Baidoa
Aden and Marib
Berbera
Barranca del Cobre
Baghdad
Azaouagh
Barguzin Valley
Dammam
Ankara
Ha’il
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Belle Fourche
Belo Horizonte
Nanda Devi
Belfast and Dublin
Ailao Shan
Belem
Basin and Range
Around Asia
Adrar Ahnet
Balkan Parts
Centering on the lower Danube with its feathery tributaries, this palette was designed to isolate the tallest hills while staying fairly quiet and a bit on the sad side. Low seashores are made indistinct, and the gray tones are surprisingly readable in distinguishing the degree of local dissection. This is a topographically complex part of… Read more »
Around Tibet
Tibet is by far the planet’s largest mountain feature, and affects winds and seasons, deserts and rivers, people and metaphysics. The great rivers of Huang Ho, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Irrawaddy, Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, and Amu Dar’ya all rise from its slopes, and support well over half of the world’s population. Shrinking glaciers render the critical… Read more »
Greater Somalia
It used to be that the long slopes of this region were traversed by pastoralists in rhythm with seasonal cycles, so herds could take advantage of lowland wet-season production, and save the highland areas as dry season reserves. The post-colonial imposition of national boundaries made little sense ecologically. Chronic warfare has resulted in Eritrea, in… Read more »
Havens of Ifoghas
In northeastern Mali are these low hills, called the Ifoghas, where enough elevation collects enough rain to make this one of the most favored parts of the Sahara Desert. A high proportion of the drainages are green as they sweep down through the boney dark outcrops. A sand street has invaded the hills on the… Read more »
Albert Rift
The lake-filled trough is the western arm of East Africa’s Rift Valley system, and this segment is named for the lake in the upper right corner. These terrain systems are abrupt in their escarpments but subtle in their outer risings and in the long profiles of their highly various floors. There are also wonderfully unique… Read more »