The convention facilities, missions, The Alamo, and the overall historical character of the city bring 26 million visitors every year.
Published Jan 11, 2016The bright lights of Shanghai’s city center and the distinctive new skyscrapers that form the skyline along the Pudong district make for spectacular night viewing from space.
Published Apr 16, 2012Though governed by separate countries, the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, merge into an apparently seamless metropolis in this satellite image, but vegetation is confined mostly to the United States' side of the border.
Published Mar 15, 2009Galveston Island has alternately been a home to Native Americans, a base for Mexico’s rebellion against Spain, a pirate kingdom, a sea port, and even the capital of the Republic of Texas. In September 1900, the city was largely destroyed by a powerful hurricane. This storm damage, combined with construction of the Houston Ship Channel and discovery of oil in eastern Texas, shifted the center of trade northwest to Houston. This astronaut photograph shows some of the human impacts in Galveston that are easily observed from the vantage point of low-Earth orbit. The city of Galveston dominates the eastern half of Galveston Island, appearing as the gray-white region at center right. A large seawall along the Gulf of Mexico—shown here along the southern coastline of Galveston Island—protects most of the city. To the west of Galveston, coastal wetlands are largely submerged by regional subsidence—sinking of the land as a result of ground water withdrawal by the petrochemical industry of Houston and Texas City.
Published Nov 27, 2006A key city on the old Silk Road stands midway between Western Europe and China.
Published Sep 23, 2013Astronauts have the best view of the city’s well-known “swept wing” city layout, which takes the form of a flying bird that is expressed in the curves of the boulevards. The stadium sits between the wings.
Published Jun 16, 2014There were few Indian rulers as passionate about architecture as Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh, the founder of Jaipur.
Published Aug 24, 2019The fast-growing city of Cairo has spilled onto desert plains well beyond the lush floodplain of the Nile River.
Published Apr 2, 2020Buenos Aires is one of the larger cities seen by orbiting crews. Twelve million people, almost one third of all Argentines, live in this city, often called the “Paris of the South”.
Published Mar 16, 2003The brilliant lights of Belgium shine in this nighttime photograph taken from the International Space Station.
Published May 5, 2014Québec City is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Americas, and the one that still feels closest to its roots.
Published Feb 12, 2018Flood water continues receding from Thailand’s historic city of Ayutthaya in December 2011 and January 2012.
Published Jan 12, 2012Several new farms, parks, gardens, and tree-planting projects have made Al Ain one of the greenest cities in the Middle East.
Published Sep 6, 2015Madrid is the political, economic, and cultural center of Spain.
Published Sep 12, 2016Planned at the end of the sixteenth century and built during the seventeenth, Amsterdam has inspired generations of city planners.
Published Jul 21, 2013The Mongolian capital is spreading outward as migrants from the countryside fill neighborhoods on the fringes of the city.
Published Jun 4, 2019Cities, moonlight, and fossil-fuel industries frame the Gulf of Mexico with light.
Published Mar 23, 2015Juba, a port city on the White Nile, is the capital of the new nation of South Sudan and is one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
Published Jul 2, 2012