A most unusual puzzle

I thought I'd seen the most unusual puzzle several years ago when I put together a 3 dimensional image of a  European fortress castle.  But this year Lee and Staci sent me a 350 piece puzzle of a world globe.  It supposedly fits together so well that glue is not necessary during the construction or to display it in the special stand that comes with it.

The instructions that came with the puzzle suggested working from the bottom up but Carolyn and I thought we knew geography well enough that we'd complete the continents first.  That was all well and good until we started putting the continents together.  In order to snap the pieces together you need to be able to reach inside the globe and apply pressure against an outside surface  or another finger.  Working row by row from the south pole  up lets you do that whereas it is much more difficult by continent.  Working from the north pole down would also work but then all the writing on the globe is  upside down.

After only two short days we were able to complete the ball.  As advertised, it is strong enough to be displayed without any glue.