National Geographic 2023 07

07.
2023
THE E X P L O R AT I O N ISSUE
CHASING
THE
UNKNOWN
W H AT A N E W E R A O F D I S C OV E RY
IS REVEALING ABOUT OUR WILD AND
WONDERFUL WORLD
THERE’S MORE
THAN ONE GUIDE
ON THIS TRIP
On day one of our Bhutan: Land of Mysticism and Mythology trip, you’ll be blessed for safe
travel by a monk. So, as you roam through awe-inspiring sights like the captivating Tiger’s Nest
Monastery, or the colossal Great Buddha Dordenma statue, you can take comfort in the fact that
there’ll always be someone guiding you through it all.
N ATG E O E X P E D I T I O N S .C O M | 1 - 8 8 8 -3 51 -3 274
FURTHER J U LY 2 0 2 3
C O N T E N T S On the Cover
In this composite of six
images, caver John Ben-
son descends Georgia’s
586-foot Fantastic Pit, the
longest single cave drop
in the lower 48 states.
STEPHEN ALVAREZ
P R O O F E X P L O R E
THE BIG IDEA
The Thylacine’s
Life After Life
Can scientists bring
back the Tasmanian
tiger, hunted to extinc-
tion but now mourned?
BY K E N N E DY WA R N E
ARTIFACT
Roman Bath Rings

Where a bathhouse
33
BASIC INSTINCTS
Sex Woes of Olive

once stood, archaeolo- Sea Snakes
gists are finding gem- Among the obstacles:
stones that wealthy lousy vision, lack of
patrons lost there. limbs, and a process
BY K R I ST I N RO M E Y
that can last hours.
BY A N N I E ROT H
ADVENTURE
Fire and Ice

Fairy Tales, Getting there isn’t easy.
Reimagined That’s why the dramatic
Old European stories landscape of Iceland’s
have urgent new mean- interior is largely free
ings when seen through of tourist crowds.
the lens of Nigerian BY J E N RO S E S M I T H
history and culture.
ALSO ALSO
STO RY A N D P H OTO
I L LU ST R AT I O N S BY The Plant That’s Not Gone Tool Use by Cockatoos
YAGA Z I E E M E Z I Rams’ Heads for Ramses II Cycling Across Slovenia
J U LY | CONTENTS
F E AT U R E S The Amazon’s A Wild Plan A Handmade World

First Storytellers This bold experiment A pre-megacity way
An expedition journeys aims to save endan- of life lingers in this
to remarkable rock gered shark species. pocket of China.
art deep within the BY CRAIG WELCH BY PAU L S A LO P E K
The rainforest of Colombia. P H OTO G RA P H S BY P H OTO G RA P H S BY
Exploration S TO RY A N D D AV I D D O U B I L E T A N D ZHOU NA AND
Issue P H OTO G RA P H S BY J E N N I F E R H AY E S . . . . . . . . P. 78 G I L L E S S A B R I É . . . . . . . . . . . P. 110
T H O M A S P E S C H A K . . . . P. 50
Finding Our Way Trailblazers Turning Darkness
Forward Return to the National Geographic Into Light
We live in a new era Cave of Bones Explorers are tackling Images depict the resil-
of exploration, and It’s a tight squeeze to the challenges and ience of an Indigenous
we’ve only just begun. reach the site of Homo mysteries of our planet. Mexican community.
BY NINA STROCHLIC naledi’s discovery in BY NINA STROCHLIC BY N A N C Y S A N M A RT Í N
P H OTO C O L L AG E S BY South Africa. P H OTO G RA P H S BY P H OTO G RA P H S BY
N E I L J A M I E S O N . . . . . . . . . . P. 34 B Y L E E B E R G E R . . . . . . . . . . . P. 68 P A R I D U K O V I C . . . . . . . . . . P. 96 YA E L M A R T Í N E Z . . . . . . . P. 130
PHOTO: GILLES SABRIÉ (CHINA)

J U LY | FROM THE EDITOR
B Y N AT H A N LU M P PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS PESCHAK
SINCE ITS FOUNDING in 1888, National future of exploration, as seen through In Chiribiquete, Colombia’s
Geographic has been synonymous the lens of Nat Geo Explorers whose largest protected area,
tabletop mountains known
with exploration. We are committed groundbreaking work the National as tepuis tower above
to exploring both near and far, not just Geographic Society supports. the rainforest. Prehistoric
for the fun of it but because this work In these pages you’ll find profiles paintings on the mountain-
sides make this park
advances our collective knowledge of a handful of these extraordinary “the Louvre of rock art
and understanding of the world. individuals and deeper stories about in the Americas,” says
It’s more than an academic exercise, some of their most exciting projects: Peschak. The National
Geographic Explorer is
though. We believe fostering under- Tom Peschak’s first dispatch from his on an expedition that will
standing of the world is critical for two-year expedition through the Ama- span the Amazon River’s
inspiring a desire to care for it. So at a zon. Lee Berger’s latest findings about 4,150 miles, from the
peaks of the Andes to
time when our environment’s fragility humans’ early cousins. Yael Martínez’s
the Atlantic Ocean.
has never been more apparent, explo- eye-opening look at Mexican immi-
ration is as vital and relevant as ever. grants’ connections across borders.
On the occasion of the 135-year anni- David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes’s
versary of the National Geographic documentation of an unprecedented
Society and this magazine, our July rewilding of sharks. And the latest
issue celebrates exploration. We reflect installment, from China, of Paul Salo-
on the great explorers who’ve been pek’s journey across the world, by foot.
part of the National Geographic family We hope you enjoy the issue.
and consider why people throughout
history have been driven to explore.
Mostly we focus on the present and the
Purina trademarks are owned by Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.
FOR ONE AMAZING LIFE
PROVEN NATURAL NUTRITION
STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM
STRONG MUSCLES INCLUDING

A HEALTHY HEART
A Difference
From Day ONE
TM
P R O O F
N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
VO L . 2 4 4 N O. 1
FAIRY TALES,
REIMAGINED
S TO RY A N D P H OTO I L LU S T R A- LO O K I N G
T I O N S B Y YA G A Z I E E M E Z I AT T H E
E A RT H
When viewed through the lens F RO M
of Nigerian history, culture, and E V E RY
politics, traditionally European POSSIBLE
stories take on new meanings. ANGLE
“THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES”: My version of this tale tackles the growing crisis of plastic pollution. I repurposed sachets
used to hold purified water, popular in Nigeria, to construct the emperor’s attire. My aim is to shed light on a very real issue
around the world, which many people have yet to fully see and address.
6 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
ONE NATION BOUND IN FREEDOM, PEACE, AND UNITY: With a title drawn from Nigeria’s national anthem, this image references
“Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The bears become ethnic-group spirits; their independence bid defeats the remnants of
colonialism, represented by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II (that is, a woman dressed as the queen during her 1956 Nigeria visit).
J U LY 2 0 2 3 7
P R O O F
I would like to introduce

you to the storytelling that
I grew up with in Nigeria.
It was from a television show called Tales by Moonlight, where
an elder would sit under a tree and tell stories, an on-air version
of the age-old oral tradition. In earlier days, the ideal light
sources were the full moon and the stars, casting a silver-blue
illumination on the faces of eager children and adults alike.
There also might have been the sound of crickets not far off and
a soft breeze rustling the leaves of the trees.
I come from a family of storytellers. In our home during the
evenings, my father would recount how as a young boy he almost
drowned in a well while fetching water, how he got struck by
lightning in medical school, how he fought off the KGB with
a baton in the middle of a train station to say goodbye to his
girlfriend, how he escaped armed robbers … and oh, how I fully To create her Another
believed them all. Maybe these stories were meant to distract us Tale by Moonlight
project, Emezi spent
from real life, along with the piles of books that we buried our four years conceiving,
heads in, hunched over at the dining table, curled up in chairs constructing, and com-
posing richly symbolic
and beds, building worlds out of the words. tableaux. She enlisted
For me, the fairy tales were especially thrilling. I loved these friends, models, and
activists as collabora-
grand and impossible stories. I loved the fantastical images I tors; she crafted many
made in my mind’s eye of magnificent castles, extravagantly costumes, props, and
sets, employing items
embroidered garments, fairies, forests—and, of course, the freighted with meaning;
sword fights, the trickery, and the blood. and in a few images,
digital editing tools
I was enthralled by the fictitious gore of these stories, but were used to remove
there was real violence at our gates. Growing up under mili- some imperfections.
tary dictatorship in the 1990s meant that ethnic and religious
clashes were not uncommon. Jungle justice often resulted in
beheaded and burnt bodies, the stench permeating the streets
as kids walked to school. We’d pinch our noses and open our
eyes to take it all in.
When I stepped into adulthood, my heart broke at those mem-
ories, and I began to turn my gaze to the reality of my childhood
and the norm of silence that blanketed it. Why wasn’t this vio-
lence talked about at home?
I was raised primarily by my father in Aba, a city in southeastern
Nigeria. While he proudly identifies as a man of Igbo ethnicity, the The National
country’s legacy of colonial rule and hypervaluation of European Geographic Society,
committed to illuminating
customs led him to prioritize the English language and education and protecting the wonder
over our native language and culture. In doing so, he thought we’d of our world, has funded
Explorer Yagazie Emezi’s
have a better chance at a successful future. storytelling since 2019.
In 2018 I started to take all my (Continued on page 14) ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY
I MAY BE DEAD, BUT MY IDEAS WILL NOT DIE: In this reinterpretation of The Little Mermaid, the title character turns into
Mami Wata, a beloved African water deity. She stands defiantly, protesting pollution, on a bed of seaweed and surrounded
by dirty water in jerry cans, containers commonly used to fetch and carry the life-sustaining liquid.
J U LY 2 0 2 3 9
P R O O F
GUIDE OUR LEADERS RIGHT: Inspired by “Bluebeard,” I transformed the title character into a wealthy woman from the Igbo
ethnic group who is holding the heads of former Nigerian leaders. What would our history be like without corruption, trib-
alism, and failed multicultural policies? By engaging with this question, I hope we can work toward a more equitable society.
TO BUILD A NATION: I pulled from “Rumpelstiltskin” to point to the unfair electoral practices that contribute to Nigeria’s envi-
ronmental, economic, and political decline. A man wears the shirt of the National Youth Service Corps—whose members are
warned against taking bribes to interfere with voting processes—and weaves fabric from ballots and nairas, Nigeria’s currency.
J U LY 2 0 2 3 11
P R O O F
“LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD”: When looking into my ancestral history, I pored over Nigeria’s colonial photography archives
and found cultural references that I used in my take on this fairy tale. I replaced the main character with an Igbo woman
shrouded by the Union Jack, in a visualization of how British powers distorted and disrupted Indigenous expression.
PAY THE PIPER: This image adapts The Pied Piper of Hamelin to address the government’s ineffective ways of dealing with
the bandits and militants who add to the general insecurity of the country. One example is the nearly 100 Chibok school-
girls who are still missing after being abducted by the Boko Haram terrorist group in 2014.
J U LY 2 0 2 3 13
P R O O F
(Continued from page 8) questions can be when pushed beyond West-

and thoughts and make them con- ern standards.
crete through photography. My Another Tale by Moonlight
project, Another Tale by Moonlight, addresses the issues of our past,
is a reimagination of European present, and looming future by
fairy tales, juxtaposing the histor- exploring ways in which these con-
ical, cultural, environmental, and flicts, reframed visually, can speak
sociopolitical realities of Nigeria. truth to power and action. Return-
With this series, I’m aiming to ing to both the European fables
illuminate obscured narratives and and the Tales by Moonlight tradi-
the intertwined moral complexities tions is my way of unpacking not
of both cultures—and to expand only my own history but also that
on what visual storytelling is and of my country. j
CHILDREN OF TOMORROW: To spotlight Nigeria’s ineffective education system, which can result
in some students missing school for years, I reinterpreted “Sleeping Beauty.” The main charac-
ter represents the student body, encased behind glass and waiting for rescue—someday.
Thank you Bezos Earth Fund
The National Geographic Society thanks the
Bezos Earth Fund for their generous support of
National Geographic Pristine Seas.
Over the next five years, Pristine Seas and the

Bezos Earth Fund will work with communities, To learn more about
governments and partners in the Pacific Ocean the work of National
to support their visions for ocean conservation. Geographic Pristine
Seas, visit NatGeo.org.
The tropical Pacific Ocean is home to
extraordinary marine biodiversity, with Top: During an expedition to
Kiribati’s Southern Line Islands,
Indigenous Peoples and local communities
the National Geographic Pristine
leading the way to protect and steward it. Seas team observed spectacular
coral recovery in progress, which
With the support of the Bezos Earth Fund, the team attributes in part to the
protections that the Republic of
Pristine Seas will support the global goal to Kiribati established around the
protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. islands in 2015.
National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit that uses the power of science, exploration,
education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Join us at natgeo.org.
PAID CONTENT FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

HIS FUTURE CAN
B E YO U R L E GAC Y E X P L O
When you leave a gift to the National
I L L U M I N AT I N G T H E M Y S
Geographic Society in your will, trust, or by
beneficiary designation, you can help protect
species at risk for generations to come.
We believe all people deserve access to estate

planning tools. That’s why we are offering this
The Th
free resource to our supporters. Get started
today at: natgeo.org/givingdocs
Life A
N E A R LY A C E N T U R Y A F T E R
I S A P R I Z E D N AT I O N A L S Y M
BY
CREATE A LASTING LEGACY
Yes! Please send me information on leaving a gift in my Mail to: National Geographic Society
estate to the National Geographic Society. Planned Giving Office
1145 17th Street NW
The National Geographic Society has already been Washington, DC 20036-4688
included in my estate plans.
Contact: legacy@ngs.org
I would like to speak to someone about making a gift. (800) 226-4438
Please contact me. natgeo.org/legacy
NAME
ADDRESS
PHONE EMAIL
The National Geographic Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our federal tax ID number is 53-0193519. 23PGAD07
E X P L O R E | THE BIG IDEA
A party of Tasman’s sailors looking for fresh

IN THIS SECTION water saw the footprints of creatures “having
Cockatoo Tool Set Skills claws like a tiger.”
O R E Roman Bath Baubles

Gettysburg Revisited
Europeans pinned various names to the
animal—zebra opossum, marsupial wolf,
Tasmanian dingo—out of colonial prejudice
Sea Snake Sex Woes
as much as ignorance. Northern Hemisphere
T E R I E S — A N D W O N D E R S — A L L A R O U N D U S E V E R Y D AY mammals were considered superior in every
way to Australian marsupials that early
C VO L . 2 4 4 N O. 1
observers deemed “helpless, deformed and
monstrous works of nature.” Today’s much
loved koala was derided as “uncouth … awk-
ward and unwieldy,” and the thylacine, the
world’s largest marsupial predator to survive
into modern times, was dismissed as a primi-
tive scavenger, “brutish” and “stupid.”
hylacine’s
Ancient rock art in Australia’s Northern Territory de-
from misnaming and
I T WA S A S H O RT S T E P picts a thylacine and a boomerang-wielding human.
maligning the native wildlife to seeking its
replacement with introduced varieties. This
colonial fervor led to an ecological makeover significant stock losses, sheep ranchers made
from which Australia hasn’t recovered. The them a scapegoat. The “native tiger” was
thylacine’s extinction is a symbol of that folly. demonized as a blood-drinking sheep killer,
After Life
At least five thylacine species once existed. and in 1888 a bounty was approved. Over the
The last to survive was the so-called mod- next two decades thousands of thylacines were
ern thylacine, which at one time inhabited trapped, shot, and poisoned by shepherds
the entire Australian continent as well as the and hunters.
island of New Guinea. About 3,000 years ago The bounty program succeeded. By the early
this species disappeared from the Australian 1900s, thylacines were so scarce that payouts
mainland. No one is sure why, but a changing dwindled and then ceased. Calls for the ani-
climate and competition with the recently mals’ protection came too late. In 1986, with
introduced dingo are the likely causes. no confirmed sightings in the wild for 56 years,
I T WA S W I P E D O U T, T H E T A S M A N I A N T I G E R Only the Tasmanian population of thy- the thylacine officially was declared extinct.
M B O L —A N D A TA R G E T F O R D E - E X T I N C T I O N. lacines remained, marooned on lutruwita Many rejected that verdict: At one time it
since sea-level rise submerged the land was estimated that one in three Tasmanians
bridge to the mainland some 10,000 years had a “true” tiger-sighting story. But as the
ago. But what might have been the animals’ decades pass, and a more than million-dollar
Y K E N N E DY WA R N E sanctuary became, instead, their death camp. reward offered in 2005 for conclusive evidence
Despite scant evidence that thylacines caused of the thylacine’s existence goes unclaimed,
is alive. Not literally alive—

T H E TA S M A N I A N T I G E R
there hasn’t been a verified sighting of Australia’s
iconic marsupial predator for close to a century—but
alive in imagination, in memory, in cultural recog-
nition, and in collective regret over its extinction.
Alive, too, in the quest of a handful of scientists
and entrepreneurs to “de-extinct” the species and
bring it back to the wild.
The first thing to say about the Tasmanian tiger is
that it wasn’t a tiger and it didn’t live only in Tasma-
nia. In its existence as in its demise, the animal also
known as the thylacine was a victim of European
misunderstanding and error.
The Dutch explorer and navigator Abel Tasman
spawned the tiger meme. In his search for exploitable
southern lands in 1642, Tasman fetched up on the
eastern shores of the island he called Van Diemen’s
Land (later renamed Tasmania in his honor but also
known by its traditional Aboriginal name, lutruwita). A circa 1903 photo shows two thylacines in captivity in a Washington, D.C., zoo.
PHOTOS (FROM TOP): TONY WHEELER; INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY DIVISION, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
J U LY 2 0 2 3 17 ARCHIVES. ILLUSTRATION (PREVIOUS PAGE): BIODIVERSITY HERITAGE LIBRARY, SCIENCE SOURCE
STEPS TO RESTORATION New

Guinea
CONVERGENT
EVOLUTION
Thylacines and canids
Nearly a century after the last known thylacine’s
evolved separately, but
death, some 800 specimens exist—but fewer than
their similar, carnivorous
20 were stored in a medium that best preserves Shoreline feeding habits resulted
data-rich nuclear DNA. The aim now is to shape the 14,000 years ago in nearly identical skulls.
genome of one of the closest living relatives— AU ST R AL I A
the fat-tailed dunnart—into a thylacine. Thylacine
Gray wolf Skull, top view
Complete In development
Thylacine range Tasmania

circa 1910
1 SEQUENCE GENOME
DNA was sequenced from
FORMER RANGE
a century-old specimen
Thylacines roamed Australia
preserved in ethanol.
until they went extinct there
some 3,000 years ago. Only a
Tasmanian population, isolated
by rising sea levels, survived. DEVELOPMENT
Birth 1 In uterus
2 SEQUENCE RELATIVE canal Uterus Ovary Gestation, 21-35 d
A dunnart provides liv-
ing cells and a “genomic
template” to build on.
REPRODUCTION
Gestation periods are 2 In pouch
short for marsupials. Thy- Three to four mon
lacine newborns could
be ready to crawl into Five-week-old
the pouch after about a joey
3 FIND DIFFERENCES month of gestation. Pouch
Genes that would make
the dunnart less thyla-
cine-like are modified.
Contractile KANGAROO-LI
Newborn, muscles on the
life-size Female pouches
(estimated) edge of the in litters of up to
pouch enabled Pups nursed and
4 CREATE CELL the mother to the pouch for ab
By editing the dunnart New cell
keep the pups
stem cells, a new, living in or out.
“thylacine” cell is created. 3 Milk dependent
Until nine months
5 FUSE WITH EGG

The cell’s nucleus is trans-
ferred to an empty dun- Dunnart
nart egg and “fertilized” cell Much like kangaroos,
to become an embryo. thylacines stood upright
to catch better views,
which roughened the
skin on their heels.
6 EMBED EMBRYO
Once it’s fully formed,
the embryo could be
placed inside a host
RETURN OF
dunnart’s uterus.
The thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was once the
world’s largest carnivorous marsupial and Tasmania’s
top predator, keeping its ecosystem in balance. But
THE ‘TIGER’
7 FOSTER MATURATION Europeans who settled Australia in the 1800s branded
After gestation and
birth, offspring would be
the animals a threat to the sheep industry, and a
hand-reared, or fostered bounty program drove thylacines to extinction. Now
with a larger marsupial.
scientists are trying to bring the species back to life.
Males had slightly
longer snouts.
Skull, side view
The thylacine had

80° one of the largest jaw
expansions of any
mammal, believed
to help in capturing
fast-moving prey.
MORE BARK THAN BITE

days Thylacines were hunted
to extinction after being
branded as sheep killers,
but their diet was mostly
other marsupials, rodents,
lizards, and birds.
nths
The Tasmanian devil could

Length
have been a suitable candi-
20-31 in
date for the experiment.
But it’s endangered and
difficult to breed and man-
KE POUCH
age in captivity.
held newborns
four at a time.
d developed in
out 16 weeks.
s old
Length
13-20 in
Length
16 in
Length
4-6 in
Three-month-old
thylacine joey
Thylacine Numbat Dunnart Tasmanian devil Phascogale FAMILY TIES

(Extinct) (Endangered) (Least concern) (Endangered) (Near threatened) Thylacines’ closest
Thylacine 0 relatives went extinct
Shoulder height millions of years ago.
20-27 in The dunnart, a small
20 carnivorous marsupial
that is not under threat,
has been chosen for
the de-extinction effort.
40
Animals drawn to scale Million years ago
MONICA SERRANO AND LUCAS PETRIN, NGM STAFF; LAWSON PARKER; NGM MAPS. SOURCES: ANDREW PASK, TIGRR LAB, UNIVERSITY OF
MELBOURNE; BEN LAMM, COLOSSAL BIOSCIENCES; IUCN; ROBERT PADDLE, THE LAST TASMANIAN TIGER; C.R. SCOTESE, PALEOMAP PROJECT J U LY 2 0 2 3 21
the species’ extinction becomes ever more certain—

and ever more regretted. THE LAST MEMBER OF ITS
Australian Museum Chief Scientist Kris Helgen, O W N F A M I L Y, T H E T H Y L A C I N E
a mammalogist and National Geographic Explorer, WA S D E E P LY U N I Q U E ,
has examined thylacine specimens in most museums
E X T R E M E LY A N C I E N T, A N D
that have them. He has measured some 500 thylacine
PL AYED OU T IT S ENTIRE
skulls, and speaks of the animal with a mixture of
reverence and awe. “It blows me away how big they H I S T O RY O N O N E C O N T I N E N T.
were,” he told me. “This animal was one of the dom-
inant predators in continental Australia for most of
its life span as a species.”
Even more impressive than the thylacine’s role as an Restoration Research) Lab, backed by a Texas bio-
apex carnivore is where the species sits in the evolu- technology company.
tionary pantheon. “The thylacine was the last member In 2022, TIGRR lead researcher Andrew Pask pre-
of its own family,” Helgen said. “That’s profound dicted his team would produce its first baby thylacine
when you think about a mammalian family—bears hybrid within 10 years. (See graphic, page 19.)
are a family, giraffes are a family, horses are a family, Helgen is skeptical. For him, the biggest imped-
dolphins are a family. Within Australia there’s only a iment is the genetic distance of the thylacine from
handful of these families: kangaroos, sugar gliders, any of its living relatives. Unlike the woolly mam-
ringtail possums, all the other marsupial carnivores. moth—the other charismatic extinct mammal that
The thylacine wasn’t part of any of these groups. has become a high-profile target for de-extinction—
“It was deeply unique, extremely ancient, and the thylacine lacks a closely related species to serve as
played out its entire history on this continent.” a genetic reference and provide cells that can become
viable embryos that carry the thylacine genome. For
the last killing of a wild
I N W H AT ’ S T H O U G H T T O B E the woolly mammoth, that role is served by the Asian
thylacine, a hunter shot one dead and photographed elephant. The suggested recipient for a reconstructed
it in 1930 in rural northwest Tasmania. Six years later, thylacine genome—a mouse-size marsupial called
the last captive thylacine died in a Hobart zoo. Just the dunnart—is as genetically distant from the thy-
two months prior to that animal’s death, Tasmania’s lacine as a human is from a marmoset, Helgen says.
government had finally seen fit to declare the thylacine “The thylacine stood alone,” he argues. “It was as
a protected species—or as thylacine researcher Robert different as a cat is to a dog or a horse is to a rhino.
Paddle put it, “The species was totally protected for The idea that we can bring back this carnivorous
the last 59 days of its existence.” marsupial because we have all these modern genetic
Even as the thylacine declined in number, it gained tools—no. If rhinos became extinct, you would be
in cultural importance. In 1917, the thylacine was laughed out of any room if you said you could take
chosen as the dominant emblem on Tasmania’s coat a horse and turn it into a rhino, or a dog into a cat.”
of arms. A pair of the tawny animals support a shield
displaying Tasmania’s prime exports: hops, apples— from the urgent work of
D E - E X T I N C T I O N D I S T R AC T S
and, ironically, sheep, the thylacine’s supposed prey. preserving what remains—so say many in the science
Now its likeness is seen widely—on beer labels, community, Helgen among them. Put another way:
on buses, as the mascot of the Tasmanian cricket In this biodiversity crisis of humanity’s making, we
team, and as the face of Australia’s national threat- dare not shift focus from sustaining the living by
ened species day. The tiger has gone from pest to attempting to revive the dead. Helgen suggests many
pedestal. “The thylacine is Tasmania,” writes David species facing extinction “can be brought back not
Owen, an author based in Hobart. “To that extent through some magical technology but through tried-
alone, it lives on.” and-true methods of looking after wild landscapes
It lives in memory. Could it live again in reality? and managing the species around us as best we can.”
The thylacine is a potent symbol of loss. Conversely,
THE IDEA OF RESURRECTING the thylacine surfaced it is also a symbol of hope. In the wake of its extinc-
in the late 1990s. The ambitiously named Lazarus tion, Tasmanians became galvanized to ensure such
Project aimed to clone the animal using DNA from a tragedy did not happen again. They formed the
preserved museum specimens; it was halted when world’s first green political party. They collectively
available genetic material from which to replicate vowed to resist environmental degradation and pro-
the animal proved too degraded and fragmentary. tect vulnerable native species—commitments we
New tools developed since then would allow pre- all need to make if we’re to avoid future extinctions.
cise gene-splicing to re-create a thylacine genome The thylacine calls across the century to us: Don’t
from multiple sources—so de-extinction is back wait until it is too late. j
on the table. Spearheading this effort: a group of Kennedy Warne is a New Zealand–based writer. His latest book,
University of Melbourne geneticists who call them- Soundings: Diving for Stories in the Beckoning Sea, is a memoir of
selves the TIGRR (Thylacine Integrated Genomic two decades of underwater reporting for National Geographic.
MEET THE WINNERS
Thank you to the 3,000 young changemakers from around the world who
submitted their creative solutions to the National Geographic Society and
congratulations to our winners.
The Slingshot Challenge is an innovative program for ages 13-18 that identifies and supports future
problem-solvers, advocates and stewards for the planet. Youth are invited to create a one-minute
video depicting a solution to the planet’s environmental problems.
Pakistan CA, USA Mexico
ABDULLAH SHAHID KAYLA LING REGINA GUTIÉRREZ

RESOLVING THE PLIGHT OF SMOG NO WASTE NATION FORESTA VIVERO
Cleaning the air through a Using the power of social media to Addressing climate change by
community-driven cycle club. connect local waste reducers. rehabilitating ecosystems affected
by forest fires.
Nigeria MA, USA
OLUWASEYI AINA, AYOMIDE ALAGBE, MERCY OJOTOLA,

NAIMAT LUKMAN, NANCY NKILI: SOREN GOLDSMITH
OUR ENVIRONMENT, OUR RESPONSIBILITY SAVE THE FORESTS
Protecting nature through community Protecting nature through
education to prevent poaching and logging. photography and storytelling.
LEARN MORE
Supported by the National Geographic Society
SlingshotChallenge.org and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
EX PLOR E
THE UNR I VA LED ™
You gaze out from your private balcony, transfixed by a pod of orcas
as they rise and fall in the calm bay, their tall, black fins appearing
almost choreographed. Amongst verdant forests and jagged mountain peaks,
it’s another unforgettable moment in Alaska’s epic wilderness.
Join Seven Seas Explorer® for her inaugural Alaska season

and experience the epitome of all-inclusive luxury.
START YOUR JOURNEY AT RSSC.COM

CALL 1.877.919.3172 OR CONTACT YOUR TRAVEL ADVISOR
Scan the QR code

to learn about our latest offers
or visit RSSC.com/specials
E X P L O R E | ARTIFACT
ROMAN BATH RINGS

T A K I N G A S O A K C O S T W E A LT H Y B A T H E R S
T H E G E M S T O N E S I N T H E I R J E W E L R Y.
For anyone who’s lost a ring down the drain, there’s

hope in history. Archaeologists in Carlisle, England,
recently discovered a remarkable trove of ancient
gems that likely belonged to wealthy patrons of a
lavish bathhouse on the remote fringes of the Roman
Empire. The researchers uncovered a stone-lined
drainage system containing dozens of engraved
agates, jaspers, and other gemstones that once graced
fancy rings in the third and early fourth centuries
A.D.—until the heat and humidity of the baths loos-
ened their glued settings and sent them tumbling
into the drains.
The 36 intaglios present a unique snapshot into
the beliefs of the period’s Roman elite, says Frank
Giecco, lead archaeologist on the project. Some bear
likenesses of the goddess Fortuna—luck—or Diana,
who protected women during childbirth; others found
at this military frontier site depict Mars, god of war.
Archaeologists are currently excavating the south-
ern portion of the bathhouse, where additional sec-
tions of the drain may yield even more finds. Giecco
says he’s especially fond of the mouse intaglio, but
“it’s hard to pick a favorite,” he concedes. “I’ll probably
find another one in a month’s time.” — K R I S T I N RO M E Y
PHOTOS: ANNA GIECCO

Recipes with high-quality, natural*
ingredients to help dogs live full
and active lives.
*Natural dog food plus vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. © 2023 Mars or Affiliates.
E X P L O R E | BREAKTHROUGHS
Extinct plant? Not so fast …

Soon after the fairy lantern plant Thismia
kobensis was discovered in 1992 in Japan’s
D I S PAT C H E S Hyogo Prefecture, construction destroyed
its habitat. It was thought extinct—until
FROM THE FRONT LINES 2021, when a new population was found
OF SCIENCE about 19 miles away. Scientists hope to
A N D I N N OVAT I O N learn more about the genus, which lives
by parasitizing fungi in the soil rather
than by photosynthesis. — A N N I E R O T H
ARCHAEOLOGY
A collection
of craniums
for Ramses II
For a pharaoh
who probably had
everything: 2,000
mummified rams’
heads. Now flesh-
less skulls, the heads
may have been an
offering to Egypt’s
Ramses II, aka Ram-
ses the Great, in the
afterlife. They were
found in a previ-
ously unknown
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
part of a temple
complex, some
CHIMPS, US & COCKATOOS 270 miles south
of Cairo, that was
THE ABILITY TO PLAN, BRING, AND USE THE RIGHT
TO OLS FOR THE JOB IS SHOWN IN A THIRD SPECIE S. built to honor the
long-reigning ruler.
Don’t underestimate a Goffin’s cockatoo with the munchies. In a
Researchers who un-
recent study, researchers challenged the birds to solve a puzzle box
with a cashew hidden behind a transparent paper membrane. In
earthed the heads
the first test, the birds could succeed only by using two different estimate they were
tools—a short, sharp stick (above left) for poking through the barrier left there roughly
and a long, flexible stick (above right) to fish the nut out afterward. a thousand years
Easy! Some birds solved the puzzle in less than 35 seconds. In the after Ramses II died
second test, the scientists gave the cockatoos two boxes, one with around 1213 B.C.
the membrane and one without. Here too the birds prevailed,
— PAT R I C I A E D M O N D S
sometimes picking up and setting down each tool as they weighed
which was needed before settling on the proper stick for the job.
Finally the researchers added obstacles between the cockatoos
and the boxes, which meant that to use a tool on the puzzle, the
birds had to carry it up a ramp or fly it across a gap. The birds not
only did that, but some learned to carry both tools at once. This
confirms observations in the wild that the cockatoos saw the
sticks as tool sets, or tools that can be used together to accomplish
a single goal—a human behavior also previously documented
in termite-fishing chimpanzees. In light of this, perhaps “the term
‘birdbrained’ should actually be rethought and used as a compli-
ment,” says Alice Auersperg, senior author and cognitive biologist
at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. — J A S O N B I T T E L
PHOTOS: THOMAS SUCHANEK (COCKATOO); KENJI SUETSUGU (PLANT); TONY WILSON-BLIGH, GETTY IMAGES (RAMSES II)
%XVLQHVVRZQHU*UDQGPRWKHU7UX HKXQWHU
A life well planned allows you to
While you may not be transitioning your business and sharing a new passion with your
granddaughter — your life is just as unique. Backed by sophisticated resources and a team of specialists
$) 1 -4 'Ѷ4(*)( .))$'1$.*-)# '+4*0+')!*-/# - (.4*0#1 Ѷ
the way you care for those you love and how you choose to give back. So you can live your life.
E X P L O R E | ADVENTURE
BY THE NUMBERS
0
Y E A R- RO U N D R E S I D E N T S
2,461
E S T I M AT E D M A X I M U M
T H I C K N E S S O F M Ý R DA L S J Ö KU L L
G L AC I E R , I N F E E T
15,445
A P P R OX I M AT E S I Z E O F T H E
HIGHLANDS, IN SQUARE MILES
NORTH
AMER.
A
S I
A
ICELAND
EUROPE
A
AFRIC
28 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C NGM MAPS
Fierce terrain keeps Iceland’s interior highlands
secluded, safeguarding an otherworldly beauty.
G O I N G B E YO N D GETTING THE SHOT ORIGIN STORY

Iceland’s striking volcanic As the green-gold peak Evidence of Iceland’s
landscapes draw growing of Mælifell volcano and incandescent birth from
crowds, but the high- white glacial expanse of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the
lands’ relative isolation Mýrdalsjökull appeared highlands comprise lava
means they stay off the in view, photographer fields, black sands, rock
beaten track. Accessible Matthew Borowick leaned ridges, and calderas.
only in summer, the area from a tiny Cessna. “You Periodic fireworks still
is reached by four-wheel stick your camera out, and ignite, such as when the
drive on unpaved roads you try not to drop it,” he Eyjafjallajökull volcano
crossing snowmelt streams. recalled. Aerial photogra- launched its miles-high
Once there, visitors can phy circumvented rugged ash plume in 2010. Amid
hike the 34-mile Laugave- highland roads, but nature the grumbling earth
gur trail through intensely always got the last word: and creeping glaciers,
hued rhyolite mountains, Facing the often tem- Icelandic folk tales tell
explore ice tunnels under pestuous weather, pilot of another phenomenon:
Langjökull glacier, and Haraldur Diego would the trolls that descend
soak in the thermal waters quip that something had from mountain caves
of Hveravellir. angered storm god Thor. under cover of night.
BY JEN ROSE SMITH P H O T O G R A P H B Y M AT T H E W B O ROW I C K
J U LY 2 0 2 3 29
AlUla: Mastering
the Desert’s Water
Oases make deserts navigable

and livable, becoming a natural
focus for life. In AlUla, skillful
water management helped
create the oasis and turn it into a
power base for rulers.
Image: In the deserts of Saudi Arabia’s AlUla

valley, the margins of life are clearly defined by
the presence of water. Credit: Matthieu Paley
PAID CONTENT FOR ROYAL COMMISSION FOR ALULA
Humans can survive longer without surface. But AlUla was blessed with
food than without water: significantly more than water: it also had fertile
longer. It’s one of the harsh realities soils. This enabled later successive
that makes the dry deserts of Saudi peoples to settle and develop irrigated
Arabia such a challenging place to agriculture, growing crops ranging
live. Then there’s the searing heat in from palm dates and citrus fruits to
a landscape that offers little shade, wheat and barley, creating the oasis.
and the often infertile sands in which
plants struggle to grow. It seems an Farming’s ability to support a large
unlikely place for farms, cities, and population lifted AlUla beyond being
civilizations to emerge, but that’s a valuable watering hole for desert
what happened in the AlUla valley travelers to being somewhere that
between the foothills of Saudi Arabia’s could grow and develop.
Hijaz Mountains. Because even in
the desert, there are places where
water can be found to nurture life and
allow plants, animals, and humans
to thrive. The AlUla valley cradles an
oasis, an island of habitable land amid
Saudi Arabia’s vast seas of sand, a
haven that can support communities
and offer succor to travelers.
The story of AlUla begins millions

of years ago when a wetter climate
carved a huge water catchment of
great valleys that converged to feed
the wadi that runs through the region.
Much of the water flows through
underground systems, becoming
trapped and stored as an aquifer.
Topped up by distant rains, the
aquifer raised the water table close
to the surface to create a wetland
in which plants could grow, and to While AlUla’s rulers (and others)
this rare source of food and drink grew wealthy on this trade, farming
flocked animals and, ultimately, fueled population growth so that
humans. AlUla’s earliest inhabitants powerful kingdoms could emerge—
lived a nomadic hunter-gatherer the Dadanites, Lihyanites, and
lifestyle, perhaps shading beneath later Nabataeans. Underpinning
native acacia trees, and hunting these kingdoms were their abilities
gazelle while drinking from natural to manipulate and maximize the
springs and pooled water at the supply of water for agriculture.
This is paid content. This content does not necessarily reflect the views
of National Geographic or its editorial staff.
PAID CONTENT FOR ROYAL COMMISSION FOR ALULA
Above: The waters of the oasis enabled irrigated agriculture groundwater 10 meters below the surface, the
that supported the emergence of kingdoms in AlUla. Credit:
deepest is 20 meters and a remarkable seven
Matthieu Paley
meters wide. The unusual diameter of Hegra’s
In order to create and sustain an oasis, humans wells makes them more like cisterns used for
must find, manage, and use the available water storing rainwater, and they may have been an
wisely. While water bubbling up from natural innovative hybrid system drawing from both
springs and seasonal rains might temporarily aquifer and surface flow. Either way, the wells
fill wadis, to make the most of it, people stored vast volumes of water for long periods,
needed to take control of the water. One of the supporting AlUla’s people and agriculture.
earliest ways was to dig wells. The city of Hegra
alone had 130 wells, probably all excavated at To irrigate AlUla’s fields, early farmers likely
around the same time. While most tapped into used animals to haul goatskins of water from
wells to be tipped into surface channels.
However, by the early Islamic period a more
sophisticated water-management system
had emerged: qanats. These gently sloping
underground channels tapped into the water
table at a high point, such as at the base of a
mountain, and used gravity with a carefully
calculated slope to carry the water so that
the channel surfaced close to an agricultural
plain. AlUla’s extensive network of qanats
made it possible to farm large strips of land.
Such major engineering projects, involving
immense collective effort, suggest that
improving water supplies was a priority,
possibly initially for AlUla’s rulers, but by the
Above: Simple channels, shaded by date palms, carry 20th century it was certainly operated by a
water between fields as they have done for centuries.
Credit: Krystle Wright
cooperative community.
Beyond agriculture, a consciousness of water
pervaded many areas of AlUlan society, and
it likely played a role in ancient rituals. This is
suggested by the monolithic circular sandstone
basin outside the temple to Dhu Ghaybah in
Dadan. Carved and placed by the early first
millennium BCE, the basin is nearly four meters
in diameter and more than two meters deep—it
could hold 27,000 liters of water filled from the
well next to it. Similar smaller basins are found
at other sites in Dadan and Hegra, suggesting the
ritual importance of water in the AlUla region.
Many inscriptions of prayers in Jabal Ikmah, near
Dadan, ask the gods to bring “plentiful spring
rains,” a plea that reveals both the importance and
the insecurity of the water supply.
When rains did come, the

Nabataeans in Hegra used
ceramic pipes to move
rainwater away from houses
Above: Irrigated agriculture still drives AlUla’s economy,
and into the streets, and its supporting more than two million date trees producing
90,000 tons of dates. Credit: Krystle Wright
famous tomb facades are
protected by channels that great open-air reservoirs. One grateful traveler
wrote affectionately of Qurh, in AlUla, “it is
prevent rain eroding the
possessed of very cheap dates and excellent
delicately carved sandstone. bread and copious springs of water.” It’s a
description we can recognize today, with
modern AlUla still verdant and bountiful,
producing 90,000 tons of dates each year. But
To harness these great rains, they dug
none of it would be possible without water.
additional channels that moved the runoff
In the desolation of the desert, it’s millennia
into great cisterns for storage.
of skillful water management that has made
As the incense trade shifted and then waned AlUla a place of plenty, capable of supporting
in the new millennium, the wealth extracted communities, cities, and even kings.
from travelers diminished. However, with

the coming of Islam and the pilgrimage route
to Makkah, the oasis again became a vital To learn more about AlUla visit
watering hole. The Umayyad caliphs were www.nationalgeographic.com/journey-to-alula
particularly attentive, easing the passage of To plan a trip to AlUla visit
pilgrims by digging wells and building birkahs, www.experiencealula.com
E X P L O R E | T R AV E L R A DA R
This month’s picks take

us from a Civil War
WHAT’S
NEW AND
battlefield to a bike
NOTEWORTHY trail in Slovenia.
AROUND THE
WORLD
BY AMY ALIPIO
1
HIDDEN FIGURES
War at the Door

With explosive sounds
and shaking floors,
the immersive center-
piece of Gettysburg’s
3
newest museum imag-
ines what it might’ve PURPLE REIGN AFRO-FUTURIST EXPRESSIONS
been like for civilians From Wakanda Forever
of this Pennsylvania A FRENCH INITIATIVE
to Vogue, styles that blend
town (such as the boy A I M S T O S AV E T H E African culture and science
in the tintype above) F A M E D L AV E N D E R fiction are turning heads.
to find themselves in ON
the midst of the Amer- FIELDS OF PROVENCE TREND They’ll likely be on full dis-
ican Civil War for three FROM THREATS SUCH play at South Africa’s Durban
infamous days in July AS DROUGHT AND July, an annual horse race
1863. The Beyond the and fashion extravaganza
Battle Museum focuses DISEASE. ONE STEP:
started in 1897, whose theme
less on troop move- PLANTING OTHER
this year is “Out of This
ments and more on FLORA BETWEEN THE
those who fed soldiers, World.” Winning the event’s
nursed the wounded, ROWS OF BUSHES TO Young Designer Award can
and buried the dead. ENRICH THE SOIL. launch a global career.
FOOD TRAIL
Locally made cheeses and

wines, dinner at Michelin-
starred restaurants—
these are some of the
tastes to be savored
when cycling the Slovenia
Green Gourmet Route.
The 10-destination trek
takes in the capital,
Ljubljana, as well as alpine
views, river valleys, and
a cave-studded plateau.
WITH REPORTING BY CHRISSIE MCCLATCHIE, HEATHER GREENWOOD DAVIS, AND ANDREW NELSON. PHOTOS: COURTESY
TIMOTHY H. SMITH COLLECTION, ADAMS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (BOY); STAR PIX/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO (LAVENDER);
MARCO LONGARI, AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES (WOMAN); ROOM THE AGENCY/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO (CYCLISTS)
“In recent years, a group of international designers and
artists has rediscovered the innate modernity of Italian
blown glass, turning to Murano as inspiration…”
— New York Times, 2020
Genuine Murano Necklace

$
only 39!
PLUS FREE Bracelet!
a $99 value!
Send Her Over The Rainbow

700-year old legendary art form for the price of your dreams.
Murano Rainbow Necklace for only $39. And, to help you
N ow I know how that little farm girl from Kansas felt
when she went over the rainbow and awoke in a land
of spectacular color. Look what I found in the land of ahhs!
double down on romance, I’ll throw in the matching bracelet
absolutely FREE! As one of the largest importers of Murano
Glass jewelry, we have a way of making dreams that you dare
Approaching Burano Island off of northern Venice was to dream come true.
like being swept away in a dream. Known for its brightly-
painted fisherman houses that line the canals, I was greeted Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. Enjoy the
with every color of the rainbow. Since before the Venetian Murano Rainbow Necklace for 30 days. If it doesn’t pass with
Republic, Burano was home to fishermen and legend says that flying colors, send it back for a full refund of the item price.
the houses were painted in bright hues so they could see their You can even keep the bracelet for your trouble.
way home when fog blanketed the lagoon. Limited Reserves. You could easily pay $300 or more for
Inspiration struck. I wanted to capture this historical beauty a Murano glass bead necklace, but at $39 PLUS a FREE
in the centuries old art form of Murano. Still regarded as bracelet, these authentic handcrafted pieces won’t last.
being the finest form craftsmanship in the world, Murano Jewelry Specifications:
has evolved into modern day fashion statements. • Original Murano Glass
So I hopped on a vaporetto for a forty minute ride to Venice • Necklace: 23"L; Bracelet: 7"L; Lobster clasps
and sought out the impeccable talents of one of Venice’s finest Murano Rainbow Necklace $199 $39* + S&P
Murano artisans. They’ve captured the vibrant colors of the Receive the FREE matching bracelet with your purchase
iconic fisherman houses in the perfect hand-formed beads of of the Necklace — a $99 value!
The Rainbow Murano Necklace. To own a piece of authentic
*Special price only for customers using the offer code.
Murano is to own a piece of fine art steeped in history. Each
and every piece is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
I want to make it easy for you to send her over the rainbow. 1-888-444-5949
That’s why for a limited time you can treat her to the The Your Insider Offer Code: RFW265-02
Raffinato, 14101 Southcross Drive W., Ste 155, Dept. RFW265-02, Burnsville, MN 55337 www.raffinatoitaly.com
BASIC INSTINCTS | E X P L O R E
IS THAT A MATE
of trial and error for olive sea snakes. These
S E X I N VO LV E S A L OT
highly venomous reptiles have poor eyesight, and males have
been known to mistake sea cucumbers, loose strands of rope,
OR A DIVER’S
and even the fins of scuba divers for potential mates. When a
male finally manages to locate a female, he will nudge her head
in a plea for consent. Such requests are usually rejected, forcing
FIN? THE SEX the suitor to start his partner search anew.
However, if a female accepts an offer, the male must find a way
to insert one of his two penises into the female’s cloaca, which for a
WOES OF OLIVE creature with lousy vision and no limbs is “very tricky,” says Claire
Goiran, a University of New Caledonia marine biologist who studies
SEA SNAKES
sea snakes. Males coil around their partners and wriggle and writhe
until everything slides into place: “It takes a long time for the male
to get in the right position,” Goiran says. As a result, this species’
submarine sex can last for hours, and a couple can’t separate until
the deed is done. So when the female needs to surface to take a
breath, she drags her mate along with her ... by the penis. It’s one
BY ANNIE ROTH more indignity he endures for the chance to pass on his genes. j
IA
AS
New Guinea
PA C I F I C
O CE A N
AUSTRALIA
H A B I TAT/ R A N G E
Olive sea snakes are found
off the northern Australian
coast and in the waters
south of New Guinea. They
spend most of their time
on shallow reefs but have
been found at depths
greater than 325 feet.
O T H E R FAC T S
Like all true sea snakes,
Aipysurus laevis bear
live offspring. Females
will gestate for around
nine months and give birth
to five to seven babies on
average. The sea snakes
reach 6.5 feet in length and
weigh up to 6.5 pounds.
PHOTO: BRANDON COLE MARINE PHOTOGRAPHY,

ALAMY STOCK PHOTO. NGM MAPS J U LY 2 0 2 3 33
E X P L O R AT I O N I S W H AT H U M A N S D O. W E V E N T U R E I N TO T H E U N K N O W N
TO FIND UNEXPECTED PLACE S TO FLOURISH IN, NEW BOUNDARIE S TO
PUSH, AND MYSTERIOUS PHENOMENA TO DECIPHER. WE’VE BEEN DOING
I T F O R M I L L E N N I A , A N D W E ’ V E O N LY J U S T B E G U N .
J U LY 2 0 2 3
F EAT U R E S Amazon Storytellers . . . P. 50
Early Human Relative .. P. 68
Shark Rewilding . . . . . . . . . . P. 78
Walking China . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 110
Mexican Migrants . . . . . P. 130
35
A diver explores a
cathedral-like cenote,
which lies underneath
Mexico’s Yucatán
Peninsula near the
Maya ruins of Tulum.
For 135 years, National
Geographic has sent
archaeologists, anthro-
pologists, and divers
around the world to
discover fresh insights
into lost civilizations.
PAUL NICKLEN
(ALSO PREVIOUS PAGE)
T
E
FINDING OUR
W E ’ R E L I V I N G I N A N E W AG E O F E X P LO R AT I O N .
BY NINA STROCHLIC
PHOTO COLLAGES BY NEIL JAMIESON
Since Alexander
Graham Bell, an early
president of National
Geographic, tested
his flying contraptions
on the hills of Nova
Scotia (upper left), avi-
ation has captivated
us. As space became a
scientific frontier, we
helped collect samples
from the stratosphere
(center) and supplied
astronaut Neil Arm-
strong with a small
National Geographic
Society flag to carry
on Apollo 11, the first
crewed mission to the
moon (bottom left).
SOURCE PHOTOS FOR ILLUSTRATION: JAMES P. BLAIR (STARGAZER BALLOON, UPPER RIGHT); DAVIDE MONTELEONE (PLANE); OTIS IMBODEN (ROCKET LAUNCHES);
RICHARD HEWITT STEWART (STRATOSPHERE EXPEDITION BALLOON); BELL COLLECTION (BELL AND COLLEAGUE WITH EXPERIMENTAL KITE)
W AY F O R W A R D
45
one museum along the old Oregon Trail that
T H E R E I S O N LY
tells the story of America’s westward expansion through the
eyes of those being expanded into. In a corner of Oregon bor-
dered by Washington and Idaho, this wood-paneled warren
of galleries and interactive exhibits celebrates the heritage of
Native people and mourns what was destroyed when the pio-
neers arrived. Walking down a long ramp, visitors enter the
brick facade of a replica “Indian training school,” where Native
children were forcibly converted and assimilated. A life-size
photo of the students stares back from over a century ago;
their matching uniforms make them look like tiny soldiers.
“We were told to write our own history if we want it told
well,” Bobbie Conner explained. She sat in a conference room
of the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, the center she directs on
the Umatilla Reservation, home to the Cayuse, Umatilla, and
Walla Walla tribes. “And this story is as old as time: conquest.”
The history of exploration is often told in the binary.
Grueling walks, climbs,
Explorer and high mountain. Explorer and remote island. and sea crossings
Explorer and uncontacted tribe. The conqueror and the have charted new
conquered. Today the definition of exploration is more expan- pathways around the
globe, mapped nat-
sive. We explore our bodies, our ancestry, the capacity of our ural phenomena, and
brains, the idea of home. We explore history and who gets to connected cultures.
tell it. The explorer has been an adventurer, a showman, a Continuing a tradition
of past explorers here
scientist, and now there’s a new archetype: the reconciler— is writer Paul Salopek
someone to help us understand how we got here. These pio- (front), who, for the
neers are interrogating our history books, rewriting them, past 10 years, has been
walking a 24,000-mile
and hoping to prevent the past from repeating. route that migrating
By the time I sat with Conner in that conference room, humans took out
I’d spent six months in Oregon, my home state, waiting out of Africa, populating
the world.
the COVID-19 pandemic. For years I’d written dispatches for
this magazine from places like the remote marshes of South
Sudan, the desert border of the United States and Mexico, and
the mountains of eastern Congo. Now, stretched in front of
me was the banality of a home I’d never had much interest in.
With nowhere to go, I sought to understand my new confines;
before long, I ended up on the edge of the state, questioning
my idea of exploration itself. Geographic Society in 1888. For the past 135 years
But first, let’s rewind some 60,000 years to we’ve plumbed the sea, sky, land, and space “for
when “a small colony in Africa went into the the increase and diffusion of geographic knowl-
world and lost contact.” This is according to edge.” The exploration we funded and docu-
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, a historian and pro- mented seemed at times less about making
fessor at the University of Notre Dame, who’s contact and more about being first. And there
spent nearly six decades studying how the was no shortage of those milestones: from sum-
world has been transformed by a process he miting Mount Everest with the American team
calls route finding—in which different cultures to mapping the Atlantic Ocean floor.
collide, interact, and adapt to each other in jour- Firsts then morphed into discoveries: Sci-
neys fueled by greed, imperialism, religion, and ence, space, and the natural world were wrung
science. “The history of exploration,” he says, for their secrets. The Leakeys unearthed our
“is putting the routes between different peoples fossilized ancestors, Jane Goodall lived among
back.” It’s as if, for thousands of years, we’ve the chimpanzees, and conservationist Mike Fay
been attempting to undo the distance our earli- charted a 2,000-mile trek across Central African
est ancestors put between us, for better or worse. rainforests. Today explorers may not be human
It was this goal that united scientists, schol- at all: Does a camera explore when it’s dropped
ars, and military men to found the National to the bottom of the ocean to photograph at
SOURCE PHOTOS FOR ILLUSTRATION: NEIL M. JUDD (CHACO CANYON SURVEYOR); LEAKEY FAMILY COLLECTION (LOUIS LEAKEY, CENTER, AND COLLEAGUES WITH
PREHISTORIC ELEPHANT BONES); FROM HARRIET CHALMERS ADAMS (ADAMS WITH CAMEL); RICK SMOLAN (ROBYN DAVIDSON WITH CAMEL ON 1,700-MILE AUSTRALIA
TREK); JOHN STANMEYER (SALOPEK AND ETHIOPIAN GUIDE AHMED ELEMA); CORY RICHARDS (EVEREST); STEPHEN ALVAREZ (PETRA)
depths humans haven’t yet reached? Or a micro- Cameras, submersibles,
scopic robot, when it's threaded through our and remotely oper-
ated devices unveil
bodies to perform surgery? the ocean’s opaque
Stories have fueled exploration for hundreds depths. One of National
of years. During what’s known as the European Geographic’s earliest
underwater stories fea-
age of exploration, from the 15th to 17th centu- tured discoveries from
ries, popular fiction told of heroes on daring the bathysphere (bot-
journeys, and these so-called romances of chiv- tom right), the first
deep-sea exploration
alry may have inspired Columbus and Magellan vessel. Lowered by
to set sail. Storytelling has repopulated the a 3,500-foot-long steel
world with new generations of explorers many cable, it plumbed the
waters off Bermuda
times over. Perhaps the photography and maps in the 1930s.
National Geographic magazine published moved
you to go out and see the world. But stories have
also served to propel a Western myth of the
explorer that isn’t entirely true.
“There’s a failure of the literature to discuss
explorers from other countries, so for the last
500 years this was a story dominated by dead
white males,” says Fernández-Armesto. “That’s
created the impression that it’s a white male
activity—it isn’t, by any means.”
One of the earliest world maps was painted on
a cave wall in India some 8,000 years ago, and
the first explorer we know by name is Harkhuf,
who led an expedition from pharaonic Egypt
into tropical Africa around 2290 B.C. Then there
was the Bantu migration from West Africa across
the sub-Saharan continent, starting a thousand
years earlier. In the Pacific Ocean, sailors in dug-
outs and catamarans followed the stars and sea
swells to map and colonize islands from New
Guinea to Hawaii, starting around 1500 B.C. In
the seventh century, a Chinese monk named
Xuanzang crossed China, India, and Nepal on
a quest for original Buddhist scriptures. That 40,000 miles in Latin America, retraced Colum-
same century, Arab armies marched from the bus’s route from Europe to South America, and
Arabian Peninsula to Central Asia and North photographed the frontline trenches of World
Africa, fueled by the drive of holy conquest. War I—the headlines convey more interest in
The era of the white male explorer came long how she strayed from the feminine stereotype:
after that, and the archetype dominated the “A Woman Unafraid of Rats” reads one.
Western narrative. But those other explorers As we dig through history to bring new people
have always been there. into the pantheon of explorers, we reevaluate old
In the archives of National Geographic, I find stories: What did exploration mean to the peo-
more modern examples, overlooked by society ple who were being explored—and then often
at the time: Juliet Bredon, a female explorer exploited or even exterminated? Can a place
who published under the name Adam Warwick really be discovered? And who should be consid-
to relay her exploration of China in the 1920s, ered an explorer? Is Eve, for biting the forbidden
and Reina Torres de Araúz, a Panamanian fruit and gaining knowledge but forgoing Eden?
anthropologist who made the first expedition Or Pandora, compelled by curiosity to open the
from South to North America by car. In a pile of box, unleashing miseries on the world?
news clippings about Harriet Chalmers Adams— Today the history of exploration is being
who, at the turn of the 20th century, traversed rewritten to fill in old holes by people like Tara
Roberts, who appeared on our March 2022 cover returning to maps and signage.
in her snorkel, during a dive in the Florida Keys to The idea of telling their story in a museum left
map the sunken ships that once carried enslaved the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
people from Africa to America. Yazan Kopty, a Reservation perplexed at first, Conner said. There
Palestinian oral historian, is digging out centu- was nothing to celebrate about the destruction of
ry-old photos of Palestinians from the National their people and land. But they thought of how
Geographic archives and using social media to fill the narrative of exploration in Oregon is still
in their stories—their names, the holidays being glorified with a pioneer’s wagon on its flag and
celebrated, the villages in the background. a pioneer statue atop the Capitol building. And
At the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, Conner, they considered how much bigger their story was
who hails from Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Umatilla than the land where it took place—a remote cor-
lineage, used the word “reclaiming” to describe ner on the western edge of America—and how
this new form of exploration. Recently, dancers relatable it might be across the world. “This is the
performed a ceremonial post-battle scalp dance center of our universe,” she said, “but it connects
that hadn’t been seen in public for half a cen- to all other universes.” j
tury. The Nez Perce tribe has acquired 320 acres
Staff writer Nina Strochlic’s most recent story
of ancestral land for descendants to gather, bury for the magazine looked at the legacy and resur-
their dead, and host festivals. Tribal names are gence of New York’s Catskill Mountains.
SOURCE PHOTOS FOR ILLUSTRATION: EMORY KRISTOF (SUBMERSIBLE); WINFIELD PARKS (SAILBOATS); JOHN TEE-VAN (BATHYSPHERE); VIDEO STILL BY FALKLANDS
HERITAGE MARITIME TRUST, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (ENDURANCE); ROBERT B. GOODMAN (DIVER WITH CAMERA); LUIS MARDEN (GROUP OF THREE DIVERS);
ANDY MANN (DIVER WITH SHARK)
T H E
L
A M A Z O N’S
O
E
F I R S T
S T O R Y T E
A C H A L L E N G I N G J O U R N E Y TO
T H E M O S T E X T E N S I V E R O C K A RT I N T H E
A M E R I C A S K I C K S O F F A T W O -Y E A R
E X P E D I T I O N A L O N G T H E A M A Z O N R I V E R,
F R O M T H E A N D E S TO T H E AT L A N T I C.
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY

THOMAS PESCHAK
Chiribiquete, the
largest protected area
in Colombia, is distin-
guished by its tepuis,
tabletop mountains
that rise abruptly
from the rainforest.
The park is in one
of the world’s most
biodiverse regions,
L L E R S sheltering many
endemic species.
51
Jaguars leap at pacas
while piranhas swim
on a mural known as
“La Hojarasca” (“Fallen
Leaves”). More than
75,000 paintings have
been discovered in
Chiribiquete. Some are
20,000 years old, mak-
ing them the oldest
known rock art in the
Americas. The picto-
graphs show fauna and
flora, people, and geo-
metric patterns. Large
jaguars and aquatic life
are common motifs.
In the cosmology of
the Tikuna, one of the
largest Indigenous
groups in the Amazon,
pink dolphins are
mischievous spirits
and guardians of the
watery realm. Elders
Nuria Pinto and Pas-
tora Guerrero join
dancers wearing dol-
phin costumes made
from the bark of the
yanchama tree.
that to ensure our safe return and to
T H E S H A M A N A DV I S E D U S
appease the spirits, we should make an offering of tobacco—
sacred to many Amazonian Indigenous groups.
At the base of a sandstone cliff in Colombia’s Serranía de
Chiribiquete National Natural Park, archaeologist Carlos
Castaño-Uribe passes around fat cigars that would not look
out of place during a poker game. We puff vigorously, bathe
ourselves in smoke, place our palms on the rock, and ear-
nestly state our intentions. For extra measure, Castaño-Uribe
exhales smoke over each of our heads.
Only then do we begin to explore.
I’m with a small team, which includes Castaño-Uribe,
aquatic biologist and National Geographic Explorer Fer-
nando Trujillo, and some Colombian climbers and jungle
specialists to make sure we don’t lose our way in this trackless
wilderness, which is off-limits to the public. We are only the
ninth expedition permitted to explore Colombia’s largest
park, which protects a spectacular landscape of dense rain-
forest, soaring tabletop mountains called tepuis, and more
than 75,000 rock-art paintings made with a blood-red iron
oxide called hematite.
It’s the pictographs—the most ancient visual stories ever
found in the Americas—that I’m here to see. On sheer rock A helicopter is key
walls, the Amazon’s first storytellers painted fauna and flora, to getting to and
people, and geometric patterns. Jaguars are one of the most around Chiribiquete.
The terrain is extremely
common motifs—many with unique patterns of lines or rugged and difficult
rosettes. I’m a photographer, but my assignments usually to traverse on foot. To
take me underwater. So why am I scaling mountains in a reach rock art painted
in some of the most
remote rainforest? To see turtles, caimans, anacondas, fish. inaccessible spots
Tens of thousands of years old, these vivid depictions of means rappelling down
aquatic life are evidence of humankind’s long relationship with cliffs, bushwhacking
through thick rain-
the Amazon, the world’s greatest freshwater ecosystem. For forest, and battling
unrelenting bees.
The National Geographic Society,

committed to illuminating
and protecting the wonder of our
world, has funded Explorer Thomas
Peschak’s work documenting the
natural world since 2017. Learn more
about the Society’s support of
Explorers at natgeo.com/impact.
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY
two years, I will photograph the region, following of sheer cliff faces, we would set out by helicop-
the river itself from high in the mountains to far ter and then travel on foot, struggling through
into the ocean as part of the National Geographic dense rainforest, using ropes and ladders to
and Rolex Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition. climb and rappel down steep slopes and cliffs,
As I began this journey, I wanted to come as close wending through dark and damp canyons.
as I could to understanding how these mysterious On one ascent I come close to collapsing
prehistoric people experienced this watery realm. because of my armored fashion choices. I’m
For 25 years I’ve documented our planet’s layered up with thick cargo pants, two shirts,
wildest seas, first as a marine biologist and later gloves, a head net, and a pair of snakebite gai-
as a photojournalist. I am well versed in how not ters. I will do whatever it takes to protect myself
to get bitten by a shark or crushed by a feeding from enemies, both real and imagined.
whale, but I am a neophyte in the jungle. In my The ferocious sting of bullet ants, a whopping
defense, Chiribiquete is an incredibly difficult 4 on the Schmidt pain index, is described as akin
place to explore, and the ancient artists painted to walking across hot coals with a three-inch nail
in some almost inaccessible locations. embedded in your heel. The potentially lethal fer-
To reach the rock art painted high on the sides de-lance is responsible for most of the snakebites
T H E A M A ZO N ’ S F I R ST STO RY T E L L E R S 57
Serran
in the Amazon region. The bite of a female phle-
botomine sand fly could infect me with disfigur- GUYANA
VENEZ. SURINAME
ía de la Macarena
ing leishmaniasis. With every labored step in the COLOMBIA FR.
GUIANA
MAP AREA
stifling heat, I ask myself what I’m doing here. EQUA
Am azon TOR
ECUADOR
Amazonia
PERU Region
BOL.
UR EXPEDITION begins at the SOUTH
O
BRAZIL
AN
small airport of San José del AMERICA
CE
O
Guaviare in south-central IFIC
PA C
C
TI
Colombia. We take off in AN
OCE A
N
a helicopter and fly over a A TL
patchwork of cattle pastures and grasslands.
Finally, an unbroken carpet of verdant rain-
forest rolls out to the horizon. When the first
mountains appear, the pilot descends, and we AMAZONIAN EXPANSE
navigate through canyons so narrow that I can This three million-square-mile La Tunia
region, with its unique flora
almost reach out and touch the cliffs. We land on and fauna, is shaped by the
a scrap of uneven rock. The helicopter barely fits. 4,150-mile river that stretches
The location appears idyllic, but it feels as if from the Andes to the Atlantic.
we’ve set up on a furnace. As the sun heats the
rock, it bakes the air in our tents to more than
100 degrees Fahrenheit. I try to fall asleep, des- Cartagena
del Chairá
perate for a breeze. My sweat forms wetlands
on my mattress.
ri
La Tigrera
Ya
Ca m
We wake to the sound of tens of thousands of
uy
tiny helicopters. The sweat bees are here. Soon a
the entire camp—camera cases, boots, clothing,
plates, cutlery, anything left outside—is draped
in bees. I make the mistake of leaving my tent
zipper slightly cracked and before long end up Cristales
with dozens of roommates. I let the bees quench

their thirst from the sweat pooled in my belly
button. Resistance is futile. The bees overwhelm
us. They crawl into our noses and ears; one even
Peneyita Puerto
slips beneath my eyelid. Su Argentina
n siyá
There are hardly any sweat bees in the low-
lands adjacent to rivers that flow through the Ca
g
park, but we were advised not to stay there. Rem-
uá
n
nants of FARC rebel forces are said to use these

rivers when the water is high enough. I prefer Huitora Puerto Huitoto
bees to AK-47s.
Pene
The headwaters of the park’s most important

ya
rivers are also home to the Indigenous Carijona,

Murui-Muina, and Urumi people—uncontacted
Aguas
or living in isolation since violent encounters with Negras
Peña Roja
rubber tappers in the 1800s and 1900s. Once, on La Tagua
an expedition in 2017, Trujillo woke in the early Puerto
hours of the morning to the sounds of some- Puerto Leguízamo
Zábalo
one moving around. Thinking it was another
Putu
researcher, he went back to sleep. The next morn- Pr

COL ed Caqu
ay OM io etá
m
ing, the scientists discovered smaller footprints, o B Pu

tum
PER
IA
barefoot, in step with their boot prints. More than ayo

U
50 miles of difficult terrain separate them from
MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK, NGM STAFF
SOURCES: NASA/JPL; ESA; WWF; RUNAP; RAISG; USGS;
NATIONAL LAND AGENCY, COLOMBIA; GREEN MARBLE;
58 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C OPENSTREETMAP; CARLOS CASTAÑO-URIBE
e
ar
REMOTE TREASURES
avi
u
SIERRA DE LA MACARENA
G
NATIONAL NATURAL San
José del
Guaviare
PARK Tepuis, remnants of an eroded ancient plateau,
o loom above the protected jungle in Colombia’s
Guay a b er
Chiribiquete Park. Their vertical sides, used
as canvases by Indigenous peoples, are deco-
rated with ornate pictographs testifying to the
human presence here for millennia. Celebrated
as a World Heritage site, the park is off-limits
to tourism, but unsanctioned visits and illegal
deforestation are growing threats.
1,073 ft
327 m Calamar
Un
i ll a
Llanos Génova
del Yarí- La Yuquera National park boundary
Yaguará II
La Aguada Indigenous reserve boundary
Tu Road/track
n
I til
ia Selected pictograph mural

la
15 mi
Barranquillita
Sierra de Chiribiquete 15 km
2,500 ft San Luis
762 m Va u
Over 75,000 pictographs pé

S
have been documented s aflor

es
Mir Lagos del Dorado,
E
on the park’s more than

70 murals—most found
Lagos del Paso,
El Remanso
R
on tepuis in the northern El Rosal Puerto Nare

part of their range.
R
re
Cerro Quemado
Te l e y a
vio
Na
el Ali
A
2,192 ft
ya
d
ac a
Cayali 668 m a
to
M lt
Vue
Ap
er
Yay
Pu
a-A
N
ap
ya
or
y Arara, Bacati, Cararu,

a
is
Í
Aj a j ú Lagos de Jamaicuru
A
Cubeo
Yavilla II
SERRANÍA DE CHIRIBIQUETE
Patio Bonito
D
San Jór g
E
Cachiporro
NATIONAL NATURAL PARK
Mesas Vaupés
e
C
de Iguaje
Pac o
Ya
Amú
Cuñaré
ri
2,001 ft
a
610 m
I
Caserío
R
Cúcuta
Puerto
Cuñ Peñalito
I
ar
é
Caserío
B
Salado Hachuela ra
Maraya
ara cua
Cerros de Ar
I
Luis a es Salado
M
ay Barreto
ay Yavilla
Q
Mes
U
El Guamo
E
Indigenous reserves are

T
intended to protect the Aduche Mirití-Paraná

territorial rights of peo-
Ya
1,270 ft
E
ri
ples who have historic 387 m

ties to the area and to Monochoa Puerto
promote conservation. Mesa Benjamín
García
Araracuara Nunuya de Villazul
Puerto
Pizarro
National Geographic
Explorer and scientist
Fernando Trujillo (far
left) and his team
examine a pink dolphin,
or boto, a keystone
species in Amazonian
rivers. Their assess-
ments, which follow
established safety pro-
tocols, provide critical
information about the
health of not only
dolphin populations
but also the rivers.
our campsite, but every night, I listen intently for
the rustle of leaves or the crack of a twig.
It’s not unlikely that Indigenous people would
come, as we have, to see the rock art. The picto-
graphs remain meaningful in their cosmology
and ceremonial activities. Castaño-Uribe once
found a small hearth with animal bones and
pigments beneath some paintings. The old-
est paintings have been radiocarbon-dated to
20,000 years ago, but the youngest are from the
1970s, and compelling evidence shows that some
are even more recent.
It was Castaño-Uribe who brought the paint-
ings, which make up more than 70 murals, to
the world’s attention, cementing the park as the
Louvre of rock art in the Americas. In 1986, a
storm forced Castaño-Uribe’s Cessna to divert
from its course. In the unfamiliar landscape,
he spotted the tepuis, which were not on his
maps. Five years later, he returned to explore
and found the pictographs.
Castaño-Uribe was not the first scientist to
see them. Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans
Schultes was, in the 1940s. But he didn’t realize
he was surrounded by one of the most extensive
rock-art repositories on the planet. This became
apparent only with Castaño-Uribe’s research.
He has devoted his life to Chiribiquete and its
art. Not only did he publish the first detailed
descriptions of the paintings and connect
them to Indigenous cosmology, but he was also
instrumental in the park’s establishment in 1989,
expansions in 2013 and 2018, and selection as a
UNESCO World Heritage site in 2018.
Sweat bees swarm
videographer Otto
HELICOPTER DROP S us on Whitehead. Within
A
minutes, hundreds
the summit of a tepui, and landed on him to lap
wielding machetes, we hack up the nutrients in his
through thick foliage for perspiration. Around
a dozen species of the
hours until we enter into stingless bees abound
a dark, narrow canyon. After scrambling over on Chiribiquete’s
steep terrain and using ladders and ropes in the tepuis. A head net
is essential gear.
toughest sections, we emerge from the canyon.
We battle through more vegetation, and finally,
we step onto a ledge on the side of a tepui.
Above us, on the vertical face, we see the paint-
ings. We are at a site called “Los Gemelos” (“The
Twins”). The rock art depicting stingrays, otters,
and turtles is magnificent—and also fiercely pro-
tected by bees. This time not the annoying sweat
bees but more virulent honeybees.
In less than half an hour the team endures
more than a hundred stings. We retreat, but the photographed at my geographical starting point,
bees follow, and a rock wall that requires a fixed the peak of Nevado Mismi in southern Peru, the
rope to climb becomes a bottleneck. Castaño- farthest point from the Amazon’s mouth, where
Uribe and I are waiting when he decides he the waters flow uninterrupted all year. I’ve fol-
has had enough of being stung. He charges up, lowed the water downstream to search for the
leaping skillfully from root to root, branch to elusive Andean bear in the cloud forests of Way-
branch. Not wanting to be left to the mercy of qecha, and I’ve scaled the sacred Colque Punku
belligerent bees, I follow, and despite being 15 Glacier with pilgrims dressed as Ukuku, a myth-
years younger, I struggle to keep up. ical half-bear, half-human.
This is just one chapter in my journey, I remind Unlike most storytellers who have ventured
myself. Soon I will be back in my element—in, to Amazonia, I will dive below the surface to
around, and under water. The Amazon runs for reveal a rarely glimpsed aquatic underworld. I
4,150 miles from the Andes to the Atlantic, the will photograph species that seem outlandish.
main artery of a web with more than a thousand Pink dolphins use sonar to navigate flooded
tributaries and tens of thousands of streams woodlands. The arapaima, an armored fish that
in an area the size of Australia. I’ve already weighs as much as a silverback gorilla, leaps from
Streams and rivers
run clear as they flow
from rocky plateaus.
They are home to
some unique plants
and animals. In the Ser-
ranía de la Macarena,
a mountain range
northwest of Chiri-
biquete, the endemic
Macarenia clavigera
plant turns red in sun-
light but remains green
in shaded waterways.
the water like a marlin. Electric eels, like swim- realm, which scientists and journalists tend to
ming batteries, deliver 600-volt shocks powerful shortchange. The rainforests—essential and
enough to kill a human. Black freshwater sting- endangered counterweights to climate change—
rays with bright yellow spots rest in the leaf litter have overshadowed the aquatic environment
of drowned forest floors. In Bolivia, I’ve dived into created by the mighty river.
the Amazon’s headwater rivers, swimming with My collaborators are some of the Amazon’s
jau, giant catfish that weigh up to 200 pounds, most accomplished scientists: Besides Trujillo,
and surrounded by schools of pacu, a fish com- they include João Campos-Silva, Ruthmery Pillco
monly known as the vegetarian piranha. Huarcaya, Angelo Bernardino, Thiago Silva, Baker
I’ll be working closely with other National Geo- Perry, and Hinsby Cadillo-Quiroz. They’re doing
graphic Explorers who are doing critical research groundbreaking work on pink dolphins, ara-
in the hope of securing the future of this watery paimas, spectacled bears, mangroves, flooded
forests, climate change, and mercury pollution.
This article was supported by Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Ini- Next year, National Geographic will devote an
tiative, which is partnering with the National Geographic
Society on science-based expeditions to explore, study, and
entire issue of the magazine to the Amazon, fea-
document change in the planet’s unique regions. turing my photographs and their studies.
nat-
A M E D 1 9 T H - C E N T U RY
F uralists like Alfred Russel

Wallace and Alexander von
Humboldt produced beauti-
ful illustrations of what they
had seen on their explorations in the Amazon.
But the region’s oldest artwork casts a spell.
Over five days in Chiribiquete, we saw hun-
dreds of pictographs. They are exquisitely
detailed, considering the artists painted with
feathers and sticks. One mural in particular,
known as “La Hojarasca” (“Fallen Leaves”),
moved me the most. I was in awe, as if seeing
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the first time.
It’s a riveting scene, painted high up on the
side of a towering tepui. Two jaguars leap into a
river, lunging at pacas, oversize rodents known
for their agility in the water. Piranhas, attracted
by the commotion, hover nearby. The way these
animals are painted on an overhang evoked the
sense that I was underwater looking up as the
scene played out above me.
Are they a simple visual record of creatures
the artists encountered, or do they tell a story?
Castaño-Uribe thinks these paintings were likely
made by shamans and were used in religious rit-
uals. Some animals play important roles in the
Indigenous cosmology. Through the ingestion
of sacred plants, Baniwa shamans believe they
can transform into jaguars and talk with spirits.
To the Tikuna, pink dolphins are sacred, feature
in their dances, and are said to dwell in malocas,
or longhouses, at the bottom of the river. Ana-
condas are often considered the creators of the
Lowland tapirs eat universe, and a Desano legend tells of a giant
aquatic plants and snake that ascended the Amazon, carrying the
walk underwater as ancestors of all humankind on its back.
hippos do. Juveniles
have stripes and spots The shamans likely painted to communi-
that help camouflage cate with supernatural beings, seeking balance
them. This one is a between humans and the rest of nature. I tell
rescued orphan that
will be rewilded. In stories because our relationship with Earth’s
between feedings, it’s biodiversity urgently needs recalibration. The
free to explore forests unique splendor of the Amazon’s aquatic world
and scrublands on a
cattle ranch in the Ser- is threatened by dams, mining, overfishing, pol-
ranía de la Macarena. lution, and climate change.
We’ll likely never know the exact meaning of
these paintings unless one day the park’s iso-
lated Indigenous people make contact with the
outside world. Still, even without knowing, I feel
deeply connected to the paintings and these sha-
man artists. I believe we’re trying to tell similar
stories. I hope my images stand the test of time
even a fraction as well as theirs have. j
R E T U R N T O
T H E
C A V E
O F
B O N E S
A D E C A D E A F T E R D I S C OV E R I N G A
N E W E A R LY H O M I N I N , L E E B E R G E R
H E A D S D E E P I N TO A T R E AC H E R O U S C AV E
S Y S T E M TO L E A R N M O R E A B O U T A N
A N C I E N T H U M A N R E L AT I V E .
Fossils from the Rising Star cave system

surround the skeleton of Homo naledi.
Considering the primitive core but
human-like extremities, “it’s like evolution
is crafting us from the outside in,” says
paleoanthropologist John Hawks.
ROBERT CLARK
68
T
E
“I THINK WE SHOULD stop the excavation,” I said.
As I gestured at the ghostly image on the computer screen, I looked over at
Keneiloe Molopyane, an archaeologist and forensic scientist known on our
team as Bones. We were watching a live stream of two colleagues, archaeologists
Marina Elliott and Becca Peixotto, digging around a hundred feet beneath us.
Bones leaned in to look at the screen as the light from the excavators’ head lamps
darted around the chamber. “Why stop?” she asked.
It was November 2018, and we were sitting at our team’s “command center”
in South Africa’s Rising Star cave system, which comprises nearly two and a
half miles of interlaced passages, descending in some places more than 130 feet
underground. Occasionally, you might find a chamber in which you can sit up or
even stand. But most of the open spaces are relatively small. Marina and Becca,
our two most experienced excavators, were at work in one such space, Dinaledi.
Sediments in these caves formed through dust and debris slowly coming off
the walls and blanketing the floor in nearly invisible layers. But the sediment that
Marina and Becca were scooping out didn’t have that same level of uniformity.
It appeared as if it had been disturbed. “It looks like there was a hole in the floor
of the cave,” I told Bones. “I don’t think it’s a natural depression. It looks a lot
like a burial feature to me,” I concluded.
Bones’s eyes widened: “It does.” She considered the on-screen image again.
“I think you’re making the right decision,” she said. “We should stop.”
but that decision would lead to a scientific revelation—

I D I D N ’ T K N OW I T T H E N ,
and some of the most terrifying, and most wondrous, moments of my life.
Our previous work at Dinaledi, in 2013 and 2014, was astonishing. In less than
two months’ time, my team had recovered more than 1,200 fossils—primarily
bones and teeth—from a spot within Rising Star no bigger than 10 square feet.
As we described in more than a dozen scientific papers, those fossils were
National Geographic
Explorer in Residence
Lee Berger, far left,
works at the Malapa
Nature Reserve near
Johannesburg, South
Africa, in 2010, where
he found a new species
of hominin. Three years
later and eight miles
away, his team discov-
ered Homo naledi.
BRENT STIRTON
unlike anything paleoanthropologists had ever seen. The remains represented a

new species of primitive human relative we named Homo naledi: Homo, because
it belonged in the genus shared by other humans, and naledi, meaning “star”
in Sesotho, a common language in the cave system’s region of South Africa,
about 30 miles northwest of Johannesburg. We named the chamber Dinaledi,
or “chamber of stars.”
The biggest find from our excavations in 2013 and 2014 was a skull of H. naledi
that sat within a complicated array of bones and bone fragments: leg bones, arm
bones, pieces of hands and feet. We named this tangle the Puzzle Box. Excavating
it felt like a high-stakes version of pick-up sticks, in which each piece had to be
carefully extracted without disrupting the others. In total the Puzzle Box grew
to an area of about a yard across and was packed with fossil remains.
We had returned to the Puzzle Box in November 2018 to test whether Dinaledi
had a continuous layer of bones. We dug two new excavation squares: one south
of the Puzzle Box and one north of it. The northern square revealed a concen-
tration of fragments that looked as if they’d come from one individual. Further
digging revealed a sterile area of no bones, and then another concentration
of bones containing a jaw and limb bones in disarray, preserved at all angles.
As Marina and Becca removed sediment one spoonful at a time from the
area that Bones and I were puzzling over on the live stream, they uncovered
a concentration of bones about as large as a medium-size suitcase. Oddly, the
surrounding sediment contained only a few fragments—or no bones at all. It
didn’t make sense. If the bones had flowed into the chamber, why had the fossils
clustered? Why was there empty space between them?
For years we had worked in Rising Star knowing that H. naledi had occupied
these spaces, and we had reason to suspect that they used Dinaledi as a repository
for their remains. But “deliberate body disposal”—the language we had all care-
fully used in our earlier work—is very different from “burial.” In our 2015 papers
R E T U R N T O T H E C AV E O F B O N E S 71
describing H. naledi, we suggested that the bodies found in Dinaledi could have
been either carried into the cave or dropped down, perhaps through the chimney-
like passage we called the Chute. Burial, on the other hand, is something more
intentional: a body being purposely interred and then covered.
Archaeologists have found surprisingly little evidence of burial among the ear-
liest members of our species. The oldest clear cases were found in Israel, believed
to be between 120,000 and 90,000 years old. Neanderthals also sometimes buried
their dead, although the best evidence of this behavior comes from fairly late
in their existence, less than 100,000 years ago. Our tightest constraints on the
age of H. naledi date further back, to between 335,000 and 241,000 years ago.
H. naledi was Homo, but with a brain one-third the size of ours, it was far from
human. Scientists might accept that large-brained hominins like Neanderthals
could exhibit complex behavior, but the idea that H. naledi engaged in anything
of the sort was a harder pill to swallow. It was a radical idea, then, to propose
that Rising Star might contain a burial site. Burial was too human an activity:
It took planning, a shared intention across a social group, knowledge of the
permanence of death.
the possibility that we were uncovering H. naledi burials had

B Y E A R LY 2 0 2 2
grown stronger. We had H. naledi fossils from many different areas in Rising Star,
including the Puzzle Box, Dinaledi itself, and another chamber more than 328
feet away. Scans of one rocky block that we had carried out of the cave system
revealed a child’s body, almost certainly of H. naledi, curled up in a space smaller
than a laundry basket, with the remains of two or three others thrown into the
same hole or right next to it. A crescent-shaped object denser than the bones—a
possible stone tool—was sitting right next to the most complete skeleton’s hand.
Now we had significant questions to answer and a radical, controversial argu-
ment to make: A nonhuman species with a brain barely larger than a chimpanzee’s
was burying its dead.
The team and I had to make every effort to ensure we gave the world all avail-
able data in a clean, comprehensible way. In all the breakthroughs at Rising Star,
fewer than 50 of my co-workers had shimmied down Dinaledi’s Chute, a 39-foot-
long vertical passage. Its narrowest part was just seven and a half inches across. I
myself had told thousands of people about the perils of this space over the years.
Despite leading this research for nearly a decade, though, I could only ever
picture the nature of the space in my imagination. I filled in details by watching
others on the computer screen via cables we had strung through the cave system,
by reviewing maps, and by marveling at the fossils.
Now Dinaledi had yielded its biggest surprise yet, and seeing it at a distance
would not be enough. If that meant I had to risk life and limb to get down and
interpret it up close, so be it.
Before I could think about navigating the Chute, however, I had to worry
about fitting into it in the first place. To be blunt, I needed to lose weight. I was
approaching my 57th birthday. I wouldn’t have many years left
to try. I made my own diet and exercise plan, and while my
family gave me lots of encouragement, I didn’t tell them, or
anyone else, about my plans. Over the next few months I lost Berger grins in July
55 pounds, and I was feeling as fit as I had been for decades. 2022 as he ascends
On the day of my attempt, which took place in July, I woke for the first time from
the Dinaledi chamber
up at five in the morning and pulled on my blue jumpsuit. I within Rising Star.
spent half an hour checking batteries for my helmet light and To pass through the
other gear I would be taking in my backpack. Then I sat down cave system’s notorious
“Chute”—seven and
on the bed to lace up my calf-high British military boots and a half inches at its
stared at the walls of the bed-and-breakfast, trying to think narrowest point—he
positive thoughts. My mind went to my wife, Jackie, who was lost 55 pounds.
COURTESY LEE BERGER
probably just waking up to head to work. I thought about our
two children, Megan and Matthew. Both had been down the
Chute; both knew how difficult and dangerous it could be.
I still hadn’t told any of them what I was about to do. I had and to my right. My boots barely fit within the ga
enough doubts about my ability to get through the Chute. A I could hear Dirk van Rooyen, the lead for toda
small part of me knew that it probably wouldn’t take much me in the darkness. “How’s it going?” he shouted
for a close family member to talk me out of it. I was about to make a major commitment: If I co
would have no choice but to shove the widest pa
a moment of doubt before doing something
T H E R E ’ S A LWAY S slot. I grimaced. This route would be my exit too
dangerous, and I had plenty of doubt as my feet slid into the I closed my eyes, then wriggled into the gap, m
Chute’s narrow abyss. Face up against solid rock, my jumpsuit the tip of a large stalagmite near Dirk. With gre
snagged on crags in the stone, and my thighs barely fit inside corkscrew on my toehold like a ballerina. I took a
the fissure. My helmet light cast eerie shadows around me. my way into the space.
With my lower body already inside, I took a deep breath and This was nuts.
envisioned the narrow confines I was entering. I pushed against Now that my body had reached the pinnacle of t
the ancient gray rock. Damn, this is tight, I thought. I dangled hugging it—my cheek pressed against the wet ro
half in and half out of the opening. This was just the beginning. resting, I looked about. This space wasn’t a chute a
I looked up at Maropeng Ramalepa, a member of my explo- different from the drawings in our scientific paper
ration team and the “Chute Troll”: my guide for this first half 2013 discovery, we had described it as a chimney: a
of the descent. He crouched at the opening and offered a reality it was an intricate network. I imagined H.
broad smile. “You got this, Prof!” he said. I answered with a these spaces, adults and children climbing throu
grunt, my breath already steamy in the cool cave air. A few preferred, unlike us relatively bulky humans. It was
minutes later I took a deep breath, rolled onto my back, and I continued downward, and the passage forced t
inched my way downward. of my mind. My hips passed through the seven-an
As I twisted my boots to fit into the top of the Chute, the as I slid my chest into the gap, a cruel knob of roc
odd angle of entry forced me to shove my face into the rock. I felt the bone bend. “This rock knob won’t let m
Gravity assisted me until my chest caught. I twisted and I contemplated my options. Looking up, I saw M
pushed until the dark tunnel wall overtook my vision. I hadn’t near the entrance to the passage. To one side was
expected the walls to be so damp; I struggled to find purchase from me to Maropeng, used to guide equipment t
on the slick surface. At Maropeng’s instruction, I lowered the rope around my right wrist as much as I could. “
myself into an alarmingly small slot in the rock behind me I tell you, can you give me a pull? I am trying to fre
I felt the rope tighten around my wrist. “Pull!” I shouted. The rope went taut,
and I pushed hard with whatever leverage I could find. It was just enough to lift
me an inch or two, freeing my chest. My shoulder twinged with pain.
I looked at the impassable rock, my mind racing. I had assumed for nine
years that the Chute was a special pathway and important for understanding
H. naledi’s behavior. But I had been wrong. There was nothing special about it,
except that it could fit humans. We had been making this journey unnecessarily
hard on ourselves.
I made a decision. “Dirk, can you take this knob off?” I asked. If Dirk had any
reservations about damaging the passage, he didn’t show them. With nothing
more than a few swift strokes, he broke off the pestering chunk with a rock ham-
mer. This time, it no longer caught my sternum. I clenched my jaw with pain.
But then I was free. I continued picking my way downward, my body seemingly
contorting like toothpaste in a gnarled tube.
After more than a few minutes, the tip of my boot brushed the top of a ladder. I
ap. could hardly believe it. This was the ladder that our team had specifically designed
ay’s descent, moving below for Dinaledi. Whenever someone made it this far, our team issued a call from
d. “So far, so good!” I yelled. the command center, a signal that their grueling passage was over: Marina has
ontinued to lower myself, I reached the ladder. Becca has reached the ladder. Kene has reached the ladder.
art of my body through the “Berger has reached the ladder.”
. I stepped onto the floor of Dinaledi and closed my eyes. Tears welled. For
my right toe stretching for more than eight years—ever since its discovery—I believed that I would never
at difficulty, I managed to set foot in this space. The journey had been horrible, but I had already learned
shallow breath and pushed so much. The pain and fear were already worth it. Now I needed to make the
most of the hours ahead.
I pulled out my phone and dialed my wife’s number for a video call, via the
the stalagmite, I was literally cave’s internet system. When she answered, I smiled at her: my face filthy and
ock. As I caught my breath, sweaty, my voice full of elation.
at all, I realized. It was even “Guess where I am,” I said.
rs and articles. Ever since its “In a cave?” she quipped.
a single, vertical passage. In “I’m in the Dinaledi chamber,” I said. “I got in!”
naledi scrambling through Surprise shot across her face. “And getting out?” she asked.
gh whichever passage they “If I can get in, I can get out,” I replied.
s a labyrinth of opportunity. Truthfully, I wondered whether I would be able to keep my promise—the exit
these revelations to the back was at least as difficult as the journey here, if not more so.
nd-a-half-inch squeeze, but But that fear would have to wait. Now I needed to explore. j
ck jabbed into my sternum.
me pass!” I cried. The National Geographic Society,
committed to illuminating and protect-
Maropeng sitting above me, ing the wonder of our world, has supported
a climbing rope, stretching Explorer in Residence Lee Berger’s paleoan-
through the caves. I wound thropology in Africa since 1996. This excerpt
is from Cave of Bones, by Lee Berger and John
“Maropeng!” I called. “When Hawks, available wherever books are sold.
ee myself!” ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MCKENDRY
A Wild
T
Plan
H
A zebra shark
embryo, illuminated
from behind, curls
inside an egg within
a protective pouch,
known colloquially
as a mermaid’s purse,
at a shark nursery
in Indonesia. After
hatching, it will be
taken to the wild
to help resurrect
endangered shark
populations in the
Raja Ampat Islands.
Aquariums around the world are raising endangered
sharks and releasing them into the sea. It’s an
unprecedented mission. And it just might work.
BY CRAIG WELCH
P H O T O G R A P H S B Y D AV I D D O U B I L E T A N D J E N N I F E R H AY E S
79
Nesha Ichida, an
Indonesian marine
scientist, gently fer-
ries a juvenile zebra
shark through a sea
pen at the Raja Ampat
Research & Conser-
vation Center on the
island of Kri. A team
of “shark nannies,” or
caretakers, will weigh
and measure the ani-
mal as part of a final
health check the day
before it’s released.
A WILD PLAN 81
Zebra sharks are con-
sidered endangered
globally, but several
aquariums with cap-
tives, including Shedd
Aquarium in Chicago,
are letting adults mate
and produce eggs for
shipment to Indonesia.
in a turquoise lagoon in Indonesia’s Raja
N E S H A I C H I DA K N E LT
Ampat Islands and gently cradled a baby shark. The creature
twisting beneath her fingers looked like something imagined
by a child. It was thin and muscular, with dark spots, and
ringed with a mix of pale stripes and circles that spiraled
down a tail that seemed to go on forever.
This was a 15-week-old zebra shark. Like all zebra sharks, it
developed in an egg. But that egg was laid in an aquarium in
Australia, then shipped by air to Indonesia, where it hatched
in a tank at a new shark nursery.
The young pup’s parents had been collected years earlier
off northern Queensland, where zebra sharks are common.
But here in Raja Ampat, roughly 1,500 miles northwest, zebra
sharks are nearly gone, victims of the global shark trade.
Between 2001 and 2021, despite more than 15,000 hours of
searching, researchers counted only three.
This shark was the product of a big idea. Scientists at dozens
of the world’s best known aquariums had agreed that breeding
multiple species of endangered sharks and rays in captivity
and releasing their offspring around the world could help
restore ocean predators—and perhaps the sea itself. Zebra
sharks would go first. Ichida, an Indonesian marine scientist,
was here to set the first one free.
So on a hot January day below the towering limestone for-
mations of the remote Wayag Islands, some 90 miles by boat
from the nearest town, I watched the young creature swaying
beneath her grip. Ichida, normally outgoing and cheerful,
The National Geographic

Society, committed to illu-
minating and protecting the
wonder of our world, has funded
Explorer David Doubilet’s under-
water photography since 2012.
Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes
document both the beauty
and devastation in our oceans.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOE MCKENDRY
82
was subdued. She’d spent months readying Despite having survived four mass extinctions
this shark for a new life. He’d even been given a over 420 million years, today, among verte-
name—Charlie. Now it was time to say goodbye. brates, only amphibians are disappearing faster.
Her palms opened, and Charlie slipped away, An estimated 37 percent of shark and ray species
his long tail curling as he dived toward the sandy face extinction risks, according to research led
bottom and an unfathomable future. by Nicholas Dulvy, a leading shark expert with
Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia.
and animal
O N E O F E V E RY 1 1 M A R I N E P L A N T Overfishing is the driving cause. Legal or
species assessed by the International Union for illegal fishing contributes to the risks faced by
Conservation of Nature is now threatened with every threatened shark species and is the only
extinction. That includes dugongs, some aba- major threat for two-thirds of them. Every year,
lones, some corals, some gobies, some rockfish, millions of sharks are consumed the world over
some tuna, some whales. But few creatures are for their meat. And shark fins are used for soup,
being killed off quite as fast as sharks and rays. primarily in Asia.
A WILD PLAN 83
The Wayag Islands
in northern Raja
Ampat are a labyrinth
of sandy beaches,
turquoise lagoons,
and atolls broken
by limestone towers.
Fishing boats once
packed these remote
waters, nearly wiping
out zebra sharks. Now
a marine protected
area patrolled by rang-
ers provides a refuge
for sharks, rays, turtles,
and other marine life.
A WILD PLAN 85
A
P ROT E C T E D W AT E R S SI Georgia Aquarium, a ReShark partner.
A
Scientists expect the re- Scientists often fight extinctions
introduced zebra sharks INDONESIA MAP AREA by reintroducing species. They’ve
will stay in their preferred
habitat—sandy shallows— Jakarta PACIF
IC
done so with giant pandas in China,
IA N O CEAN
near Southeast Asia’s first IND AN AUSTRALIA golden lion tamarins in Brazil,
shark and ray sanctuary. O C E
Sydney condors in California. Pilots in the
United States taught captive-born
whooping cranes to migrate in the
wild by leading them with ultralight
Shark Marine aircraft. Almost 30 years after gray wolves
and ray protected Asia and
sanctuary areas Ayau Is. were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park,
the canines have thoroughly woven themselves
West
Waigeo back into the park’s ecological fabric.
Islands Wayag Is. D S
I S L
A N But marine reintroductions are complex and
T
P A rare. Oceans are vast, and marine life is difficult
A M Waigeo
Raja
J A Ampat Is.
to track. Threats are tough to manage. “Every-
A
R Mayalibit Bay thing is harder when the ocean is involved,” said
Kri Dampier
Strait David Shiffman, marine biologist and author of
Sorong Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive With the World’s
Fam Islands NEW
Salawati
GUINEA Most Misunderstood Predator.
Kofiau Boo Is. In 2017 researchers tried capturing vaquitas—
North Misool tiny, rare porpoises in the Gulf of California that
were being killed as bycatch by illegal gillnetters.
Misool They’d hoped to relocate the animals to sanctu-
25 mi
aries, then reintroduce them once the Mexican
25 km
Misool Islands government got fishing under control. Instead,
scientists abandoned the effort when stress
killed the first adult vaquita they caught.
Even so, there’s growing recognition among
scientists that captive animals may be key to re-
Sharks are essential to the marine world. wilding the sea. The year after the vaquita died,
They keep ocean food webs in check, preying on an IUCN commission urged experts to keep look-
smaller creatures that might otherwise grow too ing for safe ways to capture dolphins because
numerous and destroy natural systems that feed reintroductions may well be needed to save other
billions of people. To protect sharks, overfishing species, such as South America’s La Plata dolphins
must be stopped. But in the meantime could or West Africa’s Atlantic humpback dolphins.
some of the damage that’s already been done It’s not as if young sharks haven’t been put
be repaired? Could sharks be brought back from back into the sea. An aquarium in Malta rears and
the brink by rearing them in captivity and then releases baby sharks, hatched from eggs gathered
returning them to the wild—not haphazardly from dead sharks sold in nearby fish markets, into
but by using the best available science? Those the Mediterranean Sea. Another in Sweden sets
were the questions that drove Mark Erdmann, an baby cat sharks loose in a fjord. But these mea-
ocean scientist with Conservation International, sures, however well intentioned, are more akin
to persuade several aquariums to come together to zoos opening cages and setting excess parrots
and form ReShark. free than they are programs designed to build
The group, now made up of 75 partners from back depleted populations. They’re tiny in scope
15 countries, including 44 major aquariums, and often don’t even involve endangered species.
aims to release 585 baby zebra sharks in Raja Typically, they also skirt the thorniest issue: Until
Ampat over 10 years. The goal is to seed a self- overfishing is stopped where sharks are released,
sustaining wild population, then apply the same adding more won’t bring species back.
technique to other shark species—not just a few That’s why Dulvy, who’d spent 11 years as the
but as many as possible, said Lisa Hoopes, senior co-chair of the IUCN’s shark specialist group, ini-
director of research and conservation at Atlanta’s tially was skeptical of ReShark’s plan. He knows
ROSEMARY WARDLEY, NGM STAFF. SOURCES: MARINE CONSERVATION INSTITUTE, MPATLAS; GENERAL BATHYMETRIC
86 CHART OF THE OCEANS; GREEN MARBLE; INDONESIAN GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION AGENCY
RAISE AND RELEASE
The international ReShark collective seeks to
restore threatened shark and ray species to their
known historic ranges, a boon for marine ecosys-
tems. Its first project: to rewild Indonesian waters.
How sharks reproduce

44% lay eggs 55% give birth 1%
The zebra shark—docile, endangered, Threatened

and egg-laying—is an ideal first candi- Unknown
date for reintroduction. Eggs are easier
to transport than live sharks.
Adult 8 ft
Ovary Uterus
One or more
eggs laid
L I F E C YC L E REWILDING
EGG 1 Egg selection

Partner facilities breed the
Egg 1 week
Yolk sharks and assess eggs for
case
health and genetic viability.
7 in
Fibrils
2 Shipping
Selections are carefully bagged,
boxed, and mailed internation-
ally through official customs.
Egg
tank
3 Hatchery in Raja Ampat
Local teams care for pups in tanks,
then transfer them to sea pens
HATCHLING HATCH
to learn survival skills.
actual size
around 12 in Pup
tank Egg Hatchling
tank tank
TAGGED
Outdoor
sea pen
Caudal 4-5
fin months
old
4 Release and monitor
28 in or more Juveniles are tagged and, when
Life span ready for the wild, released into
30-40 years a marine protected area.
FERNANDO G. BAPTISTA, NGM STAFF; LAWSON PARKER

SOURCES: NICHOLAS K. DULVY, SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY; ERIN MEYER, SEATTLE
AQUARIUM; KADY LYONS, GEORGIA AQUARIUM; JENNIFER WYFFELS, RIPLEY’S AQUARIUMS;
CHRISTINE DUDGEON, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
Blacktip reef sharks
patrol shallow seagrass
beds near Kri. Now
common, these sharks
were rarely seen before
Raja Ampat adopted
a network of marine
protected areas. So
many zebra sharks had
been killed that scien-
tists suspect too few
remained to find mates.
A WILD PLAN 89
rebuilding shark populations requires more than
dumping animals in the ocean. He’d seen too
many poorly constructed experiments. “I was get-
ting jaded by these hopeful but useless projects,”
he told me. So he asked tough questions—and
came away surprised. “This initiative is different.”
His IUCN successor, Rima Jabado, agrees. She
calls it the first shark reintroduction she’s seen
that “may provide an opportunity for species
not to go extinct.”
Raja Ampat seems almost mysti-

F RO M T H E A I R ,
cal. Lush lowland forests of palm, scrub mahog-
any, and tropical fruit trees rise from hundreds
of limestone islands. Atolls, sandy cays, and
emerald mangrove bays give way to deep blue
where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet.
These are among the planet’s most species-
rich waters. Barracuda zip past yellow sweetlips,
while electric blue fusiliers glide by giant sea fans.
Some 1,600 fish species call this home, along with
three-fourths of Earth’s known hard coral species.
“Not only is everything completely covered and
teeming and moving, literally, with life, but the
color diversity would blow your mind,” said Erin
Meyer, vice president of conservation programs
and partnerships at the Seattle Aquarium, which
helps manage the zebra shark project.
A female juvenile zebra
Meyer was pacing a jetty outside a new shark shark in a sea pen off
nursery offshore from the island of Kri, 65 miles Kri preys on a snail. Raja
south of Wayag. Beside her, Ichida, her colleague, Ampat residents and
shark nannies gather
huddled in a waist-deep sea pen where Charlie snails from nearby
was getting his last physical the day before his waters, which are then
release. Another shark, Kathlyn, who would be weighed and distrib-
uted throughout the
released 30 minutes after Charlie, swirled around pen to encourage natu-
Ichida’s legs. ral foraging behavior.
Meyer and Ichida live 16 time zones apart but
jointly manage this operation. Ichida, who also
serves as program director for the Indonesian
nonprofit Thrive Conservation, is the on-the- everything else. She looks for funding, finds
ground problem solver. She shepherded the first aquariums to provide eggs, and manages an ever
shark eggs through customs in Jakarta. She pro- expanding roster of partners.
cured pumps and installed pipes at the nursery. It was a conversation with Erdmann, who’d
When new fiberglass shark tanks, built on the worked in Raja Ampat for about 15 years, that
island, were too big to load onto boats to deliver set her on her path.
to the nursery, her team climbed in and paddled Zebra sharks are supposed to cruise the sea-
them over like canoes. Ichida also manages a floor from South Africa to Oceania in the Pacific
team of “shark nannies” who make sure the ani- and as far north as Japan. Instead, they’re endan-
mals slurp snails and clams. (The crew at first gered nearly everywhere outside Australia and
tried feeding the sharks shrimp, which the sharks Fiji. But more than a hundred aquariums have
initially ignored. “We’re like, ‘You’re supposed to them on display. Erdmann wondered, Could their
be a predator—eat it!’ ” Ichida said, exasperated.) offspring be reintroduced? “My initial reaction
Back in Seattle, Meyer coordinates almost was like, Oh, that’s a fantastic idea,” Meyer told
me. By the spring of 2020, she was leading a species. But not zebra sharks.
committee crafting a plan to make that happen. Despite their reputation as ferocious preda-
There was reason to think it might work in Raja tors, few sharks are aggressive toward humans,
Ampat. Sharks were decimated here, after years and zebra sharks are less menacing than most.
of overfishing. But in the late 1990s, Raja Ampat Even when their numbers were healthy, they
established the first of what eventually would probably never were numerous. Scientists sus-
become nine marine protected areas covering a pect fishing killed so many that too few lived to
region half the size of Switzerland, some 8,000 find mates. Now, after three years of prepara-
square miles. In 2012 fishing for sharks and rays tion, the moment was at hand. In the pen, Ichida
was also banned across the whole of Raja Ampat. snatched Charlie and turned him over, a trick
Villagers and in some cases armed officers began that makes zebra sharks go still, “like when a
patrolling for illegal fishing nets and boats. By cat comes over to you and they want their belly
then, some shark populations were recover- rubbed,” Meyer said. “You rub their belly, and
ing, especially gray, blacktip, and whitetip reef then they hang out like that.”
A WILD PLAN 91
Cardinalfish and glassy
sweepers pulse and
swirl around a sea
fan beneath a coral
ledge in Wayag. Raja
Ampat is home to
some 1,600 species of
fish and three-quarters
of the world’s hard
coral species. Wayag
is among its most
spectacular regions.
A WILD PLAN 93
A shark nanny measured Charlie one last time: faster than
G L O B A L LY, W E ’ R E K I L L I N G S H A R K S
29 inches. He was large enough now, Meyer and aquariums could ever replace them. And rein-
Ichida hoped, to avoid being swallowed by a troduction won’t work for all species anyway.
hungry blacktip. He’d learned to hunt his own Many—great whites, for example—are too
dinner. A pair of transmitters implanted under high energy for captivity. They also need space
his skin would let scientists track his movements. to build up speed to keep enough water flow-
Meyer choked up, a nervous parent preparing to ing over their gills. Some travel so far it will be
send her young charges into the world. hard to adopt no-fishing zones large enough
At dawn, the two sharks would be loaded into to ensure released young avoid nets. (Scientists
coolers on a 22-foot speedboat for the multihour hope a proposed treaty to protect the high seas
voyage to their release site. Meyer would put might help.)
together a snack pack for the journey, making Reintroductions also can fail. Young sharks
sure the sharks each had the same number of can succumb to disease, get eaten by bigger
treats: 13 snails. sharks, or struggle to find food. And most shark
the strangest beings I’d ever seen. They had enor-
mous flaring heads, like manta rays attached to
long, dual-finned bodies—as if a shark had been
joined with a horseshoe crab. These were criti-
cally endangered bowmouth guitarfish pups—
siblings, just six months old. Meyer watched the
females circling. “Even seeing four together like
this—you don’t see that in the wild,” she said.
Found along Indo-Pacific coasts, bowmouth
guitarfish are so highly sought after for their
meat and fins that it’s estimated the species’
numbers have plummeted more than 80 per-
cent in 45 years. Unlike zebra sharks, these rays
are rare in aquariums, with only about 40 in
captivity. The animals are in such desperate
straits they’d been among the first the ReShark
team considered reintroducing. But it seemed
too risky. “We don’t actually know that much
about them,” Meyer said.
Zebra sharks have been studied for decades.
Scientists know less about guitarfish, including
where they roam, how often they breed, how
genetically distinct their populations are from
one another, or what they eat over the course of
their lives. It’s not even clear how best to design
marine reserves to protect them. Plus, they give
live birth. “There’s a lot to learn,” Meyer said.
Ichida releases a zebra That these creatures ended up in Seattle is
shark in Wayag. This
effort was led by a quirk of fate. Taiwanese fishing companies
ReShark, a group of leave nets anchored to the seafloor, and last
44 aquariums in 13 June a pregnant female bowmouth guitarfish
countries that hopes
to rebuild many swam into one. A fish broker who recognized
populations of endan- the animal bought it and helped provide it with
gered sharks around temporary shelter. “He was keen to keep this
the world by reintro-
ducing animals raised animal out of the food trade,” Meyer said. The
in captivity. female gave birth to pups, and the broker, who
knew about ReShark, shipped them to Seattle.
The plan is to fill in the blanks in their story
while finding—or creating—a protected place
species give birth to live young, which are more where they’d thrive. Scientists plan to connect
challenging and expensive to ship. the guitarfish with genetically appropriate mates.
But dozens of potentially suitable sharks reside In several years, they hope, the rays will begin
in places, from Mozambique to Thailand to the producing offspring that can be reintroduced.
Maldives, where this approach might work. The (By May, eight of the pups had been sent to
ReShark team is already debating which other aquariums around the U.S.) Meyer’s team is mov-
species it might ultimately try to reintroduce. ing fast given the state of this species in the wild.
Options include angel sharks in the Canary But for one moment, she was content just being
Islands and Wales, nurse sharks in East Africa, able to watch them swim. “They’re adorable and
and sawfish, noted for the toothy, bladelike beautiful. That’s where I’m at right now,” she
appendages on their snouts. Several weeks after said. “If we wait, we may lose them.” j
leaving Indonesia, I visited Meyer at a special
holding facility a couple of miles from the Seattle Senior writer Craig Welch reported on changes in
Aquarium. In two enormous tanks swam nine of nature’s timing for the April 2023 issue.
A WILD PLAN 95
T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N O F N AT I O N A L
GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORERS LOOK BACK
I N T I M E A N D U P I N T O E A R T H ’ S O R B I T.
T H E Y TAC K L E T H E P L A N E T ’ S B I G G E S T
PROBLEMS AND EXAMINE SOME OF
I T S S M A L L E S T C R E AT U R E S . T H E Y
F O RG E T H E PAT H S T H AT T H E R E S T
O F U S W I L L F O L LOW.
TRAILBL
P H OTO G R A P H S BY PARI DUKOVIC

T
AZERS I
“I often find myself A scientist and conser-

underground,” says vationist from Kenya,
Keneiloe Molopyane Gibbs Kuguru stud-
(left), a South African ies the DNA of sharks
archaeologist and paleo- to understand how
anthropologist, “exca- humans have affected
vating fossil remains their biology. Kuguru
that tell the story of our spent his early 20s
deep human journey.” hanging out with juve-
The principal investiga- nile sharks in the water
tor at Gladysvale Cave, every day, which “still
an important early feels surreal,” he says.
hominin site in South Now he can be found in
Africa, she still thrills shark cages—his “field
to the memory of find- office”—collecting
ing a skull fragment tissue samples from
one day, then finding great whites or per-
a second and a third haps working on the
fragment the following robot he’s building
day, to form an almost to better research
complete skull. sharks in the wild.
97
“
My team and I got flash flooded out of Petra [Jordan].
We attempted to drive through the rains and waters, but it was
too much, and we had to turn back. Petra and the surrounding
community in Wadi Musa are experiencing more rainy days
and more flash floods as a changing climate impacts regional
precipitation. These increasingly common floods shut down
the site … and erode its irreplaceable facades.
—V I C TO R I A H E R R M A N N
From her grandparents

who survived the Holo-
caust, Victoria Herr-
mann (left) learned
that cultural heritage
provides the necessary
resilience for people
to overcome existen-
tial threats. Now the
U.S. geographer is
applying that lesson
to climate change.
Her project, Preserving
Legacies, helps local
leaders around the
world understand
and manage climate
impacts on their
cultural sites and prac-
tices. “Climate change
is, at its core, a story
about the potential
of losing the very
things that make us
who we are,” she says.
When Sophia Kianni

was in middle school in
the United States, she
discovered her Iranian
relatives knew nothing
about climate change.
Shocked, she began
sending them science
articles she’d trans-
lated into Farsi herself.
That small family proj-
ect grew into Climate
Cardinals, a nonprofit
with 9,000 volunteers
in 41 countries who’ve
translated climate infor-
mation into a hundred
languages. Kianni, now
a student at Stanford,
has a goal: that “every-
one, everywhere, has
access to adequate
climate education.”
TRAILBLAZERS 99
As a child, Samuel
Ramsey (left) was terri-
fied of bugs, especially
bees. Now bees are his
mission. The U.S. ento-
mologist aims to stop
what he calls “the next
pollinator pandemic”
by documenting dis-
eases and symbiotic
relationships among
bees in Asia, the place
with the most honey-
bee diversity. His work
has led to awe-filled
moments, including
one evening in Thai-
land when he stood
beneath a tree with
more than 60 Apis dor-
sata colonies hanging
from it, listening to the
“mesmerizing hum of
giant honeybees.”
When Gab Mejia was

13, he failed to sum-
mit Mount Kinabalu,
Malaysia’s highest
peak, with his father.
Yet, Mejia says, he
came away with an
“unyielding passion
for nature.” Now he’s
a conservation pho-
tographer focusing
on the natural world
and Indigenous peo-
ple of the Philippines,
his home country.
Recently in the moun-
tains of Bukidnon, an
Indigenous shaman,
or babaylan, baptized
Mejia, a ceremony that
affirmed the path he’d
chosen on that other
mountainside long ago.
“
As night fell, I watched dozens of men free-climb this huge tree
with bundles of herbs that they’d lit ablaze. Using only those
makeshift smokers, they were able to calm the bees and cut
away a small section of the honeycomb … It looked like giant
orange fireflies slowly drifting through the trees.
—SAMUEL RAMSEY
“
The mama bear charged against us and hit the sled
with her enormous paw. The whole situation lasted just a
few seconds, but while I was shooting pictures with both
of my cameras and holding desperately to the bumping
snowmobile, I had an instant in which the polar bear
and I made eye contact. I saw the white of her eyes, and
then I thought, Damn. We are too close.
—Á LVA RO L A I Z
Spanish photographer
and artist Álvaro Laiz
(left) strives to connect
traditional knowledge
and science through
art. For his project, The
Edge—exploring the
story of the early humans
who discovered the
Americas some 20,000
years ago—he traveled
to the place the Chukchi
people of Arctic Russia
call kromka, where ice,
sea, and land meet.
While on a hunt with
descendants of those
early migrants, he says,
he learned to observe
the stark environment
as they did—“to be
present and listen.”
Marine scientist
Imogen Napper calls
herself a plastic detec-
tive. As part of her
work investigating
pollution, her team dis-
covered the highest
level of microplastics
ever recorded near
the summit of Mount
Everest, a finding that
led several countries
to ban microbeads
in facial scrubs. Now
the British scientist is
using what she learned
studying oceans to
research the surprising
amount of debris float-
ing in Earth’s orbit.
TRAILBLAZERS 103
Botswanan conser-
vationist Koketso
Mookodi (left) takes
teachers on what she
calls “backyard expedi-
tions,” but her backyard
is the Okavango Delta,
a massive wetland
bursting with wildlife.
She aims to inspire this
crucial region’s next
generation of scientists
and conservationists—
and for that she needs
to recruit the people
who educate them.
Many teachers are from
urban areas, unused
to wildlife and the local
Indigenous culture.
“I’ll never tire of their
reactions,” she says.
“You can see the level
of appreciation.”
Ruthmery Pillco Huar-

caya, a biologist from
the Andean highlands
of Peru, spends her
time in what she calls
the “magical” cloud
forests, researching
and protecting the
spectacled Andean
bear. On her first ever
expedition through
the forest to set camera
traps, she and her team
(including her trained
research dog, Ukuku)
encountered extreme
weather. They had to
drink water from tree
moss during a severe
dry spell and then burn
clothing to make a fire
during a deluge.
“
We couldn’t find water [in the cloud forest]; the streams
were dry … Desperate, one of the local guides came
up with the idea of squeezing the water from the
beards of the trees—‘mosses’—and collecting the water
from the bromeliads … For four days, we continued
advancing with this survival technique until we reached
1,900 meters, where it began to rain nonstop.
— RU T H M E RY P I L LC O H UA RC AYA
S H A B A N A B A S I J - R A S I K H , T H E RO L E X N AT I O N A L
G E O G R A P H I C E X P LO R E R O F T H E Y E A R , TAU G H T G I R L S I N
A F G H A N I S T A N U N T I L T H E T A L I B A N D R O V E H E R A W A Y. N O W
SHE’S OFFERING HOPE TO REFUGEE CHILDREN IN RWANDA .
BY NINA STROCHLIC
P H OTO G R A P H BY PARI DUKOVIC
106
T
E
shopping bags left
T W O C H I L D R E N C A R RY I N G
their home in Taliban-occupied Kabul. The older
one wore a burka, the short-haired one wore
pants—a sister and brother running errands,
any observer would think. They took a different
route each day. When they reached their destina-
tion, they made sure no one was watching before
they ducked through a doorway.
They were going to school.
It was the fall of 1996, and girls’ education
had just been outlawed; teachers and parents
risked death if they were caught allowing girls
to attend school. The younger child, six-year-old Students hang out
on the Kigali campus
Shabana Basij-Rasikh, dressed as a boy to pose as of the School of Lead-
her sister’s mandatory male chaperone. They’d ership, Afghanistan,
hidden books in their bags for classes taught in the first and only all-
girls Afghan boarding
secrecy. One day, suspecting they’d been fol- school. Under the
lowed, the sisters begged their parents to stop leadership of founder
sending them. The parents refused: Education Shabana Basij-Rasikh,
students and staff were
was worth the risk. evacuated to Rwanda
Two years ago, when Basij-Rasikh was 31, the after the Taliban take-
Taliban seized Afghanistan again. She was by over in 2021.
YAGAZIE EMEZIE
then the founder of the nation’s only all-girls
boarding school, the School of Leadership,
Afghanistan (SOLA), and she’d been planning that Afghan girls and young women have access
her escape for months. She burned the school’s to education.
records and spirited 256 staff, family, and stu- Now Basij-Rasikh and her staff run SOLA in
dents through Kabul’s chaotic airport and onto exile from a campus in Rwanda, a country whose
a plane leaving for Rwanda. It was the only coun- people have lived through their own long years of
try that agreed to take them. war and displacement and know what it means to
Girls’ education has always been among the seek refuge. SOLA’s faculty teaches 61 students,
first things the Taliban shut down when they some newly arrived from Afghan refugee commu-
take power. Today in Afghanistan, girls are nities in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Iran.
barred from school beyond sixth grade; fewer But one physical school, Basij-Rasikh decided,
than 20 percent of school-age girls attend class. is not enough. Displaced Afghans—including
New laws have slashed the rights they once held, her husband, Mati Amin, who grew up in a camp
even down to the ability to visit public parks. in Pakistan—have become the third largest refu-
Women and girls are slowly being erased, gee population in the world. The average refugee
says Basij-Rasikh, who was named 2023’s Rolex is displaced for 10 to 15 years. Basij-Rasikh and
National Geographic Explorer of the Year for her Amin, who welcomed their first child in 2022,
courage, leadership, and tireless efforts to ensure want to help make up for that lost time.
“In our house and in our personal relation- a campus that will house and educate more
ship, SOLA starts from when we wake up to than 200 children, from sixth through 12th
when we go to bed,” Basij-Rasikh laughs. grade. When, someday, the school returns to
In SOLA’s third year of exile, there are plans Afghanistan, this new campus will remain
to launch SOLA X, a mobile curriculum that open—a faraway home, and a sanctuary, should
allows children to study on their phones through extremism rip Afghanistan apart yet again.
WhatsApp. SOLA’s lo-fi system will offer chats Across the globe, education is being inter-
that function as classrooms, where teachers can rupted by war, climate change, and politics.
post lessons and assignments. Classes will be An estimated 244 million school-age children
accessible anywhere in the world—including worldwide are not in class. Basij-Rasikh sees her
inside Afghanistan. SOLA X will provide each mission as building a model to educate students
student with a certificate of completion. Basij- who’ve been displaced from home. “SOLA is not
Rasikh thinks back to the school records she just a school,” she says. “It’s a movement.” j
burned—these students won’t need to worry that
evidence of their education will vanish. Pari Dukovic is an award-winning photographer
working across the genres of portraiture, fashion,
In the meantime, SOLA is putting down and reportage. His story on COVID-19 appeared
roots in Rwanda, purchasing land and building in the November 2020 magazine.
A S C H O O L FA R F ROM H OM E 109
Workers pluck mari-
golds for essential oils
and traditional Chi-
nese medicine near
the southwestern
town of Tengchong. In
rural Yunnan Province,
age-old labor skills are
vanishing, with migra-
tion to cities and the
building of new high-
ways and rail lines.
ZHOU NA
A Handmade
M O R E T H A N 1 2 , 0 0 0 M I L E S I N T O A G L O B E - S P A N N I N G J O U R N E Y O N F O O T, O U R C O R R E -
S P O N D E N T WA L KS I N C H I N A A N D S E E S L I F E B E F O R E M E GAC I T I E S A N D I P H O N E FAC TO R I E S .
T
World
BY PAU L SA LO P E K
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZHOU NA AND GILLES SABRIÉ
111
The family of Zhang minorities. In addi-
Pengcheng (far right) tion to majority Han
has a home-cooked Chinese, people in
feast to celebrate the the province are from
Torch Festival, a hol- Tibetan, Bai, and
iday observed by other ethnic groups.
several of Yunnan’s GILLES SABRIÉ
the past 10 years of my life to walking
H AV I N G D E D I C AT E D
across the Earth, I’m sometimes asked, “How do the big issues
of our day look—from boot level?” Or, “Has walking changed
the way you weigh current events?” Or put more simply, often
by schoolchildren, “Any surprises?”
Some questions I can reply to handily: The answers have
been juddering through my bones, sure as a metronome, over
the past 25 million footsteps, or more than 12,000 miles of
global trail.
Viewed at the intimate pace of three miles an hour, for
instance, I can confirm that Homo sapiens has altered our
planet’s ecology to such a radical degree that we should
be suffering from mass sleeplessness—not just from bad
Xu Ben Zhen (seen
consciences but from genuine dread. (In more than 3,500 as a young man, top
days and nights spent trekking from Africa to East Asia, I left), who died in early
can tally, depressingly, the number of meaningful wildlife 2023, was among some
200,000 villagers in
encounters on my fingers and toes.) The most corrosive Yunnan who helped
build the famed Burma
Road to resupply China
in the face of Japan’s
The National Geographic 1937 invasion. More
Society, committed to than 2,000 workers
illuminating and protecting the are believed to have
wonder of our world, has funded died before U.S. Army
Explorer Paul Salopek and the bulldozers pitched in
Out of Eden Walk for 10 years. to build supplemental
Follow his walk around the roads in World War II.
world at OutofEdenWalk.org. ZHOU NA
injustice encountered, up close, in every single less poignant, human development I’ve come
human culture I’ve walked through? That’s across on my project, a slow storytelling jour-
easy: the shackles that men lock, cruelly, arbi- ney called the Out of Eden Walk whose object
trarily, on the potential of women. (Who’s is to retrace our ancestral dispersal out of Africa
always underpaid? Who’s typically underedu- in the Stone Age. It’s the extinction, after thou-
cated? Who wakes up first to a morning of toil? sands of years of continuity, of humankind’s
Who’s the last to rest?) Meanwhile, climate wor- muscle-built landscapes.
ries haunt trailside chats with everyone from By this I mean the fading corners of the inhab-
grandmotherly Kazakh farmers to gun-toting ited Earth still not subjugated to—or transformed
Kurdish guerrillas. by—the demands of our machines. Call it the
Yet there’s another unexpected, perhaps no handmade world.
A HANDMADE WORLD 115

Paradoxically, this archaic human geography HE FIRST road I walked in Yun-
is often so subtle, even close up, that I only truly
realized its existence when I began to register its
absence. As a distinctive space, it only loomed
in my consciousness once I began hiking into
the most hyper-industrialized society on Earth,
T nan was handmade. It was
built for war.
Hard by the Yunnan-Myan-
mar border, in the village of
Yusan, I shuffled past men and women dressed
China, the 18th nation along my route and the like medical orderlies in blue plastic aprons.
so-called factory of the world. They were picking acres of yellow marigolds.
I’d never stepped into China before. Like The flowers are used in essential oils. Trillions
many a visitor’s, my head was packed with a of fallen petals laminated the roadbed gold. This
clichéd pastiche of hyperactive megacities, was the Chinese leg of the old Tengchong cut-
punctual bullet trains, overlit malls, and robotic off, a branch of the notorious Burma Road wres-
ports: a tireless, machine-powered society given tled by 200,000 Yunnanese men, women, and
over wholly to sating humankind’s mammoth children—the nameless, limpet-hatted extras
appetites for cell phones, plastic toys, solar in jaunty U.S. newsreels—through the killing
panels, clothing, and other articles of industrial fields of World War II.
mass production. (Need a laptop? China exports Eighty-six years ago, working tirelessly
more than 20 million a month.) seven days a week, this civilian army chopped
Much of this concrete-hive stereotype is a 717-mile truck route through some of the
warranted, of course. Nature and those living rainiest, craggiest, most malarial terrain on
close to her were the losers in China’s boom Earth to bring war-crippled China desper-
years. Which is why, shouldering my rucksack ately needed munitions, food, and medicines
in the southwestern province of Yunnan in
October 2021 and pointing my boot tips north-
ward from the border with Myanmar, formerly
Burma, to begin pacing off 3,700 miles of the
Middle Kingdom toward Russia, I was boggled
to find myself straying into panoramas lifted
from medieval Chinese scrolls—tableaux of
pleated valleys and scarps, where the body
provided the prime scale of the human imag-
ination and where an economy of tinkers-
tailors-and-candlestick-makers still crafted
slow lives.
“You’re starting in absolutely the best part
of China,” a mountaineering friend from the
megacity of Chengdu had exulted, learning that
my starting line was the rugged western half of
Yunnan. “Things get dull after that.”
She was imagining the wild ice peaks of the
eastern Himalaya. Yet it wasn’t aloof wilder-
ness that amazed me most in frontier Yunnan.
It was almost precisely the opposite: a rare
accommodation between people and land-
scape, and the all-but-forgotten possibility of
humans and nature coexisting in a compact
approaching harmony.
Narrow roads in Yunnan moved like lines
of music over a scenery shaped yet by living
sinew. Stone-dressed wells. Apple orchards.
Blue mountains beyond. Every footfall seemed
improbably familiar—as if I were stepping into
the oldest of possible homes.
Walk
TREKKING THROUGH CHINA

continues
Paul Salopek has been walking from Africa G0613 Yongning
toward South America since 2013. Delayed
(Ya
by the COVID-19 pandemic and a coup in Reached
J in z e)
October
ng t
sh a
Myanmar, he restarted his global journey
2022
eko ng
Tiger Leaping Gorge
in China’s rugged Yunnan Province.
)
ca
ng
Lan
Yulong (Jade Dragon)
s
Snow Mountain
(M
i n
18,360 ft
20 mi 5,596 m
t a
20 km N Lijiang
ns
n
SIC H A N
u
tai
Yangcen
YU N
o
un
UA
M Shilong
N
S43
N
Mo
MYA NMA R
n
(BURMA)
g
Sha
Nu
o n
Diancang
CHINA
i g
The 717-mile-long Burma

n)
(S o l
Walk resumes BURMA Er Hai

ee
ROAD Lake Road was built by hand in

alw
October 2021
Nu G a
Yangbi the 1930s. Winding across

Yusan Heshun dangerously steep moun-
G56
S
Tengchong OPEK’ tains, it opened China
SAL OUTE
R Dali to much needed supplies
G556 Lujiang Baoshan from Myanmar and beyond.
EUR. ASIA
CHI NA
MAP
AFRICA Salopek’s AREA
route
Start
Jan. NDIA N
2013
O CEA N
CHRISTINE FELLENZ, NGM STAFF

SOURCES: JEFF BLOSSOM, CENTER FOR
GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS, HARVARD
UNIVERSITY; NASA/JPL; ESA CLIMATE
CHANGE INITIATIVE, LAND COVER
DATABASE; OPENSTREETMAP
Salopek peers across

a chasm of time: the
12,400-foot-deep
Tiger Leaping Gorge,
China’s “Grand Can-
yon.” Rugged terrain
has helped buffer
the Himalayan regions
of Yunnan from main-
stream China’s dizzying
pace of development.
ZHOU NA
Visitors pay local
photography salons
the equivalent of up
to $60 to be snapped
in dreamy settings
in Dali, a booming
lakeside tourist town
in the foothills of
the Himalaya. Dali is
banking on a modern
human yearning: to
escape the alienation
of postindustrial life,
where we have lost
important connections
with each other and
have grown lonely
with our devices.
GILLES SABRIÉ
via British-ruled Burma. EE THE YUNNAN f a r m e r ’s
The Burma Road was among the greatest
engineering feats of the bloodiest conflict in
human history.
In his lively memoir, The Building of the
Burma Road, an engineer named Tan Pei-Ying
S hands. Thick with callus.
Strong as hammer and vise.
Watch her hoe rise and fall
on a high ridgetop north of
Old Dali. How often have such powerful hands
wrote how a carpet of hand-crushed gravel repeated this chore? Tens of thousands of times?
23 feet wide and more than 600 miles long Hundreds of thousands? Yet each of Wang Liu-
was carefully laid, entirely by human fingers, sui’s swings is unique, incapable of replication.
across three wild mountain ranges in Yunnan: She is not a machine. Over the course of 50
“The picture of these millions upon millions of years, she has never used her tools the same
stones all put in place individually” memori- way twice. Her subsistence farm was imperfect,
alized for Tan “the tremendous mass effort on eyeballed, MacGyvered, original, homemade.
the part of hundreds of thousands of obscure “We buy our baijiu from the town,” Wang said,
toilers that went into the construction.” Gangs grinning under her sunbonnet, listing the most
of workers yanked monstrous limestone rollers important mass-produced purchase she and
up the roadway’s mud-greased slopes. Some- her husband consumed, a factory hooch that
times their grip slipped, loosening the five-ton numbed the lips on contact.
cylinders to crush people below. By the time the Farmer Wang was an artificer in a world that
U.S. Army showed up with bulldozers to build has spanned 11,000 years, from the dawn of agri-
supplemental roads, at least 2,300 villagers had culture in the Jordan Valley during the Neolithic
died working on the project. roughly until the 1840s, when steam engines
“It was very hard,” allowed Xu Ben Zhen, a began to replace human and animal labor in
former schoolteacher in a village outside the Europe’s fields. Lumpy western Yunnan is that
trading town of Tengchong. long era’s gloaming.
Handsome at a hundred with chiseled cheeks, Wang concocted her own fertilizer from pine
watery hazel eyes, and thick, snowy hair, Xu, needles and pig waste. A whittled stick func-
who has since died, was one of the last surviv- tioned as a corn degrainer. Handwoven rattan
ing laborers of the famed Burma Road. At 17, he baskets stored her potatoes. Even the geome-
was dragooned into the legions of citizens who, try of her farm mocked the rectilinear shapes
armed with little more than shovels and rattan imposed by tractors: Too steep for machines, her
baskets, thwarted the coastal blockades of the fields dribbled down the green mountainside in
invading Japanese. amoeboid lobes.
“I was like any other country boy,” Xu insisted Why these lifeways survive in Yunnan is
shyly of his backbreaking contribution to the war complicated. Geology offers a fractional expla-
effort. “Nothing special.” nation. The Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates
Today the Burma Road in most places is collide in southwestern China. That impact
paved. The wartime track sinks under concrete has knuckled up barricades of mountains that
superhighways throbbing with traffic. But in the have slowed the tsunami of industrialization
volcanic hills around Tengchong, it still sways transforming the rest of the country. Likewise,
atop the land like a dancer, past tile-roofed western Yunnan’s crumpled surface has also
villages and the green green panes of rice pad- fostered a mosaic of cultures. Nearly half of
dies. Walk its verges to their ultimate terminus, China’s 56 officially recognized ethnic groups
and they dead-end, like all vernacular archi- are still holed up in Yunnan. Crossing each new
tecture in Yunnan, in the corrugated palms of forested mountain pass, I could descend into
a human being. an abecedarium of possible languages: Bai, Dai,
Sitting stiff in courtyard sun at his century- Lisu, Mandarin, Naxi, Tibetan, Yi. Historically
old farmhouse, the old teacher Xu lapsed into poorer than China’s majority Han population,
silences. He stared down at the hands in his these mountain peoples clung to their manual
lap. Their pale blue corded veins. Skin blotched pursuits. (Wang is ethnic Bai.)
by sun, thinning to tissue paper. Map enough I yo-yoed almost 600 miles through the
there of a vanishing Yunnan, with antique roads Himalayan fringe of Yunnan. I began keeping
whorled in the fingertips. a list of vintage occupations.
I met roving pot menders near the Gaoligong bank account located at the far side of the planet.
Mountains, bare-chested walnut oil pressers I even sat in a Starbucks that was cloned down
in Lujiang valley, squinting eucalyptus oil dis- to the last coffee bean. But this homogenized
tillers along the Nu River (they employed bam- glass-and-steel habitat of our globalized cities
boo steamers), and thick-armed chili grinders seemed oddly provisional after walking hun-
pounding out their red-hot wares around Old dreds of miles in the highlands of western Yun-
Dali. I greeted workaday basketmakers, mule nan. I felt as if I could thrust my hand through
packers, wild mushroom pickers, backyard each cookie-cutter building, as in a hologram.
textile weavers, and axmen who specialize The factory-made world seemed that fleeting.
in chopping beehives from old hollowed- This was an illusion, naturally. Cell towers
out trees. camouflaged as polymer pine trees and blocky,
Craftwork cropped up everywhere on my zig- prefabricated housing were sprouting all over
zag path. Yunnan’s remote cosmos of makeshift villages.
Along the upper Jinsha, or “Gold Sand,” River, It was Yunnan’s older, crooked heaven that was
the big, meaty hands of stone setters—village ghosting away.
I greeted workaday basketmakers, mule packers,

wild mushroom pickers, backyard textile
weavers, and axmen who specialize in chopping
beehives from old hollowed-out trees. Craftwork
cropped up everywhere on my zigzag path.
masons—had erected courtyard dwellings that by local walking

C C O M PA N I E D
were in fact habitable sculptures: every wall
and corner different and never quite plumb.
The masons’ tools were often handmade. The
lanes between homes were built for pedestrians
and were exactly one human arm-span wide.
A partners, I have traversed a
patchwork of human environ-
ments on my global trail. Only
a few were still handmade.
Escaping the void of Saudi Arabian highways,
For reasons I can’t fully explain, it was a com- I dropped like a stylus into the snug and irregular
fort to walk them. House doorways were often grooves of camel trails worn a yard deep in solid
sized to the homes’ residents. To step through rock by 1,400 years of Mecca-bound caravans.
such a threshold, with its duilian, or good-luck The difference with Yunnan? These ancient Saudi
couplets, stenciled about the red doorframe—“At features were dead already—museum artifacts.
countless homes a new day dawns / Old peach In the southern Caucasus, meanwhile, little
wood charms are replaced with new”—was a gift Georgia bewitched me. Its farmlands were a
of intimacy. It was architecture that revealed a primitivist painting: all exaggerated crags and
single human life, not a demographic of millions. naive valleys. Back roads were dirt (or mud) and
In Yunnan I walked through modern cities too, only accidentally straight. Slapped-together
down in the flats. houses slanted this way and that. Door han-
This was the China that bureaucrats were dles were made of baling wire. At one roadside
proud of. In Baoshan and New Dali you could spring, someone’s cunningly whittled water
rent electric bikes on a whim with one swipe dipper, made from the elbow of a tree branch,
on your mobile phone screen. It took barely 14 added pleasure to the act of drinking.
seconds for an ATM to fork over yuan from my By contrast, across the border in oil-rich

Carpenter Li Mingli
chisels traditional
bas-relief panels in
Yangcen village. This
workshop employs
hearing-impaired
craftspeople. On
his trek in Yunnan,
Salopek encountered
workers with manual
skills that hark back
to past eras: bee-
keepers, chili grind-
ers, handweavers,
stonemasons.
GILLES SABRIÉ
Azerbaijan, the countryside was tidier, more
gridlike, and extensively paved. House door-
knobs were mass-produced. The doors them-
selves closed flush within precise, factory-made
frames. Such rote flawlessness—the hallmark
of all machined surfaces—tended to blunt
human senses. It was as if you were touching
life through cellophane. Was Georgia better than
Azerbaijan? Of course not. It was probably a mat-
ter of caprice. Georgia reminded me of the hand-
made, corn-belt villages of my central Mexican
childhood. But I will tell you this: In memory, it
is Azerbaijan that slips away. And it was only in
Georgia where I felt invited to lay my open palm
on the face of another human being.
constantly
OT H E R N AT U R E
M hand-remakes the planet.

She experiments obses-
sively, scavenging up old
accidents of evolution,
recycling bones and molecules. Her Yunnan
workshop is especially volatile. Its fickleness
adds a rare ingredient to the inhabited land-
scapes: human humility.
Stooping down through walnut orchards,
I walked remnants of the Tea Horse Road—a
centuries-old trail system once plied by mule
caravans trading jade, tea, and silk from Yunnan
into South and Southeast Asia—to the destroyed
town of Yangbi. An earthquake months earlier
had cracked open houses like so many eggshells.
People were still living in tents. Temblors in Yun-
nan have been followed by foot-deep barrages
of ping-pong-ball-size hail. Monsoon rains can
plummet like buckshot, regularly blasting away
roads, bridges, and fields. Partly because of this
unruliness, Yunnan offers a glimpse of the world
Ethnic Bai villagers
as it once was, a vault of biodiversity. from Shilong prepare
Jutting 16,000 feet into the turbulent sky like a giant tower to burn
the prow of a giant ark, the jungled Gaoligong during the Torch Fes-
tival, the harvesttime
Mountains shelter one of the richest lodes of celebration hundreds
botanical DNA left on Earth. Almost 5,000 spe- of years old. Salopek is
cies of plants lord over the massif’s accordioned finding along his global
walk that such nature-
slopes. (This is roughly a third of all the native based tributes are
plant species in the United States.) Three Chi- slipping away from
nese friends and I slogged over the range. human experience.
GILLES SABRIÉ
We pushed through trillions of wet leaves:
magnolias, laurels, oaks, ferns, scores of rho-
dodendron species. We stopped and listened
to mostly unseen birds. Warblers. Bulbuls. Fly-
catchers. Blue-winged minla. Every cicada in
the world drilled our eardrums with a metal- coming out to mate.” He tiptoed down surging
lic trill. Torrential rains collapsed our cheap creek beds to avoid disturbing this carpet of life.
umbrellas. The Gaoligong nature reserve was Let there be no doubt: The 47 million people
alpha wilderness. inhabiting Yunnan Province, which is bigger
“I got stranded once in the Gaoligong,” said than Japan, have ravaged their environment,
Zhang Qing Hua, one of my young walking part- just like the rest of us, with the usual plagues of
ners. “I couldn’t move.” An amateur naturalist, the Anthropocene. Industrial pollution. Melting
Zhang closed his eyes reverently at the memory. glaciers. Sterile tides of concrete. But in Yunnan
“It was the salamanders. Thousands of them. nature pushes back hard.
Tens of thousands. If I moved my feet, I would Humans were in serious retreat from the
step on them. They covered the forest floor, Gaoligong. Strict ecological protection zones

Young Buddhist monks
use muscles as well
as meditation during
their stay at Dongzhu-
lin Monastery in the
mountainous north-
west of Yunnan. The
frontier region is a
crossroads of faiths,
from Buddhism
to Confucianism to
animist beliefs.
GILLES SABRIÉ
had been set up, expelling local farmers from But it was hard, resting under a tree in an old
their fields. Many had departed voluntarily— quince orchard heavy with unpicked fruit, not to
part of the exodus of more than 220 million ponder the trade-offs in one emptied hand-built
Chinese stampeding over the past generation village. Sandstone millstones and huge ceramic
from rural life to government-financed “new grain pots lay scattered about in the rising bush.
villages” and cities. These final geriatric agricul- Handmade tiled roofs were already collapsing,
turalists of the Gaoligong enjoyed piped water releasing a thousand years of memory. I won-
and electricity in machine-built houses down in dered: Who would remember how to subsist this
the valleys. A few recidivists insisted on stabling closely with the environment ever again? It was
their last cows in car garages. Most seemed con- easy, as I listened to flies snarling in still court-
tent and tended to watch a lot of TV. yards, to imagine a world without us.
K N OW.
I Do not romanticize poverty. Do not

exoticize underdevelopment. Do not
indulge in naive fantasies about the
hardship of preindustrial life. (Full
disclosure: I have sweated for years as a migrant
farmworker picking apples, pears, grapes, and
oranges, and a homicidal ranch mule once
pranged my spine as I wrestled shoeing it.)
Yet surely, the bigger fantasy is believ-
ing that humankind’s addictive, exploding,
mass-produced economy, as configured today,
is anywhere near sustainable. Or that age-old,
hand-built systems of knowledge have little
value in an era of environmental collapse.
“The Indigenous people here have a lot to
teach us,” said Liu Zhenhua, a former educator
from the megalopolis of Guangzhou who, with
his musician girlfriend, lived in an old ethnic Bai
farmhouse near Old Dali. “They know how to
cooperate with nature and not fight against it.”
Liu was among the growing ranks of millen-
nials washing up in Yunnan to seek alternatives
to China’s grueling “9-9-6” economy (work-
ing 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week). With its
new vegan restaurants and poetry readings,
“Dalifornia,” as it was called, was an emerging
destination—like Tuscany or Darjeeling—where
the handshake between humans and landscape
kindled a limbic euphoria.
But most of pre-mechanized western Yunnan
would never be boutiquified.
I walked on to Lijiang, where ethnic Naxi
families were out harvesting their red pears in
flame-colored autumn orchards. I climbed up
into the piney Tibetan zone at Yongning, where
shepherds in greatcoats guarded their sheep
against bears. And in the Diancang Shan range
I allowed an aging Bai mule wrangler to haul my
A cobbled bridge leads
to Heshun, close to pack atop one of his glossy hayburners.
the Myanmar border. “Ten years ago, I had 10 mules, and now I have
The historic village is only two,” Luo Siming said, shrugging wistfully.
a well-preserved way-
point on the Tea and Luo’s fingernails were like flint, and his shovel-
Horse Road, one of size hands carried every scarred lesson back to
many centuries-old the domestication of animals.
trading routes that still
unspool through the Luo explained how he had earned a small for-
lush forests and scarps tune lately, packing jackhammers and bags of
of western Yunnan. cement into his formerly isolated nook of Yun-
ZHOU NA
nan. These cargoes were building new car roads,
and putting him out of business. j
Documentary photographer Zhou Na lived in

Yunnan Province for a time as a child. Photographer
Gilles Sabrié is based in China.

Joséfina Prudente
Castañeda, an
immigrant from the
Mexican state of Guer-
rero, volunteers at the
Lutheran Church of
the Good Shepherd in
Brooklyn, New York,
where she broadcasts a
program in her native
Mixtec language.
E
T u r n i n g
D a r k n e s s
I N t O
L I G H T
Using a special technique,

a photographer makes
luminous images of Mexico’s
comunidades originárias.
BY NANCY
S A N M A RT Í N
P H OTO G RA P H S BY
YA E L M A R T Í N E Z
131
At a village cemetery
in La Concepción, Mex-
ico, family members
visit the cross raised
in honor of Carmen
Sierra, a beloved matri-
arch. To create these
images, Yael Martínez
makes pinpricks in
printed photos, shines
light through the
holes, and rephoto-
graphs them.
T U R N I N G DA R K N E S S I N TO L I G H T 133
please to gaze directly into
W H E N YA E L M A RT Í N E Z A S K E D H E R
his camera, Joséfina Prudente Castañeda was at the Brooklyn
church she uses as a recording studio. She migrated north
from the Mexican state of Guerrero and now broadcasts, to
New York and beyond, in Tu’un Savi, one of the languages
of the Mixtec people. Women’s rights feature heavily in her
programs. She also translates in court—Tu’un Savi, Spanish,
English. The first time he met her, Martínez thought, This
woman carries power, light, and darkness, all at once—
this is exactly what I’m trying to convey.
Some years ago Martínez began creating “interventions”—
his own photographs, which he prints and then amends with
other forms of artistic detail. For this photo essay, part of
a collaboration between National Geographic and a group
of artists called For Freedoms, Martínez concentrated his
work on Indigenous people—or comunidades originárias, as
he prefers to say—from Guerrero, his home state. Why orig-
Loved ones remember
inárias? Because “original communities,” a term Martínez Sierra in a local tradi-
says he learned from Indigenous activists, conveys the dignity tion: cooking beef in
of separate nationhood. an underground oven
for a shared meal.
The people he photographed for this project, even those According to Martínez,
now relocated to new surroundings, have legal citizenship in “The pinpricks in the
Mexico but ancestral citizenship in ancient states that exist images are an analogy
of trauma and how we
today in language, food, faith, stories passed down over the as human beings can
centuries, and collective understandings of the boundaries transform bad energy
that define the world. Meeting originárias like Prudente and situations into
something positive.”
The National Geographic

Society, committed to
illuminating and protecting the
wonder of our world, is funding
Explorer Yael Martínez’s
storytelling in his native Mexico
and elsewhere this year.
Castañeda, Martínez says, forced him to recon- assumed he would become a painter. But when
sider his ideas about himself: the Indigenous he was a teenager, he saw a documentary featur-
part, the European part, the African part. Some- ing the work of photographer Josef Koudelka,
times he thinks of Guerrero, deep in Mexico’s whose abundant portfolio includes images from
south, as a tapestry into which all of Latin Amer- landscapes to war. “It blew my mind,” he says.
ica’s complexity has been woven. “When I discovered photography, I fell in love.”
“I started this project as an essay on resil- He spent four months on this project, doc-
ience,” Martínez says. “Images of those who umenting originárias inside and outside their
have been through trauma and risked their Guerrero home villages. He altered each pho-
lives to escape violence and support the fam- tograph with multiple pinpricks, speckles of
ily they left behind. Images of the immigrants luminosity, a visual hint of what Martínez saw
who become the economic pillars for those over and over in the women and men who let
back home. Images of those people and commu- him come close. “For me, this is the most beau-
nities that endure.” tiful thing about each image,” he says. “They
Martínez grew up in a family of artists and emanate light.” j
TOP LEFT
A bouquet of flowers
commemorates
Sierra’s life. “What I
think is most beautiful
about each piece is
that the images ema-
nate light, like this
idea of transformation,”
says Martínez.
TOP RIGHT
Felipa García Reyes,
a grandmother, plants
corn and beans in
the Guerrero village
of Huehuetepec.
Indigenous families
here depend on crops
of corn, beans, and
squash for food, and
everyone—from the
young to elders—
pitches in.
BOTTOM LEFT
Smoke from an under-
ground oven billows
over a plastic chair in
La Concepción.
BOTTOM RIGHT
Children play at a home

in La Concepción.
“The most important
thing for me is to
document reality,”
says Martínez.
Family members
who emigrated from
Guerrero spend time
together at Flushing
Meadows Corona Park
in Queens, New York.
INSTAGRAM
JOEL SARTORE
FROM OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS
WHO For his Photo Ark, a project that aims to inspire wild-
A National Geographic life conservation, Sartore has made portraits of more
Explorer documenting than 14,000 species over nearly 17 years. Turning his
the world’s animal species
focus to the tiny, he built a light trap after sunset in
WHERE
this park, known for its insect-rich habitat. A nearby
Waubonsie State Park, Iowa
WHAT
tent was a makeshift studio for photographing dozens
of bugs, including wasps, dragonflies, and beetles.
Nikon D850 camera with
a 60mm macro lens One of the most charismatic was this female acorn
weevil with a body about three-eighths of an inch
long; she faced the camera as if ready for her close-up.
National Geographic has more than 352 million Instagram followers. This page showcases images from
our accounts: @natgeo, @natgeotravel, @natgeointhefield, @natgeoadventure, @natgeoyourshot.
Subscriptions For subscriptions or changes of ad- Contributions to the National Geographic Society are tax deductible under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code.
dress, contact Customer Service at ngmservice.com | Copyright © 2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC | All rights reserved. National Geographic and Yellow
or call 1-800-647-5463. Outside the U.S. or Canada
call +1-515-237-3674.
®
Border: Registered Trademarks Marcas Registradas. National Geographic assumes no responsibility for
unsolicited materials. Printed in U.S.A. | For corrections and clarifications, go to natgeo.com/corrections.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (ISSN 0027-9358) PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERS, LLC, 1145 17TH ST. NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036. $49.00 PER YEAR FOR U.S. DELIVERY,
$56.00 TO CANADA, $69.00 TO INTERNATIONAL ADDRESSES. SINGLE ISSUE: $8.00 U.S. DELIVERY, $10.00 CANADA, $15.00 INTERNATIONAL. (ALL PRICES IN U.S. FUNDS; INCLUDES SHIPPING AND
HANDLING.) PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT WASHINGTON, DC, AND ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, PO BOX 37545,
BOONE, IA 50037. IN CANADA, AGREEMENT NUMBER 1000010298, RETURN UNDELIVERABLE ADDRESSES TO NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, PO BOX 819 STN MAIN, MARKHAM, ONTARIO L3P 9Z9.
UNITED KINGDOM NEWSSTAND PRICE £6.99. EDITEUR RESP. POUR LA BELGIQUE: MARCO PROVASI-EMD BELGIUM SA, RUE DE GRAND BIGARD 14 - 1082 BRUXELLES - BERCHEM SAINTE AGATHE.
REPR. EN FRANCE: EMD FRANCE SA, BP 1029, 59011 LILLE CEDEX; TEL. 320.300.302; CPPAP 0725U89037; DIRECTEUR PUBLICATION: D. TASSINARI. DIR. RESP. ITALY: RAPP IMD SRL, VIA G. DA VELATE 11,
20162 MILANO; AUT. TRIB. MI 258 26/5/84 POSTE ITALIANE SPA; SPED. ABB. POST. DL 353/2003 (CONV L.27/02/2004 N.46) ART 1 C. 1 DCB MILANO STAMPA. QUAD, MARTINSBURG, WV 25401.
SUBSCRIBERS: IF THE POSTAL SERVICE ALERTS US THAT YOUR MAGAZINE IS UNDELIVERABLE, WE HAVE NO FURTHER OBLIGATION UNLESS WE RECEIVE A CORRECTED ADDRESS WITHIN TWO YEARS.
Purina trademarks are owned by Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.
“My cats absolutely loved this food!” -Krystal *
“They went crazy for it! Highly recommend!”

-Aleae *
New!
“My cat has a new favorite food” -Nicole*
NO WONDER WE’RE AMERICA’S #1 DRY CAT FOOD **
*Received a free product for

an honest review ** Based on 52-week $ sales
SCAN FOR MORE
N E W R E V E L AT I O N S A B O U T
O U R P R E H I S TO R I C PA S T
Join Berger on the adventure of a lifetime as he explores the Rising Star cave
system and begins the complicated process of explaining these extraordinary
finds—finds that force a rethinking of human evolution, and discoveries that
Berger calls the “Rosetta stone of the human mind.”
P R E O R D E R N OW W H E R E V E R B O O K S A R E S O L D
NatGeoBooks @NatGeoBooks © 2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC

National Geographic 2023 07

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

National Geographic 2023 07

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

National Geographic 2023 07

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

07.

THE BIG IDEA

Roman Bath Rings

Sex Woes of Olive

Fire and Ice

F E AT U R E S The Amazon’s A Wild Plan A Handmade World

PHOTO: GILLES SABRIÉ (CHINA)

B Y N AT H A N LU M P PHOTOGRAPH BY THOMAS PESCHAK

STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM

STRONG MUSCLES INCLUDING

I would like to introduce

(Continued from page 8) questions can be when pushed beyond West-

Over the next five years, Pristine Seas and the

PAID CONTENT FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

We believe all people deserve access to estate

CREATE A LASTING LEGACY

A party of Tasman’s sailors looking for fresh

O R E Roman Bath Baubles

is alive. Not literally alive—

STEPS TO RESTORATION New

Thylacine range Tasmania

5 FUSE WITH EGG

Skull, side view

The thylacine had

MORE BARK THAN BITE

The Tasmanian devil could

Thylacine Numbat Dunnart Tasmanian devil Phascogale FAMILY TIES

the species’ extinction becomes ever more certain—

Pakistan CA, USA Mexico

ABDULLAH SHAHID KAYLA LING REGINA GUTIÉRREZ

Nigeria MA, USA

OLUWASEYI AINA, AYOMIDE ALAGBE, MERCY OJOTOLA,

Join Seven Seas Explorer® for her inaugural Alaska season

START YOUR JOURNEY AT RSSC.COM

Scan the QR code

ROMAN BATH RINGS

For anyone who’s lost a ring down the drain, there’s

PHOTOS: ANNA GIECCO

Extinct plant? Not so fast …

G O I N G B E YO N D GETTING THE SHOT ORIGIN STORY

BY JEN ROSE SMITH P H O T O G R A P H B Y M AT T H E W B O ROW I C K

Oases make deserts navigable

Image: In the deserts of Saudi Arabia’s AlUla

The story of AlUla begins millions

When rains did come, the

from travelers diminished. However, with

This month’s picks take

War at the Door

Locally made cheeses and

Genuine Murano Necklace

Send Her Over The Rainbow

PHOTO: BRANDON COLE MARINE PHOTOGRAPHY,

TO FIND UNEXPECTED PLACE S TO FLOURISH IN, NEW BOUNDARIE S TO

PUSH, AND MYSTERIOUS PHENOMENA TO DECIPHER. WE’VE BEEN DOING

PHOTO COLLAGES BY NEIL JAMIESON

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY

The National Geographic Society,

with dozens of roommates. I let the bees quench

nants of FARC rebel forces are said to use these

The headwaters of the park’s most important