Timgad Vallis

This image shows the fourth of five broad channels on Mercury for which names were recently approved (see Timgad Vallis). The valleys are named according to the theme of "abandoned cities (and towns and settlements) of antiquity" that was developed especially for these landforms.

The vallis shown in this figure is named for Timgad, a Roman colonial town in the Algerian Aurès Mountains, founded around 100 CE. The city was abandoned after an Arab invasion in the 8th century CE, before being covered by the Sahara. The city ruins were excavated in 1881. The city’s population may have been as great as 15,000. This image is a portion of the MDIS global mosaic basemap that was acquired during MESSENGER's first year in orbit.

Date Created: March 26, 2013
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Feature Latitude Range: 59.6° N to 62.0° N
Feature Longitude Range: 114.3° E to 119.9° E
Feature Diameter: 116 km
Projection: Azimuthal equidistant

Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington