Admire the heart-shaped oasis seen from space

Astronauts on the International Space Station photographed an oasis over 1,200 square kilometers with a unique shape in the middle of the desert.

At an altitude of 400km, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) looked down at Earth and saw a striking heart-shaped oasis in the middle of the Egyptian desert last May. On February 14, they shared the photo as a special Valentine's gift for the blue planet, according to NASA's Earth Observatory organization.

The heart-shaped oasis Faiyum lies below the Nile River.

The oasis, Faiyum, is a wetland basin over 1,200 square kilometers. This place has been inhabited for some 8,000 years and was the source of a number of ambitious ancient engineering feats.

Nurtured by Bahr Yussef, the natural channel of the nearby Nile, the oasis was once a shimmering lake named Moeris. The lake's existence depends on seasonal flooding from the Nile, according to the geography department at University College London (UCL).

When the Nile's floodwaters were so low, ancient Egyptian rulers sometimes had to take bold measures. There is evidence that pharaohs who lived 4,000 years ago once dealt with a severe water shortage by extending the Bahr Yussef to bring water to the area.

This is one of the earliest large-scale national hydrological projects in the world. The 12th Dynasty kings Amenemhat I - III were in charge of this and received the title of "king of engineering", according to UCL.

Today, the ancient lake continues to exist as the much smaller Lake Qarun. Thanks to ancient engineering work, the remains of the vast Lake Moeris bed remain a fertile oasis that has helped many villages, towns, farms and orchards flourish. In the photo, it's the gray patchy areas that make up the heart.