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Description

Oh man, I'm not sure how many hours I've spent on this map. Sifting through arbitrary arguments of scale, not understanding how the sun's rotation works, and generally being annoyed until I realised we were in the southern hemisphere....

This is the updated version of my previous map I created in 2020; as you can clearly tell, there's been a lot of change and improvement. If you have any questions feel free to ask below, and feel free to use this as a reference if you need it!

Buckle up, I guess.

General Location Disclaimer:
The Lion Guard's journey to the Tree Of Life makes absolutely zero sense in terms of actual geography. They seem to take journeys through Japan and China, and the Night Pride resemble Asiatic lions...(even possibly India due to some of the names. Also Azaad is an Asiactic cheetah too). Even if you pretend it's millions of years ago before the plates moved, then we have a timing issue as to walk to India from Africa in a straight line (or more specifically, Kenya/Tanzania, as we're lead to believe based on the mention of Mt. Kilimanjaro in SP and reports from the writers etc) it would take you at least ~170 days one way, and unfortunately the Lion Guard fails to age over the course of their journey. Additionally, the pinwheel biomes at the Tree of Life make no sense, ever.

Based on that analysis, we can safely assume that this is a completely fictional version of Earth, so don't come for me.

Scale:
Surprisingly enough, all distances are to scale; landmarks are not and have been sized up for convenience. More explanations on that are below!

Pride Lands scale:
The Pride Lands are approx. 8km in width, with a circumference of approx. 25km. A lion's walking pace is about 4km/hr, meaning you can walk from one end of the Pride Lands to the other in 2hrs, and circle the Pride Lands (like on a patrol) in 6ish hours. This was an important distinction to make for two reasons; making sure cubs (like Kiara, Kion and Simba) can get places and aren't walking for hours just to get from one place to another, but also so I could determine exactly how far away the Tree of Life was, and how long this trip would legitimately take.

The bit of Pride Rock that juts out faces the East; as we've seen from the beginning of TLK with Mufasa and Simba looking out directly to the sunrise. The rest of the orientation of the Pride Lands and the surrounds, I'll explain in another upload linked below (eventually, I've just got some finishing touches). But this means that in the map we see of the journey to the Tree of Life in the end credits of TLG episodes, the Tree of Life is to the west of the Pride Lands. Additionally, makes total sense for the snowy mountains to be that low because we're in the southern hemisphere.

"As the crow flies"
The distance between the Pride Lands and the Tree of Life in a straight line is 266km (which is a little funny because a martial eagle like Anga could fly there in an hour...maybe we should've just sent a bird to tell the lion guard, instead of two hyenas)

Red Line: The journey the Lion Guard takes to the Tree of Life, following the Moja Kwa Moja stones. There are thirteen stones, and due to the winding, twisting nature of their journey (and possibly having to stay places for multiple nights, and getting lost in the desert), this journey spans 824km. At walking pace, this would've taken 30 days (traveling approx. 7hrs a day and not including pit stops.) The guard did run some of the way, so if you average their pace to 7km/hr and tack on a few extra days for pit stops and rescues, this journey would have taken 20 days.

Jasiri's Journey (not pictured): Spotted hyenas trot comfortably at 10km/hr for long distances, but ultimately would've taken the same journey (aside from the 20km detour in the desert). Their journey would only have taken 12 days.

Blue Line: The shortcut that Azaad takes the Lion Guard through. This is essentially a straight line back home, and is only 486km long. Walking, again at 4km/hr and traveling 7hrs a day, this would take the Lion Guard 16 days. However, we can take away 8 hours for the journey down the river on a log, and average the speed back up to 7km/hr, we return home in 8 days.

Ultimately, this feels more realistic than my first assumption that these trips would be taking several months, especially given the time crunch of them thinking Kion would turn with the Mark of Evil. The 20 days between Jasiri leaving the Pride Lands, getting to the ToL and them returning is also a good amount of time for Vitani and her Guard to establish themselves.

Other Notes:

Terrain:

I've only really placed terrain colours where it was needed; such as the journey from the Salt Lake to the Mountain Pass; there's another desert, a canyon and a forest that the guard travels through, but otherwise I've left it fairly open to interpretation.

Hakuna Matata Falls:
One thing that bothered me was that Bunga, Timon and Pumbaa seem to head back to Hakuna Matata falls quite often - even in one episode, I'm pretty sure Bunga takes a whole bunch of the children over there? It seems that the entirety of the writers forgot that there's a MASSIVE desert between the jungle and the Pride Lands (because we even saw as adults, Nala and Simba had to run through it to get back??) Anyway. I created a mountain path instead that also leads to the Jungle.

Green blobs:

These green blobs are more for my reference; these are where I'm placing other lion prides.

It's a bit much, but I'm happy with it and happy to get it off my mind.

Cartography Brushes used:

Map/Land Mass Brushes by JoshWorlds
Cartography brushes

Description

Oh man, I'm not sure how many hours I've spent on this map. Sifting through arbitrary arguments of scale, not understanding how the sun's rotation works, and generally being annoyed until I realised we were in the southern hemisphere....

This is the updated version of my previous map I created in 2020; as you can clearly tell, there's been a lot of change and improvement. If you have any questions feel free to ask below, and feel free to use this as a reference if you need it!

Buckle up, I guess.

General Location Disclaimer:
The Lion Guard's journey to the Tree Of Life makes absolutely zero sense in terms of actual geography. They seem to take journeys through Japan and China, and the Night Pride resemble Asiatic lions...(even possibly India due to some of the names. Also Azaad is an Asiactic cheetah too). Even if you pretend it's millions of years ago before the plates moved, then we have a timing issue as to walk to India from Africa in a straight line (or more specifically, Kenya/Tanzania, as we're lead to believe based on the mention of Mt. Kilimanjaro in SP and reports from the writers etc) it would take you at least ~170 days one way, and unfortunately the Lion Guard fails to age over the course of their journey. Additionally, the pinwheel biomes at the Tree of Life make no sense, ever.

Based on that analysis, we can safely assume that this is a completely fictional version of Earth, so don't come for me.

Scale:
Surprisingly enough, all distances are to scale; landmarks are not and have been sized up for convenience. More explanations on that are below!

Pride Lands scale:
The Pride Lands are approx. 8km in width, with a circumference of approx. 25km. A lion's walking pace is about 4km/hr, meaning you can walk from one end of the Pride Lands to the other in 2hrs, and circle the Pride Lands (like on a patrol) in 6ish hours. This was an important distinction to make for two reasons; making sure cubs (like Kiara, Kion and Simba) can get places and aren't walking for hours just to get from one place to another, but also so I could determine exactly how far away the Tree of Life was, and how long this trip would legitimately take.

The bit of Pride Rock that juts out faces the East; as we've seen from the beginning of TLK with Mufasa and Simba looking out directly to the sunrise. The rest of the orientation of the Pride Lands and the surrounds, I'll explain in another upload linked below (eventually, I've just got some finishing touches). But this means that in the map we see of the journey to the Tree of Life in the end credits of TLG episodes, the Tree of Life is to the west of the Pride Lands. Additionally, makes total sense for the snowy mountains to be that low because we're in the southern hemisphere.

"As the crow flies"
The distance between the Pride Lands and the Tree of Life in a straight line is 266km (which is a little funny because a martial eagle like Anga could fly there in an hour...maybe we should've just sent a bird to tell the lion guard, instead of two hyenas)

Red Line: The journey the Lion Guard takes to the Tree of Life, following the Moja Kwa Moja stones. There are thirteen stones, and due to the winding, twisting nature of their journey (and possibly having to stay places for multiple nights, and getting lost in the desert), this journey spans 824km. At walking pace, this would've taken 30 days (traveling approx. 7hrs a day and not including pit stops.) The guard did run some of the way, so if you average their pace to 7km/hr and tack on a few extra days for pit stops and rescues, this journey would have taken 20 days.

Jasiri's Journey (not pictured): Spotted hyenas trot comfortably at 10km/hr for long distances, but ultimately would've taken the same journey (aside from the 20km detour in the desert). Their journey would only have taken 12 days.

Blue Line: The shortcut that Azaad takes the Lion Guard through. This is essentially a straight line back home, and is only 486km long. Walking, again at 4km/hr and traveling 7hrs a day, this would take the Lion Guard 16 days. However, we can take away 8 hours for the journey down the river on a log, and average the speed back up to 7km/hr, we return home in 8 days.

Ultimately, this feels more realistic than my first assumption that these trips would be taking several months, especially given the time crunch of them thinking Kion would turn with the Mark of Evil. The 20 days between Jasiri leaving the Pride Lands, getting to the ToL and them returning is also a good amount of time for Vitani and her Guard to establish themselves.

Other Notes:

Terrain:

I've only really placed terrain colours where it was needed; such as the journey from the Salt Lake to the Mountain Pass; there's another desert, a canyon and a forest that the guard travels through, but otherwise I've left it fairly open to interpretation.

Hakuna Matata Falls:
One thing that bothered me was that Bunga, Timon and Pumbaa seem to head back to Hakuna Matata falls quite often - even in one episode, I'm pretty sure Bunga takes a whole bunch of the children over there? It seems that the entirety of the writers forgot that there's a MASSIVE desert between the jungle and the Pride Lands (because we even saw as adults, Nala and Simba had to run through it to get back??) Anyway. I created a mountain path instead that also leads to the Jungle.

Green blobs:

These green blobs are more for my reference; these are where I'm placing other lion prides.

It's a bit much, but I'm happy with it and happy to get it off my mind.

Cartography Brushes used:

Map/Land Mass Brushes by JoshWorlds
Cartography brushes