Customer Reviews

The Underground Atlas: A Gazetteer of the World's Cave Regions

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an armchair explorer/enthusiast, finding this book at the local used bookstore was like stumbling upon a goldmine!

Background info first:

The book's full title is "The Underground Atlas: A Gazetteer of the Worlds Cave Regions", by John Middleton & Tony Waltham. It's 239 pages long, including glossary, and has 24 pages of B&W photos. The book has numerous (approximately 104) maps of global, regional, national and local caves & karst regions, as well as detailed info and history on important caves and expeditions' maps of their explorations.


Review:

The only down side to this book is its age - it was published in 1986 and again in 1992, so there's a lot of new information that's not included in this book, specifically Mexico's fascinating 'Cueva de Villa Luz', translated to be: "Cave of the Lighted House." ( http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/12/971228232315.htm) Also not included is info on Mexico's crystal cave (http://www.geotimes.org/mar01/crystalcave.html)

With that in mind, it's still a VERY good book, particularly if you're planning a caving/archaeological or anthropological expedition and think you'll be needing info on the caves in the area.

If you "just" an 'armchair explorer', like me, it's still a wonderful buy and will help fill in any blank areas left on your exploration map.

Five stars awarded for a book that gives desperately needed (and would LOVE to see revised and updated) info on a very interesting scientific field.