USING THIS LIST

• FINDING NAMES: Ignore words like "the", "Mt.", or "Lake." Mt. Hathor is under H, Cape Juno is under J.
• EACH ENTRY: the title links to a tour with local maps. Links inside an entry get you simple definitions.
• CAPITALS--Large or famous places are in CAPITALS.
• EAST AND WEST: on Venus, longitude is always measured east, from 0 right up to 359.
  

Baba Yaga: 51 N, 40 E

A group of chasmas in southeast Ishtar--from north to south, Kozhla-Ava, the longest, a necklace of lakes; short, coastal Mots Chasma, then Baba Yaga proper (officially it was Baba Jaga, but the commoner spelling won out), and Mezas-Mate, with two huge lakes. The valley floors are mostly savanna below redrock cliffs, forest-capped. South of the chasmas is the Laima Range; the coast beyond is dense rainforest, especially on Cape Tipporah, reaching toward the great island of Bell.

Cape Badb: 20 N, 15 E

the northern tip of Sappho, one of the larger Eistla Islands, south of Ishtar. Oddly, it runs from Sappho's central volcano, Mt Irnini, but it isn't a lava dike or flow: the ridge reappears south of the peak and runs all the way to Mt Mt. Analaon the south shore; Sunrta Hole offshore is also in line with it. Such strings are common on Venus around chasmas; here they happen without a clear chasma structure.

Bahet Bay: 49 N, 0 E

An oval sound with a central island, Bahet Bay is a flooded corona 300 km long off southern Ishtar. Bahet looks like a lunar crater that got stretched north-south, then drowned. Thin, rugged capes surround the bay, open only at the south. The peninsulas are warm and rainy, with tropical hardwoods growing to great size, especially in south-facing valleys. Cape Ashnan's to the west; southeast is three-headed Cape Ariadne; due east, the Bahet Hills--the same corona at work--and then Cape Onatah on Belisama Gulf.

Baker Lake: 64 N, 43 E

Baker is a large impact crater in eastern Ishtar. Now flooded, it holds a round lake, 100 km wide, near huge Lake Salme. The region is a mix of open woods (oak below, pine above), brush, and dry grasslands.

Cape Bakhtadze: 45 N, 220 E

A cape 500 km long on the west coast Ulfrun (east Aphrodite). It's the southern tip of the long Iris Peninsula. Bakhtadze is shaped like a tadpole or sperm, and at its head is the round eye of Bakhtadze Patera, a wide, lake-filled, cliff-walled caldera. The rest of the cape is narrow, never more than 100 km. To the east is Nuliayoq Bay. Like the bay, Cape Bakhtadze is smothered in rainforest much denser than the Amazon.

Cape Bakisat: 24 N, 356 E

An arcuate peninsula 120 km long, on the north coast of Eistla, sheltering Nissaba Bay to the west. Bakisat has a small crater near its tip from which its name derives; but geologically it's part of Nissaba Corona, which caused the bay. To the east is even larger Cape Idem-kuva, the northern tip of Eistla. Inland rises huge Mt Gula. The coast is rainforested, though not Megazoic; the uplands are cloud forest; above the cloud sea is a sort of wet altiplano, a fern-savanna.

Baranamtarra Mts: 17 N, 265 E

A short east-west range in south Asteria, part of the south rim of Zverine Chasma, overlooking Lake Zverine. The range cuts off rain to the chasma for several hundred km, turning it into a red rock canyon, and helps keep brush and open woods from taking over the vast Asterian prairie. The Baranamtarras' coastal side is much greener--parts of it, like the half-flooded crater-bay of Wheatley, are a bit like the Riviera.

The range is really named for a small crater nearby, but everyone calls it the Bananarama Range, after the 70s band. Many tourists assume Bananarama really is the name--Venus's features are, after all, named for goddesses and famous women, and Bananarama fits both--an all-girl band whose biggest hit was... "Venus"! It even opens "Goddess on a mountaintop..."

Barnes: 13 S, 233 E

Barnes is off southeast Aphrodite, in the Hecate Sea, just north of Chondi. The largest of the Dziwica Islands (roughly pronounced "divitsa,") it's a C-shaped island; its central bay is a wide cliff-walled caldera, which belched out the lava that built Barnes. Just to the east is Erkir, and then the Hollas Islands. In a few millennia, the growing coral reefs in the shallows between them will perhaps link Barnes and Erkir. The north shore of Barnes abruptly drops off into a round blue hole, the Toma Deep.

Lake Bascom: 11 S, 302 E

An impact crater in southeast Phoebe, cupping a shallow lake 30 km wide. To the south and east is a wide veldt around marshy Lake Emma, biggest lake in East Phoebe. North and west are the Perunitsa Fossae, a field of cracks and scarps and fingerlakes 1000 km long.

Lake Bashkirtseff: 12 N, 193 E

A shallow lake 200 km long feeding into much larger Lake Fossey to the south and west, dotted with mesa-islands. Bashkirtseff's shores are African-looking veldt; to the east rise the pine-dark flanks of the snowy Nokomis Mts. On the northwest horizon is a low, rugged lava scarp; it dams higher Sitwell, behind it.

Bast: 56 N, 136 E

a roundish island 100 km wide, on the edge of the Atalanta Sea, southeast of Tethus. Third largest in the Ananke Islands, Bast has a warm wet climate like Okinawa or Taiwan. Bast is the main flyway linking the Anankes with the mainland.

BATHKOL: 55 N, 210 E

Bathkol is sometimes called Tail Island, as it forms the stinger in the scorpion's tail. Bathkol lies off Ulfrun (northeast Aphrodite), and is the size of Great Britain, with similar low, rolling terrain, but a climate more like Java. It's nearly unbroken rainforest. Bathkol means "Fate", in Hebrew.

Bathsheba Island: 12 S, 50 E

Bathsheba, near the mouth of Rae Bay in far western Aphrodite, is a small, pleasant subtropical island, just a patch of savanna and open woods. Bathsheba's only claim to fame (or indexing) is that it's the jumping-off point on the flyway between Aphrodite and the Alpha Islands.

Mt Becuma: 36 N, 29 E

A volcanic island just west of Kruchina, in the Bereghinya Sea, south of Ishtar and west of Bell. Becuma rises due west of the Ilmatar Mts, and southeast of Xquiq. It's one of the higher peaks in Kruchina, rivaling the Ilmatars; its slopes are lush Megazoic rainforest--like everwhere else on Kruchina.

Behn Plateau, Lake Behn, and Behn Crater: 30-40 S, 135-140 E

Behn Plateau fills the eastern third of huge Artemis Corona in south Aphrodite. To the west are Lake Veronica, the Bonnevie Isthmus, and even larger Lake Britomartis, which may be linked to Veronica through one or more straits--it's hard to be sure. Lake Behn, a 250-km triangle, is just the largest of many dotting the pine-forested plateau. The land rises steadily to the east, culminating in the snowy Yamile Mts, which drop spectacularly to Lake Mariko in the eastern Artemis rift. South of Behn, the great circular rift is breached by the sea, forming long, curving Artemis Sound. These shores are rainy and warm--a realm of giant trees.

The plateau's named for Behn Crater, a vivid impact scar on its eastern edge, which in turn is named for Aphra Behn, the first great female English writer--raunchy, funny, outrageous in life as well as art. Behn fought a triple curse: male critics belittled her issues and voice, Shakespeare eclipsed her... and the Puritans loathed her. I like her. It pleases me that her memorial is larger than England.

Beiwe Island: 44 N, 325 E

Beiwe ("bay way"), is in the middle of the Sedna Sea, between Ishtar, Beta and Eistla (the only one within reach of even athletic fliers). Beiwe's a delicate Y shape, 120 km long and only 25 wide, covered in dense rainforest. The exuberant life of its high canopy is spectacular and deserves more visitors, but Beiwe has none. Nor many inhabitants--just a few hermits who can take the heat. Orangutans, who worship nature and solitude (literally: solo field observations are an act of prayer for orthodox orangs), are the most common sapients. Because it's one of the few Cytherean islands on no flyway at all, Beiwe's ecologically isolated, though it'll take a few eons for it to diverge visibly from other Megazoic rainforests.

Belisama: 48 N, 10 E

Belisama Gulf, off the south coast of Ishtar, is some 1200 km wide, and sheltered by an arc of barrier islands and reefs 2-300 km offshore: Chubado, Kostroma, Sulis, and Parma. To the west are Ishtar's "Everglades"--Lake Muta and Lake Onatah; together they form an arc of sheltered water that's bigger than the Ut Sea (sheltered by the Ut Islands) to the west, past Neago Bay. The coast and islands are warm and deeply forested. The east end of Belisama Gulf bends inland to form a deep bay cutting 600 km into Ishtar's heart. The bay's 1-200 km wide, full of long, craggy ridges and sounds--the Sigrun Islands, a formation of fossae. At the bay's head, a whitewater river descends from huge Lake Salme inland. The bay's head is cooler and drier than the Gulf--mostly open woods and meadows. The highest peaks looking down on the bay occasionally bear snow.

BELL: 35 N, 50

a Britain-sized (and shaped) land just south of Ishtar, in the Leda Sea. The land is hot and rainy, with some of the tallest trees in the world, and short but fierce rivers. Bell is wasp-waisted; its northern massif is Nefertiti Corona, its southern, the Nyx Mountains; but its highest point, and most spectacular sight, is Mt. Tepev, on the southwestern coast, a steep Fuji-like cone rising from the sea. The wide Tepev Marshes, in the rainshadow between the volcano and the sea, are the only treeless region.

Bellona: 40 N, 224 E

The Bellona Mts are a range of curving ridges and fossae (cracks) in north-central Ulfrun (east Aphrodite), something like the Appalachians. Near the north end is Lake Bellona, 160 km long and 100 wide. To its west is Bellona Bay, and to the northeast, Ki Bay; together they nearly make the Iris Peninsula, due north, an island. Southeast of the mountains is Inga Plain, a massive rainforest; to the southwest is Sakwap Bay. In the heart of the mountains is triangular Lake Inga, 180 km long.

BEREGHINYA SEA: 30 N, 30

a sea the size of Europe, between Ishtar and Eistla Archipelago, west of Bell. In its center is Kruchina, an island the size of France covered with Amazonian rainforest.

Bernadette Bay: 47 S, 282-290 E

A wide sound off southwest Themis, between Cape Ama, the easternmost arm of the Nzambi Hills, and Bernadette Island offshore, a low oval island around 150 km long. Bay and island are named for Bernadette Crater, now only a ring-reef off Nzambi, never breaking the surface. It will be some centuries before the corals on it can build an atoll. The lands around the bay are hot and rainy--Megazoic rainforest over 100 meters tall.

Bernhardt Bay: 30 N, 88 E

A bay on the southeast coast of Tellus, 300 km long. The coast, and Cape Bernhardt east of the bay, are rainforest, though not as hot and overgrown as further north. The mainland is mostly tesserated--with intersecting ridges, creating regular patterns of hills and pits (lake-filled, in Tellus's rainy climate). Cape Bernhardt may lack tessera, being (partly, possibly, distantly) a feature of Medeina Chasma.

Beruth Hills: 18 S, 234 E

The Beruth Coronae are a chain of overlapping domes and hills forming a green ecological island above the savanna of northern Chondi, catching enough rain to sustain open woods--though this leaves the Darlene Valley much drier, downwind to the south. The Beruth Hills rise above coral reefs fringing deep Dziwica Sound to the north, a branch of Parga Chasma. To the west, the hills lower until Chondi's just a narrow isthmus stretching 1500 km, to the shore of Aphrodite. To the east are the Aeracura Mts..

BETA: 25 N, 285 E

a continent the size of Australia, southwest of Ishtar, north of Phoebe. A northern land-bridge links the western subcontinent, Asteria, to Beta proper, in the east. Beta has a rugged north-south spine with a rift down the middle, Devana Chasma. At least two peaks, Mt Rhea and Theia, are over 4 km high. The south and east coasts are green, and the north coast is lush rainforest, but much of Beta's interior is desert and prairie basins, though broken by pine-clad ranges.

Bhumidevi: 17 S, 343 E

Bhumidevi Corona is a classic "blue hole" in the southern Guinevere Sea : a deep oval pit, 200 km across, ringed by islands and reefs, like an overgrown Terran atoll. The islets around Bhumidevi, while narrow, are fertile and up to 150 km long. Bhumidevi's a flyway-hub on routes linking Dione and Themis to the southwest with Eistla to the northeast, and Navka Archipelago to the northwest, with Alpha to the east. Bhumidevi's neighbors are Vasilisa, first of the Navka Islands, to the northwest; the Samdzimari Islands due north, and long Radunitsa to the northeast, Iyatik, due east; and Qetesh Hole, a second pseudo-atoll, 250 km to the south.

Bhumiya: 15 N, 120 E

An egg-shaped island 160 km long in the Gegute chain in the Niobe off Thetis. Bhumiya's hilly and more compact than the other Gegutes, with far fewer fjords and deep canyons. Its hills catch enough rain to support open woods in places, though many plateaus are savanna. It's in the heart of the southern group--to the north is huge Gegute itself, to the east, fjorded Neeltje, northwest is arcuate Omeciauatl, due west are cliffy Merit and Ptah. Due south, 250 km of lesser isles lead to mainland Aphrodite.

Bibi-Patna Peninsula: 50 S, 308 E

A wide mountainous corona in southeast Themis, cut off from the mainland by Chloris Bay. The sunken heart of the corona forms Bibi-Patna Bay or Lake--it's hard to be sure. Either way, its mouth is on the west, facing Navolga Island. Giant rainforests cover most of Bibi-Patna and the adjoining lowlands. From the corona, narrow Cape Tureshmat points 400 km further south, then breaks up into the Gerd Islands, stretching 1000 km to Neringa and West Lada.

Cape Biliku: 48 S, 135 E

The southern tip of Aphrodite, Cape Biliku is slender and rugged, 300 km long and less than 50 wide, sticking into the Aino Sea. 300 km west is a twin, Cape Laverna. Biliku Bay, 200 km wide, lies sheltered between them. Both capes are hot steamy rainforest. .

Blackburne Valley, Cape Blackburne: 10 N, 183 E

The Blackburne Valley, just west of Sapas in east Aphrodite, holds one of the region's longest rivers. The Blackburne drains much of Sapas's wide west slope, starting from Lake Sapas on the north side, bending west past Blackburne Crater, which forms a round lake, then south, winding around four peanut-shaped lakes from 30-80 km wide. Scarps bound the valley east and west; only once the river runs south of them can it turn west and meander 200 more km to the shores of Rusalka Bay, south of Cape Blackburne.

Blathnat Deep, Blathnat Reef: 38 N, 292 E

A sunken corona--sunken in two senses. Drowned in the shallow waters off Cape Emegen in northeast Beta, Blathnat Corona also puckers inward to form a peanut-shaped deep--a "blue hole" some 150 km across. Unlike most of Venus's blue holes, Blathnat has no islands around its rim--just tiny Blathnat Reef on the southeast. Flyers from Shishimora to the mainland use it to rest on, at low tide. Given its size, they mostly call it Bathmat.

Blid Island: 2 S, 230 E

A low, rocky, triangular island, 200 km long, off the east coast of Aphrodite, sheltering Itoki Sound. Though Blid's coast has some trees, its interior is semi-arid--cactus and dry grass, with outcrops of lava rock--from the flow that built the island. Blid has a twin just to the south, Alma Island. It also has a ghostly namesake, Blid Corona, a few hundred kilometers out to sea--but it's just a coral bank now. Initially I miscalculated Blid's position and altitude, concluding it'd be a large island. Eventually a sea of better data drowned Blid like Atlantis. So I dubbed this rise "Blid Island" as a memorial, since the rise has no official name (nor does anything much in the area--it's all just the Itoki Fluctus).

Boadicea Islands: 57 N, 95 E

An archipelago in the Vacuna Gulf off Cape Fakahotu, the western tip of Tethus. They're named for a cluster of low volcanic vents near the south end of the group--so low they may be mere reefs not even breaking the surface. Or islets--I can't be sure. Two of the non-volcanic islands to the north are giants: a 180-km extension of Cape Fakahotu and a 150-km island well to the north. Each giant has at least two satellite islands over 50 km wide. All are "wet" Mediterranean in climate, more Portugal than Greece, with extensive woods on the hills.

Mt. Boala: 71 S, 326 E

a wide, massive, snowy mountain, a sort of tongue sticking southwest from the Quetzalpetlatl Plateau, on the small southern continent of West Lada. The mountain's named for Boala Corona just northeast, on the south edge of the plateau, and one of its highest points. Not far to the west, the highlands drop abruptly into Lake Naijok, a thousand kilometers long. The slopes of Boala force rain from the coastal winds, creating an arc of pine forest and thin alpine meadows. The summit has snow patches, but is too dry and windswept to accumulate a true snowpack and start glaciers. The inland side, linking it to Quetzalpetlatl, is a red stony desert with only thin ponderosa pines.

Cape Boleyn: 23 N, 218 E

A cape in east Aphrodite, nearly enclosing Zewana Sound. Cape Boleyn winds 5-600 km southwest from the subcontinent of Ulfrun, nearly meeting Cape Tkashi. Both capes are sparsely wooded ridges above savanna valleys.

Bona Corona: 22 S, 160 E

Bona Carona, whose name I did NOT make up, is a circular knot of hills in central Aphrodite, due south of Diana Chasma. The Bona hills are sparsely forested with oak and pinon lower down, and pine on the heights--nothing unusual for central Aphrodite, and notable only because Dali Chasma, the other great rift in this region, curves here nearly in a loop, but is apparently blocked by the Corona and forced to kink sharply west, toward Lake Onissya. In this western portion of the rift lies narrow but deep Lake Bona, 2-300 km long.

BONNAN STEPPE: 0 N, 115 E

This prairie, some 1200 km wide, is on the north-coast of Aphrodite, north of Ralk Desert between the Ovda and Thetis highlands. Its grassy hills are green in the north around Sullivan Bay but quickly turn golden inland and to the south, then red and dusty as they rise to the high desert of Ralk. Bony ridges and shallow marshy lakes up to 200 km long meander through the prairies. The prevailing winds are unfortunately from the inland mountains and deserts, not the sea; to the east past Lake Khalifa, the steppes fade into the harsh desert coast of Thetis. Due north in the Niobe Ocean are the scenic Gegute Islands. This region doesn't stand out on radar scans and has no official name; Bonnan is just a crater in its center.

Bonnevie Isthmus, Bonnevie Crater: 36 S, 127 E

Bonnevie Crater, some 60 km wide, forms a bay with twin arcuate capes on the north shore of huge Lake Veronica, in Artemis Corona in south Aphrodite. An even larger lake to the north, Britomartis, may be linked to Veronica through one or more straits--it's hard to be sure. The hilly land between them, a twisting strip centered on the crater, is called Bonnevie Isthmus, though it may just be an island (if so, it's big: 600 km long, 200 wide?).... The hills of the Isthmus and the lake shores are all fairly green, for though Lake Veronica is cut off from sea winds by the Artemis ranges, it's so big it creates its own rain. But the walls of the crater, fused in the impact-heat, are mostly barren--few plants can root in obsidian! East of the isthmus is piny Behn Plateau. Northeast, over the lake/strait/river, is drier Maltby Plateau, mostly prairie.

Boszorkany Dorsa: 15 S to -25 S, 105 E

A north-south range 900 km long, in the Cape Juno region of southwest Aphrodite. Boszorkany is a long straight ridge, sparsely wooded with pines on its heights; it walls off the green subcontinent of Juno from the Viriplaca Basin inland--800 km of dry-grass plains. The Morongo River pours through a southern gap in the ridge.

Boyd: 39 S, 222 E

A small volcanic island in the Wawalag Sea significant only as a flyway between Imdr and the continents of Parga, Phoebe, Chondi etc. The flights from Imdr to Boyd, and from Boyd to Achek off Chondi, are both very long and tiring; as a result, Boyd is something of a refugee camp for overconfident flyers, who must wait for spare seats on the daily blimp to get them out. This can take some time. Boyd is quite fertile, but is in the torrid zone--uncomfortably hot and humid for most species.

Cape Boye: 7 S, 295 E

A cape shaped like Wales, but four times bigger, on the east side of Dzerassa Bay separating East and West Phoebe. Cape Boye is hilly and mostly semi-arid grass and brush, except in the rainier central hills, a spur of Mt. Dolya in the Devana Mts.

Breksta: 34 N, 303 E

a long rugged island chain east of Beta, 500 km long. Breksta is one rugged ridge intermittently breaching the sea. Breksta itself,. the southernmost, ends the chain by forking into in twin arcuate capes around a blue hole, like fingers around a plum. The climate's like the wet side of Hawaii. Between Shishimora, Breksta and Zirka to the south is Omutnitsa Sound, dotted with islands. To the north is empty sea--Breksta and Shishimora abruptly end the Navka Archipelago, 6000 km long.

LAKE BRITOMARTIS, Britomartis Island: 30 S, 130 E

Probably the largest lake on Venus, freshwater Britomartis rivals the Caspian Sea. It fills much of the heart of Artemis Corona in south Aphrodite. A second great lake to the south, Veronica, may be linked to Britomartis through one or more straits, around hilly Bonnevie Isthmus. Britomartis proper is mostly shallow, but Britomartis Chasma, a mile-deep trench, runs northeast through its heart. Leaf-shaped Britomartis Island, 300 km long, Bonnevie Isthmus and the lake shores are all fairly green, for though the lake is well inland and cut off from sea winds by the Artemis ranges, it's so big it creates its own rain. To the southeast is piny Behn Plateau; north of the lake, Maltby Plateau is drier, much of it prairie.

Brynhild Fossae: 35 S, 12 E

A strange coast on Sophia, one of the larger Alpha Islands, just southeast of Alpha itself. Most of Sophia is dense tropical forest on low plains, but southwest Sophia is all narrow parallel capes and sounds, many of them lined with low cliffs. The grooves go inland, holding lakes and marshes, climbing over the northern ridges to sink into the sea, where they continue over 1000 km. They look like miniature fjords, but the Brynhild Fossae are really cracks formed by stretching. It's a huge formation, but this is the only part on land.

Budevska Sound: 5 N, 140-150 E

A sound 1000 km long and 300 wide, off north-central Aphrodite, near the mouth of Rusalka Bay. Its southern isles near the mainland deserts, like Ogulbek (450 km long, 150 wide) are dry, mostly dune-grass and brush, but further out lies rainier Urutonga (500 km long, 160 wide), sustaining riverine woods and savanna. The climate, shaded by the equatorial rings, is warm but not hot. The sound's a great bird-haven, and whales calve in its warm shallow waters, like Scammon's Lagoon on Terra. From Urutonga an islet-chain leads 600 km north to the lonely Oya Islands. The sound's bounded on the southeast by a third huge island with no name--Budovska?--and a ring-island called Corpman, an impact crater. Beyond to the east looms volcanic Fand, a mere islet in comparison, but the highest point in 1000 km.

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z -

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites