Author: Travis Elborough Publisher: Aurum Press ISBN: 0711264015 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 194
Book Description
Atlas of Improbable Places shows the modern world from surprising new vantage points that will inspire urban explorers and armchair travellers alike to consider a new way of understanding the world we live in.
Author: Travis Elborough Publisher: Aurum ISBN: 178131635X Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 194
Book Description
Inspiring urban explorers and armchair travellers alike to consider a new way of understanding the world we live in, this unique atlas shows you the modern world from surprising new vantage points. Hidden lairs beneath layers of rock, forgotten cities rising out of deserted lands and even mankind's own feats of engineering eccentricity lie in the most unusual of destinations. Go in search of the obscure and bizarre, the beautiful and estranged, taking in the defiant relics of ancient cities such as Ani, a once thriving metropolis lost to conquered lands, and the church tower of San Juan Parangaricuto, that miraculously stands as the sole survivor of a town sunk by lava. Through the labyrinths of Berlin and Beijing — underground realms dug for refuge, espionage and even, as Canada's Moose Jaw, used as the playground for gangsters trading liquor and money over cards — never forgetting the freaks and wonders of nature's own unusual masterpieces: the magical underground river shaped like a dragon's mouth in the Philippines and the floating world of Palmerston. With beautiful maps and stunning photography illustrating each destination, Atlas of Improbable Places is a fascinating voyage to the world's most incredible destinations. As the Island of Dolls and the hauntingly titled Door to Hell — an inextinguishable fire pit - attest, mystery is never far away. The truths and myths behind their creation are as varied as the destinations themselves. Standing as symbols of worship, testaments to kingships or even the strange and wonderful traditions of old and new, these curious places are not just extraordinary sights but reflections on man's own relationship with the world around us. Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Untamed Places,Atlas of the Unexpected, Atlas of Vanishing Places.
Author: Travis Elborough Publisher: Aurum Press ISBN: 9781781317631 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
It is perhaps the eighth wonder of our world that despite modern mapping and satellite photography our planet continues to surprise us. Hidden lairs beneath layers of rock, forgotten cities rising out of deserted lands and even mankind's own feats of engineering eccentricity lie in the most unusual of destinations. Travis Elborough goes in search of the obscure and bizarre, the beautiful and estranged. Taking in the defiant relics of ancient cities such as Ani, a once thriving metropolis lost to conquered lands, and the church tower of San Juan Parangaricuto, that miraculously stands as the sole survivor of a town sunk by lava. Through the labyrinths of Berlin and Beijing — underground realms dug for refuge, espionage and even, as Canada's Moose Jaw, used as the playground for gangsters trading liquor and money over cards. Never forgetting the freaks and wonders of nature's own unusual masterpieces: the magical underground river shaped like a dragon's mouth in the Philippines and the floating world of Palmerston. With beautiful maps and stunning photography illustrating each destination, Atlas of Improbable Places is a fascinating voyage to the world's most incredible destinations. As the Island of Dolls and the hauntingly titled Door to Hell — an inextinguishable fire pit - attest, mystery is never far away. The truths and myths behind their creation are as varied as the destinations themselves. Standing as symbols of worship, testaments to kingships or even the strange and wonderful traditions of old and new, these curious places are not just extraordinary sights but reflections on man's own relationship with the world around us.
Author: Gideon Defoe Publisher: Europa Editions ISBN: 1609456815 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 226
Book Description
"Prisoners of Geography meets Bill Bryson: a funny, fascinating, beautifully illustrated—and timely—history of countries that, for myriad and often ludicrous reasons, no longer exist. “Countries are just daft stories we tell each other. They’re all equally implausible once you get up close.” Countries die. Sometimes it’s murder, sometimes it’s by accident, and sometimes it’s because they were so ludicrous they didn’t deserve to exist in the first place. Occasionally they explode violently. A few slip away almost unnoticed. Often the cause of death is either “got too greedy” or “Napoleon turned up.” Now and then they just hold a referendum and vote themselves out of existence. This is an atlas of 48 nations that fell off the map. The polite way of writing an obituary is: dwell on the good bits, gloss over the embarrassing stuff. This book refuses to do so, because these dead nations are so full of schemers, racists, and con men that it’s impossible to skip the embarrassing stuff. Because of this – and because treating nation-states with too much reverence is the entire problem with pretty much everything – these accounts are not concerned with adding to the earnest flag saluting in the world, however nice some of the flags might be."
Author: Nick Middleton Publisher: Chronicle Books ISBN: 1452158835 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 239
Book Description
A “fascinating” journey to little-known and contested lands around the globe, from Tibet to the Isle of Man to Elgaland-Vargaland (Geographical Magazine). What is a country? Acclaimed travel writer and Oxford geography don Nick Middleton brings to life the origins and histories of fifty states that, lacking international recognition and United Nations membership, exist on the margins of legitimacy in the global order. From long-contested lands like Crimea and Tibet to lesser-known territories such as Africa’s last colony and a European republic that enjoyed independence for a single day, Middleton presents fascinating stories of shifting borders, visionary leaders, and “forgotten” peoples. “Engrossing . . . You’ll not find Middle-earth, Atlantis or Lilliput inside, but you will find something just as intriguing . . . sure to prompt discussions about what makes a country a ‘real country.’” —Seattle Times
Author: Derek Anderson Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 708
Book Description
A NEW APPROACH TO WORLD HISTORYThis uniquely-told world history interweaves the lives of twenty-six women and men who are not well known with the major political, economic, social, and cultural developments that have shaped the human experience through the course of the last 570 years. Meticulously researched and hailed by scholars, yet purposefully written for a broad audience, this book details the lives of doctors and musicians, aristocrats and artists, businessmen and suffragettes, scientists and generals who made essential, but now-largely forgotten, contributions to places and eras as diverse as Reformation Europe, Mughal India, Tokugawa Japan, colonial Australia, and post-colonial Kenya. Improbable Voices possesses both the vivid depth and the expansive breadth a satisfying history of the world warrants. The book is handsomely illustrated and includes over forty original maps. Specific figures include Ethiopia's regent queen Eleni in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; Spain's moderate viceroy in Mexico and Peru, Diego Fernández de Córdoba, in the seventeenth; France's talented salonnière Julie de Lespinasse in the eighteenth, Polynesia's indigenous Christian missionary Ta'unga in the nineteenth; and Saudi Arabia's colorful oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani in the twentieth. The book concludes by examining the work of German and Canadian climatologist Kirsten Zickfeld and the environmental challenges we face in the twenty-first century.
Author: William Least Heat-Moon Publisher: Little, Brown ISBN: 0316218545 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 458
Book Description
Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map -- if they get on at all -- only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi." His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.
Author: David Mitchell Publisher: Vintage Canada ISBN: 0307373576 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 541
Book Description
#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A timeless, structure-bending classic that explores how actions of individual lives impact the past, present and future—from a postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in fiction Featuring a new afterword by David Mitchell and a new introduction by Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. The novel careens, with dazzling virtuosity, to Belgium in 1931, to the West Coast in the 1970s, to an inglorious present-day England, to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok, and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. But the story doesn’t end even there. The novel boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, David Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. As wild as a video game, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.
Author: Chris Fitch Publisher: Aurum Press ISBN: 9781781316771 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
With beautiful, unique maps and evocative photography, Atlas of Untamed Places is an intrepid voyage to nature’s wildest places. In a world that has increasingly become tamed by human activity, the true wild holds a growing mysticism. Rugged landscapes with unspoilt scenery invoke romantic visions of paradise, but there are also intense and powerful wildernesses that produce fear and awe alike and unexplored zones where feral wildlife roams in the shadows. Chris Fitch takes you on a journey through the world’s most wild places, visiting immensely diverse floral kingdoms, remote jungles abundant with exotic birds, and both freezing cold and scorching hot inhospitable environments. From these natural havens we travel to the extreme and the incredible: lightning inducing lakes, acidic mud baths, and man-eating tiger kingdoms. We encounter places being reclaimed by nature, such as Chernobyl, that after being left abandoned for years are returning to a natural wilderness, free from human intervention. Not forgetting those most bizarre of destinations, such as the tidal surges of the Qiantang River, the bridge to Modo Island that emerges from the sea, and the strange magnetic pull of Jabuka rock. Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of the Unexpected, Atlas of Vanishing Places.
Author: Olivier Le Carrer Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal ISBN: 0316353515 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 203
Book Description
Atlas Obscura says this lushly illustrated New York Times bestselling guide to dozens of dangerous, eerie, and infamous locations is the perfect gift for "those who believe the world is still full of mysteries to investigate." Pick up the acclaimed Atlas of Cursed Places and visit the world's most nerve-wracking locations. With pithy historical profiles, vintage full-color maps, and haunting tales that will color your perspective (and send tingles down your spine), this is a clever gift for the intrepid traveler or armchair adventurer who wants to explore destinations both remarkable and daunting. Visit: a coal town where the ground is constantly on fire a Zambian national park where more than 8 million bats darken the skies the infamous suicide location of Aokigahara Forest near Mount Fuji the lesser-known Nevada triangle, in which dozens of aircraft have inexplicably disappeared Beautifully packaged and written with a twisty sense of humor, Atlas of Cursed Places puts your quirky side on the map.
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Author: Travis Elborough
Author: Travis Elborough
Author: Travis Elborough
Author: Gideon Defoe
Author: Nick Middleton
Author: Derek Anderson
Author: William Least Heat-Moon
Author: David Mitchell
Author: Chris Fitch
Author: Olivier Le Carrer