Explore the real-world places that appear in A Song of Ice and Fire 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 Winterfell, Castle Black & The Wall, King's Landing, The Eyrie, Dragonstone and 10 more.
Seat of House Stark, ancient castle of the North
Winterfell is where the story begins, as Lord Eddard Stark rules the North alongside his wife Catelyn and their children. King Robert Baratheon arrives to offer Ned the position of Hand of the King, setting the entire saga in motion. Bran Stark's fall from a tower window after witnessing Cersei and Jaime Lannister is the inciting tragedy of the series.
Winterfell was built by Bran the Builder, legendary founder of House Stark, over eight thousand years ago. The castle sits atop hot springs that keep it warm even through the harshest winters, and its crypts hold the remains of every Lord of Winterfell since the Age of Heroes. The direwolf sigil of House Stark is said to have first appeared when the First Men came south of the Wall.
Winterfell represents home, family, and the values of the honorable North that stand in stark contrast to the duplicitous south. It is the spiritual heart of the Stark storyline and the place all Stark children are driven to return to, symbolizing both lost innocence and resilient identity throughout the saga.
Headquarters of the Night's Watch, southern face of the great ice barrier
Jon Snow joins the Night's Watch at Castle Black and rises to become Lord Commander. Here he must navigate the brutal politics of the Watch, forge an uneasy alliance with the Free Folk under Mance Rayder, and confront the existential threat of the White Walkers. His assassination by his own brothers at the end of A Dance with Dragons marks a devastating turning point.
The Wall is a seven-hundred-foot-tall structure of ice and ancient magic stretching nearly three hundred miles across the northernmost neck of Westeros, said to have been raised by Bran the Builder with the aid of giants and sorcery. The Night's Watch has guarded it for eight thousand years, though its numbers have dwindled from a peak of ten thousand men to barely a few hundred sworn brothers.
The Wall and Castle Black embody the theme of civilization's fragile boundary against primordial chaos. Jon Snow's story here forces him to transcend old loyalties, question the meaning of duty, and ultimately die and be reborn — a literal and metaphorical resurrection central to the series' mythology.
Capital of the Seven Kingdoms, seat of the Iron Throne
King's Landing is the primary arena of political intrigue throughout the series. Eddard Stark is executed at the Great Sept of Baelor at Joffrey's cruel command. Tyrion Lannister serves as Hand of the King and engineers the city's defense during the Battle of the Blackwater. Cersei Lannister orchestrates power from the Red Keep, ultimately destroying the Sept of Baelor with wildfire to eliminate her enemies.
King's Landing was founded by Aegon the Conqueror after his landing on the eastern coast of Westeros, built around the hill known as Aegonfort where he first encamped. The Red Keep was constructed over decades by his successors, housing the Iron Throne — forged from the swords of Aegon's defeated enemies by dragonfire. The city of nearly half a million is a study in contrasts between gilded aristocracy and desperate poverty.
King's Landing is the embodiment of corrupting power and the moral rot at the heart of Westerosi civilization. The Iron Throne, literally made of blades, wounds those who sit upon it, symbolizing that the pursuit of power is itself destructive. Nearly every protagonist who enters this city is compromised, broken, or killed.
Impregnable mountain seat of House Arryn, the Vale's sky fortress
Catelyn Stark brings Tyrion Lannister to the Eyrie as a prisoner, accusing him of conspiring against Bran. Tyrion demands trial by combat, with Bronn fighting on his behalf and winning his freedom. Lysa Arryn, Catelyn's sister, rules here in fanatical isolation, obsessively coddling her sickly son Robin. Petyr Baelish later murders Lysa by hurling her through the Moon Door.
The Eyrie is perched atop the Giant's Lance, the tallest peak in the Mountains of the Moon, reachable only by a treacherous path guarded by sky cells — open-air prisons where prisoners perish from exposure. House Arryn, whose words are 'As High as Honor,' has ruled the Vale for thousands of years and was the first great house to swear fealty to the Targaryens.
The Eyrie represents the illusion of invulnerability and the danger of pride and isolation. Lysa Arryn's paranoid, withdrawn rule contrasts with the engaged leadership Westeros desperately needs, and the Moon Door — through which enemies are simply cast into the void — embodies the terrifying arbitrariness of power divorced from justice.
Ancient Targaryen island fortress, birthplace of Daenerys
Dragonstone is where Stannis Baratheon plots his claim to the Iron Throne, supported by the red priestess Melisandre. Here Melisandre burns the statues of the Seven and births her shadow assassin to kill Renly Baratheon. Daenerys later claims Dragonstone as her first conquest in Westeros, using it as her base of operations as she marches on King's Landing.
Dragonstone was built by the Targaryens before the Conquest, constructed in the Valyrian style with stone shaped by dragonfire and magic, its towers fashioned into the forms of dragons. It was the seat of the Targaryen heir for generations, and it was here that the young Aegon planned his conquest of the Seven Kingdoms centuries ago.
Dragonstone is a place of destiny and ancient power — the origin point of Targaryen rule and Daenerys's symbolic claim to her birthright. It also serves as a crucible where fire magic and prophecy intersect, as Melisandre's visions and Stannis's doomed ambitions all emanate from this volcanic island fortress.
Impregnable seat of House Lannister, the wealthiest stronghold in Westeros
Casterly Rock looms over events throughout the series as the source of Lannister wealth and power, though Martin deliberately keeps it offstage for much of the narrative. Tyrion Lannister was born here and was denied his rightful inheritance by his father Tywin. In A Dance with Dragons, Daenerys's Unsullied capture the Rock as a strategic diversion, only to find it largely abandoned.
Casterly Rock is a massive natural rock formation overlooking the Sunset Sea, honeycombed over millennia into a vast castle by the Lannister kings of old and, according to legend, first taken from the Casterly clan by a wily young Lannister named Lann the Clever using nothing but his wits. The gold mines beneath it have made House Lannister the wealthiest family in Westeros for thousands of years.
Casterly Rock represents the corrupting nature of inherited wealth and the hollow legacy Tywin Lannister fought his entire life to preserve. The irony that the great impregnable Rock falls easily and matters little when it finally does is Martin's pointed commentary on the fragility of dynasties built on gold rather than genuine authority.
Cursed ruin of the greatest castle ever built, seat of doom
Harrenhal becomes a place of suffering for Arya Stark, who serves as a cupbearer while secretly planning her escape with Jaqen H'ghar's help. Tywin Lannister uses it as his military headquarters during the War of the Five Kings. Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth are briefly imprisoned here, where Jaime loses his sword hand and reveals his true reasons for killing the Mad King.
Harrenhal was built by Harren the Black, King of the Iron Islands and the Riverlands, as an act of supreme vanity — the greatest castle ever constructed, with towers so tall their peaks scrape clouds. On the very day Harren completed it, Aegon the Conqueror crossed the Narrow Sea with his dragons, and Balerion the Black Dread melted its towers with Harren and his sons inside. Every lord who has held Harrenhal since has met a gruesome end.
Harrenhal embodies the futility of ambition and the theme that greatness built through cruelty is cursed from within. Its ruined, too-large halls are a physical metaphor for the overreach of tyrants, and nearly every character who passes through it is diminished or transformed — usually for the worse.
Seat of House Tully, heart of the Riverlands
Riverrun is where Robb Stark is proclaimed King in the North by his bannermen after his stunning military victories. Catelyn Stark releases Jaime Lannister here against Robb's wishes, fatally damaging his cause. Edmure Tully holds the castle during a siege by the Freys and Lannisters, ultimately surrendering in exchange for his life and hostage marriage to a Frey girl.
Riverrun sits at the confluence of the Red Fork and the Tumblestone, a natural island fortress that can be flooded to make it completely surrounded by water and nearly impregnable from all sides. House Tully has ruled the Riverlands for thousands of years and their words, 'Family, Duty, Honor,' reflect the values — and ultimate failures — of the Tully daughters Catelyn and Lysa.
Riverrun represents the bonds of family and how those bonds, when placed above all else, can lead to ruinous decisions. Catelyn's love for her children drives every fateful choice she makes, and Riverrun is where that love is most dangerously enacted, ultimately contributing to the destruction of the very family she sought to protect.
Twin castles of House Frey, gatekeepers of the Trident crossing
The Twins is the site of the Red Wedding, one of the most shocking events in the saga. Robb Stark arrives to attend Edmure Tully's wedding, seeking to repair his alliance with the treacherous Walder Frey. In violation of sacred guest right, Walder Frey and Roose Bolton — secretly allied with the Lannisters — massacre Robb, his mother Catelyn, and his entire army, effectively ending the War of the Five Kings.
House Frey's twin castles straddle the only crossing of the Green Fork for hundreds of miles, giving the Freys enormous strategic leverage over anyone needing to cross. Walder Frey has exploited this position for decades, extracting concessions and fostering resentment across the Seven Kingdoms. The violation of guest right — the ancient law of hospitality — at the Red Wedding is considered an almost supernatural transgression.
The Twins and the Red Wedding represent Martin's most devastating deconstruction of heroic fantasy conventions — the moment readers understood that protagonists do not survive on narrative immunity. The massacre shatters the expectation of justice and heroic triumph, forcing a reckoning with the brutal realpolitik that governs the world Martin has built.
Free City across the Narrow Sea, where Daenerys's story begins
Pentos is where Daenerys Targaryen and her brother Viserys live in the manse of the magister Illyrio Mopatis, plotting their return to Westeros. Here Daenerys is wed to Khal Drogo of the Dothraki in exchange for his forty thousand warriors, and she receives the three petrified dragon eggs that will later hatch into Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal. Tyrion Lannister also arrives in Pentos after fleeing King's Landing.
Pentos is one of the nine Free Cities of Essos, a mercantile republic governed by magisters and a prince who is ritually castrated if crops fail or battles are lost. The city sits on the Bay of Pentos across from Westeros and has long had complex ties to House Targaryen and various Westerosi exiles. Its cheese-makers and spice merchants are among the wealthiest in the known world.
Pentos is the starting point of Daenerys's long journey from powerless exile to conquering queen, establishing the themes of diaspora, identity, and the price of power that define her arc. It also highlights the contrast between Eastern and Western cultures, and the morally ambiguous world of commerce and political manipulation that underlies grand dynastic ambitions.
The only city of the Dothraki, sacred city of the horselords
Daenerys is brought to Vaes Dothrak by Khal Drogo to be presented before the Dosh Khaleen, the widowed wives of dead khals who now serve as seers and oracles. Here Drogo kills Viserys Targaryen by pouring molten gold over his head after Viserys threatens Daenerys at sword point. Daenerys later devours a stallion's heart in the traditional ritual, and a failed assassination attempt by Robert Baratheon's agents is stopped by Jorah Mormont.
Vaes Dothrak sits beneath the Mother of Mountains in the heart of the Dothraki Sea, a vast open city where no blood may be shed under penalty of death — the only law the Dothraki universally observe. The city is filled with stolen monuments and statues from conquered civilizations, a testament to centuries of Dothraki raids across the known world. The Dosh Khaleen are its true rulers, interpreting omens and guiding Dothraki destiny.
Vaes Dothrak is where Daenerys fully transforms from a frightened girl sold into marriage to a confident khaleesi who has found her strength and sense of destiny. The death of Viserys here marks the symbolic death of the old, mad, abusive Targaryen legacy, and Daenerys's survival of the assassination attempt confirms her as a destined figure in the story.
The greatest city that ever was or will be, jewel of the east
Daenerys arrives in Qarth with her three infant dragons after crossing the Red Waste, seeking ships and allies to reclaim Westeros. The warlock Pyat Pree lures her to the House of the Undying, where she experiences visions of past and future before her dragon Drogon burns Pyat Pree alive. The merchant Xaro Xhoan Daxos betrays her by conspiring with the warlocks and Jorah Mormont uncovers the plot, leading Daenerys to seal Xaro alive in his empty vault.
Qarth is an ancient, decadent city-state on the southern coast of Essos, ruled by an oligarchy known as the Thirteen. It is the eastern gateway to the Jade Sea and has grown enormously wealthy on trade between Essos, Sothoryos, and Yi Ti. The Qartheen are known for their extreme fashion, their elaborate customs of hospitality, and the warlocks of the House of the Undying, whose power has waned as dragons disappeared from the world.
Qarth tests Daenerys's ability to navigate sophisticated political betrayal without military strength, and her destruction of the House of the Undying signals that her dragons are not merely symbols but real weapons. The city's hollow opulence — embodied by Xaro's empty vault — critiques the pursuit of wealth as an end in itself, reflecting Martin's broader skepticism of power divorced from purpose.
City of the Unsullied, slave-trading port of Slaver's Bay
Daenerys arrives in Astapor to purchase the eight thousand Unsullied soldiers, elite eunuch warriors trained from childhood in brutal discipline. She trades her dragon Drogon to the slaver Kraznys mo Nakloz — only to immediately order Drogon to burn him alive, revealing she understood High Valyrian throughout the negotiation. She then commands the Unsullied to kill their masters and free the city, beginning her crusade against slavery.
Astapor is one of the three great slaving cities of Slaver's Bay, built on the wealth generated by the trade in human flesh that has sustained the region for thousands of years. The Good Masters of Astapor created the Unsullied training regimen over centuries, producing arguably the finest infantry in the known world at the cost of unimaginable suffering. The city's streets are lined with the severed ears of fallen Unsullied apprentices.
Astapor is where Daenerys defines herself as a liberator rather than merely a conqueror, establishing the moral dimension of her quest. Her deception of Kraznys demonstrates her intelligence and willingness to use the enemy's arrogance against them, while her abolition of slavery creates both her greatest strength — the fierce loyalty of the freed — and her greatest political challenges.
Greatest of the Slaver's Cities, where Daenerys rules as queen
Daenerys conquers Meereen and decides to remain as its queen, struggling to actually govern rather than merely conquer. She chains her dragons Rhaegal and Viserion in the catacombs after they kill a child, fearing their growing danger. The Sons of the Harpy wage an insurgency against her rule, and the political crisis reaches its peak in the Great Pit of Daznak where Daenerys finally rides Drogon into the sky.
Meereen is the largest of the Slaver's Cities, home to hundreds of thousands of people and ruled for generations by the noble families known as the Great Masters. Its Great Pyramid is the tallest building in the world outside of Valyria, and the city's harpy emblem is found on every monument and gate. The city has an ancient warrior tradition and its fighting pits have hosted gladiatorial combat for centuries.
Meereen is Martin's most complex exploration of the gap between idealism and governance, as Daenerys discovers that liberation without stability creates only chaos. Her struggle here parallels real-world debates about intervention, colonialism, and the difficulties of imposing progressive change on deeply entrenched social structures — she must choose between her values and pragmatic survival.
Capital of Dorne, seat of House Martell
Sunspear is the seat of Doran Martell, ruler of Dorne, who secretly plots long revenge against the Lannisters for the deaths of his sister Elia and her children. Oberyn Martell departs from here to King's Landing where he serves as Dorne's representative and ultimately fights and dies in Tyrion's trial by combat against Gregor Clegane. Jaime Lannister travels to Dorne to recover his niece Myrcella, who is assassinated on the voyage home by Ellaria Sand.
Sunspear and Dorne were never conquered by Aegon Targaryen's dragons — the Dornish used guerrilla warfare to resist for nearly two centuries before peacefully joining the Seven Kingdoms through marriage. Dorne has a distinct culture influenced by the Rhoynar people who came across the Narrow Sea under Queen Nymeria, including equal inheritance regardless of gender and a more tolerant attitude toward sexuality. The Water Gardens near Sunspear are a paradise of cooling fountains and playing children.
Dorne represents the alternative political tradition within Westeros — a culture that successfully resisted Targaryen power and preserved its independence through cunning rather than strength. House Martell's slow-burning revenge plot illustrates how historical injustices shape generations and how grief, when unchecked, can corrupt even righteous vengeance into nihilistic violence.
More by George R. R. Martin: A Game of Thrones locations map · All George R. R. Martin books