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In the equatorial zone of Mars, the flat plain of Elysium Planitia to the north gives way southward to a wide region of cratered highlands, Terra Cimmeria. From the equatorial zone, Terra Cimmeria runs southward almost into Mars' southern polar regions. To the west and east it is bounded by two similar highland regions: Promethei Terra to the west, and Terra Sirenum to the east.
Cratering is dense across this entire area, which stretches for some 5,400 km (or 3,400 miles). The largest and most prominent of these craters is Kepler in the west, with a diameter of nearly 230 km (140 miles), and showing a relatively unusual peak ring formation instead of the more common single central peak. As well as Kepler, this wide region contains a range of other large craters, including (from north to south) Herschel, Molesworth, Arrhenius, Tycho Brahe, Huggins, Campbell and Mendel. At its southern extent the highlands of Terra Cimmeria fall into the southern plains of Mars, especially Planum Chronium to the southwest.
Southward of Kepler, a long narrow ridge runs across the landscape of Terra Cimmeria. This is Eridania Scopulus, which follows a nearly straight line for some thousand kilometres northeastward through the crater fields, with a wide valley following a parallel course to the north. This ridge and trough reach their end at the 100-kilometre crater Tycho Brahe.
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