Earth from Space - Image Description

STS077-717-018 Cyprus May 1996
Cyprus, covering 3578 square miles (9267 square kilometers) in the eastern Mediterranean Sea 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Turkey, is apparent in this south-looking, low-oblique photograph. The island has an irregular shape, a number of wide bays and prominent capes, and two east-west-oriented mountain ranges--the higher Troödos Mountains in the southwest and the lower Kyrenia Mountains in the north-northeast. Between the mountain ranges lies a wide plain, the island's chief agricultural area that produces grapes (used for wine making), cereals, olives, tobacco, citrus fruits, and cotton. Sheep and goat raising, silkworm cultivation, and fishing are important livelihoods on the island. Mineral resources include copper, gypsum, chrome, and asbestos. Cape Bagase is the small protrusion into the Mediterranean Sea from the Turkish mainland (lower left). Clouds cover most of the Taurus Mountains of Turkey (bottom third of the photograph).

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.