Coordinates: 35 36 N 103 10 E
Population: 205,550 (2007 est.)
China has a strong Buddhist tradition, but there are more than just Buddhists in the giant Asian nation. While still very much a minority, the Islamic population of western China approaches 25 million people, many of whom live in predominantly Muslim communities such as Linxia in the Gansu province. Ethnically, Linxia’s citizens are mainly Hui, one of 55 ethnic groups commonly recognized in China. Agriculture and animal husbandry remain important to the local economy, and approximately 80 mosques can be found within the limits of this mid-sized municipality south of the Yellow River.

-- is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Coordinates: 43 59 N 18 10 E
Population: 15,310 (1991 census)
Residents of Visoko, a short distance northwest of Sarajevo on the Bosna River, have noticed a sharp increase in visitors of late, largely due to a hill that some say conceals the world’s largest pyramid. Although signs of settlement in the area date back to before the Common Era, experts remain unconvinced that the alleged Pyramid of the Sun is anything more than a natural geologic formation. With an elevation of 720 feet, the summit won’t be altogether disappointing to curious travelers: it does offer nice views of Visoko and the eastern foothills of the Dinaric Alps.

-- is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Coordinates: 38 18 N 61 12 E
Length: 530 miles (853 km)
For historians, written records are a useful way of understanding the past. As technical methods for analysis improve, however, scientists are increasingly able to make sense of ancient societies by documenting changes to the physical landscape. 

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Coordinates: 4 3 S 39 40 E
Population: 847,626 (2007 est.)
Given that the country’s citizens frequently number among the top finishers at foot races the world over, it’s appropriate that this year’s World Cross Country Championships (the 35th annual) will be held in Kenya. Organizers passed over the nation’s more populous capital to host the athletes from 61 nations. Instead, they chose the smaller coastal city of Mombassa. 

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Coordinates: 56 57 N 5 40 W
Depth: 1,017 feet (310 m)
Sure, Loch Ness and the rumors of its mythical resident monster tend to grab all of the attention, but Scotland actually contains dozens of the glacially formed bodies of water. Loch Morar, not far from the Isle of Skye in the Northern Highlands, serves as a particularly good example, given that it’s the deepest freshwater body in Great Britain and Ireland. Not to mention that Morar’s 12-mile length has also produced numerous eyewitness accounts of another strange serpentine creature, known locally as Morag. Visitors should know that the lake can be kayaked or canoed, but take note: The lightly populated, steep-sided shoreline doesn’t offer an easy escape route should Morag suddenly appear and prove to be more fact than fable.

-- is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Coordinates: 40 38 N 124 20 W
Thanks to cell phones, digital cameras, Internet cafes and budget airlines, destinations that might have once been little known or sufficiently removed from the beaten path are revealing their secrets to determined drifters with greater frequency. 

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Coordinates: 55 47 N 132 50 W
Approximate area: 2,731 sq. mi. (7,073 sq. km)
With a relatively limited amount of physical evidence, the peopling of the Americas has long been a subject of study complicated by Bering Strait-sized gaps in our understanding. Recent DNA testing on remains recovered from Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island, however, suggests that the migration from Asia to Tierra del Fuego may have occurred earlier—and faster—than previously believed. Genetic similarities between the people who occupied On Your Knees Cave here on this heavily forested patch of land some 10,300 years ago and modern descendants of native Pacific coastal populations led researchers to this new hypothesis. The third largest island under U.S. sovereignty, Prince of Wales in the Alexander Archipelago saw a period of population growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the introduction of salmon and pearl shell industries, but it has since declined.

-- is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Coordinates: 16 0 N 5 0 E
Approximate length: 3,125 miles (5,029 km)
With the Earth’s rapidly growing population putting greater pressure on resources, recent news from Niger offers encouragement that an attainable, more sustainable future is possible. The Sahel, a swath of semiarid territory stretching across Africa south of the Sahara has long been plagued by drought and famine, made worse by subsistence farmers who cleared vegetation only to leave the terrain vulnerable to wind erosion and further desertification. In the last few decades, however, a largely grassroots effort has led to the gradual re-greening of areas northeast of Niger’s capital city. For a dry, landlocked and exceedingly poor country where less than one percent of the labor force is salaried, a little extra shade and some hope for the years ahead are reasons to celebrate.

-- is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Coordinates: 41 13 N 1 40 E
Population: 62,826 (2006 est.)
For all the distressing news dominating headlines, people the world over always find many reasons celebrate life. And over the centuries, we’ve become quite good at creating traditions and rituals to reinforce the importance of these occasions. On the Mediterranean coast of northeastern Spain, for instance, not far from Barcelona, the town of Vilanova i la Geltrú celebrates its carnival. Each February in this fishing port, colorful costumes, lively music, and a massive outdoor candy battle or Batalla de Carmellos precede the burial of a sardine symbolizing Carnestoltes, the king of the festival. Calm is once again restored to the medieval streets at the end of the month after the revelers have returned home to sleep off their cava, Spain’s version of champagne, which is produced in the region surrounding the town.

-- is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Coordinates: 13 45 N 100 31 E
Population: 6,604,000 (2005 est.)
Maps always have distortions and abbreviations: It simply isn’t possible to fit every place name and natural feature on a single page or sheet of paper. Of course, this may seem obvious to anyone who’s ever squinted at an atlas in search of his or her hometown. Arguably the best example of this is the city westerners call Bangkok. Called Krung Thep by the people of Thailand, the full name of the capital founded on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in 1782 is a whopping 43 syllables. Roughly translated, it means “great city of angels, the supreme repository of divine jewels, the great land unconquerable, the grand and prominent realm, the royal and delightful capital city full of nine noble gems, the highest royal dwelling and grand palace, the divine shelter and living place of the reincarnated spirits.” It would challenge a Thai T-shirt designer as much as any cartographer.

-- is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Coordinates: 1 0 S 49 30 W
Area: 15,500 sq. mi. (40,145 sq. km)
Leave it to the start of a new year to remind us that beginnings and endings often have a way of blurring together. Such is also the case with the Amazon and Marajó Island in northeastern Brazil. When it reaches its terminus in the state of Pará, the powerful river that drains approximately two-fifths of South America is carrying a significant amount of sediment it has picked up along a course that stretches more than 4,000 miles. And here at the mouth of that waterway, almost directly on the Equator, is where much of that soil is deposited, forming the largest fluvial island in the world. Shaped by the force of the Amazon’s current and the Atlantic Ocean’s ceaseless tides, Marajó has quite a lengthy history of human habitation for a place that is constantly being remade. Ceramic pottery excavated from mounds scattered across its virginal grasslands, forests and dense swamps date back well over 1,000 years.

-- is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.

Coordinates: 50 17 N 5 0 E
Area: 6,504 sq. mi. (16,844 sq. km)
It’s all fun and games until somebody loses a province. Or worse yet, an entire region. As Belgium taught us last week, sovereignty and nationalism are not necessarily a laughing matter for many Europeans. In all seriousness, the continent can be rather fractious when it comes to its people and their politics. Sure, Spain, Italy and Poland may be familiar entities, but what about Galicia, Padania and Upper Silesia? Or, to use another Belgian example, Wallonia? One of three regions in that small and prosperous country, Wallonia consists of the five largely French-speaking provinces in the kingdom’s southern half. And while it wasn’t a formally established governmental unit until 1970, the inhabitants of the wooded, hilly Ardennes plateau have long thought of themselves as a distinct group. Actually, Jules Destrée, a Walloon politician, may have put it best—and certainly most succinctly—in his letter to the king in 1912: “There are no Belgians.”

-- is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.