BIBLE LANDS
                                                                                      Early heartland of civilization bares its
                                                                                      anatomy to Astronauts James A- McDivitt
                                                                                      and Edward H. White as they fly 115 miles
                                                                                      above in Gemini 4. In Egypes funnel-shaped
                                                                                      delta-fleetingly taken by McDivitt for a
                                                                                      giant lava flow-crowd 27,500,000 people,
                                                                                      nourished by the splayed veins of the River
                                                                                      Nile. Neither pilot could spot the Pyramids
                                                                                      (left), near Cairo in the funnel's throat. Be-
                                                                                      yond Suez, the Sinai desert shows pale as
                                                                                      bleached bone, while across the Israeli bor-
                                                                                      der in the Negev, left center, gardens bloom
                                                                                      from the sands. In this 1,000-mile view, wa-
                                                                                      ter-precious as blood---divides sere from
                                                                                      sown. Such portraits from space give scien-
                                                                                      tists a fresh look at world geography.
                                                                                      EKTACHNOME BY JAMES L~ STANFIELD