Copies of a new atlas worth £2000 and weighing more than 66lb are on sale to just a privileged few, its producer announced yesterday.

Earth is thought to be the largest world atlas ever produced.

Made by map company Global Mapping, the limited-edition tome is hand-bound in leather with gilded edges and silver-plated corners.

When closed, the astonishing atlas takes up one-third of a square metre with four gatefolds opening out to two square metres each.

Only 3000 hand-numbered copies of Earth, which has 576 pages with 154 maps and 800 photographs, have been made.

It was been compiled by 10 cartographic experts at Global Mapping, based in Brackley, Northamptonshire, over eight months.