USING THIS LIST

• FINDING NAMES: Ignore words like "the", "Mt.", or "Lake." Mt. Hathor is under H, Cape Juno is under J.
• EACH ENTRY: the title links to a tour with local maps. Links inside an entry get you simple definitions.
• CAPITALS--Large or famous places are in CAPITALS.
• EAST AND WEST: on Venus, longitude is always measured east, from 0 right up to 359.
  

Abe Mango: 47 N, 212 E

An island in the torrid zone off western Ulfrun, just south of Bathkol. Abe Mango's a narrow mountainous island 400 km long, completely hidden under Megazoic rainforest. To the southwest are the four Tituba Islands.

Abeona Island: 45 S, 274 E

A stormy island in the torrid zone, off southwest Themis, off Cape Ama. Abeona's a classic corona at least 300 km wide, completely hidden under Megazoic rainforest--Abeona takes the brunt of storms rolling in off both the Helen and Wawalag Seas.

Achek Islands: 35 S, 225 E

A chain of islands between the Helen and Wawalag Seas, west of Themis, south of Chondi, east of Imdr). Achek is a long east-west ridge creating islets for 1200 km or more. The cluster at the far east end is called the Hlineu Islands, but this name has spread to mean the whole east-west line, so that Achek refers only to the tight group of larger islands at the west end, around T-shaped Achek itself.

Acrea: 24 N, 243 E

Acrea's a green island 150 km across, just off the tip of Perchta Peninsula on Ulfrun (the "scorpion's tail" of Aphrodite). Acrea's mostly open subtropical forest, with denser rainforest on the northwest slopes.

Aditi Bay: 25 S, 189 E

A deep bay over 500 km long, in southeast Aphrodite. Aditi is named for an undersea ridge running down its center--at first glance I thought the whole area was a cape. But the Aditi Islands are quite small--they merely define the outer boundary of the bay. North (inland) are the Vibert-Douglas Mountains. To the east is Cape Peña; to the west, Cape Klafsky and huge Poranica Bay.

ADIVAR BAY: 5-15 N, 70-80 E

a huge, irregular sound north of Aphrodite (Ovda and the Jaws). It's over 1200 km wide and long. Bounded by Lemkechen to the north and the Unelanuhi Peninsula and Lake Habonde to its east, Adivar forms a maze of land and sea half the size of the Mediterranean. It's even just possible that Lakes Habonde and Helvi are really saltwater arms of the bay, making the whole thing one sea. Adivar, whatever it is, is named for a crater some 30 km wide, now drowned and invisible 200 km offshore. The region has a warm humid climate rather like Virginia--or southern Japan.

Adrasthea Islands: 33-34 N, 55-57 E

Adrasthea is a small archipelago east of Bell, in the Bereghinya Sea south of Ishtar. The easternmost island is as large as the rest put together. All are hot, rainy, forested to the waterline, and rugged; though the hills are low, they extend to the sea and drop in jagged cliffs a hundred meters high. It's as if the islands were torn swatches of carpet glued onto the floor of Venus. Similar patches appear all over Venus, such as Dylacha southwest of Aphrodite, Cape Centlivre in , or Hippolyta east of Dione. Venus seems to generate many cliff-edged, jagged-shaped (even swiss-cheese) uplands a few hundred meters high, while Earth accretes a few large continental plates a few kilometers high. The mechanism is not that obvious.

Adzoba: 15 N, 115 E

An oval island about 150 km wide, one of the Gegute Is., off Thetis in central Aphrodite. Adzoba's a tessera field--a maze of deep, winding, shady, wooded canyons below grassy mesas, as steep and surreal as a Roadrunner cartoon. Though Adzoba's ringed in lovely coral reefs, it's overshadowed by Allatu to the northeast, with its huge cliff-lined coral bays. To the west is lonely Dhisana. Southeast are cliffy Merit and Ptah.

Aegina Farrum: 37 N, 25 E

Aegina is a small island just west of Kruchina, in the Bereghinya Sea, south of Ishtar. Aegina's climate is similar to its neighbors, Becuma and Dzuzdi--hot, jungly. But its geology is visibly different: they're mountains awash in the sea, but little Aegina's flat as a pancake ("farrum" is Latin for pancake). Aegina's frothy lava welled up in a puddle and hardened at the edges first, exactly like a pancake, building up a disk-island with circular cliffs 100 meters high, capped by a now-forested plateau kilometers wide. Farra (plural of farrum) usually come in groups, but the surrounding islands and hills are all ordinary (for Venus) volcanoes and coronas, like Cape Cavell just to the north.

Aeracura Mts: 19 S, 239 E

The Aeracuras are a green ecological island above the savanna of northern Chondi. Taller than Mt Gwen just to the south, the Aeracuras catch enough rain to be solidly forested; the range is the source of most of the rivers feeding Lake Darlene. The coast here is broken by narrow sounds full of coral reefs. To the west is Lake Darlene and the Marie Hills. To the north is Cape Gabriela; to the east, Lake Gabriela and Atete Corona.

Aethlflaed Bay: 19 S, 197 E

If you fried the Eiffel Tower, it'd sound a lot like Aethlflaed. "Eiffel fried", that's it. Aethlflaed's an impact crater forming a bay 80 km across, on the southeast shore of Aphrodite. Aethlflaed opens into a larger round bay which may be a crater too, since, like Aethlflaed, it has a central peak--common for craters, rare for coronas (the other possibility). No permanent streams run into the bay; the vegetation's mostly dry grass fed by night fogs and drizzles and an occasional thundershower. South of Aethlflaed, away from the inland deserts, trees and surface water do appear. Though the land is dry, the sea is rich: coral heads dot both bays. Aethlflaed seems to be part of a line of fresh, sharp impacts: see Cape Stanton and Isabella. East of Aethlflaed is Jokwa Sound, full of rocky islets, sheltered by Loretta Island, 1000 km long and just 50 wide. North (inland) are the Vibert-Douglas Mountains.

Aglaonice: 27 S, 340 E

Aglaonice is a triangular island 250 km wide, off the east coast of Ushas, in Dione, the small continent east of Themis. Aglaonice was largely shaped by a big impact crater: its east is a ring of rock and debris 150 km across, with a wide central lagoon--shallow compared to Martian or Lunar craters (and a classic proof that old Venus's "solid" surface was as deceptive as a glacier--over eons, it crept up to fill the wound). Still, it's too deep for coral, which only hugs the shore. There are two more crater-island rings, just west of Aglaonice: Danilova and Saskia. The trio made a nice group photo much reproduced in early books on Venus. They're probably all scars of a single catastrophe--a comet-chain like Shoemaker-Levy. Despite its violent origin, Aglaonice today looks quite Polynesian--warm, wooded, coral reefs, lagoon... Aglaonice's a busy place, for it's on the flyway from Dione to Alpha in the east; wide low Menat is the next island out; Saskia, the ring-island, leads back to Dione.

Agraulos Lakes: 28 S, 165 E

A small string of chasma-lakes near the south coast of Aphrodite east of Lake Vishera and just south of Bona Corona. Most of the lakes are modest, but Lake Agraulos proper is 250 km long. The chasma-valley lacks the usual neat flanking ridges; a confusion of hills huddle round the lakes. The land's a pleasant quilt of meadows and scattered woods, with sunny days and light but regular night rains. To the east stretches the similar Austen Coast.

Aigul Bay, Cape Aigul: 31 N, 293 E

A bay 200 km wide at the north tip of Beta, the last gasp of Devana Chasma. Bracketing the bay are Capes Daphne on the east and Aigul on the west. The shores are hot and rainforested--the wettest part of Beta.

Aikhylu Bay: 31 N, 293 E

A triangular bay on the east coast of Beta, south of Blathnat Hole and just north of Cape Degu. Aikhylu Bay is a small chasma (rift) cutting into the mainland--offshore, it points toward long Shishimora Island, which parallels it and may be part of the same structure. Aikhylu Bay drains Sanger Steppe, a prairie 400 km wide. Beyond the Hyndla Range southwest of the bay lies Truth Steppe, a second great prairie, named for Sojourner Truth.

AINO SEA: 30-50 S, 80-180 E

The largest southern ocean, south of Aphrodite. The Aino opens west into the Tahmina Sea, east into the Wawalag and Helen Seas, and south into the Antarctic Sea.

Aita Reefs: 6 N, 271 E

Aita is a lonely seamount in the in the middle of the Hinemoa Sea. Aita rears just close enough to the surface to support coral reefs, but unfortunately, they haven't yet built up islets or even a shoal. "Unfortunately" because Aita's on the only flyway to Tuulikki and would form an ideal rest stop. Maybe in another eon or so.

Aitchison: 17 S, 349 E

Aitchison is a lone volcano rising from the Lavinia Sea northwest of Alpha. It's a small but pleasant subtropical islet with wooded heights above a skirt of savanna and palm beaches. Aitchison is a link on the flyway from Alpha to Navka Archipelago; the next stop over is Iyatik, a wider, lower island, then Bhumidevi, a huge "blue hole" with flanking islets, like an overgrown Terran atoll. Aitchison has a southern twin: Tey.

Akeley Peninsula: 9 N, 243 E

A narrow cape 300 km long, in the Hecate Sea east of Ulfrun. Akeley is a near-island linked to Gashan-Ki Corona by a narrow, low neck. Akeley has a mild climate, with savanna and dune-grass behind the long beaches, and mixed woods inland, with permanent streams. It's flat, warm, pleasant, tame-looking country. Most of the waters off Akeley are shallow coral reefs, but east and south are two blue holes, each with an island-group round its rim: Sobra and Rind.

Cape Akiko: 30 N, 190 E

The northern end of Atla, a subcontinent of Aphrodite. Cape Akiko is northeast of the pine-clad Nokomis Mountains. It's a twisted knot of lava flows 400 km across, with many lobes and bays. The land's subtropical, with open woods. Between the cape and the Nokomis range is Lake Lahevhev; to the west is larger Cape Athena; to the north, in the Ganiki Sea, are the huge Nemesis Islands.

Lake Akka: 71 N, 0 E

A lake in northwest Ishtar, due north of the Maxwell Mts. Lake Akka is some 400 km long and drains into the Arctic Sea. The Akka region is like inland California--dry savanna flats, wooded heights, near-desert in rainshadows. Cold dry winds off the Lakshmi Plateau keep the valley from heating up like California's Central Valley, though.

AKNA MTS: 70 N, 315 E

a high north-south range at the west edge of Ishtar. The west face of the Aknas resembles the Andes in height. They rise from the dry Mediterranean coast of Mnemosyne, and are pine-covered up to four kilometers up. At 5-6 km up, glaciers start; peaks rise to 7 or 8. The east face of the Akna range is much drier, frowning above the Lakshmi Plateau.

Akkruva Islands: 45 N, 110-125 E

a scattered archipelago in the Niobe Sea, east of Tellus and west of Ananke, and forming a flyway between them. Akkruva, the largest isle, is about 200 km long--it's hard to be sure exactly, since relief is gentle and coastlines uncertain here. To the southwest are the much larger Kutue Is.. The climate is hot. Dense rainforest covers all the Akkruvas, and most have coral reefs.

Akuanda: 65 N, 240 E

Two long islands, end to end in the sea north of Ulfrun and south of Metis. Akuanda is Cuban in size and climate.

Alcott: 61 S, 358 E

Lake Alcott, round and 100 km wide, is a flooded impact crater on West Lada, just north of the Quetzalpetlatl Plateau. Cool dry winds off the plateau plus the rainshadow of Mt Tarbell on the coast keep the crater surprisingly dry for its latitude. Its inner slopes break into red cliffs in places, and its beaches are popular with swimmers. The northern, outer slopes are greener.

Alcyone: 2 S, 257 E

A small island in the Hecate Sea, 400 km off the east coast of Javine and part of its archipelago. Basically just a mountain rising from the sea, Alcyone has a twin to the west, Tenisheva.

Mt. Ale: 70 N, 254 E

Ale Tholus is a conical volcano on the southwest coast of Metis--the highest peak on that island, sporting occasional snows. While northern Metis is mostly oaks and grasslands, Mt. Ale catches storms from the south, and supports thick redwood and cedar forests.

Aleksota Mts, Aleksota Bay: 8 S, 309 E

Aleksota is a flat-topped mountain or small plateau in the southeast coast of Phoebe. The plateau is wooded, dropping in scarps to oak foothills with small rainshadow savannas in places. The climate's mild and fairly dry. On the north, Aleksota Bay leads inland to Lake Muru and the snowy peaks of Mt Muru and Mt Ilga. On the east coast is narrow Darago Sound and the Darago Islands. To the south is Lake Ingrid, deep in its rift, and Cape Panina.

Allatu: 16 N, 116 E

A narrow, sinuous island 200 km long in the Gegute Is. off Thetis in central Aphrodite. Allatu is bizarre: a grassy, cliff-walled path like a landing strip, but meandering like a Terran river-canyon in reverse. Allatu's curving cliffs shelter great coral bays. The island's too steep and windswept for many trees except at the cliff-feet, but these form fertile arcs stretching miles, behind coral-sand beaches. Allatu's a fliers' mecca, as the western cliffs face into the prevailing winds, creating a 200-km front of updrafts. Southeast are equally cliffy Merit and Ptah. Northeast is gentler Omeciauatl. Southwest lie Adzoba and Dhisana.

Alma Island: 5 S, 230 E

A low, rocky, oval island off the east coast of Aphrodite, sheltering Itoki Sound. Alma is 150 km across, and though the coast has some trees, its interior is semi-arid--cactus and dry grass, with stretches of low brown rock--the lava flow that built the whole region. Alma has a twin just to the north, Blid Island.

ALPHA: 25 S, 5 E

an oval terra (mini-continent) south of the equator, right on the prime meridian (zero longitude). It's a steep, scenic, chaotic maze of ridges and sounds, mountains and lakes. The Philippines are Earth's closest equivalent, but Alpha's more land than sea, and four times bigger. Cape Dudumitsa and Dudumitsa Sound are in the north, Cape Peggy and Peggy Bay in the west, and cross-shaped Virga Sound in the east. The western slopes are open woods, eastern ones are savanna and meadows. The highest peaks are in the southern Nadia, where the climate's hotter and rainer--the slopes range from open woods to Amazonian jungles. The southwest is dominated by Eve Corona. Off the southeast shore is a bizarre reef complex, the Seoritsu Farra.

ALPHA ISLANDS: 30 S, 20 E

A continent-sized archipelago, like Indonesia doubled, the Alpha Islands stretch south and east of Alpha itself. One "island," Umay-Ene, is larger than Alpha itself. Just to the south is the equally huge archipelago of LADA; together the two form a broken, X-shaped landmass nearly as big as Ishtar. Mostly fertile, with a band of Megazoic rainforest across its center, lesser forests north and south, and savanna at the edges.

Cape Ama: 50 S, 278 E

The southwest tip of Themis, an L-shaped peninsula formed by Ama and a daughter corona, both of them hilly. The wettest region on a rainy continent, since storms roll in off both the Helen and Wawalag Seas. The whole coast is Megazoic rainforest. Offshore to the west is Abeona Island.

Cape Ambar-ona: 66 S, 75 E

the large peninsula defining the east side of Mugazo Gulf, in East Lada. Ambar-ona is a wedge 3-500 km long sticking west into the Gulf. An island chain extends from it all the way across the Gulf's mouth. Both cape and islands are low, with gentle hills. A quilt of woods and meadows with a mild, marine climate--sunny days, rainy nights.

Mt. Ammavaru: 52 S, 18 E

A volcano off the south shore of Astkhik--the border between northern Lada and southern Alpha. Ammavaru poured out a spectacular lava flow twisting through the Lada region for 1200 km, though most of the flow is now hidden under the sea. The flows on the volcano's flanks, however, have built up Hanghepiwi Island, 350 km long and shaped like a molar. Ammavaru is not an officially recognized name, but is found in older books on Venus.

Mt. Anala: 10 N, 12 E

A volcanic cone on the south shore of Sappho, in central Eistla. Mt. Anala is the highest peak on Sappho, though low, massive Mt. Irnini forms the heart of the island. Anala's slopes support cloud forests, fernbrakes, and a summit meadow, high enough to see frost, and even occasional snow.

ANANKE: 50 N, 130 E

An island chain southeast of Tethus, on the edge of the Atalanta Sea, Ananke is the size of Japan, but with a warmer climate like Okinawa or Taiwan. The main islands are Ananke (600 km long), Khadako (350) just to its east, and the Isle of Bast (100 km) to the north, a round stepping-stone to the Tethus mainland. The land has two sets of rolling ridges that intersect, creating tessera--not a grid of mesas, as on other parts of Venus, but a diagonal diamond-pattern of hills linked by ridges, like waves in a harbor, with small lakes in between, each ringed by a marsh. From the air the islands looks like green waffles with drops of blue syrup in the holes. Southeast of the two main islands are a long chain called the Akkruva Islands, reaching to Tellus. Akkruva, in the north, and Kutue in the south are each nearly 150 km long.

Angerona: 29 S, 293 E

The largest island in the Dzerassa Sea between Phoebe and Themis, Angerona resembles Haiti in size, climate, and chunky shape--though its west end is a huge, half-drowned caldera whose cliffs now look down into an oval bay. The group of shallow bays between Angerona and the mainlands of Themis and Parga is collectively called the Gulf of Angerona; north to southeast, these bays include Obiemi, Rigatona, Erigone and Santa.

Angrboda: 73, 117 E

An island east of Lada, part of the Flutra Chain. Angrboda is a volcanic cone south of the central chain. Just north are the Ruads and Deobako. The climate's Mediterranean--grassy shores give way to wooded heights.

Anki Bay: 36 S, 112 E

An oval bay, 2-300 km across, on the west shore of Artemis in south Aphrodite. Anki Bay is a drowned lava flow; to the northwest are Cape Anki and Cape Ney, now forested promontories but once parts of the same flow. To the south is bizarre Cape Sudice whose dark cliffs rise straight from the water like a medieval castle. It's even crenellated--high blocks with gaps between, low sections like the archers' slits in medieval walls. Waterfalls pour from the gaps straight into the sea. This odd shore exists because Sudice's wide, flattish top is covered in tesserae, regular mesas with an even grid of canyons between them, like streets in a fossil megalopolis--one swallowed by a jungle, too, for mesas and canyons alike are steamy rainforest, with small waterfalls off every mesa. Why Sudice cuts off so abruptly is still a mystery.

Cape Annia: 22 N, 5 E

Cape Annia is a narrow peninsula 120 km long, running east from Mt. Gula, in Eistla. It's probably a lava flow. Offshore lies a small crater-island, Faustina. To the north is bigger, greener Cape Drolma (not that Annia is barren; it's mostly open forest).

Antarctic Sea: 90 S

proper name for the South Sea. A round sea about the size of Australia, shallow, centered on the South Pole. Even the low, foggy, chill islets of southern Lada only 500 km from the pole never see snow. Cool dry winds blow from the pole in all directions, as on Earth, but since the sea is ice-free, the winds gradually pick up moisture and become something like Earth's trade winds--never as wet as tropic storms, but generators of light rains and fogs, particularly during the long nights, making Antarctic coasts rather Mediterranean--cool and foggy in the far south, semi-arid but mild north of 70 south.

Anuket: 69 N, 7 E

The Anuket Valley is a small, alpine valley northest of the Maxwell Mts, in Ishtar. It's mainly notable for being the outflow from Lake Cleopatra, the only ice-covered lake on Venus, lying in an old impact crater over 100 km wide.

Apgar Bay: 43 N, 83 E

A cliffwalled bay in northeast Tellus. Most of Tellus is tessera, with intersecting ridges creating patterns much like a giant brain, but Apgar breaks the pattern--a huge volcanic vent, it's left wide lava flats for hundreds of km around it, which are now shallow tree-studded lakes, like a scaled-up mangrove coast. Apgar's headlands and the surrounding shores have the tallest trees and densest biomass in the northern hemisphere. Apgar has a near-twin west along the coast: Lake Eliot.

APHRODITE: 0 N, 45 E (head) to 51 N, 220 E (tail)

an immense equatorial continent shaped like a scorpion. Aphrodite winds halfway round Venus and holds half the world's dry land. From west to east, its main regions are: the Jaws (two ranges with mixed country between), Ovda (rugged highlands), then Thetis (nearly as high) in the north and Artemis (a bulging belly of concentric ridges and rifts and lakes) in the south, then Dali (a narrower ridge-rift-lake zone), Atla (high plains studded with great volcanoes like Mt. Maat), and trailing off to the north, Ulfrun (a long cape with much lower ridges and smaller peaks). Central and East Aphrodite are dry, though with many green highlands; and Aphrodite's west, south, and northeast shores are quite fertile.

Api Island: 38 N, 55 E

an island midway between Bell and Tellus, in the Leda Sea. Api serves as a crucial flyway between the two terras. Api's lush, rainy and warm, though not as steamy as either of the large terras, which tend to generate thunderstorms.

Aranyani Peninsula: 65 N, 75 E

Far northeastern Ishtar, a low hilly region crossed by a couple of chasmas, leaving chains of small lakes. The climate's Californian--green on the coasts and in the uplands, grassy and dry in between. To the south is the Sea of Ops; to the east, the huge islands of Meskhent and Tethus.

ARCTIC SEA: 90 N

common name for the Snegurochka Sea. A round sea about the size of Australia, shallow yet island-less, centered on the North Pole. Despite the name, it's snow-free at all times.

Ardwinna Hills: 20 N, 195 E

A spur of the high Nokomis range, just south of Lake Reiko, in Atla (east Aphrodite). The range is nowhere over a mile high, but stretches some 600 km, forming a climatic barrier between green northern Atla and the scrubland, saltmarsh and veldt to the southeast around Lake Sidney and Mem-Loimis.

Cape Ariadne: 45 N, 359 E

A narrow, three-headed peninsula 300 km long, the southern tip of Ishtar. Ariadne's warm and rainy, with tropical hardwoods growing to great size, especially in south-facing valleys. To the north is Cape Ashnan, sheltering oval Bahet Sound with its central island. Southeast is Chubado Island, jumping-off point for Eistla. Cape Onatah on Belisama Gulf is to the northeast.

ARTEMIS: 30 S, 130 E

a huge ring of concentric ridges and rifts and lakes, in south central Aphrodite. About 2500 km wide, it's the largest regular structure on Venus--indeed, on any planet, unless you count the Great Red Spot. At first glance you think "impact feature", but Artemis is deeply tied into the web of ridges and chasms stretching the length of Aphrodite, so it's almost certainly an upwelling or downwelling--a monstrous corona. Artemis Deep, the crescent-shaped sound paralleling the south coast range, looks quite like a Terran subduction trench and island arc. This coast and sound are lush, but inland it's mostly semi-arid, except on the many wooded ridges. The Great Lakes, like Britomartis, Quilla and Virava, are so large they create their own local weather. Northeast Artemis, with fewer lakes, is mostly desert hills.

Artio Island: 36 S, 45 E

A slender island 500 km long, off Umay-Ene's south coast, in the Alpha Archipelago. Artio has a hot steamy climate. Huge trees cover it in dense rainforest right down to the beaches. Between Artio and the mainland is a deep channel with strong currents called Artio Sound. To the west, a second barrier island, Inanna, shelters the Sound. To the east are the (relatively) small Xiwang Mu Islands.

Aruru: 9 N, 262 E

south of Asteria, northwest of Phoebe, Aruru is an oval island 400 km wide. It divides Hinemoa Gulf from the Hecate Sea. Aruru has a broad central basin with a large lake, rainforests on its west and north coast, and a small semi-desert on its eastern slope. Two large volcanic islands break the radial symmetry--Lama, off the east shore, and Shulzhenko off the south. The climate is warm and mild.

Asherat: 15 N, 167 E

A slender island 150 km long in the mouth of Rusalka Bay, in central Aphrodite. Asherat resembles Urutonga to the west, but is rainier--Asherat sustains permanent streams and a quilt of woods and savanna. The climate's mild, shaded by the equatorial rings. But Asherat's thinly populated, due to its isolation; the flyways west from Atla (600 km) and east from Urutonga via Fand (500 km) are both long, difficult and dull.

Cape Ashnan: 52 N, 356 E

A hilly, rugged peninsula the size of Denmark off southern Ishtar. The peninsula's warm and rainy, with tropical hardwoods growing to great size, especially in south-facing valleys. From Ashnan's hilly corona, a long, low ridge runs south into the Sedna Sea some 300 km--Cape Ashnan proper, sheltering oval Bahet Sound with its central island. Lake Muta's to the north and east; southeast, three-headed Cape Ariadne; east, Cape Onatah on Belisama Gulf.

Cape Asiaq: 50 S, 60 E

No continent should have two capes shaped like giant bunnies. Not only does East Lada have Zimcerla in the north, but Cape Asiaq, in the far west--far smaller--a baby bunny--but plumper. Asiaq Ridge runs due north from the Kshumay Mts 360 km into the sea. Asiaq, like all northern Lada, is hot, rainy, and densely forested. To the west are the low islands around Ekhe-Burkhan.

Asomama: 20 N, 25 E

a volcanic island larger than Greece, in the Eistla Archipelago, north of Sappho and Pavlova. Asomama has a warm, mild marine climate, and is covered in Amazonian rainforest. Asomama's one of those complex tangles of land and sea that dot Venus.

ASTERIA: 20 N, 265 E

Western Beta. Asteria, twice the size of Alaska, linked by a northern land bridge to Beta proper, is low in the east but mountainous down its west coast, dominated by a huge central volcano, Polik-mana. The northwest has three great forested peninsulas, Cape Junkgowa, broad Zamin, and the long Sudenitsa Peninsula. The southwest is dominated by a fertile near-island the size of Japan, Cape Taranga. In the drier south, Lake Zverine lies in a rugged, red-cliffed rift cutting across Asteria. The south coast, such as Cape Sinlaku and the Baranamtarra Mts resembles the Riviera. In the east is a huge dry prairie basin, drained by the Latona Lakes, collectively the size of the Caspian Sea.

ASTKHIK: 45 S, 20 E

The southernmost of the Alpha Islands. It's a hot, steamy chunk of rainforest bigger than Japan, with trees far larger than any on Earth. Astkhik's east coast is a cliff a thousand km long, the Vaidelute Rupes, dropping into a deep azure rift offshore. Off the south shore is the long island of Hanghepiwi, built up by the (possibly still active) volcano Mt. Ammavaru at its east end. Astkhik's main claim to fame is its name, usually distorted into Ass-Kick. Schiaparelli, namer of Martian features, would certainly kick the Venus naming committee's collective ass. But terraforming takes time, and time heals all--when people settle Asskick, whoever named it for an Armenian love goddess without ever saying her name out loud will all be safely dead and immune to mockery.

Astrid: 24 S, 335 E

Little Astrid Island is northeast of Dione, the small continent east of Themis. Astrid's a key link in the flyway from Dione to the Navka Archipelago in the north. Danilova anchors the flyway, to the south. North lies much larger Pugos. Astrid is quite Tahitian--60 km of forested ridges with coral reefs offshore.

Atai Head: 25 S, 293 E

A subtropical headland, nearly an island; the southern tip of the Pinga Peninsula on Phoebe. Atai Head is low but rugged, a mix of woods, brush and meadows. It's about the size of Hawaii, and nearly as warm. It's the east ridge of Pinga Chasma, which forms a deep bay just west of the head, and extends undersea to Kwannon and Justitia Islands.

ATALANTA SEA: 60 N, 160 E

a northern ocean, between Ishtar and eastern Aphrodite. The deepest sea on Venus, though a few chasms cut deeper. Its depth and roundness has led some to suspect an ancient impact bigger than Hellas on Mars.

ATANUA: 10 N, 310 E

An island over 400 km across, northeast of Phoebe; the center of the long Navka island chain. Atanua's shaded by the equatorial rings, so its climate is mild and dry, with extensive prairies, with woods only in the hills and along watercourses. Leopard and lion people run cattle and roo ranches on the eastern plains, coexisting poorly with the prezebras and humans who make up most of the remaining population. The coral-ringed Hulda Islands just north of it are the submerged tip of a corona lower but even wider than Atanua. To the southeast are Potter (named for Beatrix, not Harry, and now inhabited mostly by giant rabbits) and the Nang-byon Islands, lining an undersea trench between Madderakka Hole and huge Var.

Atargotis: 9 S, 6 E

a small island linking the Fatua Archipelago and the Heng-o Islands. Atargotis may also have little sisters forming a flyway south to Alpha; the altimetry scans are ambiguous. The island, or chain, is warm, with rainy uplands but drier coasts, especially the east. Coral barrier reefs complete the Polynesian picture.

Atete Corona: 14 S, 245 E

A huge highland and basin in northeast Chondi. The high, often snowy Atete Range rises in cliffs from the sea, a spectacle surpassing even the Vaidelute Cliffs on Selu. Behind the front range is a conifer-clad plateau 100 km wide and 500 long, sagging to a grassy basin to the south. If the rim-wall were unbreached, it'd be a lake 400 km wide. Instead the central plain is prairie with marshes and lakes at the low points. East of Atete is Dilga Straits, then the mini-continent of Parga. To the north is deep sea; to the west, Cape Gabriela. Southwest of Atete, beyond Lake Gabriela, are the Aeracura Mts and Mt. Gwen, a low shield volcano.

Athena Island, Athena Peninsula: 35 N, 177 E

Athena is an island over 700 km long, separating the Ganiki Sea from the Niobe Ocean, north of the Atla region of Aphrodite. Athena is a narrow Y shape, with a volcanic cone at the tip of each arm, and a fourth where they all meet. The land is low but rugged (mostly tessera), fertile, wooded and warm. To the south on the mainland is Cape Athena, a region the size of France, somewhat cooler than the island but also mostly low hills covered in hardwood forest, rising inland to the Nokomis Mts. To the north and east lies the Nemesis Archipelago.

Atira Island: 55 N, 255 E

A lonely island in the north sea between Metis, Ulfrun and Asteria. Atira is wineglass-shaped and 400 km across (the size of Luzon or Mindanao in the Philippines). Amazonian rainforest covers Atira.

ATLA: 15 N, 195 E

an eastern subcontinent of Aphrodite. Atla's heart is Lake Fossey, nearly the size of the Caspian Sea. Around the lake is a wide grassy basin, bounded on the west by one of Veus's few equatorial rainforests on the Rusalka Plain; on the northwest by the volcanic highland of Mt. Sapas; on the north and east by the pine-clad Nokomis Mountains, and on the south by Mt. Maat itself, as tall as Everest, and far more massive. Eastern Atla, over the Nokomis Range, is drier, looking rather African, though the brushy, grassy plains are broken by Lake Reiko, Ganis Bay, Lake Mem-Loimis and huge Zewana Sound, dividing Atla from the torrid rainforests of Ulfrun to the east.

Atropos Coast: 70 N, 300 E

the wide Mediterranean coast of Mnemosyne Bay, at the west end of Ishtar. Atropos is fairly dry on the coast, dry grassy hills with scattered oaks. Inland it rises steadly until pines dominate. The slope steepens until the pines give out, four kilometers up--barely halfway up the alpine Akna Mountains, one of Venus's highest ranges. Glaciers appear around 5 km up. The inland face of the Akna range is much drier, frowning above the Lakshmi Plateau.

Audra Gulf: 60 N, 70 E

Audra Gulf, off eastern Ishtar, is north of Cape Kamariand the Dekla Islands, and south of the Fortuna Range and Cape Aranyani. Audra Gulf is around 1000 km long and 400 wide. The coast is warm and wooded, a bit like central Mexico, though drier than the lush Kozhla Coast to the south.

Cape Audrey: 23 N, 345 E

The western tip of Eistla, Cape Audrey and its satellite islands hook north for 3-400 km, sheltering Heidi Sound. To the west, the Audrey Islands trail off gradually into the Guinevere Sea; two fair-sized islands are a good 500 km west of the cape, and the undersea rise continues another thousand km to lonely Beiwe. On the mainland to the east, the land rises steadily (past two lake-filled impact craters: Audrey and Heidi, the sources of the two names) through a rainforest belt and then high grasslands on Mt Sif. South of Cape Audrey the coast runs southeast for 1000 km to the Olosa Hills; it's a rugged set of capes and bays like Veriko Bay--lava flows from Mt Sif.

Aushra Mts: 50 N, 40 E

see Ausra.

Auska Mts: 58 N, 350-15 E

a broad east-west range averaging 3 km high in southern Ishtar; the edge of the highlands culminating in the Maxwell Mts 500 km to the north. Between the two ranges lies Valkyrie Valley, a chain of cliff-walled oval fossae, now lake-filled. The Auskas have thick pine forests and alpine meadows along the southern face, but grow drier inland. They drop abruptly to the rainforested southern lowlands.

Ausra Mts: 50 N, 40 E

a north-south range in southeast Ishtar, separating Belisama Bay from the Baba Yaga Chasmas to the east. Often the whole southeast region is called Ausra. Also spelled Aushra, since Ausra has a diacritic mark on the S that probably won't show right on the Web... However you spell it, it's pronounced Aushra (Ow!-shruh). The highlands are dense forest; the lowlands, especially to the east, inside the Baba Yaga Chasmas, are savanna and grassland under the redrock cliffs.

Austen Coast: 27 S, 170 E

The gentle, hilly south coast of Aphrodite, between Lake Vishera and Poranica Bay. Inland are the mountains and great lakes of Bona Corona and Dali Chasma. Austen's mild, with sunny days and light but regular night rains. The coast is a mix of meadows and scattered woods, with Venus's usual abundance of lakes like Agraulos in the west. Short rivers descend from the ranges flanking the chasma-lakes inland. Jane Austen would have liked this land named for her (or rather, for the modest crater named for her): England without winter!

Lake Ava: 56 N, 46 E

A lake in southeast Ishtar, near the larger Lake Kozhla, draining into the Leda Sea. A pleasant region of low hills with open woods and meadows. The weather is far less humid than to the south, over the Baba Yaga rift-ranges. Hot days and cool nights--Oregon in summer.

Awenhai Mts.: 60 S, 245 E

The eastern third of Ishkus, a heart-shaped island in the southern Helen Sea, the size (and climate) of California. The Awenhais form a blunt peninsula 2-300 km wide sticking into the Antarctic Sea. They're low, tame mountains, piny hills really, with a few redwood groves in the coastal valleys.

Cape Ayrton: 5 N, 225-235 E

a peninsula 1000 km long off Aphrodite's east shore, in the Hecate Sea. It's the size of Italy, but semi-arid. The coasts are dry grass and brush, though the central mountains support open forest. It's greener than most of the region because there's a gap in the mountains on the mainland, letting storms through from Zewana Gulf. Mt. Ayrton, near the peninsula's base, is the source of the name. Ayrton Sound, to the north, cuts off huge Yuvkha Island from the mainland. To the south is Itoki Bay.

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