Peak or Deep is an elevation quiz where you never type a number. Each round names a real place (a mountain, a city, a lake, or something below the sea) and puts it in the middle of a height gauge. Drag it up or down to where you think it sits and lock it in. Then the real one rises from the bottom of the gauge and stops at its true height, so you see straight away whether you aimed too high or too low.
You don't need to know any heights to play. The gauge is marked with things most people can picture: the top of the Eiffel Tower at 330 metres and Everest at 8,849. Below sea level, the Titanic wreck marks 3,800 metres down. Most towns sit much nearer the Eiffel Tower than Everest, so if a town sounds high but nowhere near the Himalayas, you already have a decent guess. The pin on the map helps too. A city in the Andes and a city on the Dutch coast are not going to sit at the same height.
Your score depends on how close your guess lands. Every round is worth up to 1,000 points, and you don't have to hit the exact number to get most of them. The gauge is stretched at the low end, so being 100 metres out near sea level costs about as much as being a few hundred metres out near the top of a big mountain.
The daily has three rounds, the same for everyone, and resets at midnight UTC: one mountain, one city and a surprise. The surprise might be a lake, a volcano, a place below sea level or something at the bottom of the ocean. The places follow a schedule planned a year ahead, so a place you played this week won't come back for months. If three rounds aren't enough, unlimited mode keeps going as long as you like, with filters for mountains, cities, lakes and the deep.
How to play the elevation quiz
- 1Read the place's name, its country and what kind of place it is. The map shows where it is.
- 2Drag the place up or down the gauge. The arrow buttons and the arrow keys move it one metre or one foot at a time. Hold a button to go faster.
- 3Use the markers to judge the height: the Eiffel Tower and Everest above sea level, the Titanic wreck below it.
- 4Press Lock in. The real place rises from the bottom and stops at its true height.
- 5The closer your guess, the more points you get, up to 1,000 a round.
- 6After three rounds you see your total, your streak and today's leaderboard. You can share your result without giving the places away.
What each round measures
Elevation means something slightly different for each kind of place, so this is what each round asks for.
- MountainThe summit, above sea levelWhere the number comes from: Wikidata, checked against terrain data
- VolcanoThe highest point of the volcanoWhere the number comes from: Wikidata, checked against terrain data
- CityThe elevation recorded for the city centreWhere the number comes from: Wikidata, checked against terrain data
- LakeThe level of the water surfaceWhere the number comes from: Wikidata, checked against terrain data
- Below sea levelThe lowest point of the land or shoreWhere the number comes from: A hand-checked list with a source for each place
- The deepHow far below the sea surface it lies: a wreck, a trench or a lake floorWhere the number comes from: A hand-checked list with a source for each place
How scoring works
Points depend on how far your guess is from the real height, measured on the gauge. Because the gauge is stretched at the low end, the same number of metres costs more near sea level than near a summit. Two well-known heights show how it works.
| Place | Real height | Your guess | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denver | 1,609 m | 1,700 m | 995 |
| Denver | 1,609 m | 2,000 m | 850 |
| Denver | 1,609 m | 3,000 m | 431 |
| Everest | 8,849 m | 8,500 m | 964 |
| Everest | 8,849 m | 7,000 m | 608 |
| Everest | 8,849 m | 5,000 m | 68 |
Today's leaderboard
Elevation quiz FAQ
What does elevation mean in this quiz?
For mountains and volcanoes it's the summit. For cities it's the elevation recorded for the city centre, which can differ from the highest or lowest street. Lakes use the water surface. Wrecks, trenches and lake floors are measured down from the surface of the sea. Every height is relative to mean sea level.
Where do the heights come from?
Mountains, volcanoes, cities and lakes come from Wikidata, the open database behind Wikipedia. Before a place gets into the game, its height is compared with free terrain data, and a place is left out if Wikidata lists two heights that disagree. Places below sea level and in the deep come from a short hand-checked list with a source for each one.
Is the daily the same for everyone, and when does it reset?
Yes. Everyone gets the same three places on the same day, so scores are comparable. A new set unlocks at midnight UTC, the same time as every other daily on the site.
Will the same place come up again?
Not for a long time. The daily follows a schedule planned a year ahead. Mountains and cities don't repeat within that year, and a surprise place won't come back within six months. No country appears twice on the same day, and the same country won't fill the same round within a week.
Can I play in feet?
Yes. The unit switch under the gauge changes between metres and feet, and the game remembers your choice. Scoring works the same either way.
Sources and licences
- Heights, coordinates and countries for mountains, volcanoes, cities and lakes: Wikidata, CC0.
- Which places count as well known: Wikimedia pageview data, CC0.
- Places below sea level and in the deep: a hand-checked list with a source for each place.
- Locator map: Natural Earth, public domain.
- Terrain data used to check the heights: AWS Terrain Tiles, with these credits:
- ArcticDEM terrain data DEM(s) were created from DigitalGlobe, Inc., imagery and funded under National Science Foundation awards 1043681, 1559691, and 1542736;
- Australia terrain data (c) Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2017;
- Austria terrain data (c) offene Daten Österreichs, Digitales Geländemodell (DGM) Österreich;
- Canada terrain data contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence, Canada;
- Europe terrain data produced using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union, EU-DEM layers;
- Global ETOPO1 terrain data U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Mexico terrain data source: INEGI, Continental relief, 2016;
- New Zealand terrain data Copyright 2011 Crown copyright (c) Land Information New Zealand and the New Zealand Government (All rights reserved);
- Norway terrain data (c) Kartverket;
- United Kingdom terrain data (c) Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015. All rights reserved;
- United States 3DEP (formerly NED) and global GMTED2010 and SRTM terrain data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Last updated: 2026-09-29