How to identify Belgium in GeoGuessr?

- Country-code top-level domain is .be - Brick-built houses and civic buildings are everywhere - License plates are printed in dark red characters {{% by %}} - Guardrails often feature white bases with black rectangular reflectors

Belgium

clues 11Regions 11Updated 2023-07-01

Quiz ▾Basics ▾Importance

LanguageDutch, French, German

Driving sideDrives on the right

Domain.be

Easily confused with:Netherlands, Germany, France, Luxembourg, PortugalQuizzes for this area:Belgium State Quiz, Belgium City Quiz, Area code quiz (Belgium)

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Whole area7

Clues that work anywhere in this area

Building★★★★★

Buildings built of brick are common.

Examples1 2SourcesSchmerling Caves

License Plate★★★★★

License plate lettering is red, though it's often hard to make out clearly.

Examples1

CC BY-SA 3.0, "European Union license plate." (2022, November 19). In Wikipedia.

Signs★★★★★

Supplementary plates (the thin panel below a regulatory sign) are blue. It's subtle, but this alone almost confirms it.

Examples1 2 3SourcesSupplementary plates (Japanese road signs)

Building★★★★

Utility poles here have a shape rarely seen elsewhere in Europe. If you spot a strange pole with a hole in it, Belgium becomes a real option.

SourcesSchmerling Caves

Around Schmerling Caves, where Neanderthal fossils were discovered

Bollard★★★

Bollards are simple — a white post with a yellow rectangular reflector. You won't spot them all that often.

Examples1

Signs★★★

The crosswalk sign uses a dashed pattern.

Signs★★★

Small hexagonal signs, and small round-cornered signs showing a bicycle or a pictogram, are rarely seen outside Belgium.

Examples1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Narrowing down the region3

Once you know the area: which part of it

Area Code

Phone area codes narrow down the region

Phone area codes are assigned by region. When a number shows up on a sign, an advert or a van, its leading digits narrow the location down to a part of the country.

Practise with the area code quiz

Coloured by leading digit

Sign logos

Language & Script★★★

The logo and language on street-name and town-boundary signs tell you the region. A Dutch-language sign with the Duke of Brabant's coat of arms means the northern Flemish Community; a French-language sign with a rooster crest means the southern French Community.

Watch outThe Duke of Brabant's coat of arms also appears in the south.

SourcesAdministrative divisions of Belgium

Where

North (Flemish Community)
South (French Community)

Architecture

Building★★★

Houses in the south often have black roofs.

Watch outThese resemble houses in Luxembourg and western Germany — likely related to the many slate quarries inland.

Examples1 2 3See alsoLuxembourg Germany

Where

A house in a town near the centre — A house in a southern town

Liège Province

Language & Script★★★

German means you're at the eastern edge. The easternmost part of Liège is home to the German-speaking Community, where Ripuarian is also spoken.

SourcesRipuarian

Narrowing down the city1

Once you know the region: which city or town

Commercial Facilities★★★

Street-name and town-boundary signs sometimes also carry the municipality's name, though it's often written small enough to miss.

Examples1 2

The logo and French text place this in the south, and the town name Martelange narrows it down further

Regions

Hover a region on the map to see its name

Quiz

Basics

General facts about this place

Home to Brussels, the capital that hosts EU and NATO headquarters, making it the political center of Europe^[ref]
Divided into Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia, world-famous for chocolate and beer production^[ref]

Nearby areas

A page of play notes and identification clues for GeoGuessr.