Where east meets west, Istanbul is the capital of Turkey with a metropolitan area supporting more than 14 million people, the largest urban area in Europe, as well as the largest in the Middle East. Formerly named Constantinople and once the capital of the Roman Empire, the city was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity.
Lake Tahoe is located in the central Sierra Nevada Mountain Range within the states of California and Nevada and is the second deepest lake in the U.S. The Tahoe Basin was formed by normal faulting, a characteristic of the Basin and Range to the east. Carson City, the capital of Nevada, is located to the east of the lake.
Las Vegas, Nevada, depicted here in natural color, has been one of the fastest growing urban areas in the United States, and has a populaiton in excess of 2 million people in the greater urban area.