Western Asia, true-colour satellite image. North is at top. The region is dominated by deserts (brown). Bodies of water include the Red Sea (lower left) and Persian Gulf (centre, both inlets of the Indian Ocean), and the Black Sea (upper left). At right of the Black Sea are the Caspian Sea (blue), the Aral Sea (green) and Lake Balkhash (top right, light blue). The cylindrical projection used here introduces distortion into the scale: the area at the top of image is about 3100 kilometres across, while the area at the base of the image is about 5500 kilometres across. Image obtained using MODIS sensors on the Terra and Aqua satellites.