Photograph by Tyrone Turner , National Geographic
Swirling to West African rhythms, residents of the Santa Rosa dos Pretos quilombo celebrate the recovery of a sick neighbor with a tambor de crioula, a "creole drum" festival that mixes African and European traditions.
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Photograph by George Steinmetz , National Geographic
A lake of lava bubbles atop Erta Ale, the region's most active volcano.
Photograph by Tommy Heinrich, National Geographic
It took dozens of camels and eight Kyrgyz drivers to haul 2.2 tons of gear across the bed of the Shaksgam River to Chinese Base Camp. The cost: $17,000 plus eight pairs of sunglasses.
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Photograph by Martin Roemers
Street Life Istanbul, Turkey By foot, rail, and automobile, people pass through Taksim Square, animating the modern hub of Istanbul . Schemes to restrict the area to foot traffic worry planners who fear the famous crossroads could lose its creative energy.
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Photograph by Fritz Hoffmann , National Geographic
Their lives spent outdoors, reserve dogs at Station Nord are chained far enough apart to avoid fights. Sanne, perched atop a doghouse, gets a hug from base leader S ren Engkj r Hansen.
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Photograph by Peter Essick , National Geographic
Frost filigrees a quaking aspen leaf in late October.
Photograph by Peter Essick , National Geographic
Tannin rich runoff from Fraser's interior stains the sea in the aftermath of a summer storm.
Photograph by William Albert Allard , National Geographic
A calf roper warms up at the Marias 4 County Fair. While ranches and farms become ever more mechanized, rodeo is a reminder that the old skills are still prized and useful.
Photograph by Klaus Nigge , National Geographic
When chicks are a few weeks old, parents leave them in a cr che and go in search of food, taking turns coming back day and night to feed them. Though watched by a few adults, the young are vulnerable to predators such as dogs and jaguars.
Photograph by Tommy Heinrich, National Geographic
A full moon illuminates the north face of K2.
Photograph by Thomas P. Peschak, National Geographic
Rarely visited, the reefs off Saudi Arabia in the northern Red Sea are some of the most undisturbed in the region. Sunlight penetrates deep into the clear waters, enabling lush gardens of corals to flourish along these wave washed coasts.
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Photograph by Frans Lanting , National Geographic
Quiver trees stand like eerie sentinels under the stars in the Namib Desert. The flowers of these desert tough varieties of the aloe plant provide nectar for birds and insects.
Photograph by Greg Girard , National Geographic
Urban Renewal Seoul, South Korea Buried under an elevated highway for decades, the Cheonggyecheon stream once again flows in the open air through downtown Seoul . A 3.6 mile long stretch of the stream was restored in 2005.
Photograph by Erika Larsen
Frames of l vut are a common sight in Sami yards, where they are used for smoking meat. Sami have long used the tents as portable shelters their wide bases and forked poles enable them to withstand winds of up to 50 miles an hour on the Arctic tundra. Easy to transport and erect, the frames were originally covered with reindeer skins, but waxed canvas or lightweight woven materials are more common today.
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Photograph by William Albert Allard , National Geographic
Two sorrels belonging to Buster and Helen Brown have gone AWOL in the snow.
Photograph by Peter Essick , National Geographic
Ridges of peat and pools of dark, acidic water form a patterned peatland near Moon Point.
Photograph by Jonas Bendiksen , National Geographic
Front-yard floods are routine for fishermen and their families living on islands in the Jamuna River. Known as char dwellers, they have become world-class experts at adapting to whatever life—and a changing climate—throws at them.
Photograph by Brent Stirton , National Geographic
A rhinoceros stands on a hillside in KwaZulu -Natal Province.
Photograph by Carsten Peter , National Geographic
"It feels like being swallowed by the Earth," says photographer Carsten Peter of the Black Hole of Calcutta in Claustral Canyon. Experienced canyoneers avoid it after heavy rains.
Photograph by Thomas P. Peschak, National Geographic
A huge water-themed resort rises on Dubai 's coast.
Photograph by Michael Melford , National Geographic
Snake River Headwaters Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming 387.5 miles protected since 2009
Photograph by Jim Richardson , National Geographic
A life-size statue of King James dominates the most lavish room of this treasure-encrusted palace at Hatfield, north of London. Crowned and holding a sword and a scepter symbols of his power James is nevertheless flatteringly relaxed in his pose. Hatfield House was completed by Robert Cecil, the monarch's loyal secretary, in 1611 as the King James Bible came off the presses.
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Photograph by George Steinmetz , National Geographic
Sulfur and algae turn hot springs into pools of living color. The water is condensation from hot gases rising from magma chambers. As the water evaporates, salts and minerals form a vivid crust.
Photograph by John Stanmeyer , National Geographic
As night falls and the tide rises on the Indonesian island of Pulau Balai, off the west coast of Sumatra, more than an inch of water washes into the home of 20-year-old Busrani. In March 2005 a seafloor earthquake lowered the island by three feet. Busrani can't afford to raise his floor, which floods at every high tide.
Photograph by Fritz Hoffmann , National Geographic
Boulders perch randomly at Olmsted Point in Yosemite National Park . A glacier sculpted the 92-million-year-old bedrock here and left the boulders, plucked from a nearby mountain, when it retreated. The rocks, along with grooves in the bedrock, show the path of the glacier.
Photograph by Fritz Hoffmann , National Geographic
Boulders perch randomly at Olmsted Point in Yosemite National Park . A glacier sculpted the 92-million-year-old bedrock here and left the boulders, plucked from a nearby mountain, when it retreated. The rocks, along with grooves in the bedrock, show the path of the glacier.
Photograph by Michael Nichols , National Geographic
Dedicated keepers at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's Nairobi Elephant Nursery in Kenya protect baby Shukuru from the cold and rain, and the risk of pneumonia, with a custom-made raincoat.
Photograph by Peter Essick , National Geographic
Melting snowpack sluices down Shadow Creek.
Photograph by Mark Leong , National Geographic
An ocean of green, Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country in the world, with just under three million people in a landmass larger than Alaska. Mongolian culture physical, mobile, self-reliant, and free developed out here on the steppe. "When people move to Ulaanbaatar, they bring that mentality with them," says Baabar, a well-known publisher and historian.
Photograph by Gerd Ludwig , National Geographic
The French Riviera it isn't, but Astana makes the most of its brief summer, when young men gather at the Esil River to flex their muscles before appreciative members of the opposite sex. The cobblestone embankment on the far side is popular with fishermen.
Photograph by Richard Barnes , National Geographic
Miniature lakes reflect the sky in White Pocket, one of the geological spectacles on the Paria Plateau. Over the eons, groundwater has leached the color out of the Navajo sandstone here, and the weather has broken its surface into irregular polygons.
Photograph by Thomas P. Peschak
A relic of the Iran-Iraq war, this oil tanker was scuttled near the Kuwait-Iraq border on Saddam Hussein s orders, to block access by sea to southern Iraq. Kuwaiti authorities are reluctant to remove the vessel for fear of damaging the wetlands of nearby Bubiyan Island, an important fish nursery and seabird breeding ground.
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