Which Venus highland region contains Maxwell Montes?

Ishtar Terra is the Venusian highland region that contains Maxwell Montes. Located in the planet’s northern highlands, Ishtar Terra is the second-largest of Venus’s three major terrae, after Aphrodite Terra.

Maxwell Montes forms a prominent mountain chain along Ishtar Terra’s eastern side. It rises roughly 11 kilometers above Venus’s mean planetary radius, making it one of the most dramatic landforms in the Solar System. The range borders the elevated Lakshmi Planum, while other major mountain belts in Ishtar Terra include Akna, Danu, and Freyja Montes.

The name Ishtar Terra honors Ishtar, an ancient Akkadian goddess associated with Venus. Maxwell Montes is an unusual exception to Venus’s naming convention: most surface features are named for women or goddesses, but this range honors physicist James Clerk Maxwell, whose work helped make radar possible.

Do not confuse the region with Aphrodite Terra, the larger equatorial highland. Maxwell Montes was identified through radar observations because Venus’s permanent cloud cover blocks visible views of the surface. Pioneer Venus and Magellan data later helped establish the region’s topography.