Pop culture · October 9, 2026

Puzzle #1 answers

The five places from Where Was It? Pop culture #1, and the story behind each one.

1. 01

   Film

   The Shire of The Lord of the Rings films was built on a working sheep farm. Where?

   Hobbiton Movie Set, Matamata, New Zealand

   

   Peter Jackson spotted the Alexander family farm near Matamata from the air in 1998. The hobbit holes were rebuilt permanently for The Hobbit and are now a tourist attraction.

   -37.872, 175.683

2. 02

   Music

   Four musicians walked across a zebra crossing here in 1969 for one of the most copied album covers ever.

   Abbey Road crossing, London, UK

   The Beatles' Abbey Road cover was shot outside EMI's studios in St John's Wood. The crossing is a listed site and its webcam streams fans recreating the photo all day.

   51.532, -0.178

4. 03

   TV

   A chemistry teacher's suburban home — where a pizza famously landed on the roof — is a real house in this city.

   Walter White's house, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

   

   Breaking Bad was set and filmed in Albuquerque. The owners of the house on Piermont Drive had to put up a fence because fans kept throwing pizzas onto the roof.

   35.126, -106.537

5. 04

   Anime

   A museum designed by Hayao Miyazaki himself, guarded by a giant robot soldier on its roof garden.

   Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan

   

   The Ghibli Museum opened in 2001 in Inokashira Park, Mitaka. The robot from Castle in the Sky stands on the roof, and short films are shown that can't be seen anywhere else.

   35.696, 139.570

6. 05

   Film

   Indiana Jones rides up to the temple holding the Holy Grail — a façade carved straight into rose-red rock.

   Al-Khazneh (The Treasury), Petra, Jordan

   

   Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) used Petra's Treasury as the Grail temple's entrance. The real façade was carved by the Nabataeans around the 1st century AD.

   30.322, 35.451