This ancient queen of Palmyra conquered Egypt, captured Roman provinces, and nearly transformed her realm into an empire ...

Encephalitis lethargica is an illness that attacks the brain, leaving the victims like living statues—speechless and motionless. This disease turned into a full-blown epidemic around the world in the ...

National Geographic photographer Joshua Cogan returns to eastern Nevada to document the art, culture, and creative traditions shaped by the region’s high-desert landscape. At Spanish Ranch in ...

Seaweed bathing in Ireland, a trek through Africa’s first designated wilderness quiet park—we asked National Geographic staff and contributors for their favorite places to escape the stress and noise ...

National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions is celebrating a major milestone this year, marking 60 years since expedition travel, as we now know it, first began. On January 23, 1966, Swedish explorer ...

It turns out there are still some near-secret Cycladic isles. From Santorini, solitude-seekers leave the crowds behind on a ferry bound for a little-known alternative: Folegandros, where there’s no ...

They rarely mention her greatest weapon: a brilliant mind. Cleopatra, the last true ruler of ancient Egypt, was a master of nine languages, philosophy, and science, using her unparalleled education to ...

Her throne was stolen, so Cleopatra made the boldest gamble of her life. Discover how the brilliant queen smuggled herself to Julius Caesar, formed a legendary alliance, and used her political genius ...

From Yosemite’s Badger Pass to little-known slopes in Washington State and Ohio, three parks offer a rare chance to ski inside some of the country’s most protected landscapes. A backcountry skier ...

Scientists are still untangling why the nutrient gap persists—and what it reveals about how women’s health is studied and treated. A woman lounges on a chair in the sun. Vitamin D is a crucial ...

Every winter, a marvelous spectacle occurs as hundreds of thousands of butterflies travel south across Taiwan in one of the world’s most rare migrations.

While excavating clay cylinders in Syria, archaeologists discovered a rare find: an early writing system. The script has given scholars the new challenge of reinvestigating the timeline of alphabetic ...