The existing visualization methods using the satellite images or map images require complicated preprocessing stages and a large amount of visual data to represent the 3-D terrain. This paper presents a 3-D visualization method for geographical information, which enables automatic generation of 3-D terrain. It is generated based, on contour information obtained from a numerical map. This paper also introduces a method that resolves the three main problems needed to visualize 3-D terrain from contour lines such as correspondence, tiling, and branching. The virtual contour line is defined to extend a distorted contour line to have a similar shape to the corresponding contour line that is used, to generate 3-D surfaces. It helps that 3-D terrain is represented exactly and in detail.