Athens, AL Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
780 ft 240 m720 ft 220 m700 ft 210 m640 ft 195 m580 ft 180 m550 ft 170 m
Contours every 200 ft, bold every 1,000 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Athens sits at about 710 ft (215 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
710 ft 215 m
most residents: 680–740 ft
Lowest
550 ft 170 m
on the southwest side
Highest
780 ft 235 m
on the north side
Average
690 ft 210 m
all land inside city limits
Athens spans about 230 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 710 ft215 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the north side | 780 ft235 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the southwest side | 550 ft170 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Athens | 720 ft220 m |
| Average of all land | 690 ft210 m |
Elevation profile, south to north
8.3 mi south to north through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Limestone County, Alabama, United States
- Population
- 32,587 2024 est.
- Land area
- 41.9 sq mi + 0.3 sq mi water
- Density
- 778 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 34.8029° N, 86.9717° W
- Time zone
- Central UTC−6 / −5
- Landform region
- Interior Low Plateaus
- Drains to
- Tennessee River → Ohio River → Mississippi River → Gulf of America
- ZIP codes 4
- 35611 35613 35614 35671
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Ardmore, TN900 ft
- Ardmore900 ft
- Harvest830 ft
- Elkmont830 ft
- Lester790 ft
- Athens710 ft
- Madison710 ft
- Trinity660 ft
- Prospect, TN630 ft
- Decatur590 ft
- Mooresville570 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in Alabama141st highest of 595
- Towns in Limestone County4th highest of 5
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Rainbow Mountain1,150 ft
- Trinity Mountain870 ft
- Jackson Mountain840 ft
- Union Hill Mountain840 ft
- Baker Hill, Limestone County760 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, 550 ft at 34.6910° N, 86.9560° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
- Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); BTS time zones. All public domain.