Product Description

A completely revised edition of this popular, small format atlas in the authoritative and highly respected Times range. All the mapping and information in this revised edition has been brought fully up to date to give an accurate picture of today's world. The atlas now includes a new map of the world's physical features. Detailed reference maps in the distinctive and respected Times style provide balanced, systematic coverage of all parts of the world. Each continent is introduced by a political map showing individual countries, followed by regional maps showing in detail towns and cities, roads, railways, international boundaries and topography. The introductory section presents a fully revised and up-to-date guide to the states and territories of the world with national flags and statistics on area and population, as well as details of languages, religions and currencies. Thematic maps and statistics on major world themes, including population, climate and communications have been updated to give a complete picture of the world today. The index includes references to over 25,000 place names. This is a complete world reference atlas in a convenient and easy-to use format.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #564492 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Lots of places in a convenient desktop-format.
The second Compact Edition is now completely updated in the new "Times" style, where all mapping has been digitally generated. Although most mapping companies apparently have some difficulty getting used to producing legible atlases from digital databases, Bartholomew clearly knows how to do it properly by now. The 115 map pages are beautiful to look at. The colour coding is subtle, the maps are breathtakingly accurate; plus, they are packed with names but without cluttering up the pages too much. The index has grown from 22,000 to 27,000 in this edition. There is a good statistical section on the world's countries, including flags, and geographical comparisons on islands, mountains, rivers, etc.. There are not too many thematic maps, but those that are included are of an outstanding quality. A nice addition is a listing of the world's largest urban areas. One of the most important advantages of this edition is its portable format: though larger than the mini edition, you can still take it along anywhere in any bag. There are also a few minor points. With a clear emphasis on Western Europe, some others deserve larger scale mapping, especially New York and L.A. areas, and Israel; this is true for the largest urban areas in general. However, having used it a lot since september 2000, I keep being amazed at how each time you are looking for a place, it turns out to be included in the index after all!

The blurry writing below the word atlas on the cover
says COMPACT. I didn't realise this when I bought this item. The atlas is quite small! To give you an idea of size, when I looked up a St Etienne in France in the index, it gave me a grid reference which included almost all of France! I'm going to return it and get a bigger one.

Outstanding value for money
As long as you can read (and evidently not everyone can) then you'll know what to expect: a jolly sturdy 7" tall mini-atlas which provides a useful and easy-off-the-shelf reference about general world locations. Nothing specific, mind. Nothing is shown on a national scale, but as a point of reference it's well worth the money.