New for 2004-2005, Philip's World Reference Atlas is a highly-informative atlas suitable for school projects, home reference and general knowledge. Along with 128 pages of authoritative topographic mapping the atlas provides a wealth of detailed reference information, including 6 pages of world statistical data, Regions in the News, a 48-page A-Z of sovereign states, illustrated with flags and locator maps, and a 16-page 'Images of Earth' section, showing spectacular satellite views of 16 major cities and regions across the globe. The World Statistics section provides detailed comparative listings of country sizes, city populations, and dimensions of geographical features such as oceans, seas, mountains, rivers, lakes and islands. Regions in the News are covered with detailed maps of global flashpoints: Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Kashmir and Colombia. The 48-page Nations of the World section provides detailed information about the geography, politics and economy of every sovereign state, together with listings showing population statistics, land area, ethnic groups and languages. Each entry is illustrated with the country's flag and a locator map.The 128 pages of physical and political maps provide a balanced coverage of the world. Scales and projections have been chosen to maximize legibility and minimize distortion over the largest regions, and each map is accompanied by a locator diagram and adjoining pages indicator for ease of reference. The combination of hill-shading with physical colours creates an exceptionally vivid portrayal of landforms. The extensive alpha-numeric index of 55,000 names includes geographical features such as mountains, rivers, lakes and deserts, as well as provinces, towns and cities.