Carved Houseboat Lake

Carved Houseboat Lake is an original illustration set in Kashmir Valley. It lies in the subtropics, where the climate is humid subtropical — hot summers, no dry season.

A long flat-water houseboat of carved cedar sits at rest, its fretwork lattice windows facing the water. A slender crescent-prowed rowing boat passes loaded with vegetables and flowers. Floating vegetable gardens lie beyond, with steep mountains behind.

Why are gardens grown floating on the lake?

Floating gardens are made by matting lake weed into rafts and heaping mud on top — agriculture invented where there is water but no spare flat land. Living on the water rather than the shore points the same way. Cedar carved this elaborately means good timber on the surrounding slopes, and a valley ringed by high mountains at moderate latitude.

Terpano is a free daily geography puzzle. You study one original illustration, place a pin on a borderless terrain map, and see how close you were. There is no account and no sign-up; progress stays in your own browser. It plays in 11 languages.