Film & TV: Atlas maps Hogwarts, Jurassic Park & made-up places

Jurassic Park was set on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, off Central America's Pacific Coast

So where actually is Batman's Gotham City? Or The Simpsons' Springfield. Do you know where Jurassic Park is? Hogwarts even? One man thinks he does.

Well rather than binging on box sets or training for a triathlon, Rhys B Davies has spent the last two years making up a world map of 5,000 fictional film, TV, book and gaming locations.

Family Guy's Quahog, Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto and the vicar's Dibley all make the Atlas of Imagined Places.

Some places were pretty easy to map.

"It's fairly easy to find where the Vicar of Dibley is set, because the opening credits literally start off flying over a particular motorway," said Rhys, 35.

"And if you can find that location, you can then find where Dibley is meant to be."

After two years of research thousands of the most notable fictional locations around the world have been mapped out

Despite being filmed in the Buckinghamshire village of Turville, the Vicar of Dibley is set in the fictional village of Dibley in Oxfordshire

But while some made-up locations were relatively straight-forward for Rhys and co-author Matt Brown, others not so much.

How do you know where a place is?

While Hogwarts School is generally accepted to be located in Scotland, Harry Potter author JK Rowling has never given any precise information about where.

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But for Rhys and Matt, it was a matter of breaking down the clues left throughout Harry Potter media.

Author Rhys B Davies says even with 5,000 imaginary locations mapped, many more were too difficult to pin down

"You got to look for evidence," said Rhys, who lives in the very real Welsh seaside town of Aberystwyth.

"The first question, of course, is what canon do you follow because the Harry Potter film series puts Hogwarts in the West Highlands," said Rhys, adding: "But the books tell a different story.

"We've got a rough idea of when Hogwarts got its railway connection, which meant we were able to look at railway maps and see what lines were open by that period.

The Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry in Harry Potter is one of the most famous fictional places

But Rhys says aerial shots of Hogwarts' location is not consistent with details from the book

"We know that it's near Dufftown [Moray, Scotland] because Sirius Black passes through there on his way to Hogwarts from London.

"And crucially, in the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play, Harry's son is able to walk from Hogwarts to Aviemore in less than a night.

"So the result seems to be that Hogwarts is within walking distance of Aviemore. So it's not in the West Highlands. It's in the Grampians."

In the hills or by the sea?

It is through two years of such painstaking research scouring films, television, novels and video games for clues that Rhys believes that he has pinned down some of the most elusive fictional locations - albeit it's not official.

After being on screen for almost 35 years, Fireman Sam's town of Pontypandy has only recently relocated to the coast

The problem with Wales is that "the place is so packed", according to Rhys

Cartoon hero Fireman Sam's home of Pontypandy was one of the more frustrating places to locate, as Rhys explained.

Despite sounding as if it should fit snuggly between Pontypridd and Tonypandy, the newest iteration of the show places it on the coast.

"The only real way we could reconcile this... was to stick it in the Vale of Glamorgan," Rhys said.

What if locations move?

Unlike real locations, fictional places have a tendency to move around, or not stay entirely consistent over time.

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In The Poseidon Adventure, the SS Poseidon ship sinks in three different oceans between the novel in 1969, the original film in 1972 and its 2005 and 2006 adaptations.

Similarly inconsistent is Batman's Gotham City, which has had a fairly established location for years until a recent film positioned the city directly across the water from Superman's home city of Metropolis.

"We went with what maps in the comics had shown, which put them a little way apart, and enough room for intervening communities that we actually know exist," said Rhys.

Gotham City was first identified as Batman's place of residence in 1940 and has since been the primary setting

Jaws' home of Amity Island is just up the road from Family Guy's Quahog

When sources contradict each other, the general rule is that the "one that works the best or the one that seems to be the most consistent" is the one that makes it on the map.

One question remains...why?

Maps generally help get you from one place to another, so what good is a map that shows places that do not exist?

Rhys was just looking to work on something with a mate.

Harry Potter's Hogwarts Express steams along track located in the west of Scotland

He joined up with his friend Matt to create a map of fake Britain years ago and "that went down a treat" he recalled.

They then went on to map out an in-depth look at the streets of London.

"After both of those worked out so well, we thought let's get ambitious, let's try and do the whole planet," added Rhys.

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