The Landform Map of North Africa by Edwin Raisz, created in 1952 and subsequently published in 1967, delineates the topographical contours of North Africa in a striking black and white format. Produced in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this oversized map provides a visual exploration of the region's diverse terrain, meticulously detailing its mountains, valleys, and plains through Raisz's renowned hand-drawing technique.
Edwin Raisz's landform maps are renowned for their distinctive and informative style, effectively bridging the gap between art and science in cartography. Created in the mid-20th century, these maps are celebrated for their ability to visually represent the physical features of the Earth's surface with remarkable clarity and aesthetic appeal. Raisz employed a unique hand-drawing technique to illustrate a variety of landforms, including mountains, valleys, plains, and rivers, with a level of detail and accuracy that was unparalleled at the time. His method involved using hachures, shading, and contour lines to depict elevation and terrain textures, which made the maps both informative and easy to understand for both specialists and the general public. These maps often lacked the clutter of political boundaries, focusing instead on the natural topography, and were used extensively in education, particularly in geography and earth sciences. Raisz’s work has had a lasting impact on cartography, setting a high standard for the visual representation of geographical information.