Overpass query example

Telecom masts and towers

Find communication towers and masts. Example: the Netherlands.

Telecom towers carry tower:type=communication, on man_made=mast or man_made=tower.

The query

[out:json][timeout:60];
area["ISO3166-1"="NL"][admin_level=2]->.nl;
nwr["tower:type"="communication"](area.nl);
out center;

Run it

Running the query…

Live result from overpass.ch, cached for up to 12 hours. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

How it works

Searching for the tower:type alone covers both masts and towers.

Variations

Only mobile phone masts: add ["communication:mobile_phone"="yes"].

Run it from your code

curl https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter \
  --data-urlencode 'data@query.overpassql'

import requests

query = open("query.overpassql").read()
r = requests.post("https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter",
                  data={"data": query}, timeout=120)
r.raise_for_status()
print(r.json()["elements"][:3])

const res = await fetch("https://api.overpass.ch/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/interpreter", {
  method: "POST",
  body: new URLSearchParams({ data: query }),
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(await res.text());
console.log(await res.json());

Save the query as query.overpassql. It works the same in Overpass Turbo, QGIS and JOSM.

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Your first query: cafés in a bounding box

The simplest useful Overpass query: every café inside a rectangle of latitudes and longitudes, with a line-by-line explanation.

All examples →