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This paper first proposes an operational solution to the problem of defining terrorism, describes its characteristics as a geographical object. For this purpose, the following points are reviewed: the spatial distribution of terrorist acts and actors; the territories of terrorism (states grey areas, black holes, sanctuaries and cities); the polemical representations and cartographies of the terrorist as foe and the risk of terrorism; finally the “places of memory” as means of dealing with terrorism, mainly in urban landscapes. Based on an extensive bibliography representing the main trends of current research, this paper intends also to propose a framework for organizing a coherent field of investigation, allowing an accumulation of knowledge and the formulation of worthwhile hypotheses to examine for empirical validation.