Pictures of Earth City Lights at Night: Egypt and The Nile

Earthbound folks rarely get the chance to see how the planet's city lights glow from space.

In 2010, author L. Douglas Keeney noticed pictures being tweeted by astronauts on the International Space Station.

The clear images of Earth's city lights were made possible by new camera technology that was able to shoot high-resolution photos even as the station moved at a rapid 17,500 miles an hour some 240 miles above Earth's surface.

Keeney then got to work, pouring through more than 300,000 unmarked NASA photo, choosing 400 of the best images for his book the Lights of Mankind: The Earth at Night as Seen from Space.

Keeney shared seven of his favorite photos with us, which he dubbed the "Seven Wonder of the Nightime World."

Pictures of Earth City Lights at Night from Space