The 96 pages of physical and political maps give a balanced coverage of the world at well-chosen scales. The hill-shading on the physical maps provides an exceptionally vivid portrayal of landforms.The 32-page introductory section - 'The World in Focus' - covers key geographical themes such as the Earth's position in the Solar System, the structure of the Earth, climate and weather, the environment, population, resources, economics and international organizations.The 48-page 'World Cities' section provides urban-area and city-centre maps marking tourist sites for 69 of the world's most important cities, backed up by a comprehensive index. Full-page satellite images for 9 of the cities featured complete this section.The 35,000-name index includes geographical features as well as towns and cities, with both letter-figure grid references and latitude and longitude co-ordinates.