Explore the real-world places that appear in A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include King's Landing, Winterfell, Dragonstone, Storm's End, The Wall and 10 more.
The capital city of the Seven Kingdoms
King's Landing is the epicenter of the War of the Five Kings. Tyrion Lannister arrives as Hand of the King and begins fortifying the city. The climactic Battle of the Blackwater sees Stannis Baratheon's fleet destroyed by wildfire, and his army routed by Tywin Lannister's forces arriving from the west.
Built by Aegon the Conqueror where he first landed in Westeros, King's Landing grew around Aegon's High Hill and the Red Keep. It houses over half a million people and sits at the mouth of the Blackwater Rush on Blackwater Bay.
King's Landing represents the corrupting heart of power that drives the entire conflict. The Battle of the Blackwater is the book's climax, determining who will hold the Iron Throne and at what moral cost.
Ancient seat of House Stark
Bran Stark rules Winterfell as its lord in his brother Robb's absence. Theon Greyjoy betrays the Starks and captures Winterfell with a small Ironborn force. He later fakes the deaths of Bran and Rickon. Near the book's end, Winterfell is sacked and burned by Ramsay Bolton's men.
Winterfell has stood for eight thousand years, built over natural hot springs that keep it warm even in the harshest winters. The crypts beneath hold the remains of the Kings of Winter dating back to the Age of Heroes.
Winterfell is the symbolic home of honor, family, and the old ways. Its fall represents the near-total destruction of House Stark and the collapse of the world's moral anchor in the story.
Island fortress of Stannis Baratheon
Stannis Baratheon rules from Dragonstone and declares himself the rightful king. Davos Seaworth serves as his loyal smuggler-knight. Melisandre, the Red Priestess, burns effigies of the Seven Gods and births a shadow assassin that kills Renly Baratheon. Stannis departs to attack King's Landing.
Dragonstone was the ancestral seat of House Targaryen in Westeros, built with dragonflame by Valyrian craftsmen. It is riddled with carvings of dragons and sits on a volcanic island in Blackwater Bay.
Dragonstone embodies the tension between legitimate claim and actual power. Stannis is arguably the rightful king by law, yet his cold ruthlessness and reliance on dark magic raise questions about what kind of ruler is truly needed.
Seat of House Baratheon of the Stormlands
Renly Baratheon holds court at Storm's End with his massive host. Catelyn Stark meets Renly here to negotiate an alliance. Renly is assassinated by a shadow creature spawned by Melisandre, causing his army to scatter. Stannis subsequently captures the castle.
Storm's End was legendarily built by Durran Godsgrief, the first Storm King, with the aid of Bran the Builder. Its massive walls have never been breached and have withstood storms that should have destroyed any normal fortress.
The murder of Renly at Storm's End is a pivotal moment, eliminating the most popular claimant to the throne and forcing thousands of soldiers to choose new allegiances, reshaping the entire war.
Ancient fortification guarding the realm from the north
Jon Snow serves the Night's Watch beyond the Wall, ranging into the Frostfangs with the Great Ranging. He encounters the Halfhand Qhorin and is tasked with infiltrating the wildling army under Mance Rayder. The Watch discovers the haunted forest holds dark and ancient threats.
The Wall stretches three hundred miles across the northern border of Westeros, standing seven hundred feet tall and made of solid ice. It was built eight thousand years ago by Bran the Builder to protect the realm from the Others.
The Wall represents the division between civilization and the primordial chaos beyond. Jon Snow's arc there introduces the threat that supersedes all the political squabbling — the supernatural danger of the Others.
Stronghold of House Greyjoy in the Iron Islands
Theon Greyjoy returns to Pyke to seek his father Balon's support for Robb Stark. Balon instead declares his own kingship and launches an invasion of the North. Theon is given command of a small ship and tasked with raiding the Stony Shore, a humiliation that drives his fateful decisions.
Pyke sits on a cluster of rocky islands battered by the Iron Sea. The castle itself spans several sea stacks connected by rope bridges, and was home to the Greyjoys since the Grey King first ruled the Iron Islands.
Pyke and the Iron Islands represent a rival culture built on reaving and the Iron Price — taking what you want by force. Theon's return there catalyzes his identity crisis and the tragic choices that lead to Winterfell's fall.
Vast ruined castle in the Riverlands
Arya Stark is held captive at Harrenhal under various lords. She serves as a cupbearer and witnesses brutal Lannister rule. Jaqen H'ghar gives her three death tokens, and she uses them to free northern prisoners and facilitate an escape. Roose Bolton ultimately takes command of the castle.
Harrenhal was built by Harren the Black using thousands of slaves over forty years, meant to be the greatest castle in the world. On the day of its completion, Aegon Targaryen's dragons melted its towers, killing Harren and his entire line inside.
Harrenhal is a symbol of overreaching ambition and the futility of power — built in pride, destroyed in a day. For Arya, it is a crucible that hardens her survival instincts and introduces her to the Faceless Men's ethos.
Seat of House Tully in the Riverlands
Robb Stark holds his war councils at Riverrun with his grandfather Lord Hoster Tully. Catelyn Stark brings Jaime Lannister here as prisoner. Robb's marriage to Jeyne Westerling instead of a Frey daughter, conducted near Riverrun, sets the stage for the later Red Wedding.
Riverrun sits at the confluence of the Red Fork and the Tumblestone rivers, making it nearly impregnable when the surrounding fields are flooded. House Tully has ruled the Riverlands from this seat for centuries.
Riverrun is the emotional and strategic heart of Robb's campaign. The political decisions made here — most critically Robb's breach of his marriage pact — carry devastating consequences that will unfold in future books.
Seat of House Arryn in the Vale
Sansa Stark remains at King's Landing while her aunt Lysa Tully sits in the Eyrie refusing to commit Arryn forces to the war. The Eyrie looms over events as a castle of impregnable safety that nonetheless harbors dangerous instability in the form of Lysa's erratic rule.
The Eyrie perches on a mountain spur of the Giant's Lance at nearly ten thousand feet. It can be reached only by a treacherous mountain path with three waycastles, and its sky cells open to the void. The Moon Door leads directly to a six-hundred-foot drop.
The Eyrie's strategic neutrality under Lysa represents the failure of unity among those who oppose the Lannisters, a theme of missed alliances and self-interested inaction that dooms the anti-Lannister cause.
Seat of House Tyrell in the Reach
Highgarden is the home of House Tyrell, who initially support Renly Baratheon's claim. After Renly's death, Tywin Lannister brokers an alliance with the Tyrells. Loras and Mace Tyrell lead their vast army north to relieve King's Landing at the Battle of the Blackwater, turning the tide for the Lannisters.
Highgarden has been the seat of the Tyrells since the Gardener kings were exterminated by Aegon's dragons. It is the wealthiest castle in Westeros, surrounded by fertile fields that feed much of the realm.
The Tyrell alliance with the Lannisters is the decisive political move of the book, illustrating how marriages and alliances forged in pragmatism shape warfare as much as swords do.
Impregnable seat of House Lannister
Though Tywin Lannister campaigns in the field, Casterly Rock remains the source of Lannister wealth and power. Tyrion's authority as Hand is constantly undermined by the shadow of his family's seat. Cersei's rule in King's Landing is fundamentally an extension of Lannister dominance emanating from the Rock.
Casterly Rock is a lion-shaped cliff overlooking the Sunset Sea, honeycombed with tunnels and halls. Its gold mines have made House Lannister the wealthiest family in Westeros for thousands of years, though the mines are rumored to be running dry.
Casterly Rock symbolizes the corrupting and all-consuming nature of wealth and power. The Lannisters' ability to literally buy alliances, soldiers, and outcomes is the central political reality that all other factions must contend with.
The greatest city that ever was or will be
Daenerys Targaryen arrives in Qarth with her three dragons and a desperate khalasar. She seeks ships and support to reclaim the Iron Throne. Xaro Xhoan Daxos offers her wealth in exchange for marriage. The warlocks of the House of the Undying lure Daenerys inside, where she experiences visions and kills Pyat Pree with dragonfire.
Qarth sits at the meeting of the Summer Sea and the Jade Sea, making it the greatest trading hub in the known world. Three great guilds — the Thirteen, the Ancient Guild of Spicers, and the Tourmaline Brotherhood — vie for power within its walls.
Qarth is Daenerys's first real encounter with civilization and its corruptions beyond the Dothraki Sea. Her experiences there forge her into a determined leader willing to use her dragons as weapons to achieve her goals.
Isolated holdfast of the wildling man Craster
The Night's Watch stops at Craster's Keep during the Great Ranging. Jon Snow discovers Craster's dark secret — he sacrifices his male newborn sons to the Others in exchange for his safety. The Rangers are uneasy guests, aware they need Craster's shelter but disgusted by his practices.
Craster built his keep north of the Wall and lived there for decades, taking his daughters as wives and maintaining an uneasy peace with the Others through his sacrifices. The Night's Watch has long used it as a waystation, willfully ignoring his crimes.
Craster's Keep introduces the terrifying reality of the Others as an actual power with whom bargains can be struck. It deepens the moral complexity of survival and what concessions civilization requires to endure.
Ancient ringfort atop a rocky hill north of the Wall
The Great Ranging under Lord Commander Mormont establishes a camp at the Fist of the First Men. Jon Snow finds a cache of dragonglass weapons buried beneath the snow — weapons capable of killing the Others. At the book's end, a massive army of wights attacks the camp in the chilling final chapter.
The Fist of the First Men is an ancient ringfort used by the First Men before the coming of the Andals. It sits atop a hill in the Haunted Forest, offering commanding views in all directions, and has been used by rangers as a campsite for centuries.
The Fist of the First Men serves as the apocalyptic bookend to the entire novel. The attack of the wights is the book's darkest moment, signaling that the supernatural threat is not merely legend but a marching, unstoppable reality.
Muster ground of Renly Baratheon's massive host
Renly Baratheon commands one hundred thousand men camped along the Mander at Bitterbridge. Catelyn Stark negotiates here for a Stark-Baratheon alliance. Brienne of Tarth wins a tournament melee and is appointed to Renly's Rainbow Guard. The encampment dissolves in chaos after Renly's shadow-murder.
Bitterbridge is a crossing over the Mander River in the Reach, historically used as a muster point for armies marching north from Highgarden. The area around it is rich farmland capable of supplying large armies for extended periods.
Renly's great host represents the path not taken — a popular king with overwhelming force who might have ended the war quickly. His death there underscores that numbers and popularity are no match for sorcery and treachery.
More by George R. R. Martin: A Game of Thrones locations map · A Song of Ice and Fire locations map · All George R. R. Martin books