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This is part 56 of the puzzle series Around the World in Many Days. Each part is solvable on its own.

Dear Puzzling,

The answers to these twelve rebuses are single words in alphabetical order. Your job is to solve them and group the answers to form four clues, each in turn giving a one-word answer.

Today I have visited a town built on steep hills to learn about traditional burial customs. Can you guess where I am?

Love, Gladys.

Rebus images

Image credits:
#1 left: TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0
#1 bottom right: Пресс-служба Президента РФ, CC BY 4.0
#4: Pernod Ricard, CC BY-SA 3.0
#8: TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0
#9: Donald McKague, CC BY 2.0
#10: Angela George, CC BY-SA 3.0

Gladys will return in Riverboat Soufflé.

Jafe
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2 Answers2

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Gladys is visiting:

SAGADA in the Philippines.

First solve the 12 rebuses, like so:

Row 1:
COMPUTING = CO for Colorado + MG containing PUTIN
COUNTY = UN in COT(Y)
HARBOR = date of PEARL HARBOR attack, minus PEARL
JACOB'S = JACOB’S Creek (wine brand)

Row 2:
LOVELACE = LOVE (0 in tennis) + L (litre) + ACE
MILITARY = ILIT in MARY
OFFICER = OFF + RICE with the R moved to the other end
OTTOMAN = OTT + OMAN

Row 3:
PIONEER = PI + ONE + ER (Queen Elizabeth II)
SEVENTH = VEN in SETH Rogen
SON = Periodic Table symbols for Sulfur, Oxygen and Nitrogen in trail order
SUFFOLK = SU + F + FOLK

Next, group the words to form some meaningful clues that can have single-word answers...

...all of which have 3 letters:

SUFFOLK COUNTY HARBOR = SAG
OTTOMAN MILITARY OFFICER = AGA
JACOB'S SEVENTH SON = GAD
COMPUTING PIONEER LOVELACE = ADA

Finally, assemble the solution by...

...overlapping the four answers by a single letter at a time: SAG+AGA+GAD+ADA. This forms SAGADA, a municipality in the Philippines famed for its hanging coffins (traditional burial customs).

Stiv
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    ha, seems like everybody took about the same amount of time to work through this one! nice work – juicifer Mar 07 '24 at 14:55
  • Wouldn't it also be helpful to note that OP made a reference to burial customs in the title? IMO it would probably be a good thing to include. – CrSb0001 Mar 07 '24 at 14:57
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    Well done all. Was anyone else looking at the wrong part of the world for because they didn't pay enough attention to the third rebus? – Daniel S Mar 07 '24 at 14:58
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    @juicifer Indeed, well done! I think it took me longest to identify the hiragana... I think your wordplay for #8 is more explicitly correct. – Stiv Mar 07 '24 at 15:02
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    @CrSb0001 (See the parentheses in the last section of my write-up - it's a direct quote from the puzzle's flavour text, which is itself what Jafe is referencing in the title...) – Stiv Mar 07 '24 at 15:03
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    @DanielS Yes indeed. And for a looong time I thought I was looking at Somalia in #8... – Stiv Mar 07 '24 at 15:04
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    @Stiv Oh my bad - I guess I didn't catch that at first :) – CrSb0001 Mar 07 '24 at 15:05
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    @Stiv I thought the same thing you did for #8 at first but was wondering why it was backwards! it felt like sloppy cluing until I realized it could work both ways lol – juicifer Mar 07 '24 at 15:09
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Rebus answers:

1: Colorado's postal code is CO, followed by Vladimir PUTIN between MG gives COMPUTING
2: cos y divided by sin y equals COT Y, and with the UN in the middle, we get COUNTY
3: December 7, 1941 was the date of the attack on PEARL HARBOR, so leaving behind the PEARL, we're left with just HARBOR
4: this is just a bottle of JACOB'S Creek vintage chardonnay
5: 0 in tennis is called LOVE, a cubic decimeter is equivalent to a liter, which has symbol L, and the card is the ACE of spades, giving us LOVELACE
6: the Virgin MARY containing the letters ILIT gives MILITARY
7: the switch is OFF, and taking the R from Condoleezza RICE and moving it to the end, we get ICER, making OFFICER
8: the nation of OMAN containing the letters TTO gives OTTOMAN
9: we have PI, ONE, and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, also known by her monogram, ER, giving PIONEER
10: SETH Rogan containing the letters VEN gives SEVENTH
11: elements 16, 8, and 7 are S, O and N, respectively, so we get SON
12: the glyph on top is a combination of the hiragana syllable SU and the letter F, while at the bottom we have the Newport FOLK festival. Putting these all together, we get SUFFOLK

Now, let's try to organize these into groups:

a SUFFOLK COUNTY HARBOR is SAG
one rank of an OTTOMAN MILITARY OFFICER was AGA
JACOB'S SEVENTH SON was GAD
LOVELACE COMPUTING PIONEER refers to ADA

Combining all of these, we get

SAGADA, a Filipino town noted for its custom of hanging coffins!

juicifer
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