
Map Stories: The Art of Discovery
Graham Chandler
Francisca Mattéoli
2016, Octopus Publishing, 978-1-78157-377-8, $29.99 hb.
This atlas-sized volume takes seven global travel themes, presents 52 ancient map reproductions accompanied by 23 stories and “invites the reader on a journey from map to map, to let their imagination run free,” as the author puts it. Her theme works: Readers should particularly enjoy the tales on Petra, the Nile, Aqaba, Madagascar and the Orient Express. In the section on Aqaba, she focuses on T. E. Lawrence’s work to mobilize the Arabs against the Turks during World War I, concluding that capturing the old port town on the Sinai Peninsula in 1917 meant “this part of the world map had just been redrawn.” Though not intended as a scholarly work, the stories are well-chosen and fascinate despite the some florid prose. The narratives are only loosely connected with the maps, most of which date back centuries, but the maps themselves are superb. This book would be very much at home on a coffee table.
You may also be interested in...
Celebrate Women's History Month With These Reads on Women Throughout History
To help honor Women’s History Month, AramcoWorld brings you a list of 10 female-focused reads that celebrate women throughout history.The Ebb and Flow of History on the Zambezi River
In tracing the past six centuries of history, historian Malyn Hewitt captures the cyclical rise and fall of the river and its people.Work Reveals Common Ground Across Massive Desert
The Sahara wasn’t always a desert. Around 9000 BCE it was a bucolic expanse where animals and lush vegetation thrived.