General
Topography is difficult to master but very useful in Greece. While a lot of these will be discussed in more detail in the landscape section, there are many locs which are easy to get based off topography alone, such as the Delta Nestos area with mountains north and nothing south, or the Western Peloponnese with a flatter version of the otherwise extremely mountainous Peloponnese landscape. There are however many 50/50s which are worth paying closer attention to, such as mountains Southwest in the case both of the Karditsa valley looking onto the Pindus and the Katerini (Pieria) area looking towards Mount Olympus.
Greece is famously quite a dry country, but there are more lush parts that can be seen on this rainfall map. The difference between 700mm and 400mm on some islands can also be the difference between the presence or absence of trees, so it is also well worth studying this rainfall map in some detail.
Landscape
Western Greece (especially the Ionian islands) is usually identifiable for being simultaneously warm and green. Here you’ll find lots of reeds, cypress trees, tall green grass, eucalyptus, cook pines and broom, as well as olives in a less dry-looking landscape. Note that none of these plants are unique to western Greece, but are generally more abundant here. Generally the best identifier for the west is long, green, healthy grass. In more mountainous parts, you won’t find the aforementioned plants, but the high density of vegetation remains.
Corfu is the epitome of Western Greece, with an especially high concentration of cypress trees and stone pines in some parts, making it look quite a lot like Italy sometimes. Ferns are also a good meta for Corfu.
Much of Crete is covered in tall mountains. Scenes like the one below with very barren upper slopes and shrubby lower slopes, often covered in olive plantations, are very typical of Crete.
Evros is the regional unit that comprises the northeastern corner of Greece. It is distinctive for being the only part of Greece with no elevation visible in any direction. It has mildly undulating terrain and becomes dead flat along the Turkish border. Sunflowers are common here.
Limnos is an island with a quite unique landscape. It has very few trees like most islands, but a much greener landscape, with a particularly large abundance of yellow flowers. The more hilly parts are covered in a low but dense layer of bush.
Kavala is a city with a unique topography, being particularly hilly. It is normally safe to go Kavala on urban Greece with particularly steep streets.
The area between the two large flat plains of Karditsa and Larissa is composed of a very bare, gently undulating, almost ‘steppe-like’ landscape, which is usually very identifiable after seeing it a couple times.
The area around Ambracian Gulf, as well as the Agrinio-Missolonghi area further south, are unique swampy flat areas in western Greece identifiable for the extreme density of tall reeds.
Milos is one of the most mined out Greek islands. You can usually identify it through a great number of sandy roadside berms, large boulders, or numerous quarries in the distance.
Vegetation
Turkish Pine (Pinus brutia), is primarily found on the islands just off the coast of Turkey, as well as just across the land border. It can be very hard to distinguish from Aleppo pine, the main difference being longer needles which is hard to notice.
Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), is found in a belt across Central Greece, with forests of Aleppo pine being quite iconic of the Attica and the northern half of Euboea. Be careful as they are also common in Chalkidiki ‘fingers’. Note also that Aleppo pines often form thick forests which is rare with Brutia.
Black pine (Pinus nigra) While the map shows several hotspots, the main places where you can expect to find forests of Black pines are the northern end of the Pindus mountain range. The hotspots in the Peloponnese are also worth remembering.
Unlike the Northern Pindus, in the Southern half of the Pindus range, fir trees are the dominant species.
Agriculture
Greece is the only significant cotton producer in Europe, itself a meta for the country, although for regionguessing it is less helpful. Cotton can be found in most of the flat parts of Central and Northern Greece, however it is especially concentrated in the valleys of Larissa and Karditsa.
Rice is only grown in two places in Greece - the Vardar delta just west of Thessaloniki and the Struma plain west of Serres.
Greece is the world’s 3rd largest producer of peaches, and these are heavily concentrated around the cities of Edessa and Veria, along with some other non-citrus fruit plantations. Similar-looking cherry trees are also mostly grown here, however they do have a few hotspots outside this region.
Sunflower plantations are most common in the far northeast corner of the country and generally restricted to the north of the country.
A distribution, similar to sunflowers, can be found for tobacco plantations, helping to guess the northeast.
Mastic is a common Mediterranean shrub found in most coastal parts of Greece, however the southern half of the island of Chios has unique mastic plantations that are very recognisable.
Apple plantations can be found in a handful of hotspots which look distinct from each other. The main ones are Kastoria, Zagora (mostly winter coverage), and less so near Vegoritida lake.
Large numbers of plastic greenhouses are generally a good meta for the Ierapetra area in SE Crete. Note that smaller clusters of greenhouses can be found in other areas along the southern Cretan coastline.
As seen on the map, vineyards are generally not useful for regionguessing beyond memorising some hotspots. There are however certain individual regions with particular-looking vineyards.
Vines on Paros are pruned to be very low-growing - a technique called ‘aplotaria’ which is unique to Paros (and Antiparos).
Santorini uses a similar technique, the key differences being the volcanic soil the vines grow in and the vines being in a more compact ‘basket’ shape.
The Nemea wine region of the NE Peloponnese is quite distinct for the density of vineyards and the mountainous setting.
Lavender - around Mesimeri just south of Thessaloniki, although a few fields can also be found in the Kozani region
Architecture
All-grey architecture with slate roofs is iconic of the mountainous parts of Epirus (NW Greece). Note that villages composed entirely of such houses, such as the one in the image, are mostly only found in the Vikos Gorge area in Pindus National Park, but individual such houses, or houses made of grey stone but without slate roofs, are still a good meta for Epirus.
Due to heavy Italian influence, Corfu has a distinct architecture. Houses here are usually larger, more likely to have pastel colors, as well as gable roofs instead of the more common hip roofs.
On the Mani peninsula in the Peloponnese you’ll find these unique stone towerhouses in almost every village.
Santorini architecture is very distinct. Like Cyclade architecture more generally, it is very whitewashed, however it is distinct for its curved semi-circle roofs.
All-white ‘pod-like’ houses with blue doors/windows are a good meta for the Cyclades, but on Mykonos specifically they have these unique rounded edges. Those famous Greek windmills are also more common on Mykonos than any other island.
Symi is known for its neoclassical architecture which distinguishes it from the rest of the islands.
Roof ornamentation is common in any parts of Greece that used to be controlled by Venice and Genoa, which, as you can see on the map (shown in green and yellow) isn’t especially helpful, however certain types of ornamentation are highly localised. Common features include raised ‘flaps’ on roof corners and finials/statuettes on either end of the .
In Lesbos and Chios you will find these tall bulbous finials on the tops of roofs. They are usually skinnier in Lesbos and fatter in Chios.
Infrastructure
Roadlines
There is also this single baity road in the Northern Peloponnese with dashed roadlines…
Poles
Highways
Some highways in Greece have unique and helpful kilometer signs that can help regionguessing. On most highways you will find green km signs every 500m that indicate the distance from the start point on the right side, and the first letter of the name of the town at the end of the highway on the left side. Note that the number from the start point is the same on both sides of the highway, whereas the letter is dependent on your driving direction. Also note that if you are in a moving game, these signs are symmetrical so you can always find the km sign for the other direction in the opposite lane.
Every sign design here is consistent along the whole length of its respective highway.
The A6, also known as the ‘Αττική Οδός’ (Attica route) starts from Eleusis just west of Athens and goes north around the capital ending at the 48th km near Athens Airport (E-A). Uniquely, it has km markers every 100m, and whenever it reaches a round kilometer, the letter will appear on top of the number rather than to the left.
The A8 is also known as the ‘Ολυμπία Οδός’ (Olympia route) and goes from Athens to Patras, however the kilometer signs are confusingly marked E (for Eleusis) in the Athens direction and T (possibly for Tsoukalaiika?) in the Patras direction. Uniquely, it is divided into 250m sections.
The A1 which connects Athens and Thessaloniki does not have a letter system, however it has these unique km markers. These may seem like the standard Greek km markers however note that green signs are only used for highways, whereas regular roads use blue signs.
Meanwhile, all other highways not mentioned in this list use this style of km marker with ‘German’ font.
Trash Bins
Taxis
Patras & Corinth - dark red taxis
Businesses
Ariadni supermarket - Crete & Macedonia
Jetoil gas station - Northern Greece
Afoi Panagiotopouloi - south Peloponnese
Roumeliotis - Patras/Northwest Peloponnese
Bollards
There is a road from Kilkis to Kerkini Lake National Park (north of Thessaloniki) where you will regularly find French-style bollards, something not found anywhere else in the country. Map of exact locations
General
On the island of Skiathos in the Sporades chain you can often find these unique yellow signs with traditional byzantine font
Wind farms are not worth learning for beginner regionguessing as they are found in most regions of Greece, but it can be useful at a more advanced stage to memorise the larger hotspots such as Southern Euboea, the far northeast, or the numerous hotspots along the northern shore of the Gulf of Corinth, as well as which islands do/don’t have windfarms.
Linguistic & Culture
Cultural
The Macedonian sun symbol can be found in various contexts throughout the historical region of Greek Macedonia.
The northeast of Greece is home to a sizeable Turkish minority, largely concentrated in and between the cities of Xanthi and Komotini. You won’t find bilingual signs but mosques, graveyards and clothing are good clues.
Toponymy
There are a few useful place name suffixes in Greece:
- αίικα (-eika)
- ανά (-ana)
- άτικα (-atika)
- άνικα (-anika)
- άτα (-ata) (not all included but still mostly reliable for Kefalonia)
- Î (-e) (very rare but highly localised)
Reading Greek
When learning a new alphabet for the sake of Geoguessr, it is important to know where to look as reading can be time consuming, even for a relatively easy script to learn like Greek.
The most important word to recognise is ΔΗΜΟΣ (‘dimos’) meaning ‘municipality’ - the most important organisational unit. Municipality names can reliably be found on green bins (sometimes other bins) which should be a go-to place to look for in any urban or peri-urban rounds. Municipality names can more rarely be found on town entry signs, street signs and bus stops.
Note that the municipality system was simplified in 2011, which is when the earliest Greek coverage was taken, so in older coverage you may find names of defunct municipalities. You can find an up-to-date map of ‘dimoi’ here.
Note that the municipality system was simplified in 2011, which is when the earliest Greek coverage was taken, so in older coverage you may find names of defunct municipalities. You can find an up-to-date map of ‘dimoi’ here.
Project signs can sometimes be found which will usually have the ΠΕΡΙΦΕΡΕΙΑ (‘perifereia’) - meaning ‘region’ - at the top. Otherwise these don’t show up much. If you search further down these sometimes have the ‘dimos’ name as well.
For more detail on what to focus on to maximise your ability to use Greek in regionguessing, you can refer to this old document from Atomo.
For more detail on what to focus on to maximise your ability to use Greek in regionguessing, you can refer to this old document from Atomo.
In Greece, it is very common for small businesses to have the owner’s name on the sign. On top of obituaries being fairly common, as well as adverts for individual services such as lawyers and doctors hanging on balconies, this makes Greece one of the countries where you will most often find people’s names on Google Street View. This is helpful as surnames are often regional, as can be seen on the map below.
A few things to bear in mind:
Example from a doctor’s office with the rare ‘-atos’ suffix on Kefalonia:
- Athens is a melting pot of all these suffixes
- ‘-opoulos’ and ‘-akis’ can be unreliable and should be used with caution
- The suffixes common in what is now northwestern Turkey are now common in northeastern Greece, where most refugees migrated during the 1920s
Example from a doctor’s office with the rare ‘-atos’ suffix on Kefalonia:

































