Overhead View

The Atlantic's "In Focus" feature for Oct. 16 is a selection of satellite photos that show seven square miles of different places on Earth.

The wilderness or natural images are the most interesting, since most of the city scenes resemble each other from that distance. New York City is an exception, since the picture chosen includes the green rectangle of Central Park. Egypt's Giza is another, as the three pyramids of the ancient Giza complex are a part of that picture.

On the other hand, the seven square miles of Greenland's ice sheet looks about like you'd expect: A sheet of heavy-bond stationery, broken up only by a small meltwater lake in one corner. Two pictures of braided rivers -- one in Iceland and one in Mongolia -- show just how different those phenomena look observed from high enough up in the air.

Pic #25, the Maria Atoll in the south Pacific, looks like it would be a neat place to hang out, except that it's uninhabited. The fact that the interior lagoon is a hypersaline lake, similar to the Dead Sea, might make it tough to get drinkable water and contribute to the unfriendly living conditions.