EpochLens (Zalize)

About EpochLens (Zalize)

EpochLens shows you five real historical photographs a day, the same set for every player. For each one you set a year on a slider (running from 1850 to 2010 on the day we looked) and drop a pin on a world map where you think it was taken.

Each photo is worth up to 10,000 points, and the closer your year and place, the more you score. Every answer is revealed with a short verified fact about the moment shown. The photos are public domain or Creative Commons, drawn from archives such as Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress, with credits on each reveal card.

The site calls it a free alternative to TimeGuessr, built for phones first. Results can be shared as an emoji scorecard.

Zalize Daily Games, at daily.zalize.com, is a free set of small browser games from zalize.com, each with one puzzle a day that is the same for every player in the world. All of them switch at midnight UTC. There is no account: streaks and statistics stay in your browser and can be moved to another device with a sync code, and playing every game on the same day earns a Perfect Day badge. The site is offered in ten languages.

How to play EpochLens (Zalize)

1. Open daily.zalize.com/epochlens to see the first photo.
2. Study the photo for clues to its date and place.
3. Slide to the year you think it was taken.
4. Drop a pin on the world map where it happened.
5. Read the reveal and go on to the next of the five photos.

Tips

• Cars, clothes, signs and photo quality narrow the decade.
• Scripts on signs and the style of buildings narrow the country.
• A rough pin on the right continent still scores; do not leave the map blank.
• Read each reveal fact: they teach the cues that come up again.

Questions