EN
It is shown that for every at most k-to-one closed continuous map f from a non-empty n-dimensional metric space X, there exists a closed continuous map g from a zero-dimensional metric space onto X such that the composition f∘g is an at most (n+k)-to-one map. This implies that f is a composition of n+k-1 simple ( = at most two-to-one) closed continuous maps. Stronger conclusions are obtained for maps from Anderson-Choquet spaces and ones that satisfy W. Hurewicz's condition (α). The main tool is a certain extension of the Lebesgue-Čech dimension to finite-to-one closed continuous maps.