Lorraine F. reviewed on 11/29/2006 + 23 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

Filled with photos and text on every page telling the story of islands, caves, canyons, mountains and more that you've never heard of. Includes glossary and index at the back. As always, Reader's Digest does a good job. Here is an excerpt from p. 315:

"Rocky outcrops in the gorge have always complicated the task of river pilots, but none so much as the famed Lorelei, a cliff 433 feet (132 meters) high. According to legend, a beautiful Siren used to sit atop the rock and with her seductive singing, lure sailors to their deaths in the treacherous currents swirling at its base. Farther down, near Bonn, are the Siebengebirge, the 'Seven Mountains,' said to have been dropped from the shovels of giants as the excavated the river bed. It was on one of them, the Drachenfels, or 'Dragon's Rock,' that the Wagnerian hero Siegried slew his mythical dragon."

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