New York Central Park Scavenger Hunt and Self-Guided Tour

The route: from Cleopatra's Needle behind the Met to Alice in Wonderland at Conservatory Water

10 stops · about 43 min walking · start: Cleopatra's Needle (The Obelisk) · finish: Alice in Wonderland

The hunt starts at Cleopatra's Needle behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art and climbs to Belvedere Castle, then passes the Delacorte Theater and the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre on the way west to Strawberry Fields. From there you head south past the skaters' circle to the Columbus statue on the Mall, cross to the Balto statue, come back north to Bethesda Terrace and finish at Alice in Wonderland by Conservatory Water. Since every clue sits on a statue, a staircase or a stone wall out in the open park, nobody needs an entry ticket, and players coming in from the West Side can let the app open the game at Strawberry Fields and rearrange the remaining stops.

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1. 

   1Cleopatra's Needle (The Obelisk)Start

   This granite obelisk was carved in Egypt around 1450 BC for Pharaoh Thutmose III and stood at Heliopolis before the Romans moved it to Alexandria. Egypt gave it to the United States, and it was raised behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1881. Look for the bronze crabs at its corners, copies of Roman supports.

2. 

   2Belvedere Castle

   Calvert Vaux, co-designer of Central Park, created this small stone castle on Vista Rock as a lookout, completed in 1869 and never meant for defence. From its terraces you look over Turtle Pond and the Great Lawn, and since 1919 weather instruments here have recorded Central Park's official readings.

3. 

   3Delacorte Theater

   This open-air theatre beside Turtle Pond opened in 1962 as the home of Shakespeare in the Park, the free summer performances of the Public Theater started by Joseph Papp. Outside the entrance, bronze statues show Romeo and Juliet and characters from The Tempest.

4. 

   4Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre

   This wooden schoolhouse was built in Sweden and shown at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, then moved to Central Park the following year. Its carved timber and steep roof stand out among the park's stone buildings, and today it is home to a marionette theatre with puppet shows for children.

5. 

   5Strawberry Fields and the Imagine Mosaic

   Strawberry Fields is the memorial garden to John Lennon, who lived in the Dakota building across Central Park West and was killed outside it in 1980. Its black-and-white mosaic with the single word Imagine was a gift from the city of Naples, and the garden was dedicated in 1985.

6. 

   6Skaters' Circle

   In this paved circle between Sheep Meadow and the Mall, roller skaters have gathered for decades to dance to music. On warm weekends you may see them spinning and gliding in pairs and lines, a Central Park tradition that grew out of the roller disco era.

7. 

   7Christopher Columbus Statue

   At the southern end of the Mall stands a statue of Christopher Columbus by the Spanish sculptor Jerónimo Suñol, unveiled in 1894. Nearby, the elm-lined Literary Walk is guarded by statues of writers such as William Shakespeare, Robert Burns and Walter Scott.

8. 

   8Balto Statue

   This bronze by Frederick Roth honours Balto, the sled dog who led the final stretch of the 1925 relay that carried diphtheria medicine to Nome in Alaska. The statue was unveiled the same year with Balto himself present, and children climbing on it have polished his back and ears to a shine.

9. 

   9Bethesda Terrace

   Bethesda Terrace, designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, links the Mall to the Lake with grand staircases and an arcade lined with Minton tiles. Its fountain is crowned by the Angel of the Waters by Emma Stebbins, unveiled in 1873 as the first public sculpture commissioned from a woman in New York City.

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10. 

    10Alice in WonderlandFinish

    This bronze by José de Creeft, unveiled in 1959 near Conservatory Water, shows Alice sitting on a giant mushroom with the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat and the Dormouse. The publisher George Delacorte gave it in memory of his wife, and children are welcome to climb all over it.

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