Microsoft's Bing does. I grabbed an east-facing bird's eye view [seen above], and added the two vectors leading back to the building. Then, using the north
facing bird's eye view [seen right], added perspective lines from the west side of the alley to the base of the building, and up the side. That pinpointed the window in the middle of the three possible windows on the south-facing side of the hospital. Returning to the east view, I dropped a vertical line down the side, and since I couldn't see which window that intersected on the south side of the building, I dropped an identical line down the west side (those two lines of length L). That showed it's the second window from the top – the 10th floor, if the floors correspond to windows – circled in yellow on the north-facing view.

The 10th floor is home to the Mother Baby unit, making me wonder if the photographer was perhaps a new father?

Three readers correctly answered the 10th floor of Mt. Sinai, but the above reader has already won the contest, and the following reader is the only one to have gotten a difficult window in the past without winning, so he is the winner this week:

The shot reminded me strongly of New Haven, but the Green didn't match up (no soccer fields for a start).  So I spent a long time Google-mapping up and down the Northeastern seaboard.  I quite liked Baltimore's Patterson Park for it, but the buildings were all wrong.  Sigh.

I was ready to give up.  But then I thought hey, why not check out all the rectangular city parks in the Midwest?  That would be a good use of a Saturday afternoon. 

Ohio's cities turned out to be a bust.  Nothing looked right until I found some very promising bike lanes beside Washington Park in Chicago.  The Park was wrong, but I felt sure I had the city.  Finally, I reached my destination: the south east corner of Douglas Park. 

Four freaking hours!  That's how much of my Saturday this one cost me.  Was it worth it?  Of course not.  For the love of God, stop this game.  (Perhaps you think it's not your fault I wasted my Saturday and that I should take responsibility for my own actions.  Well that's not how we apply blame here in America.  See the Drug War, etc.)

And oh yeah, the shot seems to have been taken from an upper floor of Mount Sinai Hospital.  I'm gonna guess the 10th floor.  Hope whoever took it is doing OK.

From the photo's submitter:

I work as a radiologist at the hospital and was visiting the IT department on the 10th floor when I saw this shot. I thought it would make a good contest entry.  It is looking south. Clues are the "el" station, the bus stop sign and Cook County jail behind the smoke.  Mt. Sinai is a public aid hospital in a decidedly downscale section of the city, so I imagine, given the demographics of your audience, that relatively few readers have firsthand experience with the area.

Mt. Sinai was founded in 1919 as a 60-bed hospital to serve needy Eastern European immigrants and to train Jewish physicians who were denied educational opportunities elsewhere.  It is now a 320-bed hospital and is the second largest public aid hospital in Illinois.  It serves the Lawndale community on the West Side.  In the '60s and '70s Lawndale, with many other neighborhoods in Chicago, was the victim of "white flight" when the predominantly white working-class and Jewish population moved to the suburbs.  Many hospitals closed or moved.  Sinai changed focus and stayed.  The neighborhood is changing again, with a large influx of mostly Mexican immigrants beginning in the '80s and '90s.

One more reader:

This picture was taken from Sinai Children's Hospital, 1500 S. California Ave, Chicago IL.  Now you want to know the exact window, right?  It's on the south face of the wing that juts out to the south.  Based on how the view seems to line up with the cars in the parking lot, I'll say it's one of the westernmost windows of the three on each floor. Which floor?  Clearly higher than the three- or four-story houses just south of the parking lot.  I'll say the 9th floor, because the horizon is just above the 8th floor of the red building to the southwest (the one with the white sign that says "Loft Space for Lease" – yeah, my eyes are that good, with a little boost from Google maps; it's on W. 21st Street just west of S. Marshall).  Plus, the lower floors have air conditioners, and this one appears not to.

This is the first time I (or really, we; my husband and I did this together) have entered the contest, so we won't win based on previous solutions.  We're shamelessly angling for the sympathy vote.  Last summer you published another view from a Chicago hospital window, the one with the reflection of the medivac helicopter taking off:

My husband submitted that.  I regret to report that last month, just six weeks after completing a very aggressive chemo regimen, new tumor was discovered.

Our thoughts and prayers for a full recovery.

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