ESA: Venice, the Floating city

The islands that make up the Italian city of Venice and the surrounding Venetian Lagoon are pictured in this image.

Snaking through the central districts is the Grand Canal, with the Santa Lucia train station at its northern end and the Saint Mark Basin at its southern end.

Zooming in, we can see water buses and taxis navigating the canal and gondolas docked along the edge.

The square island to the north is San Michele. Once a prison island, it became a cemetery when Napoleon’s occupying forces declared burial on the main islands unsanitary.

This image was acquired on 22 June 2008 by Ikonos-2, a commercial satellite that provides panchromatic and multispectral high-resolution imagery.

ESA is supporting Ikonos-2 as a Third Party Mission, which means that the Agency uses its multi-mission European ground infrastructure and expertise to acquire, process and distribute data from the satellite to its wide scientific user community.

Credits: European Space Imaging (EUSI)

Lost Roman City Found: Ancient Venice

Shown here is part of the infra-red scan of a hidden city, rediscovered not far (7KM) from the calm waters of Venice.

Click on the picture above, and you will see an animated flyover, giving a bird's eye view of the city.

Aerial photos have given a detailed view of the ancient Roman city of Altinum, sometimes described as the ancestor to Venice, thanks to its complex network of canals and rivers.

The ancient foundations of the city have recently been rediscovered near Marco Polo Airport, north of Venice, during excavation work.

The ruins have been examined with a combination of visible and near-infrared photos of the area taken during a drought in 2007, which made many of their features much better defined and more visible.

The picture below is an artistic representation of some of the clearly defined features seen in the infra red imaging. It certainly appears to have been a bustling and prosperous city, which begs the question as to what became of it?

The full study is published in the journal Science but a synopsis can be read in Science Now magazine by Clicking on the Picture below.