MIT Mystery Hunt Puzzle Index: Category Index

Some cities, or parts of cities, have a rectangular grid of streets, with the street names in one or both directions being sequential numbers or letters, and often with the addresses matching cross-streets (so the addresses on a street between the intersections with 5th and 6th streets would be between 500 and 600). Although the distance between each pair of streets is not always the same, this provides opportunities to interpret the map as a Cartesian plane.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2013 I Left My Stomach in Salt Lake City

city and state names

MIT Mystery Hunt 1999 Madras
MIT Mystery Hunt 2009 Megrez Expedition
MIT Mystery Hunt 2012 Cookin’
MIT Mystery Hunt 2014 Local Shorts
MIT Mystery Hunt 2016 Opus Meta
MIT Mystery Hunt 2016 Trivia
MIT Mystery Hunt 2019 Touring the Nation

city name changes

MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 The Chromosome of a Highly Colored Fish's Eye

coats of arms

MIT Mystery Hunt 2020 The Nauseator

col (saddle point between mountains)

MIT Mystery Hunt 2008 Sphere

Commonwealth Avenue Mall

Thee green space along Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, containing various statues

MIT Mystery Hunt 2023 Street Smarts

counties

Counties are divisions of U.S. states. Louisiana called them parishes but collectively across the states we still call them counties.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2016 Opus Meta
MIT Mystery Hunt 2020 The Castle
MIT Mystery Hunt 2023 My Fun Bow

countries

country codes (any variety)

crosswords on the landscape

Using the shapes of buildings, paths, etc. as crossword grids.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2014 Hedgehogs and Flamingos
MIT Mystery Hunt 2016 Fun Sized
MIT Mystery Hunt 2018 It's Not Easy
MIT Mystery Hunt 2018 It's Not Normal
MIT Mystery Hunt 2021 Hockfield Court

cruise lines

MIT Mystery Hunt 2012 Getting There is Half the Fun

demonyms

The adjectives meaning from a certain place, such as French for France or Cypriot for Cyprus.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 Where on Earth Is Carmen Suntigre?

Eiffel Tower

Among the lesser known features of the Eiffel Tower is a layer where the names of 72 mostly French scientists are inscribed.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 The Laboratory

electoral college

MIT Mystery Hunt 2005 Divided We Stand
MIT Mystery Hunt 2007 Recounting Former Glories
MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 A More 6 ∪ 28 ∪ 496 ∪ …
MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 Could You Restate That?

embassies

MIT Mystery Hunt 2003 Abducted!
MIT Mystery Hunt 2006 Introductory Foreign Operations

explorers

MIT Mystery Hunt 2020 Peak Adventure

famous trips

MIT Mystery Hunt 2017 Trips

federal congressional districts

MIT Mystery Hunt 2019 Peripathetic
MIT Mystery Hunt 2020 Creatures from Outer Space
MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 A More 6 ∪ 28 ∪ 496 ∪ …

Federal Reserve banks

MIT Mystery Hunt 2013 Federal Reserve

fictional places

MIT Mystery Hunt 2023 Folded Cards

flags

The Freedom Trail

MIT Mystery Hunt 2009 The Thin Red Line

Frontier Airlines

MIT Mystery Hunt 2009 I Can Haz Zyzzlburger?

geocaching

MIT Mystery Hunt 2009 Round 6 Puzzle Opening Mechanism
MIT Mystery Hunt 2009 Out Huntin'
MIT Mystery Hunt 2009 Round 6 Meta

geoguessr

A web game based on identifying locations from their Google street view photos, located at geoguessr.com.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2014 A Puzzle with the Answer GARCIAPARRA
MIT Mystery Hunt 2018 Middle of the Road

Google Maps user maps

MIT Mystery Hunt 2009 The Condescending Man Holding a Brightly Colored Parasol
MIT Mystery Hunt 2011 Everybody's Got to Be Somewhere
MIT Mystery Hunt 2022 Crow Facts 3000

Google Street View

MIT Mystery Hunt 2011 Pointillisme
MIT Mystery Hunt 2011 Zelda Warp Zone
MIT Mystery Hunt 2020 FOCUS!!
MIT Mystery Hunt 2021 Yonder
MIT Mystery Hunt 2022 Whose Turn Is it Anyway?
MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 Moving Day

great circles

Great circles are the shortest paths between two points on Earth. Airplane flight paths are approximately great circles because this minimizes the distance flown.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2014 A Puzzle with the Answer YOUKILIS

highway numbers

MIT Mystery Hunt 1997 Shark Detaches Anchor; Elvis' Yacht Drifts Into Freak Tropical Iceberg!
MIT Mystery Hunt 2010 Sightseeing
MIT Mystery Hunt 2013 Road Trip
MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 Fairly Thorough

hillside letters

These are giant letters commonly build on hillsides in the American west., visible in satellite maps and from the ground in the surrounding area.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2023 Art of the game.such.fame!

historical markers

These markers can be found in cities all over the world, and mark historic and sometimes not even all that historic places, perhaps providing a very brief explanation of the significance of the place.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2012 Stand
MIT Mystery Hunt 2016 The Tenebrous, Stygian Test of Knowledge
MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 Don't Know Much

Hollywood Walk of Fame

MIT Mystery Hunt 2022 Something In Your I's

India

MIT Mystery Hunt 2019 Ridin' Delhi

IP geolocation

MIT Mystery Hunt 2017 Trips

islands

MIT Mystery Hunt 2005 World Tour
MIT Mystery Hunt 2009 Island Warfare
MIT Mystery Hunt 2022 🔔🦇🦇🦇
MIT Mystery Hunt 2023 My Fun Bow

KLM houses

Miniature houses given out by Dutch airline KLM, which are models of real houses in the Netherlands.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2023 Walking Tour

"The Knowledge" (London black cabs)

This is the course of study required to become a driver of a London "black cab", which consists of knowing how to get between any two points within six miles of Charing Cross, and being able to recite the whole route, essentially requiring memorizing the entire map of this region.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2016 The Tenebrous, Stygian Test of Knowledge

lakes

MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 Maybe Not to Scale?

landmarks

MIT Mystery Hunt 2003 Attic
MIT Mystery Hunt 2004 South Carmacks
MIT Mystery Hunt 2007 Atlas Shrugged
MIT Mystery Hunt 2010 Around the World in 80 Days
MIT Mystery Hunt 2012 Slash Fiction
MIT Mystery Hunt 2012 Panorama
MIT Mystery Hunt 2014 Only Carmen Sandiego Explores Nigh Unstoppably
MIT Mystery Hunt 2018 Zelma & Frank
MIT Mystery Hunt 2023 Art of the game.such.fame!
MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 MGM Grand
MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 Too Tired to Travel
MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 Augmented Raility

Las Vegas strip

MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 Shade of Wealth

Latin names of cities

Though they may be known by other names today, cities which were part of the Roman empire (thus, everything that was around in those days in most of Western and Southern Europe, England, the north coast of Africa, and Asia Minor) had names in Latin.

MIT Mystery Hunt 2008 Ecolocation