Geographic myths retold, explained, and sourced. Interesting read. ( )

A 1952 popsci book about geographical mythology - Atlantis, Terra Incognita Australis, Eldorado, that sort of thing. I read the 1993 reprint, which doesn't update the text but seemingly has at least one added footnote; it references a 1954 book by de Camp.

This one was mostly stuff I'm already familiar with, the chief exception being the chapter on Sindbad and medieval Arab geographical myths, but well written. Predating the understanding of plate tectonics, some sections on geology are badly outdated; most else stand up, the only really obvious clue the book was written a couple generations ago being the unselfconscious way the authors use terms like "primitives".

In a book not above poking fun at erroneous ideas, one might have wished for a bit more stringent fact-checking: I noticed various minor errors of fact. And heavens know where Ley and de Camp got their version of Qara-Khitan history (relevant to the legend of Prester John) from. Keraits and Qara Khitai are not the same, Qara Khitai does not mean "Black Chinese", the Khitans were hardly "unimportant" before their westward trek, and Yelü Dashi was not a Christian.

I also feel the authors are excessively quick to say this or that is "probably" the kernel of truth a myth grew from. All in all, a better book to learn about geographical myths themselves from than to learn of the reality, if any, behind them.