Atlas of improbable places

Most of us would agree that this world is amazing, and that its countries and oceans are always serving up some surprising things. As a child I wished that there could be something not yet discovered, a new island, perhaps, one that I could perhaps find - when I grew up.

The exciting thing about this book is that the authors must have felt the same way and have spent enormous time and energy collating as many off-the-map unusual and virtually unknown places for those of us who still have that childlike love of surprises. As they say in the introduction: 'The Atlas of Improbable Places, then, is a compendium of unlikely, curious and plain odd locales'.

So you can 'travel' in this book to a subterranean river, one of the New7Wonders of the World. There are 'illicit tunnels' in Canada (yes, really!) a plague quarantine island in a very famous lagoon, and a hanging cliffside chapel accessible to agile believers by 1540 steps. If necessary you may find the Door to Hell, or find relics of ancient cities which have somehow now disappeared.

The authors have explored over fifty places around the world for the benefit of readers, and provided maps, photographs and information which will have you adding them to whatever bucket- or wish-list you have. That's the way the 'improbable' can now become a probability for us all on our travels.

Atlas of Improbable Places, by Travis Elborough & Alan Horsfield, published by QuartoKnows, 2016, hardcover, rrp US $29.99, ISBN: 978 1 78131 532 3.

- reviewed by Sally Hammond

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