Product Description

Created by the Bertelsmann Cartographic Institute, this atlas uses one detailed scale of 1:4.5 million throughout to allow accurate comparisons of countries. It shows the world's transportation networks of roads and railways, as well as indicating major cultural and natural sites.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3164952 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Customer Reviews

Review of AA World Atlas
Most world atlases are biased towards Western Europe and North America which is OK if you are planning your holiday to these areas, but gives a distorted and unbalanced view of the world. The AA World Atlas is one of only two that I know of (the other being the Peters World Atlas) which maps the whole world at the same scale, and out of the two, the AA is by far the most detailed. The Old Times Atlas of the World Comprehensive Edition used to claim to map most of the world at a minimum scale of 1:5,000,000. It didn't quite make it as it missed out Northern Canada at this scale. The New Times Atlas does not come close to this goal. That the AA World Atlas can exceed this target, and map the whole world at the larger scale of 1:4,500,000 in such a compact form and at such a reasonable price is truly amazing. The index of 94,000 places reflects the large amount of detail contained within the maps. For much of Asia, Africa Northern Canada and South America it is simply unbeatable. Unfortunately, most people will judge it on Western Europe and the USA where we have been spoilt by inflated map scales. In fact I find the map of Central Europe to be over crowded and confusing in an attempt to cram in too much detail. Also, the road numbering used for Great Britain is confusing. In other areas, the main disadvantage is that the pages are too tightly bound, but this is not as bad as in the new Philip's Universal World Atlas. For example, the Island of Sakalin off the coast of Russia is impressively mapped but almost imossible to view as half of it disappears into the binding of the book! The only other disappointment is that the very most Northern plate of Arctic Canada has been compressed vertically in order to save a page but this is only a minor gripe when you compare the scale of coverage of this area with any other atlas.

In conclusion, this atlas is one of my favourites, and would be a useful complement to a more traditional world atlas which would concentrate more on Europe and the USA. Unfortunately, as most people will judge an atlas on these two areas, it is likely to remain a 'hidden gem.'

Andrew Taylor

Worsley, Manchester

Coffee table use only
This atlas has the fundamental flaw that 2-page spreads have no gap in the middle. If you're looking at a feature, you end up following it around the curve of the open page until it disappears into the spine. Quite a lot is lost this way, for example the southern Adriatic coast and most of Barcelona! It's also no use for holiday planning because the detail just isn't there. Suppose you wanted to go to Rhodes and looked it up in the atlas - the whole island is just 17mm long on the page because the same scale is used throughout.