National Geographic Family Reference Atlas of the World, Fourth Edition

Maps have been around in some form or other since humans first understood the need to record their physical space, and for the past hundred years, the National Geographic Society has been at the forefront of mapmaking. This Fourth Edition of our popularFamily Reference Atlas of the World brings you the world and its marvels—through maps.Using the latest technological advances, satellite data has been compiled to create some 1,400 images—maps, diagrams, graphs, and tables, as well as National Geographic's signature color photographs—to allow you to examine the most remote corners of the globe.

In an era when political, health, climatic, and environmental crises anywhere on the globe can affect our daily lives, maps provide a time-honored way to navigate the realities we face. With this atlas, you hold a powerful yet accessible tool to understanding the interplay of global forces at work in the fast-changing but always miraculous planet that is our home.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC cartographers bring a century of mapmaking experience and cutting-edge technology to bear on every atlas product. Over the last decade, techniques used in digital mapping have undergone remarkable changes. Today, satellite and digital imaging technology, GPS, and GIS technologies provide cartographers with new, dynamic tools to map and animate Earth. Leveraging these emerging technologies to build smart, well-designed, functional, informative atlases is one of the great strengths of National Geographic.