Aberdeen is a city of about 100,000 people on the eastern coast of Scotland - not far from Hogwarts, in fact. Modesty Rabnott's sister Prudence lived in Aberdeen, according to a thirteenth-century letter on display in the Museum of Quidditch (QA4). During Harry's first trip on the Knight Bus, the bus moved to Aberdeen abruptly, spilling his hot chocolate. In fact, all three of the Knight Bus's stops on that trip - along with the place Harry talked to Stan Shunpike about during the journey - began with the letter A (PA3). Perhaps Rowling simply had an alphabetical list of city names she wanted to use and started at the top. [Photo courtesy www.aberdeen-grampian.com]

Located in southeastern Wales on the English border, Abergavenny is a market town that was once home to fortresses for the Roman and, later, Norman empires. This is where the Knight Bus dropped Madam Marsh off the first time Harry rode it in PA3.

A historical name for Ethiopia, and presumably the home of the Abyssinian Shrivelfig.

A street in Little Norton, and - at number eighteen - home of Doris Purkiss, the witch who told The Quibbler that Sirius Black was actually Stubby Boardman (OP10).

This town hall was the site of a concert which included the final performance of the unfinished Wizarding Suite, composed by Musidora Barkwith. The exploding tuba featured in this concert blew the roof off the Ackerly Town Hall in 1902, and the piece has been banned from performance ever since (fw36).

Aeaea was a legendary island during ancient Greek times, and may or may not have actually existed off the coast of Greece, if at all. It was the home of the famous sorceress Circe (fw3).

Locations in Africa:

• Abyssinia
• Burkina Faso
• Congo
• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• Sahara Desert
• Sumbawanga
• Tchamba
• Uganda

Albania is a European country located along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Not long after Hogwarts was founded, the country inadvertently played a part in wizarding history when Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter Helena stole her mother's diadem and ran away to Albania. Though she later returned to Britain, the diadem remained hidden in a hollow Albanian tree, presumed lost for all time (DH31).

A thousand years later, Tom Riddle convinced Helena Ravenclaw - now better known as the Grey Lady ghost at Hogwarts - to give him the location of the diadem (DH31). He hunted it down and, killing an Albanian peasant (BLC), turned it into a horcrux. After his first defeat, Voldemort returned to these same woods to lie low until he was able to return (DH31).

In the summer of 1991, Professor Quirrell, then the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts (BLC), happened across Voldemort in his hiding place in the Albanian woods. It was here that Voldemort convinced him to work for him and take him back to Britain in search of the Philosopher's Stone. When that quest failed, he returned to Albania to hide in the woods once more (GF33).

Finally, after Voldemort waited for nearly two more years, Peter Pettigrew tracked him down in the Albanian forest. They were lucky enough to come across Bertha Jorkins, who was visiting her second cousin in Albania, and get information they needed from her before finally departing the country for good (GF33). [Photo courtesy members.virtualtourist.com/m/33443/4c4/]

"Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds.... He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. 'Welcome,' said Hagrid, 'to Diagon Alley.'" (PS5)

Located in Little Whinging a block or two from number four, Privet Drive, this alley has been the scene of two of the biggest collisions between Harry's Muggle home and the wizarding world. First it was where Harry fled after blowing up Aunt Marge, saw Sirius in his Animagus form, and accidentally hailed the Knight Bus (PA3); two years later it was where Dementors, sent by Dolores Umbridge, attacked Harry and Dudley (OP1).

See North America or South America.

Located in the mountains between Spain and France, tiny Andorra is one of the smallest countries in the world. However, it has a Ministry of Magic (GF28) and participates in international affairs.

Anglesey (spelled Anglesea by mistake in the first edition of PA) is an island off the west coast of Wales, almost due east across the Irish Sea from Dublin. It is one of the places the Knight Bus visited the first time Harry rode it (PA3) though the Knight Bus then moved abruptly to Aberdeen, on the other side of Britain.

Another name for the south Pacific region that includes Australia and New Zealand. It is presumably the home of the Antipodean Opaleye dragon.

A shop selling potion ingredients in Diagon Alley (more...)

A small town in northeast England, southeast of York, Appleby has been home since 1612 to the Appleby Arrows, a member of the British and Irish Quidditch League (QA7).

A town on the east coast of Scotland, Arbroath's only reference in the books comes in QA1, where we learn that Guthrie Lochrin flew a splintery broomstick from Montrose to Arbroath in 1107.

See also the Muggle encyclopedia reference for Arbroath.

Argentina is the second largest country in South America and features a little bit of everything, from mountains to coastline. Its national Quidditch team reached the World Cup quarterfinals within the last century (QA8).

A map of Argyllshire, a county in western Scotland, hangs on the second floor of Hogwarts. This map is where the Fat Lady hid after Sirius Black attacked her (PA9).

A small city in the foothills of the mountains in northern Sweden, Arjeplog has for over a millenium been the location of the finishing line for the annual broom race of Sweden (QA2). It is also less than three hundred miles away from a Swedish Short Snout dragon reservation, which is most likely in the higher parts of the mountains.

Armenia is a small country just east of Turkey, where a warlock once saved a village from werewolves, though Gilderoy Lockhart took credit for it (CS16).

All we know about this shop is that Jo would recommend it to a wizard whose Nimbus 2000 "has a terrible knack of veering left," according to her online chat (BLC).

Locations in Asia:

• Assyria
• Bangladesh
• Borneo
• China
• India
• Iran
• Japan
• Mongolia
• Pakistan
• Russia
• Turkey

It's unclear why Neville uses the term Assyria to describe a region that no longer bears this name, but Assyria is nevertheless a region in the Middle East mainly including modern-day Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon - though the Assyrian empire once stretched well into Iran, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt as well. Whether Neville uses the term to describe the region or whether wizarding governments recognize different borders and country names from their Muggle counterparts, this was where his great-uncle Algie got Neville's Mimbulus mimbletonia (OP10).

Just as with Muggles in aeroplanes, the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by broomstick was an important milestone for wizards, as the distance is too great for safely Apparating. Jocunda Sykes first accomplished this feat in 1935, riding an Oakshaft 79 (QA9). The Atlantic is also a natural habitat of the sea serpent and the shrake (FB), and in the west near the Carribean, the site of the Bermuda Triangle.

Australia is both the smallest continent and its own country, located on a large island entirely in the southern hemisphere. Hermione sent her parents to Australia during the height of the war against Voldemort, to protect them from Death Eaters. She also modified their memories so they did not remember she existed (DH6). After Voldemort's final defeat she returned to retrieve them once more (BLC).

Locations in Australia:

• Thundelarra
• Wagga Wagga
• Woollongong

Avalon is a legendary island somewhere off the coast of England, which during the time of King Arthur was ruled by Morgan le Fay - a queen, a dark sorceress, and Merlin's half-sister and enemy (fw8).

Azkaban, the wizarding prison, is located on an island far to the north of the North Sea (more...)