National Geographic Magazine - UK November 2024

FOR THE PAST YEAR, there’s hardly been a conversation I’ve had about where the world is headed without artificial intelligence coming up. Most of the things I read and watch have focused on threats and challenges, such as what AI could mean for jobs and how we assess what is true, while at forums like technology conferences, the dialogue is all about the incredible things AI is poised to do. There is, to be sure, a lot of hype around this technology, particularly in the business community. But when you start to dig in and talk to people, including scientists and researchers who are working with it, you begin to comprehend that the revolution is upon us. That’s the subject of this month’s cover feature, which looks at a few…

The unoffcial motto of the Spanish capital is customarily spoken with pride and pleasure by abiding Madrileños: “De Madrid Al Cielo,” or “From Madrid To Heaven.” This curious expression has been ringing in the streets for centuries, dating back to the final line of a verse from Luis Quiñones de Benavente, a former clergyman turned popular lyricist during the Spanish Golden Age. The phrase is now broadly interpreted as meaning this metropolis offers something close to earthly paradise, where people can follow their dreams and the layout of the city itself allowing them to live much of their lives outside, beneath that celestial blue sky. Scholarship on the subject suggests “De Madrid Al Cielo” became truly popular in the reign of Charles III. The monarch is often credited as “the…

CULTURE “I am very interested in generating FANTASTIC images that I can belong to, establishing my own rituals and then photographing them.”RIVER CLAURE, Photographer and National Geographic Explorer As part of a National Geographic Society–supported project focused on former mining communities in Bolivia, Claure—whose grandfathers were miners—worked with local artisans to make this sculptural vision. A woman from the town of Uncía represents both the Virgin Mary, an allusion to Catholicism of the Spanish conquest, and Pachamama, Mother Earth in the Aymara culture. NATURE “I saw formations in the ground creating the shape of a tree. Life in the plants and rivers contrasts with the dead volcanic landscape made of ash, cinder, and black sand.”ISABELLA TABACCHI, Photographer Tabacchi stitched together three drone-captured aerial images of a region in the Icelandic…

In archaeology, it’s not just what you find that is fascinating—it’s where you find it. And sometimes, it’s what is missing that is most revealing. So it was with DDN_B_40_ S1, an ancient statue unearthed from within a poorly built wall in Dadan, the ancient capital of AlUla in northwest Saudi Arabia. It immediately posed questions for the team from the Dadan Archaeological Project: Why had the statue been toppled onto its side and carelessly incorporated into the structure—and why were its head, hands, and feet missing? Piecing together the evidence, the story of DDN_B_40_S1 casts a new light on the period of political and religious turmoil that likely occurred during the first century BCE—a time when old gods and kings were violently overthrown, eradicated, and replaced. The story of…

Jasper Doest, p.104 An Explorer since 2022, Doest covers here the effort to expand wilderness in Romania. His interest in the rewilding movement began in 2009, when he photographed the reintroduction of bison in his native Netherlands for National Geographic’s Dutch edition. It’s been “a focal point for me ever since,” he says. Mark Synnott, p.14 Before becoming an Explorer in 1999, he spent years honing his climbing skills on Yosemite’s towering cliffs. Since then, he’s embarked on and written about expeditions such as scaling Mount Everest and sailing the Northwest Passage. For this issue, he interviewed world-class climbers who ascended Devils Thumb in Alaska. Christian Ziegler, p.88 The photojournalist, who splits his time between Germany and Panama, was named an Explorer in 2013. He has a specialty in tropical…

Not that long ago, the world’s great rock climbers clawed their way up spectacular cliffs in relative obscurity. But two of the sport’s best have changed all that. Over the past decade, Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold have pulled off a string of pioneering feats, starred in highly successful documentaries, and pushed climbing into the mainstream, all of which has transformed both men into global celebrities. Caldwell’s breakout came in 2015, when he and a partner completed what was then considered the world’s most difficult climb, a 19-day ascent of Yosemite’s Dawn Wall. Two years later, Honnold put the term “free solo” into general usage when he summited the park’s iconic El Capi tan monolith without a rope, which was captured in an Academy Award–winning film. Though they remain passionately…