We present a grazing incidence x‐ray diffraction surface structure determination on a II–VI compound, namely, the CdTe(001)C(2×2) reconstructed surface, grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The structural analysis leads to a model with cadmium bridges corresponding to a coverage of 0.5 ML Cd, as expected from previous studies. This surface arrangement is accompanied by a significant relaxation of the underlying substrate down to the sixth atomic layer. Moreover, a strong anisotropy of the reconstructed domain dimensions is observed and quantified. This findings may explain the anisotropic behavior observed during homoepitaxial and heteroepitaxial growth on CdTe. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.