Satellite image of Riyadh (upper centre), the capital city of Saudi Arabia, in 2016. North is at top. In 2016 Riyad had a population of just over

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Satellite image of Riyadh (upper centre), the capital city of Saudi Arabia, in 2016. North is at top. In 2016 Riyad had a population of just over million, having grown from 500,000 in 1972. To the south-west of the city is the Wadi (valley) Hanifa (dark green), which the city has spread across. To the north of the city is King Khalid International Airport, which opened in 1983. The dark green round areas are fields irrigated by centre-pivot irrigation systems. Image obtained by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite on 22nd July 2016. For images showing the growth of Riyadh from 1979 to 2016 see C036/8226 to C036/8230. C036/8196 shows Riyadh in 1972.

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Size: 5245px × 5316px
Photo credit: © US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 2000s, 2100s, 21st, 8, 22, 2016, agricultural, agriculture, airport, arabia, arabian, capital, center, centre-pivot, century, city, crops, east, eastern, farming, hanifa, imager, international, irrigation, july, khalid, king, land, landsat, middle, middle-eastern, oli, operational, peninsula, pivot, riyadh, satellite, saudi, single, space, valley, wadi