Nile River delta : the image was captured by the Terra MODIS instrument on Feb. 5, 2003. The city of Cairo can be seen as a gray smudge right where the fertile valley of the Nile River widens into a broad fan-shaped delta. The city of Alexandria (Al Iskandariya) occupies a T-shaped peninsula and strip of land separating the Mediterranean Sea from Lake Mariout, on the upper left part of the image. Other cities are dotted across the green landscape, giving it a speckled appearance. Where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea (top) the waters are swirling with color, likely a mixture of sediment, organic matter, and possibly marine plant life.