The Phantom Atlas The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps [Hardcover]

Discover the mysteries within ancient maps - Where exploration and mythology meet

This richly illustrated book collects and explores the colorful histories behind a striking range of real antique maps that are all in some way a little too good to be true.

Mysteries within ancient maps:The Phantom Atlas is a guide to the world not as it is, but as it was imagined to be. It's a world of ghost islands, invisible mountain ranges, mythical civilizations, ship-wrecking beasts, and other fictitious features introduced on maps and atlases through mistakes, misunderstanding, fantasies, and outright lies.

Where exploration and mythology meet:Author Edward Brooke-Hitching is a map collector, author, writer for the popular BBC Television program QI and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He lives in a dusty heap of old maps and books in London investigating the places where exploration and mythology meet.

Cartography's greatest phantoms:The Phantom Atlasuses gorgeous atlas images as springboards for tales of deranged buccaneers, seafaring monks, heroes, swindlers, and other amazing stories behind cartography's greatest phantoms.

If you are a fan of this popular genre and a reader of books such asPrisoners of Geography, Atlas of Ancient Rome, Atlas Obscura, What If, Book of General Ignorance, or Thing Explainer,your will loveThe Phantom Atlas

Edward Brooke-Hitching is a map collector and author ofFox Tossing: And Other Forgotten and Dangerous Sports, Pastimes and Games. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a writer for the popular BBC TV show QI, he lives in a dusty heap of old maps and books in London. The Phantom Atlas will prove rewarding for armchair adventurers and nautical historians. For more intrepid souls, it affords an indispensable guide to legendary sites or, just possibly, remote realms wailÓ2