A Storybook Atlas

Incredible Things About the World

Forty-nine true stories about the most astonishing wonders on Earth and beyond, told one page at a time for the curious minds who wonder how the world got so wonderful.

49
Wonders
1,225
Pages
30
Min per Story
The Collection
The CN Tower stands taller than every skyscraper in Toronto as the sunset paints the sky.
01
🗼
Toronto, Canada

The CN Tower

The concrete needle that out-grew every skyscraper on Earth — and held the world record for 32 years!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The three giant pyramids of Giza rise out of the golden desert like man-made mountains.
02
🔺
Giza, Egypt

The Pyramids of Giza

The 4,500-year-old mountain of stone that still keeps secrets scientists are discovering right now!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The giant moai of Ahu Tongariki stand shoulder to shoulder, watching over Rapa Nui.
03
🗿
Rapa Nui, Chile

Easter Island

The tiny island where giant stone statues learned to walk!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
New York's famous skyscrapers rise up like a mountain range made of glass and steel.
04
🗽
New York, USA

New York City

The city that built its way into the sky — and hid a thousand secrets along the way!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The Great Wall climbs over the mountains at Jinshanling like a giant stone dragon.
05
🏯
China

The Great Wall of China

Ride the back of a 21,000-kilometer stone dragon built by a hundred generations!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Machu Picchu, the stone city in the clouds, with the peak of Huayna Picchu standing guard behind it.
06
⛰️
Peru

Machu Picchu

The secret stone city in the clouds that the world lost for 400 years — and the hidden genius buried beneath it!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The Treasury glows rose-red at the end of the Siq, carved right into the cliff two thousand years ago.
07
🏜️
Jordan

Petra, the Rose City

A whole city carved into rose-red cliffs, hidden in the desert for hundreds of years!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The five lotus towers of Angkor Wat catch fire with golden sunrise light, floating upside down in the still water below.
08
🛕
Cambodia

Angkor Wat

The lost-but-never-lost stone city where kings tamed rivers, lasers found secrets, and trees hug temples!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The mighty Colosseum glows at dusk, just as it has for almost 2,000 years.
09
🏛️
Italy

Rome, the Eternal City

The 2,800-year-old city where ancient machines still work, fountains never stop, and treasure hides under every street!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
As the sun sets, the temples on the Acropolis glow like gold above the rooftops of Athens.
10
🏺
Greece

Athens

The city where a goddess won a contest, ideas became inventions, and even the subway is a museum!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Alexandria's curving seafront, the Corniche, hugs the sparkling blue Mediterranean Sea.
11
📜
Egypt

Alexandria

The city that tried to collect every book in the world — and measured the whole Earth with a stick and a shadow!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Florence glows at sunset, with Brunelleschi's giant red dome floating above the rooftops.
12
🎨
Italy

Florence

The little city where dreamers, builders, and secret-keepers invented the future!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The Grand Canal sweeps through Venice like a shining watery main street.
13
🛶
Italy

Venice

The impossible city that stands on a secret upside-down forest!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The Eiffel Tower stretches up over the green lawns of the Champ de Mars, like an iron giant tickling the clouds.
14
🥐
France

Paris & the Eiffel Tower

The iron giant that was supposed to disappear — and the city of secrets that saved it!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The River Thames sweeps past the Houses of Parliament and the famous clock tower that holds Big Ben.
15
🎡
England

London

The city where time begins, trains rumble underground, and a messy lab dish changed the world!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The Sagrada Família church has been rising over Barcelona for more than 140 years and still is not finished!
16
🏰
Spain

Barcelona

The city where dragons guard rooftops, buildings grow like trees, and a church has been rising for 140 years!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The Golden Pavilion shines twice, once in the sky and once in its mirror pond.
17
⛩️
Japan

Kyoto

The thousand-year city where floors sing, gardens hide puzzles, and gold shines on the water!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Tokyo's tall towers glow at sunset while snowy Mount Fuji watches over the city.
18
🚄
Japan

Tokyo

The fishing village that grew into the biggest, fastest, most inventive city on Earth!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
From the sky, Silicon Valley looks like quiet streets and rooftops tucked beside San Francisco Bay, but the future is invented down there.
19
💻
California, USA

Silicon Valley

How a sleepy valley of fruit trees became the place where the future gets invented

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A giant container ship squeezes into the Miraflores Locks, ready to ride the water staircase.
20
🚢
Panama

The Panama Canal

The astonishing true story of the water staircase that lifts giant ships over a continent!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The giant Artemis I Moon rocket lights up the night as it blasts off from Kennedy Space Center.
21
🚀
Florida, USA

Kennedy Space Center

The place where the ground shakes, alligators watch, and humans leave Earth!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The whole International Space Station gleams with its golden solar wings as it sails high above the blue Earth.
22
🛰️
400 km above Earth

The International Space Station

A flying house the size of a football field, where sixteen sunrises light up every single day

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The mighty peak of Mount Everest rises into the dark blue sky, seen from Kala Patthar.
23
🏔️
Nepal & Tibet

Mount Everest

The true story of the highest place on Earth: a fossil beach in the sky that still grows taller every single year.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Golden morning light spills across the Grand Canyon, waking up its red and orange cliffs.
24
🏞️
Arizona, USA

The Grand Canyon

Step to the edge of a mile-deep time machine where rivers sculpt mountains and rocks whisper two-billion-year-old secrets!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
From high above, the Great Barrier Reef looks like a giant turquoise maze in the sea.
25
🐠
Australia

The Great Barrier Reef

The largest thing ever built by living creatures — and every single one of them is smaller than your fingernail.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A river winds like a giant ribbon through the endless green Amazon rainforest.
26
🦜
South America

The Amazon Rainforest

Step into the greenest place on Earth, where rivers fly, deserts feed forests, and something brand-new is discovered almost every single day.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A rainbow arches over Kirkjufell mountain and its waterfall, one of Iceland's most magical sights.
27
🌋
Iceland

Iceland, Land of Fire and Ice

Journey to the island where volcanoes build new land, glaciers hide secret caves, and the Earth itself heats your bath!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Emperor penguin parents watch over their fluffy gray chicks on the Antarctic ice.
28
🐧
The Frozen Continent

Antarctica

The frozen land that belongs to everyone, where hidden lakes sleep under miles of ice and penguins do math to stay warm!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Golden sand dunes glow like waves of honey as the sun sets over the Sahara.
29
🐪
North Africa

The Sahara Desert

The desert that used to be green, hums when the wind blows, and hides whales in its sand!

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The Sun photographed in extreme ultraviolet by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
30
☀️
A Star, 150 Million km Away

The Sun

Our friendly neighborhood nuclear furnace, the reason breakfast, forests, and you exist.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A full Moon photographed from Earth, showing its craters and dark lunar seas.
31
🌕
Earth's Only Natural Satellite

The Moon

The quiet world that follows us around, tugs the oceans, and remembers every footprint left on it.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The first-ever image of a black hole, at the heart of galaxy Messier 87.
32
🕳️
Scattered Across the Universe

Black Holes

The places in space where gravity is so strong that even light checks in and never leaves.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Mars photographed in true color by the OSIRIS instrument aboard ESA's Rosetta spacecraft.
33
🔴
The Fourth Planet from the Sun

Mars

The rusty red world with the tallest volcano in the solar system and rovers driving across it right now.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Saturn and its rings, photographed by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during equinox.
34
🪐
Around the Sixth Planet

Saturn's Rings

A glittering hoop of a billion tiny icy moons, so wide you could line up Earths across it.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A common octopus glides through the water, arms trailing behind it.
35
🐙
Oceans Worldwide

The Octopus

The nine-brained shape-shifter that tastes with its arms and can pour itself through a keyhole.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A blue whale surfaces in the open ocean, its long back barely fitting in the frame.
36
🐋
Every Ocean on Earth

The Blue Whale

The biggest animal that has ever lived on our planet, with a heart the size of a small car.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A honeybee in flight, its wings a blur as it heads toward a flower.
37
🐝
Meadows and Gardens Everywhere

The Honeybee

A tiny mathematician that dances directions to flowers and builds perfect six-sided rooms out of wax.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
An emperor penguin stands proudly on the Antarctic ice.
38
🐧
Antarctic Sea Ice

The Emperor Penguin

The devoted dad who stands through a two-month blizzard, balancing his egg on his toes.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A peregrine falcon perches, watching the sky with piercing eyes.
39
🦅
Cliffs and Skyscrapers Worldwide

The Peregrine Falcon

The fastest animal on Earth, a feathered rocket that dives at over 320 kilometers an hour.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A polar bear crosses the frozen sea ice of the Arctic.
40
🧊
The Frozen Top of the World

The Arctic

An ocean covered in a shifting lid of ice, ruled by polar bears and shimmering with the Northern Lights.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The endless snowy peaks of the Himalaya seen from the air.
41
⛰️
South-Central Asia

The Himalayas

The roof of the world, born when India crashed into Asia and pushed the seabed up into the clouds.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The dry, wide-open landscape of the Sahel in Niger.
42
🌾
The Belt Below the Sahara

The Sahel

The great ribbon of golden grass stretching across Africa, where the desert slowly meets the savanna.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
Mount St. Helens erupts along the Pacific Ring of Fire in 1982.
43
🌋
Around the Pacific Ocean

The Ring of Fire

The gigantic circle of volcanoes and earthquakes that traces the edge of the Pacific like a fiery necklace.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The Great Rift Valley stretches to the horizon in Kenya.
44
🏞️
East Africa

The Great Rift Valley

The enormous crack in the Earth where a continent is slowly, slowly splitting itself in two.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A glowing fountain of lava erupts from Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii.
45
🌋
Earth's Fire Chimneys

Volcanoes

The mountains that build themselves from the inside out, using red-hot rock straight from the middle of the Earth.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A brilliant lightning bolt lights up a stormy night sky.
46
The Sky, Everywhere

Lightning

A million-volt spark hotter than the surface of the Sun, gone in the blink of an eye.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
The Bay of Fundy at low tide, where the sea will return meters higher within hours.
47
🌊
Every Coast on Earth

The Tides

How the Moon reaches down and pulls the whole ocean up and back again, twice a day, forever.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A brilliant double rainbow arcs across the Alaskan sky.
48
🌈
Wherever Sun Meets Rain

Rainbows

Sunlight caught inside millions of tiny raindrops and bent into every color at once.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →
A towering cloud rises above the ocean, water on its way from sea to sky.
49
💧
How the World Works

The Water Cycle

Every drop of water is a time traveler, moving between ocean, cloud, river, and you, over and over forever.

25 Pages · ~30 MinRead →