10 Real-Life Places Assassin's Creed RECREATED

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re counting down our picks for 10 Real Life Places Assassin’s Creed Recreated. We’re looking at landmarks and locations that either no longer exist, or are completely unrecognizable today.

Cathedral of the Holy Cross

“Assassin’s Creed” (2007)

The biggest landmark in Acre is this almost unreasonably large Crusader church, which poses one of the hardest platforming challenges in the game. But the history of this landmark is complex and enigmatic. There WAS a vast church built by Crusaders in the city that was destroyed in 1291, a hundred years after the game takes place. But nobody knows what the church was called or even what it looked like, since our records of it only pertain to its ruins, which stood in the city for hundreds of years. Eventually, a new church was built on the site, the Church of Saint Andrew, which still exists today. However, the representation of the church in “Assassin’s Creed” is wrong, since in real life it was built a little too early to utilize the Gothic architectural style it has in the game.

Heracleion

“Assassin’s Creed Origins” (2017)

Though Alexandria is the biggest city you visit in “Origins”, Heracleion is where Cleopatra makes her base. Directly east of Alexandria along the banks of the Mediterranean, the city was in a precarious position because it was built on the mouth of the River Nile. Earthquakes and flooding eventually sank it into the sea, where the city remained famously lost until its rediscovery in the year 2000. It’s already suffering from major flooding when “Origins” takes place, but is still occupied while Cleopatra plots to oust her brother and, allied with Caesar, take the throne of Egypt back for herself.

The Devil’s Acre

“Assassin’s Creed Syndicate” (2015)

In the second half of the 19th century, slum clearance efforts began in the UK, with the capital’s major slums being largely demolished. One of the more notorious slums was the Devil’s Acre, located in the heart of the otherwise extremely affluent area of Westminster. That’s the same part of London where you’ll find Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament. It was a particular concern of Charles Dickens, though by the 1870s, it had been mostly destroyed. You can visit the Devil’s Acre, and many other slums, in “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate”. There’s even a mission where Jacob Frye takes Mary Anne Disraeli, wife of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, on a tour of the dangerous slum at her request.

Notre-Dame de Paris

“Assassin’s Creed Unity” (2014)

This world-famous cathedral does still exist, but if you go today, it’s not the same as it was in “Unity’s” version in 2014. That’s because almost five years after the game released, a major fire broke out in the building. Major restoration works soon began, and interestingly, the research Ubisoft conducted for “Unity” was offered as help. It might take decades to repair Notre-Dame, but until then, “Unity’s” loving recreation of the building can be enjoyed by all. Other Parisian landmarks that appear in “Unity” include the Tuileries Palace next to the Louvre, which was burned down 100 years after the game takes place, as well as the Bastille, destroyed in 1790. It’s actually a major anachronism that the Bastille remains in the game throughout, since it was destroyed so early in the Revolution.

Prison Hulks

“Assassin’s Creed Syndicate” (2015)

The British Empire made use of prison hulks for centuries, in both its colonies and back in England. These were ships that usually had their masts and sails removed so that they couldn’t be sailed anywhere, but could be moored and used to house convicts. One notorious hulk was HMS Jersey, used in New York in the 18th century and visited by Connor in “Assassin’s Creed III”. But two more historic hulks appear in “Syndicate’s” Jack the Ripper DLC, moored in Deptford on the River Thames. Though, we can safely say that in real life, it’s doubtful that these old ships were being used as a secret hideout for Jack the Ripper and his gang.

New York City

“Assassin’s Creed Rogue” (2014)

Like Notre-Dame, New York City, of course, still exists. But it certainly doesn’t look the way it looks in “Rogue” – or even the way it looks in “Assassin’s Creed III”. When Connor visits the Big Apple, he arrives shortly after the 1776 Great Fire of New York, where about a quarter of the city burned to the ground. “Rogue” took us over twenty years back in time, to see New York when it was still a British colony and relatively peaceful, during the Seven Years’ War. One notable landmark is Trinity Church, which was destroyed in the fire but is still standing proud in “Rogue”. The third iteration of this church went on to be the tallest building in America for over twenty years.

Derinkuyu Underground City

“Assassin’s Creed: Revelations” (2011)

This actually isn’t the only underground city found in Cappadocia in Turkey, but it is the largest and most elaborate, potentially once being home to 20,000 people. Used to protect large groups from hostile armies, the cities were occupied sporadically over the last 2800 years, not abandoned until the 1920s. The city Ezio visits in “Revelations” isn’t one-to-one with Derinkuyu, since instead of narrow tunnels and small rooms, Ezio finds himself in a vast chamber occupied by Templars and what remains of the Byzantines. The tunnels do still exist and are now tourist attractions, but gone are the days when tens of thousands of people could thrive underground.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

“Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” (2018)

Hopefully one day, all of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World will be recreated in “Assassin’s Creed”, but we currently only have three of them – and one of those, the Great Pyramid of Giza, still exists. But in “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey”, if you journey to Elis you’ll eventually find this famous temple and its enormous statue of Zeus. Though the most impressive statue of Zeus in the game is the one on Kephallonia at the beginning, that statue didn’t actually exist, while the one at Olympia certainly did. It stood from the 5th century BC to the 6th century AD, over 1000 years, before being destroyed. Though, interestingly, scholars still aren’t sure what really happened to it.

The Great Library of Alexandria

“Assassin’s Creed Origins” (2017)

One of the greatest losses of human knowledge and learning was the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria. Interestingly, it’s not clear how it was actually destroyed; we know at least part of it was burned down by Caesar in the 1st century BC, but it was, in fact, rebuilt. But it eventually declined completely. We don’t know where the scrolls it housed ended up, and it’s certainly been gone from Alexandria for over a thousand years – with some records suggesting it was finally destroyed by Muslims in the 7th century. But in “Assassin’s Creed Origins”, the Library is still a landmark and a major centre of learning in the Mediterranean. You can also go and see the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World until its ruin in the 14th century.

Baghdad

“Assassin’s Creed Mirage” (2023)

Like New York, Baghdad still exists today, and remains the capital city of Iraq. But Baghdad has been destroyed so many times over the centuries that almost none of the architecture seen in “Mirage” still exists. It was almost entirely destroyed during the Mongol Invasion in the 13th century, during a thirteen-day siege in which the city was razed and its occupants murdered. The entirety of the Round City, which in “Mirage” is the heart of the city and where the royal palace is found, has been completely lost. Ubisoft went to painstaking lengths to try and recreate Baghdad as it may have been at the height of the Islamic Golden Age.

Let us know in the comments which of these lost landmarks is your favorite to explore.