There could be some craft that requires a landing strip. Also, it may not have been a landing strip; it may have been something else that they used as a landing strip. AlSO, lol, Robin could be right, it may be there for emergencies. Out of an entire planet to choose from, Anakin piloted it to that strip, so he knew it was there. That would seem to indicate it is there for emergencies.
why does everone accociate images with tragedy?
a million objects have been seen breaking up in the atmosphere,
but automatically its an exploitation of the columbia tragedy.
a million buildings have been seen on fire, yet the jedi temple is
assumed to be an exploitation of 911. really, no offence intended jaden,
but lighten up. should lucas take the reality out of reentry and the smoke out of fire to please the oversensative?
as far as the landing strip, it WAS a landing strip. the flight control tower was a dead giveaway i think. perhaps it was not a runway, but rather a strip where ships are lined up, as we see when obiwan leaves coruscant in the star destroyer. it stands to reason that the strip was empty because all ships were deployed for the space battle. i think that works, right?
...given that lucas himself stated the political comments in the film...they are hardly inconspicuous are they
"this is how liberty dies...to thunderous applause"
"if you are not with me...then you are my enemy"
the smoking towers in the distance scene of the jedi temple
and look at the scene of the invisible hand breaking up...then look at the images of the columbia breaking up
while yes you do see lots of things breaking up in the atmospehere...namely meteors etc...how often to you see them in daylight...not often...not to mention that the invisible IS A SHIP
compare that to the attached pic
forgive me for the poor quality as i took it from my mobile phone from the tv and bluetoothed it to my pc
i just thought the similarity was striking