The Reader's Digest Great World Atlas [antikvár]

From the centre of the Earth to the outermost limits of space URADISE IS SOMEWHERE IN THE FAR EAST. JERUSALEM IS THE CENTRE OF ALL NATIONS AND COUNTRIES, AND THE WORLD ITSELF IS A FLAT DISK SURROUNDED BY OCEANS OF WATER. So the monks, map-makers of the Middle Ages, saw the world they lived in. Today, our knowledge of the world has increased through travel and exploration and scientific discovery. This Atlas has drawn on the sum of that knowledge— knowledge that has been accumulated through many life-times of research. Following a view of our Earth in space, we look at the face of the world. Maps made from sculptured models show in relief how our world would appear to an observer at a point some hundred miles above the Earth's surface. The peaks of the great mountain ranges show in sharp contrast to the worn surfaces of older rocks and the flat plains formed by the great rivers. The levels of the ocean floor tell the history of submerged lands and of yet unexplored deeps. Here, a new dimension has been added to standard map-making. Next eome the countries of the world. Towns and cities, rivers and railways can all be found easily, for the colouring is subdued and the text clear and definitive. Together with the relief maps they complete a picture of the landscape of our Earth and of the places where we live. Tlie third section portrays the world as we know it. Incurably inquisitive, man searches continually for knowledge about our world and about other worlds beyond. He now knows that lie is only one of many forms of life on the thin crust of a planet revolving round the sun—a minor star at the edge of the Milky Way. A multi-million starred galaxy, the Milky Way is itself only one among a million other galaxies moving in the black infinity of space where traditional concepts of north and south are meaningless. It is a vision that dwarfs the globe on whieh we live and makes man seem very small; but it also gives him a new importance. For on this tiny planet life has been created and developed, and as yet we do not know whether the delicate balance of conditions which has made evolution possible on this planet has ever been repeated on any other. The marvel of this creation cannot be told by any single map or ehart. Each feature in the third section of this Atlas has been devised to illustrate a facet of it—our place in the universe, the mystery of our neighbours in space, the world beneath our feet, the evolution of life, the creatures around us, the growth and disappearance of civilizations, the beliefs of man, and his migrations. Each subject is linked to another: climate to cultivation, cultivation to food, food to health, for none of the world's problems can be seen in isolation. All are related to and interwoven with one another. If this Atlas is new in its manner of presenting geograpliically the facts about Earth and life and space, it is also new in another way: it offers many pointers towards the exploration of the future whieh lies before us. the editors