The European Space Agency (ESA) published a correction and apology on its website on May 19, saying that the story it published on May 11, 2004, "Great Wall of China seen from space," contained image interpretation errors. The feature that it identified as the Great Wall is actually a river running into the Miyun Reservoir, northeast of Beijing.

The ESA is planning to acquire more images of the region with other instruments to investigate the matter further.

The agency said that the errors arose because the image was not properly investigated in advance of publication and apologized for the editorial oversight.

(Source: European Space Agency, May 20, 2004)