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Guided map tour · Geopolitics
The George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia is the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Founded in 1947, the CIA…
Open this tour on the live map →The George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia is the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Founded in 1947, the CIA conducts foreign intelligence gathering and covert operations. The campus includes the famous "Kryptos" sculpture — an encrypted artwork that remains partially unsolved since 1990. The CIA…
The SIS Building at 85 Albert Embankment houses MI6 — the UK's Secret Intelligence Service. Built in 1994 on the Thames, the postmodern fortress is one of the most recognizable spy buildings in the world, featured in multiple James Bond films. MI6 was officially acknowledged to exist only in 1994 — despite operating since 1909. Its…
Moscow houses Russia's two main intelligence agencies: the FSB (domestic security, headquartered in the infamous Lubyanka Building — formerly the KGB) and the SVR (foreign intelligence, at Yasenevo in Moscow's outskirts). The Lubyanka was a KGB prison where thousands were interrogated and executed during Stalin's purges. Russia's…
The Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was the USSR's most closely guarded secret — the launch site for Sputnik (1957) and Yuri Gagarin (1961). CIA U-2 spy planes photographed the facility from 20 km altitude. When Gary Powers was shot down over the USSR in 1960, it triggered an international crisis. Space became the ultimate espionage…
Divided Berlin was the world's spy capital from 1945–1989. The Berlin Wall created a physical intelligence frontier. The CIA's Berlin Operations Base and the KGB's Karlshorst headquarters were just kilometers apart. The famous Glienicke Bridge ("Bridge of Spies") was used for prisoner exchanges, including U-2 pilot Gary Powers in 1962.…
The UN headquarters in New York is one of the world's most surveilled buildings. Every major power's diplomatic mission doubles as an intelligence station. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA had bugged the EU's UN mission, tapped Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office, and monitored 35+ world leaders' phones. The UN complex…
China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) is among the world's largest intelligence agencies. Unlike Western agencies focused on HUMINT (human spies), the MSS pioneered mass cyber-espionage — hacking government systems, defense contractors, and tech companies worldwide. The 2015 OPM hack alone stole 22 million US federal employee records.…
The National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade, Maryland is the world's largest signals intelligence (SIGINT) organization. Revealed in detail by Edward Snowden in 2013, the NSA operates global surveillance programs including PRISM (tech company data access), XKeyscore (internet search tool), and Tempora (fiber-optic cable tapping with…
Write down two facts you learned about this place.
Why does this place matter? Explain in one or two sentences.
Find this place on a blank map: which country and continent is it in?
Write down two facts you learned about this place.
Why does this place matter? Explain in one or two sentences.
Find this place on a blank map: which country and continent is it in?
Write down two facts you learned about this place.
Why does this place matter? Explain in one or two sentences.
Reflection: Which station surprised you most, and why?