Amazon.com description: Product Description: Presently in its Tenth Edition, the Atlas of the World continues to remain the finest top-of-the-line geographic reference available, with hundreds of dramatic full-color, large-format maps and a host of gorgeous satellite photography. As in past editions, the atlas has been fully updated to reflect the changing world around us incorporating new nations (East Timor), new flags (Afghanistan), new statistics from the 2000 Census in the United States, and dozens of other significant revisions. At the core of the book however, is still the 176-page section of outstanding world maps, providing detailed political and topographical information about every nation on Earth, enhanced by relief shading and layer-colored contours. The tenth edition of the atlas offers a completely redesigned interior layout allowing for the highest level of factual and visual detail within an easy-to-read, accessible format. Moreover, the comprehensive and expanding 75,000-entry index makes locating specific places easy and convenient, and a separate index for the section of city maps from 67 major metropolitan areas only enhances the volumes usefulness. A colorful 48-page Introduction to World Geography section beautifully illustrated with color maps, charts, and graphs provides a wealth of information on such topics as the climate, the greenhouse effect, plate tectonics, agriculture, population and migration, and global conflicts.