The complex political, cultural, and environmental issues that we face daily, make it increasingly important for us to have a clear vision of the world in which we live. With more than 300 updated, authoritative maps, charts, graphs, tables, and country flags, the Concise Atlas of the World, Third Editionoffers a succinct, easy-to-use, and yet comprehensive view of our world, today. The atlas opens with beautifully rendered political and physical maps of the world. Satellite mosaic imagery shows the world from hundreds of miles above. Core world geographic themes such as climate, population, religion, economy, and the structure of the Earth follow. New world thematic topics include landforms, climate and weather, natural disasters, energy, health and education, and conflict and terror. "Geographic Comparisons" covers the Earth and its extremes, including humankinds' engineering wonders. Content includes such phenomena as the hottest and the coldest places, the highest point on each continent, the largest islands, the largest drainage basins, the longest rivers, the deepest point in each ocean, the largest and smallest countries, the tallest human made structures, the longest road, the longest railroad, etc. Following the thematic coverage, the atlas focuses on each of the seven continents. All of the world's lands and seas and countries with their major cities and towns are accurately compiled and plotted and delineated by various typographical sizes that correlate to population data. Each continental map is accompanied by textual fact tables that speak to the highest and lowest elevation points, recorded temperatures, the largest and least populated countries, and countries with the highest and lowest GDP. Each of the 195 independent countries in the world is represented and described with its national flag and fact box. Whether it's Bahrain in the Middle East or P'yonyang in North Korea, a convenient, intuitive place-name index provides an easy-to-use, access guide to finding locations around the globe. The variety and expression of traditional and new, expanded content, the invaluable reference, the captivating layouts, the visually engaging, world-renown cartography, the logical, user-friendly design and its very competitive price all make this publication stand out as a great value.