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Have you been looking for real Memory Palace examples that will actually show you how this learning technique works in the modern world?
You’re in the right place.
I’ve used the Memory Palace technique to pass university exams, master foreign languages, and even lecture in German while teaching Film Studies at the University of Saarland.
My TEDx Talk, delivered entirely from memory, has been viewed millions of times. I’ll show you exactly how I built it along with a graphic of the exact location.
In fact, you’ll even get a Memory Palace walkthrough filmed inside my own home, so you can see how to structure your journeys for better focus, creativity and long-term recall.
Everything you’re about to learn comes from personally testing more than 300 Memory Palaces for accomplishing many different learning goals. And many interviews I’ve conducted with the most accomplished memory experts in the world.
Ready for the most empowering Memory Palace examples so you can achieve your learning goals?
Let’s dive in.
Now that you’ve watched the walkthrough in the video above, let’s take a moment to more closely define the Memory Palace technique.
Seeing this ancient technique in its fullest possible context will help you use this unique learning approach better.
Understand This Before Copying Any Memory Palace Examples You Find Online
The first thing to understand is that the Memory Palace technique was taught theoretically for a very long time. Ancient guides like Rhetorica ad Herennium had to illustrations.
At best, Aristotle gave a visual example of the stations in a Memory Palace using the alphabet. I show this page in my video tutorial on Aristotle’s Nuclear Alphabet.
Later, during the medieval period, Hugh of St. Victor was said to stand in front of an illustration of Noah’s Ark to help his students understand how to use it to remember aspects of theology. You can read about this history and see illustrations in The Mystic Ark by Conrad Rudolph.
Also note that the Memory Palace technique is sometimes called the Method of Loci. Other people call it the Roman Room technique. Searching these terms can help you find even more examples.
“Memory theater” too, which was one of Robert Fludd‘s preferred terms. Here’s what one of his illustrated Memory Palaces looked like:
No matter what you call it, the technique is based on layering associations along a journey based on locations you remember.
That’s the key.
You’re not memorizing locations for use as Memory Palace. You’re harnessing memory spaces that are already in your memory.
Please pay special attention to this point. Many people think they have to go out and memorize locations in order to use them.
That’s just not true and in fact creates the cognitive load using Memory Palaces helps reduce.
For more details on how to select and develop these learning tools optimally, please refer to my foundational Memory Palace tutorial which goes in-depth on its history and a number of important considerations for getting the most out of the technique.
With these principles in mind, let’s look at our first example.
1. The Bird’s-Eye Memory Palace Using A Single Building
This kind of Memory Palace involves looking down and through the roof on a building.
You can use:
- Homes
- Churches
- Cafes
- Theatres
- Bookshops
- Schools
- Museums
Just about any location will do.
The basic idea of this approach is to experience the Memory Palace as if you’re looking down at a floor plan.
To create your first Memory Palace in this style, I suggest you quickly sketch it out.
As you can see, I’ve drawn this Memory Palace based on one of my Berlin apartments by hand:
Drawing each Memory Palaces is important because it trains your brain to think about the journey through the building you’re assigning.
A bit of preparation in the beginning will ensure that you can use the Memory Palace much faster once you’re ready to use it to memorize anything, including vocabulary, or an entire speech.
I’m not the only one who draws Memory Palaces.
As you saw above, Fludd illustrated one of the theatres he used.
More recently, my friend and fellow memory expert Jonathan Levi shared his hand drawn Memory Palace mockup after I showed him some Memory Palace best practices.
He even showed the Magnetic Memory Method-style Memory Palace he drew from the top-down perspective in his TEDx presentation:
In sum, the process is simple:
- Select a location suited to creating a Memory Palace (usually a familiar building, but parks and other locations will do)
- Get out a sheet of paper, ideally in a Memory Journal devoted to Mind Palace creation.
- Draw the Memory Palace.
- Strategically structure your journey through the Memory Palace.
- Practice the journey mentally one or two times.
- Use it to memorize something by using mnemonic images (what I sometimes call Magnetic Imagery).
If you’re stuck on what locations to use, I have created a giant list of Memory Palace ideas that will help get you started.
If you need help with creating the mnemonic images, these elaborative encoding exercises should be useful to you.
2. The Campus Memory Palace (Perfect for Exams)
In this kind of Memory Palace, you use an entire university campus.
I found this kind very useful when studying for my PhD at York in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
And that’s not just because the multiple buildings gave me lots of space with which to work.
It’s also linked to something called context-dependent memory. It shows that you remember more when you closely associate what you need to remember with locations and other aspects of life.
Since I still use York’s campus from time to time, I’ve used an old campus map I saved to craft this detailed video tutorial for you:
If you want to use the example from my York Campus video tutorial but have never been there, it’s easiest to use the top-down view.
Or you can imagine watching yourself walking from station to station as if seeing the journey through your own eyes and imaging that you’re there.
Let’s explore that option further in our next example.
3. The 1st Person Memory Palace (For Immersive Encoding and Recall)
When using a first person approach, here’s what happens:
You imagine yourself in the Memory Palace, literally seeing the journey as if through your own eyes.
Or, you can pretend to be a character in a video game or movie and see through the eyes of that character.
For example, using an outdoor Memory Palace, I once imagined being this Giordano Bruno statue and navigated parts of Rome that I had previously developed into a small set of Memory Palaces:
Personally, I find this approach draining. But assuming the viewpoint of a character definitely works.
One reason why it works is that you’re using imagined experience as an additional hook.
The best part is that you can switch in and out of this approach while using top-down Memory Palaces.
You can also rotate between multiple roles.
For example, when I memorized the hiragana and other aspects of Japanese, I switched from pretending I was Ezra Pound to Homer Simpson.
This is based on a Magnetic Memory Method Principle I call the Bridging Figure.
4. The Virtual Memory Palace (For Imaginative Learning)
Virtual or Imaginary Memory Palaces are usually fictional. This means that they are not based on real locations.
In other words, they are purely imagined, either by yourself or based on novels, movies or video game locations created by someone else.
This approach is not for everyone.
I personally find invented Memory Palaces more difficult than they are worth for my learning projects. Since my goals with Latin and Sanskrit involve a lot of moving parts, I prefer standard Memory Palace for activities like language learning.
But if you want to give imaginary Memory Palaces a try, I suggest listening to memory competitor Idriz Zogaj for some wisdom on using this kind of Memory Palace. You might find his comments useful.
In the meantime, I’ve recorded all my best suggestions for the virtual Memory Palace approach in this detailed video tutorial:
5. The Magnetic Memory Memory Method Palace (Advanced, Integrative Learning)
This kind of Memory Palace combines a number of mnemonic systems.
At its core, you still take a location you know well and mentally assign specific pieces of information.
But unlike other approaches, you develop well-formed Memory Palaces that do not lead you into dead ends or waste time and mental energy by crossing your own path.
An illustrator helped me visualize my TEDx Talk Memory Palace with this picture so you can see how direct and unfettered a Magnetic Memory Palace can be:
What additionally sets the Magnetic Memory Palace apart are the additional tools I teach in the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass. Such as:
- Sea shelling
- The Pillar Technique
- Ample use of Magnetic Bridging Figures
- Recall Rehearsal (a form of spaced repetition)
- The Big 5 of Learning (Also called the levels of processing)
- The Story Method
- The Pegword Method
- Number Rhymes
With these additional techniques working in combination, using each and every style of Memory Palace feels like a game as you usher any information you want to know into long-term memory quickly.
FAQS About Memory Palace Examples
I’ve fielded many questions about this technique over the years.
Here are some of the most frequent with quick answers.
How do I get faster with using Memory Palaces?
The key to memorizing things faster with this technique is to deliberately train for speed.
Typically this is done by setting goals, benchmarks and using a timer.
It’s also important to embrace all of your sensations while placing associations within your Memory Palaces.
Who invented the Memory Palace technique?
Although the technique is often attributed to Simonides of Ceos, we know from scholars like Lynne Kelly and Tyson Yunkaporta that it’s much older.
Personally, I believe that our species collaborated on the technique and we continue to develop it together. For more on this view, I suggest reading The Knowledge Gene. You might also consider my conversation with Andrew Mayne about the Memory Palace technique in the age of AI.
Do I need to have physical access to locations I want to use?
Not at all. I use locations I haven’t seen since I was 9 years old perfectly well.
That said, some people find it useful to touch the walls of the locations they will use, especially when starting out.
This tactile tip is very old. You can find examples in medieval memory manuals of Peter of Ravenna and Thomas Aquinas.
How many Memory Palaces should I create?
At a bare minimum, I suggest 26, one for each letter of the alphabet.
At more advanced levels, you can add a second Memory Palace Network to fill out your PAO System.
You can go further still by explore Memory Wheels, an older example of the Memory Palace technique that you might enjoy exploring.
Can I combine Memory Palaces with other mnemonic techniques?
Yes, and a core feature of the Magnetic Memory Method is that I show you exactly how.
By combining methods you can learn more at a faster rate and retain it much longer.
What’s the benefit of drawing my Memory Palaces by hand?
There are many benefits.
For one thing, you get the process out of your head and onto paper.
A lot of people underestimate how draining it can be to work out an optimal journey purely in the mind.
But by sketching out your Memory Palaces, you’re able to chart the journey quickly, logically and in a way that saves you time later. You know exactly where you’re going as you use the technique.
Additionally, you can store your journeys for review in notebooks or on index cards. I draw many of my Memory Palaces on cards so I can easily alphabetize them. Here’s one example of a Memory Palace sketch based on a bookshop in Cairo I use often:
How do I choose the right locations to use?
The key is that the location is in your memory and you can easily move from what I call the “terminal station” to an exit.
If you watch the Memory Palace walkthrough video at the top of this page, I show you the logic of why this works so well.
When following these principles, you’ll find that nearly any location that you remember will serve as a perfectly suitable learning tool.
The only exception is that some locations may carry unpleasant personal memories. I’ve talked about this problem in The Victorious Mind and it is possible to cleanse these locations.
But in general, it’s best to choose neutral locations or places you feel positive about.
Bonus: How to Create Your Own Memory Palaces Based on These Examples
I suggest that you avoid starting with just one location.
Rather, use the alphabet to help assign a variety of locations you can link with information easily.
I call this approach the “Memory Palace Network.”
You literally develop one Memory Palace per letter of the alphabet.
To give you a quick example, I have a few ‘A’ Memory Palaces. Two of them are based on the homes of friends I know named Adam (once from elementary school, another from university). Another is based on my favorite Apple Store in Brisbane.
I often use my friend Brad’s house for words that start with the letter ‘B.’ I also use the local bakery as another B Memory Palace.
And when memorizing a poem recently that starts with the letter ‘W,’ I used a Woolworths supermarket.
This approach is an advanced form of linking, a technique well worth learning as you develop your mnemonic skills.
And if you’d like more help, feel free to grab my free memory improvement course:
It gives you four clear video lessons and three Memory Palace worksheets to fill out.
For now, the five Memory Palace examples and the full Memory Palace walkthrough video above demonstrate that this technique isn’t some fantastic notion from the past.
It’s a tried and true technique, a living skill that many people still use to this day. I’m talking about everyone from these memory athletes to the many students of mine who have sent in their testimonials.
Adapt the Memory Palace technique for yourself, expand on the core principles through practice and you’ll not only improve your recall.
You’ll change the way you think, learn and interact with information.
An incredible journey awaits.
Enjoy and please let me know how it goes. You next breakthrough is just one well-formed Memory Palace away!
24 Responses
Sounds like exactly the type of mental improvement I have been interested in finding.
That’s great, William. I look forward to helping you further through the course. There are a few more variations I think you will find very helpful oce you have the in operation, particularly in the advanced section of the Masterplan.
Please enjoy and talk soon! 🙂
You said a memory palace network of 26. In the memory improvement kit you said one can start with 10.
But what if one can’t get hold of that many?
Due to circumstances I’ve only been able to get 3 (with no real means of getting more).
What can i do?
Is this enough to still move forward in the practices?
Thanks, Casey.
The Memory Improvement Kit suggests ten as the path to not merely 26, but ultimately hundreds.
You can get started with the three that you have, but I suggest a solid review of the training. I’ve never met anyone during a private training session who did not have access to dozens of Memory Palaces. I’m not sure it’s technically possible, but when people aren’t following the steps or completing the exercises, they my be locking themselves out of the simple realizations that drive progress in this martial art of the mind.
More exercises may be needed, and there are plenty in the MMM Masterclass for the serious practitioner.
In all things, treat this as a marathon, not a race. You’ll get there, and movement will help unlock full vision of the path. Take it one S.I.P. at a time:
Study the techniques thoroughly and consistently
Implement each new thing you learn
Practice with information that improves your life
That is the path of the master of memory.
Enjoy the journey!
I don’t seem to learn things very quickly. In fact I’ve been struggling with trying to get this for for a couple of weeks now and don’t seem to be any closer than I was at the start, and then I hear stories of people who start making real progress in that time.
So, I was wondering, does this happen often, or am I the first?
As for the memory palaces it’s complicated.
Casey, please don’t let others distract you from your mission.
Kevin Richardson took a year off after he started. His incredible return to mnemonics for Japanese will inspire you.
But even if you’re not the only one, others are not the thing to focus on.
It sounds like some mental strength exercises will be useful for you.
How fast you learn isn’t nearly as important as the depth of learning you engage in.
Top performers all have complex lives. But they don’t let the complexities get in the way. If “it’s complicated,” then you simply have to use your brain power and strategic thinking to persist until you achieve your goals. It really is that simple and you are not particularly alone. No one is.
Keep moving forward.
Wow, how do you do that?
You seem to say exactly what I NEED to hear and get me thinking, to open my mind and eyes that much more.
Thank you 🙂
No matter how long it takes, I want to learn this.
You can do it!
So right now I’m trying to remember each planet and some facts around it, but I don’t know how many facts I can store. An a example would be Neptune in the fridge, I wouldn’t know how to put any text based facts in it. Is it even possible to store multiple facts in just one appliance?
Thanks for your note, Dre.
It has been suggested by neuroscientists like Dr. David Eagleman that we have an entire zettabyte in our memory. That’s more than enough to memorize nearly any amount of facts within a lifetime.
In the beginning, I would suggest you memorize one fact per station in a Memory Palace.
Later, you can learn techniques in the MMM Masterclass that will let you store between 11-17 facts per station. At least, that’s where I’ve maxed out. Others are undoubtedly capable of more.
Be willing to just get started with what you’ve got and the experience of learning the techniques will open more insight and perspective as you go. Memory training is like nearly every other skill (painting, music, etc.) in this regard.
Thank you for the reply! I just have but one more question, do you ‘review’ or repeat facts everyday, like you mentally walk through your memory palace and you pick a station to review the facts in it?
No, review does not need to happen every day. I initially do it daily only if it’s needed and relevant to the product. There are multiple patterns you can follow and individuals need to study these and try a few out as they develop their “mnemonic style.”
In other words, it’s not about “picking” a station, but rather using the best possible review pattens to aid the information into entering your long term memory with the least amount of effort and hassle. Do it right and there’s no hassle at all.
I was wondering, you mention a memory palace network but I don’t quite understand how you move from one palace to the next (especially in a linear fashion without crossing your own path).
Now it seems simple enough to move from station to station within a palace, but how do you move from one palace to another to navigate that one?
How do you make that transition?
Thanks for this, Casey.
There are different ways to think about the answer.
First, I don’t teach the Memory Palace technique in a way the normally requires jumping from one Memory Palace to another.
If you want to do that, then you need to think about the Memory Palace Network and create it in the context of particular goals.
Frankly, I think you’re making it harder than it needs to be if you’re creating memory systems that require “travel” between Memory Palaces.
Far better is to create compressed and condensed collections of self-contained Memory Palaces that are complete in and of themselves for use that lends itself to Recall Rehearsal.
There are certainly other ways to do it, and so I’ll ask more mnemonists going forward how they think about this question. So far, I get the feeling that they think about it much more like I do, but it will be interesting to find out.
Thanks for the compelling question! 🙂
Do you think you could give help me out with imagery?
I grew up quite isolated and never really had any interests growing up so i don’t seem to have much in the way of associated imagery to work with, and I’ve been struggling to come up with stuff.
For example, I’m trying to memorize one of my favorite short stories (it only has 17 sentences), but I can’t seem to come up with anything to associate the information with in my mind to place in a memory palace to retrieve latter.
Any advice?
Thanks for this, Casey.
The free course covers the needed exercises for this skills. You can also look for “visualization” and “imagery” using the search function on the site. I’d give you a few links, but there’s a ton to choose from and you should follow your interest.
This mission with the short story is interesting. How do you think it supports your overall goals for learning and memory?
thanks for the advice.
I’m a little embarrassed that i didn’t think of the search bar my self, and i stumbled upon the “3 Powerful Visualization Exercises [Step-by-Step Walk-Through]” page after i left the message (i am shaking my head)
as for the short story, and where it plays into my goals, i thought it would be good practice, it’s structured, and linear (plus i really like it, so i thought that might help) so i thought it would be a good place to start.
see, my overall goal is to get an education, but school work is hard for me, so i thought I’d practice on something a little more straightforward, get some practice in…
-imagery/visualization
-& working with memory palaces
then move to the school work once i began to get the hang of it.
it was a stepping stone.
(plus i just really like the story and would like to be able to recite it whenever i want without the need for the book 🙂
Those are good reasons.
I would only suggest you not use it as a deviation from working with real information for too long. The ancient author of Rhetorica Ad Herennium warned against seeking easier things when the goal is to remember harder things.
Learn to remember harder things first might sound counterintuitive, but it’s the way I’ve always done it. I believe it’s the way all the real successful people with memory techniques start with more ambitious material too.
I was wondering, in the free memory kit you mention about different ways to go through your Memory Palaces for exercise. I get snagged on this part.
Thanks for this question, Casey.
The free course assumes – and requires – you to have information you want to memorize. Then use the Memory Palace technique to memorize it and understand these instructions through implementation.
Please do so with the material you’ve mentioned memorizing.
Hey Anthony,
I was wondering if you could further explain how to make imagery and place it in a memory palace? I saw your third video on this but could use some more examples. How does the person, action, object technique work relative to what you are trying to learn? For example, if was trying to learn the definition of truth: the quality or state of being true. I would first place the word truth in a memory palace in a station, let’s say, the first station which is a closet. Then how would I make additional imagery to add this word (truth) and its location (the closet). Let me know if could I use something random, for example, Batman fighting the Joker? Or would it be better to have Batman fighting truth. Should truth be the object? Also, would I do this in my head by visually placing it in the memory palace combined with the word truth in a way? Or would I have to write it in the memory palace or next to it or draw it? Also in the your video for the 5 systems you need to memorize any mathematical or scientific formula, you mention an alphabetical image system. Could you explain this to me? Does alphabetical mean it is a bunch of alphabetical person, action and object images made from A-Z alphabet based on the first letter of the person? Lastly, what would be the process to make a system for associations to remember things like asterisks, tildes, ampersands and whatever you need? This email has a lot of detailed questions so take all the time you need to answer it. Thanks and I really appreciate your hard work here!
Thanks for these questions, Joshua.
In the Magnetic Memory Method, we avoid “making” imagery. That’s just too much work.
It’s also way too much work to use a PAO for concepts and vocabulary, except in rare cases. Some people use number systems for vocabulary regularly, but I only do that when absolutely necessary because there are usually much more direct ways when you’re not inventing or making associative-imagery.
Also note that associative-imagery, a.k.a. Magnetic Imagery is not strictly visual. That too is too much work, not nearly as effective as Magnetic Imagery. And Magnetic Imagery combined with other tools of the Magnetic Memory Method obey principles discovered in memory science related to active recall and using primacy effect, recency effect and serial-positioning to reduce the impact of the forgetting curve.
In terms of associations for symbols, these matters are covered in the numbers course in the MMM Masterclass. Actually, one of our best course participants just sent a bunch of the Magnetic Imagery he uses and gave me permission to share them in the course. I’ll be updating it soon with his contributions. Please stand by and thank you again for your questions.
Ok, so I would just put truth in the memory palace station (closet) alone without any complex imagery. Then I would just have to make truth in the closet and all other stations with keywords have conceptual, olfactory, gustatory, kinaesthetic, auditory, and visual aspects that correlate to my imagination to make it a truly magnetic memory palace. Or at least as many of these as possible. Is that right? Thanks
That’s not necessarily how I would proceed. I rarely use closets, for example, and I don’t think about the process as “putting” anything in Memory Palaces.
I would also probably not put a word like “truth” un-encoded in a Memory Palace.
Speculative examples probably won’t get you nearly as far as personal experimentation with the techniques.
Think of memory techniques as driving down a highway at night. You don’t need your headlights to show everything in order to reach the destination.
No matter how much I learn about memory through study and practice, my own practice remains like that. We don’t even know what the universe is yet, but that doesn’t stop us from continually exploring it through dedicated experimentation.
Plus, you’re going to need to the procedural memory piece of the puzzle, ideally sooner than later.
As the memory scientist John Seamon put it, procedural memory has to be experienced and cannot be described.
Again, ideally sooner than later. Happy experimenting!