Finding locations

Syria: a guide for locating Syrian YouTube videos, using Wikipedia and the arabic writing from titles.
By now (2024), and for several years, much of the specifics of this post are outdated (Panoramino doesn't exist and Wikimapia seems to be a lot less used), but perhaps you'll see ways to transfer methods, if you notice anything useful.

Also, please notice: this is a layman's post. If you read it please don't skip the notes at the bottom. Also before you decide what to think of my writings: please read through my latest post (plead added 03/06/2014).

Intro:

This is a step by step guide to enable you to use original language place-names and Wikimapia to find locations of on-line material such as YouTube videos, or Flickr photos.
Below the method is used with a YouTube video from Syria.
(when I prepared this post, I didn't notice, the Google interface wasn't switched to English. My apologies).

And please keep in mind: this process involves a number of sources, that all are open to either mistakes or deliberate misinformation(see note 1). Therefore, unless the locations found are corroborated they can not be considered certain. Step 7 points to some of the ways to increase certainty, and the additional tools described further down can also help in this part of the process.

1: In YouTube; high-light the relevant text (in this case the title of the video) right click, and choose "search Google for.....".

2: When in Google search; choose "Translate". 

3: In the translated text; place the cursor over, what you believe to be the name of the place/city. The corresponding original language text will be highlighted.

You might have to work a little to isolate the right piece of text. Here - for some reason - a dash is high-lighted together with the place name. It didn't effect the search though.
Also, sometimes i seems that pieces of text, that the translator can't find meaning to, becomes meaningful if it is broken up with spaces.

4: Select and copy the corresponding word in the original language.

5: Paste the word into the search field in Wikimapia, and click the search button. A list of possible locations will be displayed (if any exists). In this case there was only one, but if - as more often - there are several possible locations, try to zoom out and place the cursor over the different names. You will se that a red dot shows the different positions.

6: Use your judgment to single out the most likely match, click it, and the map will be centered on the location. Syria turns out to be described quite detailed in the Wikimapia database.

7: If possible, zoom in and use characteristic objects to verify the location. Sometimes this can be supported by orientation determined by direction of sunlight, the street layout, landscape characteristics or any other distinctive elements.
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additional tools:

In the following I have shown a few other ways of seeking information about locations. But there will surely be many other possibilities, and some of them much smarter than what I have come up with, therefore please only take this as an inspiration.
... and any tips and smart tricks will be happily received as comments to this post.

- photo services:

The place identification can sometimes be cross referenced by mapped photos in photo services (Panoramio is sought used in this case).
No corroboration is found for this location, but inside cities this tool can sometimes help you to understand, what buildings are used for, or to check significant shapes of landmarks like minarets or churches.


- Google Earth:

Another way to acces the Panoramio server is through Google Earth. There selected Panoramio photos have tumb-nail-links (if 'photos' is activate). The same is the case with Google Maps. But Google Earth have more photos, and it also have a history slide, which sometimes can help corroborate a location - or can reveal additional information (I've used that for the post 'Hama Military Airport').

Click the year-number in lower left corner (arrow). The slide appears in the upper left corner (other arrow), with that you can choose from a varying number of aerials within an also varying time-span.

- Google search:

The original language place name can also be (re)entered in Google search. This can bring up related material (other videos, FaceBook pages etc.).

This can also be done with the entire video-title to search for the original video uploader.

- Wikipedia:

Wikipedia in the original language can also be used to search the place name. In this case this search offered only a short description of the village.

The Wikipedia page also links to a large list of on-line maps/aerial services (arrow). This makes it easy to check different services for the most useful material.

Also: if there appears to be no match for the place name, it might be due to different spellings. Both Google Translate and Wikipedia suggest alternative Arabic spellings/words. Using them might bring your search forward.

Using latin lettering:

If you have a name of a city/town/village in latin lettering (which will often give you no results in Wikimapia) this Directory of Cities, Towns, and Regions in Syria might help you with a possible location (recommended by
@bigmo1965).

Use other channels:

Having found a possible location; further evidence or even confirmation can sometimes be established through other videos from the same area. The post Syrian Channel Listings on Brown Moses Blog lists YouTube channels by the cities/areas they are linked to. This might enable you to find material related to the video you are investigating.

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* note 1: one issue to be aware of in particular, is that in some cases the same name is used for cities in several differrent regions (thanks to @bigmo1965 for the reminder).

Telling tales

Please notice: this is a layman's post. If you read it please don't skip any notes.
Also: before you decide what to think of my writings: please read through my latest post (plead added 03/06/2014).

This is the second of two photos of this scene/situation. The other is in my previous post 'The mortar tails of Homs'. Both photos by Lens Young Homsi .

(wording edited on December 23, 2012. Plead added june 3, 2014).
Some of the material in my last post 'The mortar tails of Homs' brought C.J. Chivers, war correspondent at The New York Times, to bring up a particular aspect of dealing with photographic material from war zones.

In the blog-post 'Revolutionary Art: The Mortar Tail Booms of Homs' he shares some of his knowledge, of parties in wars, using photography to communicate their situation to the surrounding world. The main point of the post is to differentiate between photography used to document conditions through existing motives, and photography where the motives have been arranged to enable the photographer - the revolutionary artist so to speak - to deliver or enhance a certain message. As his title indicates, he finds, that the drawing-scene photo series, which makes up the major part of the post, belongs to this second category. He also add, that among photos of ordnance scrap, those are of the less usual kind. And that they work.

I have seen fare too little to have an opinion of the photos being unusual, but I do agree, that they belong in the art category. At least in part. Actually, I was certain, that "tail" was also the way to spell "tale", and the idea was, through that, to let the title indicate, that an unknown amount of fiction was to be expected. That was a mistake on my part, so thanks to Chivers for bringing that to attention, and please keep in mind, that - to a varying degree - this might also apply, when looking at a few more photos, I wanted to share, but wasn't able to fit in to the last post:

A sculptural arrangement of ordnance fragements on a kitchen counter. Holding the orange: a tail fragment from a 240 mm mortar round. Photo by Lens Young Homsi.

Efforts to maintain a level of social and cultural activity - and an obvious concern for the children to be able to enjoy life. The vase: a 120 mm mortar round without fuse and - hopefully - emptied of explosives. Photo from Syrian Revolution Memory Project.

 A crater that - in my opinion - could be from a 160 mm mortar shell (like what left the goal posts in the top most photo). The small holes in the white wall in the background could be made by potentially lethal fragments, all from that same shell. Photo by Lens Young Homsi with slight adjustment by me.

This perforated shutter tells the story of high explosive fragmentation shells in a different way.
Photo from Syrian Revolution Memory Project.

Al Hamidyeh Main Street. September 15, 2012 (according to poster). Photo by Lens Young Homsi.

related posts on this blog:

- The mortar tails of Homs 

- Mortar position, Homs

- Syria: Local photo sources.
 
*note: to write about motivation and main points of someone else's writings as if I know is a mistake (note added 03/06/2014).

The mortar tails of Homs

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Please notice: this is a layman's post. If you read it please don't skip the notes at the bottom. Also before you decide what to think of it: please read through my latest post (plead added 03/06/2014).



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all photo by Lens Young Homsi

(the original links are no longer working, so these are to copies uploaded by me)

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relevant posts:
weapons used on Homs

Mortar position, Homs

Local photo sources - Homs, Hama, Idlib, Damascus, Aleppo and more

* note (added 06/10/2012): I have to mention, that I intended (but failed) to have the title of this post indicate, that it has to be considered, that the photographer possibly have taken part in shaping some of these stories. Relevant in this context are 'Revolutionary Art: The Mortar Tail Booms of Homs' by C. J. Chivers and my latest post: 'Telling tales'.