UMM EL MADAYAN

Another entry in the illustrator's series on representative fictional cities (Lebek: A City of Northern Europe; San Rafael: A Central American City [both by Xavier Hern†ndez et al.]; etc.). Again, Corni's meticulously detailed pen drawings are the most appealing feature, with two information-packed spreads for each of 14 periods from the paleolithic to the ``Dawn of the 21st Century.'' The first is an aerial overview of the North African coastal site; a second zeros in with amply captioned cutaway buildings and other details (many of them keyed to the first spread) and a succinct summary of the civilization occupying the area (``Birth of a Phoenician City, 9th-8th Century B.C.''; ``New Arab Culture, 9th-12th Century''). As earlier, the utilitarian, bone-dry text is compacted to page-edge; still, those attracted by the splendid, Macaulay-style visual detail will also find plenty of solid facts to temper a Eurocentric curriculum. (Nonfiction. 10+)