Glorious photographs of every part of the world. Delving deeply into century-old picture archive National Geographic presents the world's hugely diverse places with epic grandeur, unparalleled intimacy, romantic beauty, and gritty realism. The photographs are landscapes, cityscapes, famous landmarks, and unfamiliar spots that reveal special qualities of geography or culture one might otherwise never see. National Geographic's quest since its founding in 1888 has been to describe "the world and all that's in it." To fulfill that quest, photographers set out to document every imaginable place on earth, from the most remote to the most familiar; from the most primitive to the most sophisticated. National Geographic photographers have recorded the world's places close up, in sweeping breadth, in depth, and over time. Twelve chapters each depict a unique geography, the culture and nature that inhabit it. Chapters are introduced by short, 1,500-word essays and looks carefully and deeply at a region's special qualities. The geography and the life within it comes forward with its own unique character, its own special and unforgettable sense of place.

Includes index.

Prehistory: from the beginning to ca. 4000 B.C. -- First empires: ca. 7000 B.C.-200 A.D. -- The ancient world: ca. 2500 B.C.-900 A.D. -- The Middle Ages: 5th-15th century -- The early modern period: 16th-18th century -- The modern era: 1789-1914 -- The World Wars and interwar period: 1914-1945 -- The contemporary world: 1945 to the present.