Atlas Swiata

When Atlas Swiata was published it was the largest cartographical publication made in Poland and one of the largest in the world. The maps were prepared by the Polish Army Topographical Service in 1962 and in 1968 it was published also n English and with minor adjustments (e.g. order of the pages) as Pergamon World Atlas.

The content is divided into 3 sections. First section comprises of thematic world maps, showcasing maps on various topics (economy, industry, transport, climate, ethnics etc). Second and largest group of maps contains regional maps and diagrams. Each country is presented with short info (population, capital, political constitution and parties, currency, administrative divisions), flag and couple of thematic maps on landforms, agriculture, industry, economy, geology etc. Several other charts are dispersed throughout the pages, illustrating dynamics in selected topics like population, gross domestic product, usage of land, temperature and precipitation, agricultural and industrial production and other topics specific to each region (like map of earthquakes and trajectories of tropical cyclones in Japan). Countries like Soviet Union, China and USA tend to have several full page thematic maps augmented with charts. The general reference maps are often foldout, like f.e. map of Northern Africa, extended to 82 cm in width. Some of the pages consist of smaller map insets depicting various important regions and urban areas.

Particular attention has been paid to nomenclature. In accordance with modern trends, the principle of providing names officially valid or commonly accepted in a given country has been adopted. In countries where the latin alphabet is not used, the official transcription system used in a given country was adopted. For example, the nomenclature of the Soviet Union was developed in the transcription adopted by the Nouk Academy of the USSR. Traditional Polish equivalents of the original geographical names are given in parentheses under these names.

One should also pay attention to the typeface. The fonts used in the Atlas of the World were developed by the Topographical Service of the Polish Armed Forces in terms of their readability against the background of the map content. As far as possible, serifs, which are rather ornamental in nature and too closely related to the cartographic line, were avoided

The atlas also contains an extensive index of names, bearing around 140.000 geographical names.