More than two hundred maps, diagrams, and reconstructions assist in tracing the geology of the Earth from the Big Bang to the evolution of humans

How will we be remembered? History is simply the interaction of our lives with each other and with nature. It begins with acts of adventure, courage, blind ambition, greed, and folly that are then recorded. Without accurate recording, we wouldn't know that Napoleon used a sandbox to construct his battle plans and transmitted messages to troops using semaphore, and that Christopher Columbus thought he'd landed in India instead of America - thus the name Indians for the local people there. Historical Atlas is a comprehensive history of the world to date. Learn everything from the gruesome detail of Nero's torture of Christians to the methods Kublai Khan used to select his concubines. Who did Marco Polo meet along the Silk Road and how did a lowly carpenter influence so much of the world's religion? The world as we know it is nothing more than the sum of Earth's history. Every event in time is influenced and guided by humankind and we cannot begin to know what might happen until we understand what has already occurred. Beginning with the origins of humankind and the migration of people around the globe, the Historical Atlas details the remarkable historical events that guide our future. Covering all of recorded time, this book moves effortlessly through the eons of our existence, cementing the path of our development, culture, and expectations. Historical Atlas presents hundreds of specially commissioned maps, detailed with symbols and icons that reveal a full and vivid image of the individual events of history. Each time period is divided into areas of the world so that overlapping events are contained within the boundaries of their geographic and chronological eras. The narrative is fresh and modern, revealing our history with zest and vigor. Each period is also illustrated with images that lure us into the era. Divided into chronological order and continents, the book is a cartographic narrative of humankind's time on Earth to the present.

The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations explores the world's earliest cultures, from the farming settlements of Mesopotamia to the Americas and Polynesia, via the birth of Greek city states and the foundation of Rome. It examines the development of civilizations in the Near East - Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian - as well as those in Europe - the Minoans, Etruscans and Celts. Across the continents of Africa, Asia and America, it covers such subjects as Egypt from its pre-dynastic roots to the age of the Pharaohs, China during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and the great cities of the Incas and Aztecs. Vivid descriptions of civilizations are complemented by discussion of such key topics as colonization, agriculture and technology, and the rise of empires and city states. Richly illustrated with timelines, photographs, artwork re-creations and full-colour maps, this is an illuminating and multi-faceted one-volume introduction to early peoples and the worlds they created. - Back cover.

This pioneering work documents cultural and religious sites across the Tibetan Plateau and its bordering regions from the Paleolithic Era to today. Western fascination with Tibet has soared in recent decades, yet this historic and globally celebrated region has barely been mapped. With this groundbreaking atlas, Karl E. Ryavec sweeps aside the image of Tibet as Shangri-La, offering a comprehensive vision of the region as it really is. The product of twelve years of research and eight more of mapmaking, the results are absolutely stunning. A Historical Atlas of Tibet ranges through the five main periods in Tibetan history, offering introductory maps of each followed by details of western, central, and eastern regions. It beautifully visualizes the history of Tibetan Buddhism, tracing its spread throughout Asia, with thousands of temples mapped, both within Tibet and across North China and Mongolia, all the way to Beijing. There are maps of major polities and their territorial administrations, as well as of the kingdoms of Guge and Purang in western Tibet, and of Derge and Nangchen in Kham. There are town plans of Lhasa and maps that focus on history and language, on population, natural resources, and contemporary politics. Extraordinarily comprehensive and absolutely gorgeous, this volume makes a major contribution in the realms of cartography, Asian studies, and Buddhist studies.

Karen Wynn Fonstad's THE ATLAS OF MIDDLE-EARTH is an essential volume that will enchant all Tolkien fans. Here is the definitive guide to the geography of Middle-earth, from its founding in the Elder Days through the Third Age, including the journeys of Bilbo, Frodo, and the Fellowship of the Ring. Authentic and updated -- nearly one third of the maps are new, and the text is fully revised -- the atlas illuminates the enchanted world created in THE SILMARILLION, THE HOBBIT, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Hundreds of two-color maps and diagrams survey the journeys of the principal characters day by day -- including all the battles and key locations of the First, Second, and Third Ages. Plans and descriptions of castles, buildings, and distinctive landforms are given, along with thematic maps describing the climate, vegetation, languages, and population distribution of Middle-earth throughout its history. An extensive appendix and an index help readers correlate the maps with Tolkien's novels.