A technique where you store things to remember as vivid images at an ordered series of familiar places, then mentally walk the route to recall them in order.

The steps in one breath: pick a place you know well → choose an ordered set of spots (loci) along a route through it → turn each item into a striking image and park it at a spot → to recall, take the mental walk and "read off" what you left at each place.

It converts an abstract list (which the brain forgets fast) into a journey through space (which the brain holds effortlessly). That single move — from list to place — is the whole trick.

From the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos (~500 BC), who identified crushed banquet guests by remembering where each had been sitting.

The legend: Simonides stepped out of a banquet hall moments before its roof collapsed, killing everyone inside beyond recognition. He found he could name each victim by recalling their place at the table. He realised that location had organised the memory — and the deliberate technique of placing ideas at remembered spots was born. "Loci" is Latin for "places"; the method is literally the method of places.