Book excerpt: DK's highly regarded, eye-catching, and comprehensive cartography is presented in classic form in this fully updated geographic tome, the second edition of Complete Atlas of the World. All maps enjoy a full double-page spread, maximizing the space for geographic information. The continents are broken down into 330 carefully selected map areas reflecting a meaningful division of the modern world. A section on thought-provoking global topics and an index of 100,000 placenames support the core atlas. This atlas is has been structured into four sections. The first section is a world overview, containing a stimulating series of global thematic maps which explore Earth's place in the universe, its physical forms and processes, the living world, and the human condition. The second section comprises the main atlas, examined in a series of 330 maps, including more than 100 city plans. In section three, all 195 countries of the world are presented along with up-to-date geopolitical facts. In the fourth and final section, a clearly styled index of all 100,000 placenames is provided.