Description: DK's biggest – and most comprehensive – atlas to date, this updated edition of DK's Great World Atlas combines state-of-the-art digital mapping with the latest satellite imagery to provide the most spectacular and authoritative portrait of the Earth, ever.

Featuring more than 85,000 place names and more than 750 colour photographs, the large-scale maps have been created using the most up-to-date cartographic software and satellite data available to bring the Earth's surface and features vividly alive.

Customer Review of Atlas:

Content: The entire book, I must say, is very nicely presented, with flowing page layouts and colour everywhere. It is divided into 3 main parts:
1. World overviews.
2. The continents & regional maps.
3. The index.

1. A series of world overviews, as found in most other atlases - the planets, politics, wars, etc. etc, but better. They are graphical and colourful, with many little diagrams & photos. Everything is explained neatly and in plain english.

2. The maps themselves are organised first by the continents, then by regions (a region is typically one country, or a group of countries); some regions are given extra treatment for the more populous areas.

The bias is noticeably western-centric, with more space devoted to Western Europe, the USA, Japan, etc: for example, Europe gets 46 pages, but Africa only gets 18! I would happily pay more money for a more complete & unbiased coverage, and this is my first main gripe (of 2) against this otherwise wonderful book.

* Each continent has a 6+ page introduction with maps & photographs covering: physical geography, climate, history, population, transport, language, industry, natural resources, etc (similar to the world overviews).

* Every regional page offers a mixture of maps, diagrams, photos and text, all in technicolour. Almost all regional pages contain:

- a written introduction, with a small map showing where you are in the world.

- the main map. These are colourful, dramatic, easier to understand than traditional flat-as-a-pancake maps, and come in irregular shapes according to the regional/country boundaries. Every map also has its own scale and key, so there is no need to rummage around for those. But the scales vary considerably and wierdly, like 1:7,750,000 on one page, and 1:7,000,000 on the next, and obviously the maps have been scaled to whatever fits nicely on the page, with no concern for standardising them. This makes it difficult to compare 2 different maps, or to develop a natural sensibility for reading them. (This is my 2nd gripe).

- about 6 mini-photographs of interesting landscapes or cultural features - with explanations.

- a small physical-geography map, showing the main mountain ranges, rivers, and areas to note (which are annotated with fascinating little descriptions, often with photographs).

- a small land-use map.

- a small map of transport routes and industry.

- sometimes another small diagram or two to explain things.

* It also contains statistics & flags for every country.