Hilltop Castle Jigsaw Puzzle

Hilltop Castle at every size

Par is the time your score is measured against at that size. The rest is measured from the picture itself: how many pieces have a near-twin by colour once it is cut.

What the picture shows

A walled hill town crosses the upper middle of the frame. A stone wall with square towers runs along the hilltop, with the tall towers of the castle keep on the right and a domed church with a bell tower on the left. Houses with terracotta roofs and dark cypresses crowd inside. Grey-green olive groves cover the slope below, with stone farmhouses, and a road with a few cars winds up from the bottom left. Power lines cross the lower third, and yellowing vine rows fill the bottom. Hazy valleys and blue-grey mountains lie behind, under a thin strip of sky.

Solving Hilltop Castle

Up to 200 pieces almost no piece is plain, but colour hardly helps. Stone, roofs, olive trees and haze share one muted palette, so at 50 pieces about 7 pieces in 10 already have a near-twin. At 1000 pieces nearly every piece has one, and about 1 in 7 is plain, mostly haze and mountains. The olive groves are the slowest part: small round trees in the same grey-green from side to side.

Build the town wall first with its towers, the keep on the right and the church on the left. Fill the houses inside by roof line. Follow the road up from the bottom left and place the farmhouses. Trace the power lines from pole to pole, then lay the vine rows along the bottom. Sort the olive groves by shade, and finish with the valley, the mountains and the sky.

Hilltop Castle is the hardest board in the castles and towns set at every size, and at 1000 pieces no picture in the collection has more look-alikes. Old Town Square, at the easy end, has about 4 pieces in 10 with a near-twin at 50 pieces where the hill town has 7.

More castle and town jigsaw puzzles

• Ancient RuinsSun-warmed stone ruins beneath a bright sky.
• Canal HousesGabled canal houses reflected in still water, bicycles on the railing and tulips.
• Old Town SquareA baroque square with a clock tower, cafe umbrellas and market stalls.
• Temple GardenA five-storey pagoda behind autumn maples and a wooden bridge over a pond.
• Hillside VillagePainted houses with green shutters stacked above a slipway of small boats on a rocky coast.