At an elevation of 327 metres, the image looks over the crater, which is about 3.5-3.8 billion years old and covers an area 154 kilometres in diameter - about the same size as Rhode Island and Connecticut combined.
Most of the scene's horizon is the crater's northern rim, roughly around 1.2 miles (two kilometres) above the rover.
Due to the incredibly thin atmosphere of the planet, a mountain that is more than 50 miles away can be seen in the background of the stunning shot.
The mission has subsequently approached the southern edge of the ridge and examined several outcrop locations along the way.
In a written statement, curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada said: "Even though Curiosity has been steadily climbing for five years, this is the first time we could look back and see the whole mission laid out below us.
"From our perch on Vera Rubin Ridge, the vast plains of the crater floor stretch out to the spectacular mountain range that forms the northern rim of Gale Crater."
As well as stitching the photos together to create a flawless shot of the mountains, Nasa also adjusted the white-balance so that the colour of the rocks appear as they would under daylight conditions on Earth.
The space agency also released an annotated version of the panorama photo which shows notable places from the mission such as 'Darwin', 'Yellowknife Bay' and 'Murray Buttes'.
Yellowknife Bay is an ancient freshwater-lake environment that offered all of the basic chemical ingredients for microbial life.
Farther north are the channel and fan of Peace Vallis, relics of the streams that carried water and sediment into the crater about three billion years ago.