A complete geographical reference work for home or business use, this new edition of Philip's Encyclopedic World Atlas provides authoritative full-colour maps, detailed gazetteer entries and up-to-date statistics for every country in the world. It is invaluable for project work, research or home reference. The atlas opens with an 8-page preliminary section, including country statistics, plus cities and world physical dimensions. A 32-page World and Continents section follows, introducing the reader to each continent in turn, with both political and physical mapping. The Country-by-Country section forms the bulk of the book. Arranged alphabetically from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, each country is profiled in a depth appropriate to its economic or political importance. A concise text describes the main features of landscape, climate, history, politics and economy. Each entry is accompanied by a full-colour topographic map of an individual country or small group of neighbouring countries. The maps are drawn in the style for which Philip's is internationally famous, combining layer-coloured contours with relief shading to provide a superb visual impression of the land surface.Cities, towns and major communication routes are marked in meticulous detail. The 20,000-name index provides rapid reference to the maps through an easy-to-use letter-figure grid system.