Rural Rajasthan, India

This scene is an original illustration set in Rural Rajasthan, India. It lies in the subtropics, where the climate is hot desert — evaporation far outruns rainfall.

A sandstone well with descending steps and a wooden pulley frame over the shaft sits at the centre. A two-wheeled cart drawn by a pair of humped oxen with tall shoulders stands nearby. The ground is dusty and bare, and the late light is warm and low.

Why build steps all the way down into a well?

Cutting steps down into a well rather than only drawing from the top is what you build where the water table falls sharply through the dry season — the steps follow it down. The humped ox is a heat-adapted breed that stores fat above the shoulder rather than as an insulating layer. Both are answers to the same climate: hot, and dry for most of the year.

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.