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(BROOKE-HITCHING) Edward Brooke-hitching ~ The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps

Author ~ Edward Brooke-Hitching

Title ~ The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps

ISBN ~ 9781471159459

Publisher ~ Simon & Schuster UK

Published ~ 2016-11-03

Language ~ English

Pages ~ 256

Format ~ Hardcover

Condition ~ Used, Very Good

Large format hardback in very good condition. Some light shelf wear and rubbing to edges of the boards. No inscriptions, not price clipped 

Categories ~ #WorldAtlases #WorldMaps #WorldHistory #Cartography #MapMaking #NonFiction #EdwardBrookeHitching #9781471159459

The Phantom Atlas is an atlas of the world not as it ever existed, but as it was thought to be. These marvellous and mysterious phantoms - non-existent islands, invented mountain ranges, mythical civilisations and other fictitious geography - were all at various times presented as facts on maps and atlases. This book is a collection of striking antique maps that display the most erroneous cartography, with each illustration accompanied by the story behind it.

Exploration, map-making and mythology are all brought together to create a colourful tapestry of monsters, heroes and volcanoes; swindlers, mirages and murderers. Sometimes the stories are almost impossible to believe, and remarkably, some of the errors were still on display in maps published in the 21st century. Throughout much of the 19th century more than 40 different mapmakers included the Mountains of Kong, a huge range of peaks stretching across the entire continent of Africa, in their maps - but it was only in 1889 when Louis Gustave Binger revealed the whole thing to be a fake. For centuries, explorers who headed to Patagonia returned with tales of the giants they had met who lived there, some nine feet tall. 

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