NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Let the Games Begin!

The Olympic Games have returned to their Greek birthplace, and as athletes from around the world gather in Athens, NASA offers a unique perspective in this image from the Terra spacecraft.

Situated on the Attic plain, Athens is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and is served by the port of Piraeus about five miles to the southwest. It was incorporated into the city-state of Athens in the ninth century B.C. and reached its golden age in the fifth century B.C. under Pericles, with a population of perhaps 200,000. In 1997 the International Olympic Committee chose Athens, the site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, as the host of the 2004 Summer Olympics.

The image was made on April 29, 2004 by the Advanced Spaceborne Themal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on board Terra. ASTER is a cooperative effort between NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center.

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

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