Hey reader! Today we’re diving into the twelfth exercise from the Mrs. OSINT series, and this one’s packed with variety. Earlier challenges usually provided us with one location and a few tasks (sometimes a bonus or even a double challenge). But this time, we get all of that rolled into one exercise.
Challenge 12 comes with two geolocation puzzles plus a bonus question, and it even pushes us to use a tool we rarely get the chance to try. Mrs. OSINT labeled these challenges as easy and medium in difficulty.
Let’s get started!
Challenge 12
Clue A Tasks (Easy):
- Identify the city and the iconic structure.
- What country is this located in?
- Can you identify any languages or cultural symbols in the image?
- What tourism or hospitality chain does the building in the background belong to?
- What architectural style or design elements stand out to you?
- Where was this picture taken? Give me exact coordinates.
I am sure Google Lens would find this location quite easily given the distinct building seen in the background. However, I will try to refrain from using Google Lens in this exercise.
I decided to start with the building seen in the background. A quick “sail-like building” search on Google revealed this is the luxurious hotel Burj Al Arab in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
After further analyzing the image, I saw a beverage menu on the tables. This would mean we are in a restaurant setting. Now that we know we are at a restaurant in Dubai near a bridge, with the Burj Al Arab as a reference location, let’s test our luck with Google again.
Using the search query “restaurant near Burj Al Arab and bridge,” I was able to find the image below.
We can see the same architectural design, building, palm tree, and the black bollards. Additionally, we get a new lead “Fort Island.” I searched for this on Google Maps and then found the Burj Al Arab to identify which location aligns with the view from our challenge and determined it to be where I highlighted in red.
Upon inspecting the user-submitted photos, I confirmed this to be the right location.
The castle-looking building is the Jumeirah Mina A’Salam, and the Burj Al Arab is actually the Jumeirah Burj Al Arab. Both are part of the Jumeirah Group. Below are all of our answers.
Solutions Clue A:
- Identify the city and the iconic structure.
Solution: City is Dubai and structure is the Burj Al Arab. - What country is this located in?
Solution: United Arab Emirates. - Can you identify any languages or cultural symbols in the image?
Solution: the building’s distinctive sail-like silhouette is inspired by the traditional Arabian dhow. - What tourism or hospitality chain does the building in the background belong to?
Solution: Jumeirah Group - What architectural style or design elements stand out to you?
Solution: Sail-like shape of the building and the castle-like design of the architecture. - Where was this picture taken?
Solution: 25.134011572138043, 55.186363524070416
Clue B Tasks (Medium):
- Name the city/town?
- Where was this image taken? Provide coordinates.
- What clues in the image suggest a specific region or climate?
- Estimate the direction the photo was taken (e.g., facing north). What tells you that?
- Is this location inland, coastal, or part of a river system? Prove your guess.
BONUS: Can you identify the name of any of the tugboats in the image? Who owns them?
Zooming in on the boat on the right, we can make out the word “Shaver.” Searching for “red and white Shaver boat” took me to the Shaver Transportation website.
To our advantage, they only have three terminal locations: Portland/Vancouver, Longview/Kalama, and the Inland River System. Further down, there is a “Fleet” section.
The boat on the left from our image starts with the letter “W,” has slanted pipes, and two banners on the railings. Scrolling through the fleet, I thought a good match was Willamette, so I searched for it on Vessel Finder and was able to match the same features.
For the other boat, there is only one match in the fleet section that has the word “Shaver” at the tip. The boat happens to be named Shaver as well.
This means we have accidentally answered our bonus question first. Now onto the rest of them.
I clicked on “Download Spec Sheet” for Willamette and discovered the document has its current location as “Columbia River,” and the company address at the bottom is Portland, Oregon.
At this point, it seemed like a good starting point would be the Portland/Vancouver terminal. Before I do that, let’s review our image again for some key clues to solve this. These were the boats, of course, the blue house, and the two chapel-like buildings.
I went back to their website and navigated to the terminal’s map. At first, the location was near main roads and industrial areas, which didn’t really fit with our mountainous downhill location.
I kept scrolling until I found a very similar location and, more importantly, two red and white boats. Then I identified a blue house and a chapel nearby, and the more it looked like the right location.
I still needed to double-check that my findings were, in fact, right, so I took my investigation to Google Earth.
We can see a very distorted red and white boat, the blue house, and the two chapel-like buildings from before. Based on that view from Google Earth, we are facing southwest and we are in Rainier, Oregon, next to the Columbia River. Using Google Earth, I estimate the coordinates to be near: 46.09150958237658, -122.93081886107007.
Solutions Clue B:
- Name the city/town?
Solution: Rainier, Oregon - Where was this image taken? Provide coordinates.
Solution: 46.09150958237658, -122.93081886107007 - What clues in the image suggest a specific region or climate?
Solution: Given its closeness to the water and the way the town slopes downhill toward the river, it feels like a humid place that probably gets a lot of rainfall. The heavy tree coverage on the hills and the cloudy sky back up the idea of a cool, damp climate. - Estimate the direction the photo was taken (e.g., facing north). What tells you that?
Solution: Using the compass from Google Earth, the image was taken facing southwest - Is this location inland, coastal, or part of a river system? Prove your guess.
Solution: Part of a river system
Bonus solution: Can you identify the name of any of the tugboats in the image? Who owns them?
Solution: The boat names are Willamette and Shaver, and the owning company is Shaver Transportation. Shaver Transportation is a family-owned company, so we could say Steve Shaver, owner, CEO, and president of the company, is most likely the owner of these vessels.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for sticking with me through both sides of this exercise. The first challenge took us all the way to Dubai, where we identified the Burj Al Arab and connected it to the Jumeirah Group. The second challenge brought us back stateside, tracing tugboats and landmarks to Rainier, Oregon, on the Columbia River.
What I really liked about this exercise is how different the two locations were, yet both required careful observation and some creative searching. From iconic architecture in the Middle East to working vessels in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., this challenge covered a wide range of techniques.
I hope you found this walkthrough helpful and maybe picked up a new trick or two along the way. See you in the next challenge!
Resources
Clue A
- https://www.mrsosint.com/challenge-12-twin-signals/
- https://www.google.com/maps/@25.1340116,55.1863649,3a,75y,311.17h,95.74t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sCIHM0ogKEICAgICElanD9wE!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2Fgpms-cs-s%2FAB8u6HaadUt2Q7EA5UKomkLf37guxb9RdQQn9MTaUUIIeBz2HVDaB8asCi6No9u3ntjThnIWKV7JECY9saPypzRaJy4bEGDsnfhO–d8TXMh2NRcZnfHWMrRwKq60K-6fRciTfbNvbfj%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-5.739551432008881-ya311.16760700608666-ro0-fo100!7i7776!8i3888?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDgxMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Clue B
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