Essential World Atlas

Book excerpt: The paperback edition of the Oxford Atlas of the World features outstanding, full-color relief maps of unsurpassed clarity and arresting beauty. With new features such as state-of-the-art digital maps of Europe, created using the latest available sources (maps, satellite imagery, and census data) to produce crisp color and seamless layouts, this comprehensive reference incorporates literally hundreds of significant changes from across the globe, including the nine new South African provinces, the reshaping of the former Soviet Republics, and the new African nation of Eritrea. Of course, the basic qualities of the Atlas--the exquisite mapmaking and the wealth of supplemental information--are superb. The 96-page section of large-scale world maps at the heart of the book, as well as a 35,000-name general index with full geographical coordinates, provides detailed political and topographical information for every nation on Earth. Alongside this is a 48-page section of United States maps offering multicolored political, topographical and climate maps, as well as close-ups of urban areas. This section has its own 7,000-name index with geographical coordinates, making finding any town, region, or mountain range an easy task. Balanced coverage of the world is given at carefully selected scales, and the easy-to-use index provides letter-figure grid references and latitude and longitude coordinates. Other features include statistics on countries (population, area, annual income), physical dimensions of continents, oceans, mountains, islands, and rivers, an explanation of map projections, a user's guide, and a guide to the flags of the world. Handy, meticulously crafted, and thoroughly updated, Oxford's Atlas of the World, Paperback Edition offers the finest international coverage available. It is an indispensable resource, as distinguished in its accuracy as it is in its comprehensive global focus. From the serious student to the casual browser, this atlas is the perfect addition to any reference shel