So, this is a little theory I have regarding the location of the City. Thought I'd share it on the forums. First off, when the Cosmodrome was abandoned by the Fallen at the end of Destiny 1, the Grimoire stated that this signaled the end of the Fallen siege of the City. This means that the Cosmodrome must be relatively close to the City, if they are able to use it as a base to launch attacks.
Then, I did some research on actual Russian Cosmodromes. The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a Russian space facility located in Kazakhstan. It makes sense that, at the advent of the Golden Age, humanity would decide to simply use an existing spaceport instead of building a new one. Secondly, the surrounding area seems to match the look of the Cosmodrome quite well.
If we accept that the Baikonur Cosmodrome is the Cosmodrome of Destiny, then we need to find the Tower. Since the Tower is located in a mountainous region, I looked for the nearest Mountain range, which happens to be the Tian Shan range in neighboring Krygyzstan. The mountains of the Tian Shan range are similar in appearance to the mountains that surround the City.
It's next to impossible to get a more precise location, but it's possible that the City could be located in the modern day town of Talas, which appears to match the general appearance of the area around the City.
Additionally, the stories about, Jagi's Host, a group of Firebreak titans that went missing after the battle of six fronts, say that they were last seen "marching towards the Caspian Sea," which happens to be due west of the Tian Shan range. So, what do you guys think?
inb4 "omigod I can't believe you actually care about this game" comments
Edit; Hooooly Crap, this blew up.
There's a few themes that I've seen come up in the comments, so I'd like to address them now (there's way too many to reply to them all).
First off, many people have noted that the Traveler cannot be seen in Old Russia. However, though the Tian Shan range is the closest mountain range to the Cosmodrome, it is still well over 400 miles away, and much of the range is even farther away than that. So, it's not surprising that you can't see the Traveler in the Cosmodrome.
Second, many people have said that it is located in North America. In D1, people did some calculations using the position of the sun, and decided that the City was located in South America. However, now those same calculations, when applied to D2, show the City being in Nepal. Many people have also pointed out that Hawthorne said she had to "cross an ocean" to help refugees from the City, which indicates a location in the Americas. However, given that Hawthorne has spent her whole life in Eurasia, it's possible that she has never been to a true ocean, and is in fact describing one of Eurasia's inland seas. This also depends on where the Farm is located. Hawthorne could be referring to the Caspian or Black seas, or even the Mediterranean.
Finally, I would like to talk about the Nepal claim, which is actually pretty solid. The current skybox indicates that the City is located there, and apparently there are some landmarks that correspond neatly with the Himalayan landscape of a particular City in Nepal. The only evidence I have that *may* contradict that claim is the description of Jagi's host, which read, "Jagi's host was last seen marching South of the Cosmodrome, towards the Caspian sea." This proves that the cosmodrome is close enough to the City to be considered a landmark. Secondly, if the City is in Nepal, then the Himalayas stand between the Caspian Sea and the City. Given that Jagi's host likely set out from the City on foot, pursuing the retreating Fallen, it is unlikely that they would have trekked across the Himalayas. However, you can march from the Tian Shan range directly to the Caspian Sea without running into any real obstacles. Thanks for your input, guys! :D
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Well in D2, when you’re going from the Tower to the EDZ.. at no point does your jump ship appear to go over any body of water, it’s just constant green and rocky terrain the whole way there prior to finally flying down to land.
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While I agree with your research, there's one small detail unaccounted for. Acording to Hawthorne, she flew from the EDZ, "across the ocean" to help the refugees flee the city. There has to be a very large body of water somewhere between the EDZ and the last city.
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HOLY CRAP!!! SO YOURE IMPLYING THE RUSSIANS HAVE BEEN MEDDLING WITH D2. HOGWASH. THIS IS ALL FAKE NEWS!!!! Hahahha
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I always thought it was right around the corner of Yuranus but I'm probably wrong.... 🙃😲💨💥
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The tower/last city is located in Russia
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The thing is, Hawthorne said she had to cross the Atlantic Ocean to get to the City, therefore the City has to be in the Americas somewhere.
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So bungie can barely make a game,do you think they have any chance of knowing geography
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I've always suspected it's between Georgia and Kazakhstan, Around the Black Sea area.
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Wait I thought it was in napal
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Its under the Traveler....[b][i][u]DUH[/u][/i][/b]
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Edited by Eqitx: 2/16/2018 1:23:00 AMIt's nowhere compatible to a real world location. A it's a phantasy game and B devs are way too clueless to even have an answer to it if questioned
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Someone did a lot of research back in D1 and said it was Brazil.
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Dude. I’ve been looking everywhere through the space station pictures of earth and I can’t find the traveler anywhere floating around our planet... Once I find the traveler, I can tell you where the last city is.
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Oh my gosh! I can't believe someone else besides myself cares about this game! [spoiler] ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)[/spoiler]
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The Cosmodrome can't be in Russia, because the sun sets in the east and rises in the west. Go there in D1 and wait what happens. It could be in Australia, because the sun is in the north and left and right are virtually changed. Instead of rising from the left the sun rises from your right hand side. , but east, west north and south stay the same. You just look to where the sun rises highest at noon and that's south in the northern hemisphere and north in the southern hem.
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Edited by An Engram Full Of Bees: 2/16/2018 7:18:14 AMTechnically, it’s in Chile. Some guy figured it out way back in D1 by looking at the environment and the positioning of the Sun. Here’s the link if you’re interested in the science-y shit: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2015/1/20/7862009/destiny-tower-last-city-location-science-sun
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Why does the location matter? Once they say where it is, they'll only come out in the next DLC and say that anything they've previously said doesn't matter or is just folk lore.
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What place in real life has random snow mountains and if you look down on the ground it is both snowy and not snowy? Like EDZ grass and snow at the same time? How?
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Eurasia
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Pretty sure someone used the positioning of the sun to determine it was in south america... think it was Chile, back in d1. If i remember correctly even bungie commented on it
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I’m just curious why the cosmodrome and Europe are the only places on Earth featured in Destiny. What happened to the U.S.? Cape Canaveral ? Why not somewhere in Asia?
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Earth.
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this is actually a really good theory on the location. Sadly we can't be sure but this provides some very good facts to back it up. Do you think you could post a image on a map of approximately where it is.
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There’s a cutscene in destiny 1 that shows the traveler stopping somewhere around modern day Turkey, I think It’s the age of triumph cutscene. I’ve also noticed many of the women wear hijabs which is a cultural trend that has been part of the Middle East for a very long time. There’s also a lot of Islamic architecture and style on the right side of the tower. It’s even called “Bazaar”, with the famous Grand Bazaar being located in Istanbul.
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It's in the Himalayas everything is relatively close by from there. So it's close (jumpship close) to Russia, the Caspian sea where I think Jaggi's host marched towards and you literally fly over some oceans to get to germany where I think the farm is, which Hawthorne said she flew across some ocean. I mean when you have spaceships that have warp drives everything on planet Earth would be relatively close by, probably taking minutes to get to some of these places that would normally take hours for our current planes to get to. And chances are Jaggi's host didn't literally walk all the way towards the Caspian sea they probably had sparrows too which go pretty fast because according to our ghost going from the cosmodrome spawn to the ship yard is miles "away" but it only takes us like a minute or less to get there, but we'll never know for sure unless Bungie tells us, even though in cutscenes it looks like the traveler is in the Himalayas above india but whatever it's "technically" in Chile because of the way the shadows rotate and the way the sun rises and sets because an art team that doesn't even rotate the earth in the right direction when looking at it from the moon is gonna put extra effort into how the shadows should probably rotate based on where the sun should really be. Also whatever catastrophy that nearly ended human civilization, whether it was the darkness or not it really messed our planet up causing the oceans to shift and drain from certain areas and flood others. Shits all -blam!-ed up lol.
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It’s in chile.