In my opinion, the 1st one looks prettier, but I think the 2nd one works better with a top-down map view. The 1st one has a bird eye view on the mountains that makes the eye expect the complete map to be in perspective (which you coud do of course as jfrazierjr pointed out). The 2nd one is more of a side-view, and the eye (at least mine is not tricked, and the rest of the map is clearly a top-down view... cheers, DJ