The Highlands of Venus

The mapping of Venus has shown two large elevated areas which have been named Ishtar Terra and Aphrodite Terra (If Venus is the Roman goddess of love, then Ishtar and Aphrodite are the Babylonian and Greek counterparts.). Although there is no ocean, these highlands are continent-sized elevated masses. These "continents" make up only 8% of the planet's surface compared to 25% for Earth's planets. The remainder of the surface is relatively smooth with little geological differentiation, but is classified as lowlands (25%) and rolling plains(65%). Continents on the Earth are associated with the boundaries of tectonic plates, there appears to be no large scale plate tectonics on Venus.

金星表面的测绘显示有两个大型隆起区域，它们被命名为伊施塔高地（Ishtar Terra）和阿佛洛狄忒高地（Aphrodite Terra）（如果金星是罗马爱之女神，那么伊施塔和阿佛洛狄忒分别是巴比伦和希腊的对应神）。尽管没有海洋，这些高地仍然是与大陆大小相当的隆起区域。这些‘大陆’仅占行星表面的8%，而地球的大陆占25%。其余表面相对平滑，地质分化不明显，但被归类为低地（25%）和起伏平原（65%）。地球上的大陆与板块边界有关，而金星似乎没有大规模的板块构造。

Ishtar Terra is in the southern high latitudes and is about the size of Australia. Prominent on Ishtar Terra is a great plateau called Lakshmi Planum which is about 1500 km across at its widest point. There are mountain ranges surrounding this plateau which contain Maxwell's Mont, the highest mountain peak on the planet. The peak of Maxwell's Mont is some 14 km higher than the lowest point on the planet, compared to about 20 km between the peak of Mt. Everest and the deepest point in Earth's oceans, Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench on the eastern edge of the Phillipines plate.

伊施塔特拉位于南纬高纬度地区，其大小大约相当于澳大利亚。在伊施塔特拉上，有一个显著的高原称为拉克希米平原，其最宽处约有1500公里。这个高原周围有山脉，其中包含马克斯韦山，这是行星上的最高山峰。马克斯韦山的顶峰比行星上的最低点高出约14公里，这与珠穆朗玛峰顶与地球海洋最深点挑战者深渊（位于菲律宾板块东缘的马里亚纳海沟）之间的约20公里高度差相比要小。