Off the southeast coast of Africa is the fourth largest island in the world, now known as the Malagasy Republic but once called Madagascar. The nation consists of more than 15,000,000 inhabitants. Here is a full island view made by the MER on Envisat; it shows most of the island to be semi-desert but a lush rain forest (green) is developed on the east owing to monsoonal rains from the Indian ocean.
This Landsat scene shows some of Madagascar's northwestern lands, drained by the Mahajamba/Sofia rivers to the north and the Ikopa/Betsiboka river further south (after they join, they form a distinctive inland multichannel drainage pattern). The dark red marks a forest that survives the general land clearing, leaving much of the landscape as a savannah.
The Horn of Africa is occupied by part of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, and Eritrea. In the Landsat mosaic below, the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden at what is known geologically as a triple point (meeting of three plates), producing the Afar Triangle. Fault zones underlie each of the three arms. The land portion becomes the Rift Zone. The dark areas on the African side (the Arabian side has the country of Yemen) are young basaltic flows that inundate tens of thousands of square kilometers.
Yemen's tip seems to fit against Africa in the small country of Djibouti. Here is that country imaged from space:
The Afar Triangle itself, filled with basalts released when Asia Minor pulled away from Africa, lies within landlocked Ethiopia, seen in this mosaic:
Much of the Ethiopian Afar is covered with poor soils and has only a sparse population:
Among the largest cities in Africa is Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia:
It was here that in the 1930s that I can first remember my awareness of Africa. Ethiopia had been invaded by Mussolini's Italian army in an effort to expand his land holdings. But the Ethiopians heroically resisted the Italians, ultimately preserving their country. They were led by Emperor Haile Selassie, shown here, who was much admired by Americans for his heroic stand:
One of the dominant and most historic rivers on Earth is the Nile - 6695 km (4185 miles) long (its White Nile Branch). Here is a map showing its extent and the countries it affects.
Living almost exclusively along the Nile, Egyptian and Sudanese civilizations flourished in the narrow floodplains and irrigated bank lands for at least 5 millenia. The main tributary to the Nile is called the Blue Nile, which starts from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The White Nile's source was unknown until the 19th century when a British explorer finally traced it to Africa's largest inland body of water, Lake Victoria, one of a group in several central African countries:
Sudan is one of the largest countries in Africa. Here is a color mosaic of Sudan and neighbors:
This color mosaic is perhaps too "colorful" and thus misleading. In western Sudan is the region called Darfur, much in the news because of the mass starvation that has been reported frequently in recent years. This SPOT image gives a truer picture of the bleak terrain that so poorly supports agriculture:
Most agriculture in this part of Africa depends on the Nile for water. As the Nile runs towards its source in central Africa, it passes through the Republic of Sudan and splits near Khartoum into the White Nile, seen here, and the Blue Nile to the east.
Khartoum is one of the larger African cities - more than a million people - made famous in the 1885 defense against Arab tribesmen led by British General Charles Gordon (who was killed). Here is a view from the International Space Station, showing that, like the Amazon-Rio Negro rivers seen earlier in this Section, the two streams differ in the silt loads they contain.
The clay-surfaced land, with occasional dunes (bottom), can be tilled to support crops, if properly watered. Water drawn from the Blue Nile, derived from the Sennar Dam as part of the Gezira Scheme, provides abundant irrigation for very distinctive, elongated farms whose main crop is cotton, the prime export from the Sudan. The soils are sufficiently depleted of some nutrients to require crop rotation (usually to millet) during alternate years:
The above Landsat scene is somewhat misleading, giving the impression of a colorful landscape. This astronaut photo shows that the land is actually a barren desert but the elongate farms (mostly cotton and wheat) are a uniform dark green:
This intriguing Landsat image below shows the White Nile as it flows through southern Sudan. The dark tones are organic soils developed on ancient rocks. Savannah grasses, acacia, and riverine vegetation account for the reds in this false color rendition.
This next SPOT image shows how the Nile Valley is rich in agriculture even as the surrounding areas (here in southern Egypt) are barren:
One of the most striking space views of Africa is the Nile Delta built as the great Nile River splits into the Rosetta Nile (left) and the Domietta Nile (right) while emptying into the southeastern Mediterranean Sea. The roughly triangular appearance struck ancient mappers as looking like the Greek letter D, as viewed from the north, hence the term "delta" has been applied to similar river mouth depositional landforms worldwide. The delta, with its system of canals spreading from the main stream pair, is so well irrigated that it is given almost totally to farming of, principally, cotton along with corn and other foodstuffs. Flooding used to supply water replenishment but this has largely ceased since the building of the Aswan Dam well to the south. The largest city in Africa, Cairo, with well over 6 million residents, is the bluish patch near the bottom apex of the delta. Most of Egypt is like the light colored areas to the west and east, sand-covered land unsuited to any production of edibles. Coastal sand dunes have blocked off lagoons, with salt marshes.
Let us put the Nile Delta more in context with its surroundings. Here is a Landsat mosaic covering much of Egypt that gives a better idea of the desert sands and bedrock beyond the Nile.:
The dark red and green, indicative of vegetation, along the Nile and its delta suggest that those areas are heavily populated. In fact, most of Egypt's population is clustered adjacent to this river and its life-sustaining water. An indication of how population density is dependent on water is afforded by this nighttime astronaut photo from the Space Station in which the lights from towns and farm dwellings pinpoint where the people are:
The two full delta images do not have the resolution needed to pick out the Suez Canal, built under the direction of the famed Ferdinand de Lesseps in the 19th Century. Here it is as it nears the Mediterranean.
Cairo is a widely dispersed city located at the inland apex of the Nile Delta. We show first as a SAR image (ESA satellite), then in more detail as a Quickbird image, and last as a ground scene at night:
The second largest (4 million) city in Egypt is Alexandria (the Arabic spelling is Al Iskandariyah), in the delta on the Mediterranean coast. It was founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great. In Roman times it was the largest city in the Roman Empire and was famed for its great scholarly library. Besides Egyptians and Greeks it had the largest population of Jews (settled during the diaspora) of the time. Today it is both a seaport and a resort. Here is a photo from the International Space Station and a ground scene:
A feel for how barren most of Egypt and northern Sudan are is gained from this astronaut photo looking eastward taken during the Apollo 9 mission:
Upriver in Egypt is the Aswan Dam, built by the Egyptians (with Soviet help) as a means for generating electricity. Here it is in this astronaut photo:
Built during the presidency of Gamal Nasser (the lake behind it is named after him), the Aswan Dam is controversial. It was constructed by the Soviets, which proved troubling to the NATO nations. But, of greater concern was the environmental impact on the cultivated lands along the Nile. So far, careful control of released water has minimized any damage.
Cairo and Alexandria are old cities, tracing their settlement along or near the Mediterranean to pre-Christian times. Another in this category is Carthage, a Phoenician city (in present day Libya) which was the center of efforts to challenge the growing Roman empire during this period. Here is a photo of the present-day Carthage as taken by an astronaut from the International Space Station.
We are now ready to cross over the Nile into the Middle East. The next image is a mosaic showing the "hot spot" of the Middle East, Israel and neighboring countries, a land of seemingly never ending strife and hostility but also with Jerusalem as the site of ancient holy places associated with three great religions. The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea (south) both lie astride the great Dead Sea fault, a strike-slip fracture akin to the San Andreas fault; here too is the boundary of two tectonic plates. Lebanon (with Beirut), part of Syria (with Damascus and the Golan Heights), Jordan, and a sliver of the Sinai Peninsula all appear in this image.
A closer look at this Mideast center of history and current trouble spot is offered in this Terra MODIS view (below), with some of the geographic features in Israel, the West Bank (Palestine) and neighboring countries identified by annotation. The green area at the bottom of the Dead Sea is a manmade evaporation basin in which salt is extracted from the saline waters piped in from this body of water which is largely below sea level.
Here is a map of Israel including the disputed West Bank:
The capital of Israel is Tel Aviv, a city of more than 1,000,000, on the Mediterranean.
The landscape and vegetation of Israel is quite diverse. Near the coast rainfall moisture gives rise to trees and fertile land. The first photo below shows farmland just inland. The second is typical of wooded hills.
Southern Israel, especially near the Dead Sea, is very dry country, as seen in these photos of the Negev Desert.
The main inland river is the Jordan, noted several times in the Gospels. Its small size is surprising to many visitors. The River Jordan's banks support trees in the north but it becomes barren as it approaches its destination - the Dead Sea.
Possibly the most famous and important city in the world, historywise, is Jerusalem. It can trace its founding back at least 4000 years. Over that time it has been a holy city for the Hebrews, the Muslims, and the Christians, and even now is much in the news. A definitive website that summarizes Jerusalem is the old reliable Wikipedia. Because of its importance we shall cover it on this page with more than the usual number of illustrations.
The Holy City of Jerusalem appears as a darker purplish "blotch" in this ASTER image:
Compare the above rendition with this SPOT image, which shows Jerusalem's extent but doesn't bring out the dwellings clearly:
A better rendition of central Jerusalem is seen in this IKONOS image:
Modern Jerusalem is a city of nearly three-quarters of a million Jews, Christians, and Muslims. This map shows its extent:
However, of particular interest is the walled Old City whose main features are shown in the map below; the sacred ground of the Old City has been subdivided into four sectors: Armenian; Christian; Jewish; Moslem.:
Correlate the landmarks in the Old City map with this map that shows Jerusalem at the end of the first century (time of Christ):
The city was much smaller then. Of particular interest to Christians is the Via Dolorosa, which marks the path that Jesus Christ took from Herod's palace to the site of his crucifixion on Golgotha. Today, this path is "swallowed up" in the buildings of modern Jerusalem, as indicated in this aerial view, on which the numbers correspond to the 14 stops that mark events in the "Way of the Cross":
An overall panorama of present-day Jerusalem appears in this aerial view:
This is another aerial oblique view of the inner part of greater Jerusalem:
The key feature in this photo is the golden domed building is the Dome of the Rock, a holy Moslem shrine that lies within the Old City (walled).
The Dome of the Rock dominates this subscene extracted from the high resolution IKONOS image of the Old City:
The Dome of the Rock appears behind the famed "Wailing Wall", the holiest site in the Jewish faith; it is all that is left of the Temple that was built by King Herod two decades before Christ's birth which was destroyed by the Romans in 79 AD:
Leaving Jerusalem to return to the Mediterranean coast, part of the presumptive Palestinean nation is Gaza, on the Mediterranean. Here is an astronaut photo of that city strip:
The Israelis and the Muslims have had several (usually short) wars since much of Palestine was given to the Jews in 1947. One adversary has been Jordan; another is Syria. We show Amman, Jordan's capital, and Damascus, the capital of Syria in these SPOT images.
Beirut, the capital of the small country of Lebanon, has been in the news in recent years, most frequently in 2006 (see Overview). Here is a photo taken by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station that show much of this city and some surroundings; an aerial photo establishes context:
The next image is another Landsat scene of an area to the east of Israel. The mouth of the fabled Tigris and Euphrates Rivers empties through a delta into the Persian Gulf in southeastern Iraq. Those rivers meet into a single channel, the al Arab, in the swamplands in the upper left of the image. Crops along the river include wheat, millet, sorghum, cotton, rice, and dates. The Rivers Karun (top center) and Jarrahi (right center) are both in western Iran. The lower left corner is a barren desert, with sand dunes, which includes part of Kuwait, over which the Gulf War in 1991 was fought between a coalition of nations and the Iraqi invaders (see page 13-4c). Several black plumes of smoke emanate from the burning of gases released from oil fields. Kuwait lies atop one of the richest concentrations of oil and gas in the world.
Much of the Arabian Peninsula - actually a huge, wide land mass bounded by the Red Sea and Persian Gulf and thus not strictly a peninsula in geographic terms - is covered by barren desert with vast sand seas as evident in this mosaic in which the Rab al Khali is largely uninhabited (the rendition here depicts the sands as a "blur").
The mosaic is pleasing to look at but not really true in color. A more valid rendition is this single OrbView-2 rendition:
This ASTER image shows a large part of the Arabian Shield; match it up with the map. Some of the scene is a volcanic field near the coast:
As seen in the mosaics, the ASTER image and the map, Saudi Arabia's western side is composed of the Arabian Shield, a great mass of crystalline rocks (mostly metamorphic) that were once part of eastern Africa until separated by plate tectonic rifting in the Tertiary Period. The highest part in this scene is a dissected scarp that runs from along the west edge. The scarp in places is almost 1.6 km (1 mile) high, and erosion in this area leads to mountain-like prominences.. The plateau to its northeast includes dark volcanic rocks (younger basalts). In the coastal plains against the Red Sea is a mix of natural vegetation and localized farmlands. (See page 17-3 for a Landsat mosaic that shows a much larger part of the Arabian Shield.)
This photo strip gives some idea of the appearance of typical Saudi Arabia terrain which here includes both the shield hills and the desert:
Most of Saudi Arabia is barren desert in the classic sense, namely, millions of acres of sand hundreds of meters thick, with surfaces showing a variety of dune types. The Empty Quarter of southern Saudi Arabia is host to the Ar Rab Al Khali basin and desert fill. Several types of dunes are expressed in this Landsat image:
We saw an image of Riyahd, Saudi Arabia's capital, on page 4-4. Famed throughout the Islamic world is the coastal city of Mecca, with its holy shrines including the al Haram Mosque which devout Muslims must visit at least once in their lifetimes.
In the far courtyard one sees the Ka'ba, a large marble structure containing the Black Stone, worshiped by Mohammed's followers as having fallen from Heaven (it is actually a dark meteorite). This IKONOS image shows the Mosque and the rectangular structure, around which the people circulate.
Along the east side of the Arabian Peninsula, bounded by the Persian Gulf, are several small countries - Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. These have benefited greatly from revenues of mid-Eastern oil production. The sheiks who rule them have wisely invested these monies in developing extraordinary cities that have become population centers supported by water from wells and from desalinization of ocean waters. The citizens have the highest per capita income in the world. This results from oil money (which will start to run out around 2020. The intention is to use the oil profits to make these cities financial centers and top rate tourist attractions. Because of the growing importance of these centers, we will zero in on their appearance from space and from the ground. First, a map of the region:
As seen from space:
Note the island labeled Sir Bani Yas (see map above for location). It is about 9 km (6 miles) wide and consists of sand and mud deposits gathered around a central surface of low hills carved into the gypsum caprock of a salt dome. In the astronaut photo below, the numerous elongate features are actually fruit orchards that were planted on the island.
Dubai, the chief city of the Emirates, appears in this satellite view:
The image that many associate with Dubai is this manmade island cluster of luxury homes and apartments, seen in this pair of ASTER images, showing growth along the coastline between 2000 and 2009. The offshore Palm Jumeirah has been created by dredging sand from the Gulf.
So, what's on the "fronds" of Palm Jumeirah? This aerial photo provides the answer:
Nearby is a planned curiosity that stands out in this view from space (an astronaut photo). The pattern created by building up artificial islands made from sand is that of the five continents of the world.
The downtown part of Dubai, as seen from the ground:
The tallest and most luxurious hotel in the world is the Burj-al-Arab. Begun in the early 1990s it opened just before the Millenium 2000 New Years Eve. It is shaped after an arabian sail(ing) ship. Its construction involved one engineering and artistic feat after another. You can read about this marvel at this. Wikepedia website
Currently under construction is the Burj Dubai, which at 780 meters (2684 ft) to its antenna will be the tallest building in the world.
A complex of 5 apartment building skyscrapers is known as the Dubai Towers. It will soon be under construction.
Nearby Abu Dhabi is keeping pace with Dubai. First a view from space, then an aerial oblique photo.
The Abu Dhabi Arts Center is an architectural wonder, rivalling the Sydney (Australia) Opera House.
Not to be outdown, Doha, the capital of Qatar, is also building many skyscrapers. Here is an apartment complex under construction
Doha, as seen from space:
The above photos of the Emirates and Qatar indicate the region to be undergoing a fabulous period of development. The intent is to make Dubai and the other cities into several "international Las Vegas". Symbolic of this is the Atlantis hotel on the Palm Jumeirah:
But for the time being, there is trouble in Paradise. In November of 2009 world markets were stunned to learn of the possible default of about $60 billion in loans taken out by the Dubai government to fund the boom. The worldwide recession has curtailed both tourism and investment, so that the United Arab Emirates has proved not to be immune to economic bad news. Hopefully, the region can "ride out" the economic malaise and in time be restored to full health.
Oman and the United Arab Emirates are separated from Iran by the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow passage from the Indian Ocean into the Persian Gulf. The terrain on either side is mountainous. This ASTER image shows the straits and the Musandam Peninsula.
While more properly placed in southern Asia, the country of Iran is often thought of as part of the Middle East since it is politically tied to the Muslim communities such as Syria and Saudi Arabia. Here is a mosaic of the entire country; below that is a map showing its largest cities:
Iran is mostly desert and semi-desert (subtropical conditions occur near the Caspian Sea. Two mountain ranges - the Alborz (Elburz) north of Tehran and the Zagros in western Iran are evident in this MODIS image because they are snow-covered.
The southern part of the Zagros Mountains is snow-free in the above image. It consists there of elongate anticlines. (You saw satellite images of these in Section 2 and will again in Section 17). Here we show most of these mountains in another satellite image:
The capital of Iran, Tehran, is shown in this Landsat-1 image as a dark area just off the image center:
Tehran sits up against the Elburz Mountains, as seen in this aerial view:
The next two are higher resolution satellite images of Tehran (now a city with 13.5 million people in its metropolitan reaches).
Beneath these is a 2 meter resolution IKONOS image of a small section of the city known for its parks:
The second city of Iran is Mashad (about 2.4 million people), east of Tehran:
Very much in the news in recent years is the defiance (to the UN) of Iran regarding its nuclear programs. The Iranians claim the Nantanz uranium-enrichment plant outside Tehran (and others) is being used to prepare for electricity generation. The U.S. warns the world that high grade uranium produced therein could be used to make nuclear weapons. Here is a satellite view of the facility:
The Iranians claim the Natanz uranium-enrichment plant outside Isfahan (and other areas) is being used to prepare for electricity generation. But a by-product of the burning of uranium fuel is weapons-grade transuranic elements. The U.S. warns the world that high grade uranium produced therein could be used to make nuclear weapons. Here is a Google Quickbird image of Isfahan and the area where the plant is located.
Here are two satellite views of the facility itself:
Iran is expanding its nuclear program. Publically, the Iranian government claims that the plants (there are at least several) are designed to provide power for its citizens. Here is a WorldView-2 image of facilities (largely underground) near Qom, southwest of Tehran, that are supposed to be peaceful but are as of Summer 2010 still supersecret:
The great concern to the UN and others trying to maintain international peace is this: If enriched uranium is indeed produced at these plants, it could be adequate to make one or more bombs. These would be serious threats to Israel. To defend themselves from potential nuclear attack, the Israelis might choose to conduct a pre-emptive strike against Iran. This could trigger a full-scale war.
Although Iran is both an ancient and an advanced nation within south Asia, most of its land is barren and sparsely settled. The bleak and seemingly harsh desert lands, especially in the eastern half of Iran, is evident in this image:
Yet the desert, in the Kasht-e-kavir, can be colorful and interesting geologically:
Here is a region about 300 km (200 miles) southeast of Tehran known as the Great Kavir. Kavirs are similar to playas in the southwest U.S. The evident geologic folds are not high mountains but low hills within a surface that has been beveled by peneplanation.
After having seen these desert lowlands, it may seem surprising that the highest mountain in the Middle East occurs in Iran. This is Mount Damavand (5680 m; 18598 ft) in the Elburz mountains northeast of Tehran. This is a young (less than 100000 years old) stratovolcano that has not erupted in modern times. It is seen below in an astronaut photo from the ISS:
Now, on to Asia proper.
Primary Author: Nicholas M. Short, Sr.