Ask NASA Climate | November 6, 2011, 16:00 PST

Pick of the pics

The River Nile

Image captured by NASA's Multi Angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer onboard the Terra satellite, on January 30, 2011, taken from the JPL Photojourna. Credit: NASA/GSFC/JPL and the MISR Team. — Image captured by NASA's Multi Angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer onboard the Terra satellite, on January 30, 2011, taken from the JPL Photojournal. Credit: NASA/GSFC/JPL and the MISR Team.

This image shows the northern part of the Nile River, as of January 30, 2001. The Nile is the longest river in the world, extending for about 6700 kilometers (4200 miles) from its headwaters in the highlands of eastern Africa. At the apex of the fertile Nile River Delta is the Egyptian capital city of Cairo. To the west are the Great Pyramids of Giza. North of here the Nile branches into two distributaries, the Rosetta to the west and the Damietta to the east.

Also visible in this image is the Suez Canal, a shipping waterway connecting Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez. The Gulf is an arm of the Red Sea, and is located on the right-hand side of the picture.