National_Geographic_USA_11_2021

11.2021

100
WONDERS
OF THE
WORLD

Archaeological finds
are expanding our
view of human history—
and unlocking the
stories of our ancestors.

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CONTENTS PROOF EXPLORE

6 15 CLOSER LOOK

Child of the Stars THE BIG IDEA The Lost
A photographer’s River of Paris
adaptation of Antoine Dr. Fauci: His Conservation efforts
de Saint-Exupéry’s Life and Work aim to bring back the
book reimagines In interviews with historic Bièvre.
The Little Prince as National Geographic,
a nuanced look at Anthony Fauci tells BY MARY WINSTON NICKLIN
Andean culture. what has shaped him:
from childhood in ALSO
PHOTOGRAPHS BY Brooklyn to serving
seven U.S. presidents. • Color Perception in Fish
RIVER CLAURE • A New Human Species?
• Animals in Space
• Mozambique Makeover
• Tips for Reducing Waste
• Feather Forensics Lab

13 14 NOVEMBER 2021
10 11 15
16 On the Cover: Kadir Nelson’s
12
painting depicts finds from
21 the book Lost Cities, Ancient
Tombs: 100 Discoveries That
17 Changed the World.
20
22 1. Olmec colossal head; Mexico
2. King Tut mask; Egypt
18 3. Nubian pharaoh; Sudan
19 and Egypt
4. Neo-Assyrian relief; Iraq
5. Art from Ajanta; India
6. Angkor Wat; Cambodia
7. Mesa Verde cliff dwellings;
Colorado, U.S.
8. Destruction by Mount
Vesuvius; Italy
9. Chichén Itzá; Mexico
10. Nebra sky disk; Germany
11. Great Pyramid of Khufu;
Egypt
12. Stonehenge; England
13. Petroglyphs; Utah, U.S.
14. Lapita cemetery; Vanuatu
15. Moai; Easter Island
16. Nok terra-cottas; Nigeria
17. Sutton Hoo helmet; England
18. Titanic; Atlantic Ocean
19. Cave paintings; France
20. Clotilda; Alabama, U.S.
21. Kublai Khan fleet; Japan
22. Ötzi the Iceman; the Alps
23. Aboriginal rock art;
Australia
24. Dead Sea Scrolls; West Bank
and Israel
25. Jamestown crucifix;
Virginia, U.S.
26. Great Mosque of Kilwa;
Tanzania
27. Bactrian gold ram;
Afghanistan
28. Rosetta stone; Egypt
29. Olduvai Gorge skull;
Tanzania
30. Lion Gate, Mycenae; Greece
31. Knossos palace; Greece
32. Maya jade ornament;
Honduras
33. Machu Picchu; Peru
34. Relief, Ellora Caves; India*
35. Riace bronze; Ionian Sea
36. Terra-cotta warriors; China

F E AT U R E S 100 Wonders A War on Itself A Journey’s Lessons
of Archaeology In Tigray, Ethiopia, Partway through
Discoveries such as civilians have become his 24,000-mile walk
the cave art of Lascaux the target of conflict. around the world,
and the tomb of King a writer realizes the
Tut have yielded BY LY N S E Y A D DA R I O power of remembering.
remarkable secrets AND RACHEL HARTIGAN And he wonders who
dating as far back as PHOTOGRAPHS BY among the thousands
3.7 million years ago. LY N S E Y A D DA R I O of people he has met
From the new National is “best equipped to
Geographic book Lost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 82 survive—if not master—
Cities, Ancient Tombs, the challenges of our
see the finds that An Icy World Melts uncertain age.”
changed history. The Antarctic Peninsula
is an ecosystem in peril. BY PAUL SALOPEK
INTRODUCTION BY
BY HELEN SCALES PHOTOGRAPHS BY
ANDREW LAWLER PHOTOGRAPHS BY
T H O M A S P. P E S C H A K JOHN STANMEYER
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 40
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 122

*ART FROM THE ELLORA CAVES IS MENTIONED IN THE LOST CITIES, ANCIENT TOMBS BOOK, BUT IT IS NOT
ONE OF THE 100 WONDERS CITED IN THE BOOK OR IN THE GRAPHIC ON PAGES 51-4 OF THIS ISSUE.

N O V E M B E R | FROM THE EDITOR

At a Purposeful Pace

THE OUT OF

EDEN WALK Through Our World

B Y SUSAN GOLDBERG P H OTO G R A P H B Y JOHN STANMEYER

PAU L S A LO P E K I S nearly halfway everywhere, of all nationalities, an What did Paul Salopek
through the most improbable hike army of the displaced. In Jordan, he do after walking for more
imaginable: He is taking a 24,000- talks with families picking tomatoes than 15 miles through
mile walk around the world, retracing that they share with him. At every turn the Qizilqum Desert of
our ancient ancestors’ journey out of he sees Syrians—no surprise, given Uzbekistan—one of the
Africa to the tip of South America. So that some 6.6 million have fled their most difficult passages
far, he’s been on the road for nearly strife-torn country. of the Out of Eden Walk
nine years, trying to see what might up to that point? He pre-
be learned about our frenetic world I glimpsed the refugee crisis, briefly pared a meal of hay for
by experiencing it one step at a time. but unforgettably, when I met up with his donkey, Mouse.
Paul on the walk for a few days in 2014.
“My aim has been simple,” the two- In Şanlıurfa, in southern Turkey, dis-
time Pulitzer Prize winner explains in traught Syrians told us of their longing
this issue. “To foot-brake my life, to for their homeland and their certainty
slow down my thinking, my work, my they would never see it again.
hours. Unfortunately, the world has
had other ideas. Apocalyptic climate Often in the company of our extraor-
crises. Widespread extinctions. Forced dinary photographer John Stanmeyer,
human migrations. Populist revolts. Paul Salopek is documenting the
A mortal coronavirus.” And earlier planet in a way no other journalist has.
this year, in addition to all that, he We’re proud to publish his work and to
walked into Myanmar—and straight share his insights about how we can
into a coup. navigate through our troubled century.

The National Geographic Society Thank you for reading National
has been the principal funder since Geographic. j
the start of what Paul named the Out
of Eden Walk. This issue’s essay is the
10th feature by Paul that the magazine
has published during the walk, along
with his hundreds of dispatches for
NationalGeographic.com.

Paul has written repeatedly about
battlements and fortresses he has
passed, vestiges of history’s wars. They
may have been strong enough to block
out enemies, he notes—but they also
locked in “intolerance, anti-rational
purges, and, ultimately, stagnation.”

Paul paints everyday scenes in mov-
ing detail. At a truck stop in Djibouti
where Somalis offered red tea, “I was
surely the most privileged walker
within a thousand miles,” he recalls.
“Yet these men, who had left comrades
dead of thirst in the desert, spooned my
sugar for me as if I were the starveling.”

And he writes of refugees—refugees

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In this recasting of the story,
main character Warawar
Wawa—a cosmic name in
the Aymara language—
climbs in Bolivia’s Valley of
the Moon, sporting a Bar-
celona soccer jersey. River
Claure plays with symbols,
local and global, to forge a
nuanced Andean identity.

6 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

PROOF

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
VOL. 240 NO. 5

CHILD OF
THE STARS

LOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS BY
AT THE RIVER CLAURE
EARTH
FROM With both whimsy and weight,
E V E RY a photographer reimagines the
POSSIBLE classic story The Little Prince
ANGLE through an Andean lens.

NOVEMBER 2021 7

PROOF

Warawar Wawa walks through a metaphorical rose garden, where buds blossom from the braids of Indigenous Andean
women known as cholitas, dressed in pollera skirts.
8 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Like the little prince’s beloved rose on Asteroid B-612, Warawar Wawa’s rose is one of many. Even so, Claure says, Warawar
Wawa will always consider his rose unique.

NOVEMBER 2021 9

PROOF

A decorative whip—sometimes carried by Andean community leaders as a symbol of authority—snakes around a cactus near
the Bolivian town of San Cristóbal. The object embodies the power of the serpent in Warawar Wawa’s quest to return home.
10 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Viewing the world through virtual reality goggles, a yatiri (“one who knows” in Aymara, often a spiritual leader) represents
the geographer. Here, Claure asks what’s lost when we obscure our senses and what’s gained by embracing our cultural roots.

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 1 11

PROOF

THE BACKSTORY

A PHOTOGRAPHER’S TAKE ON THE LITTLE PRINCE POSES
B I G Q U E S T I O N S A B O U T C U LT U R E A N D I D E N T I T Y.

O N E DAY O N A W H I M , photographer played with the story itself. He was
River Claure googled “Bolivia.” That inspired by how Bolivian sociologist
image search yielded expected tropes Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui encourages
of his country: llamas, mountains, peo- people to reframe mixed cultural
ple in traditional dress. Photographs identities by embracing ch’ixi. In this
are often taken through an exoticizing concept—from Aymara, a language
foreign gaze, as if Andean cultures are spoken across the Andes—weavers
frozen in time, Claure says. In reality, overlay strands of black and white
the cultures are evolving and thriving thread to create the illusion of a third
in today’s changing world. color, gray. Globalization has created
“new gradations of identity,” Claure
Later, Claure thought more about says. His visual lexicon juxtaposes
this—how the images affected his view Andean symbols with global ones, and
of himself, of his homeland—as he asks viewers to see beyond the clichéd
read the English version of Antoine de folkloric representations of the Andes.
Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince. Then
he began to question: What if one of In Aymara there’s no direct trans-
history’s most widely read children’s lation for the word “prince.” Claure
books unfolded not in the Sahara renders the story’s title as Warawar
desert but in the Andes Mountains? (star) Wawa (child), an artistic inter-
And what if the story’s main charac- pretation he feels captures the spirit
ter, rather than a blond prince, was a of the book, embodies the spirituality
dark-haired Andean child? of the Andes—and leaves Eurocen-
tric notions behind. Through his lens,
In The Little Prince, we see the world Claure transforms the little prince into
through fresh eyes. It’s a story that cel- a child of the stars. — SA RA A . FA JA R D O
ebrates childhood and play; Claure

Warawar Wawa takes flight in a desert of salt, not sand, in Bolivia’s Uyuni salt flats.

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EXPLORE IN THIS SECTION

New Human Species?
Animals in Space
Lost River of Paris
Feather Forensics

ILLUMINATING THE MYSTERIES—AND WONDERS—ALL AROUND US EVERY DAY

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC VOL. 240 NO. 5

Dr. Fauci: His
Life and Work

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC INTERVIEWED ANTHONY FAUCI ABOUT HIS
PERS ONAL HISTORY, HIS CAREER, AND HIS ROLE IN HEALTH CRISES
FROM HIV/AIDS TO COVID -19. THE RESULTS: A BOOK (EXCERP TED HERE),
WITH PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT CONSERVATION, AND A D O CUMENTARY.

I Excerpts from the National Geographic book Fauci—Expect the
Unexpected: Ten Lessons on Truth, Service, and the Way Forward

I WAS BORN ON Christmas Eve, 1940. As my father tells
the tale...the obstetrician who was taking my mother
through her pregnancy happened to have been at a
black-tie cocktail party. And when my mother went
into labor, apparently it was pretty quick. My father
brought her to Brooklyn Hospital, and he remembers
the doctor walking in with a tux on. He had to get into
the delivery room very quickly, so he just washed his
hands and put the scrubs over the tux ...We always
joked about it at home: Just how much had he had
to drink before he actually came in to deliver me?

Anthony Fauci was almost five years old in 1945 when
the United States detonated atomic bombs over the
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, unleashing cat-
astrophic damage and spurring Japan’s surrender
to the Allies.

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 1 15

E X P L O R E | THE BIG IDEA

That moment when I saw my mother reading the Brooklyn. I can picture my mother sitting on the
New York Daily News with the big picture on the front couch looking at the paper and me looking over
page of the devastation in Hiroshima was a memorable her knee. She was really sad. That was a defining
moment for me. I had played war games as a child, moment, understanding that you can feel empathy
where the good guys were the GIs and the bad guys toward people who are very different from you—even
were the Japanese, and when I saw the destruction people who might officially be the enemy.
in Japan, I thought, Wow, hey, that’s great.
We lived above my father’s pharmacy. I would deliver
But I saw in my mother something that puzzled prescriptions on my bicycle around the neighbor-
me at first ... Many decades later I still remember hood, and my sister would help out behind the
that scene in the living room in our apartment in

16 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C PHOTO: MARK THIESSEN

counter. I had a Schwinn bicycle with a basket up He says, “You got concrete all over your boots.
in front, and I used to do it for tips. You would zip Why don’t you just step outside?” I looked at him, a
around the neighborhood, park your bike, knock on little bit indignant. I said, “Someday I’m going to be
the door, deliver, and they would give you a 25-cent a student in this medical school.”
tip. That was a big tip!
He looked at me with a straight face and he says,
You’d meet different people, and I got an apprecia- “Yes, sonny. Someday I’m going to be police com-
tion of what illness was—you knew they were ill from missioner of New York City.”
the way they looked. That was my first introduction
to illness and medicine. And helping out in the store, But a year later I was a student there.
I got a better perspective of the family unit because
we all worked together. When you’re a physician, it’s just as important to
know human nature as it is to know human phys-
Fauci spent his early childhood in the Bensonhurst iology. The most important thing in the care of a
section of Brooklyn, New York, in a neighborhood patient is caring for the patient. You’ve really got
he describes as “99.9 percent Italian American.” All to care about them as a person, not as a statistic or
four of his grandparents had emigrated from Italy via as somebody that you’re going to bill or somebody
Ellis Island, then moved from the Lower East Side of that’s one of a number of people.
Manhattan to raise their families in Brooklyn, where
Fauci’s parents met and married. Let me give you a personal example of the kinds of
dramatic evolutions and changes that can occur
In the summer, when the windows were open, the totally beyond your control and that can profoundly
smells were everywhere—mostly tomato sauce and impact the direction of your career and your life.
sausages being cooked. And it was just something
that becomes part of you. Whenever I happen to In 1968 I finished my medical training in internal
smell that now, decades and decades and decades medicine at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical
later, it’s an immediate flashback. It puts me right on Center. That very same year, noted public health
79th Street and New Utrecht Avenue, and you just scholars...were opining and even testifying before
can’t escape it. There was a certain feeling of free- the United States Congress that with the advent of
dom—fresh air and sunshine and being outdoors on antibiotics, vaccines, and public health measures,
the streets of Brooklyn. It was the safest place in the the war against infectious diseases had been won,
world to be because all of the storekeepers would be and we should focus our efforts on other areas of
sitting down with their little chairs in front of their research and public health.
shops, watching the kids go by. No one would in their
wildest dreams imagine trying to intimidate any of As fate would have it, at that time I was on my
these kids because the entire neighborhood was kind way to begin, of all things, a fellowship for training
of like a protective squad. We felt perfectly secure in infectious diseases at the National Institutes of
all the time. It was an extremely happy childhood. Health. I remember reflecting as I drove from New
York City to the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, with the
Fauci attended the prestigious Regis High School in words of the wise pundits resonating in my mind,
Manhattan and went on to Holy Cross, an all-male col- that I felt somewhat ambivalent about my career
lege in Worcester, Massachusetts. By then, he already choice, to say the least. Was I entering into a disap-
knew he was on a pathway to becoming a doctor. pearing subspecialty? I sort of felt like I was going
to Miami to become a ski instructor.
In college I worked every single summer in con-
struction as what’s called a mason tender, who helps Fortunately for my career, but unfortunately and
a bricklayer (you carry the cement, you carry the sadly for the world, even surgeons general are not
bricks, you clean up). I already knew then I wanted always correct. Indeed, 13 years later, in 1981, the
to go to Cornell’s medical school, and it was just AIDS epidemic had emerged and transformed my
by happenstance that I got picked to work on the professional career, if not my entire life.
construction of the Samuel J. Wood Library at the
medical school, right on York Avenue and East 69th You must be prepared at any moment to enter
Street in New York City. One day I decided I would uncharted territory, to expect the unexpected, and
get up the courage to go inside. where possible, seize the opportunities.

When the other construction guys sat down for Fauci was working as one of the leading research-
lunch on the wall, whistling at the nurses going by, ers on immunology and autoimmune diseases at
I walked up the steps and walked in. I looked into the National Institutes of Health in 1981 when an
the auditorium, and I remember saying to myself, unidentified infectious disease came onto his radar.
Wow, this is amazing. All of a sudden, the security The scientific publication Morbidity and Mortality
guard who’s standing at the door comes over to me, Weekly Report (MMWR), published by the Centers for
a big guy. He says, “Can I help you, sonny?” Sonny. Disease Control and Prevention, reported that five gay
He called me sonny. men from Los Angeles with no apparent underlying
illnesses had developed a very rare pneumonia called
I say, “Oh, I’m just looking around here.” Pneumocystis pneumonia.

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 1 17

E X P L O R E | THE BIG IDEA

I was sitting in my little office on the 11th floor of From top: A 1940s photo shows young Anthony Fauci
the NIH Clinical Center on a hot summer day, the with his parents, Eugenia and Stephen, and his sis-
first week in June, when I saw the report. I had been ter, Denise; a 1984 photo shows Fauci working at the
studying drugs that suppressed the immune system, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
and we were seeing Pneumocystis cases. So I said,
“There’s something strange going on here,” and put to finish the things that I started decades ago and
it into my desk drawer. to add the finishing touches. I would like to see the
defining public health challenge of my professional
One month later, on the fifth of July of 1981, career, HIV, ended as an epidemiological pandemic.
another MMWR appears on my desk. This time, Everyone thought...we could cure or eradicate AIDS.
26 men. Amazingly, all gay men. Not only from Los And that turned out to be very difficult and could
Angeles, but from San Francisco and New York, actually be impossible. I don’t think we’re going to
who not only had Pneumocystis pneumonia but had eradicate HIV—in fact, I know we’re not—but I think
Kaposi’s sarcoma: a tumor, a cancer seen in people we can almost eliminate it gradually throughout the
whose immune system is dramatically damaged. world. First in countries that have more resources,
like the developing countries, but then, ultimately,
I remember looking at that and going, Oh my God, in sub-Saharan Africa ... My fear is that I may not
this is a brand-new infectious disease. I actually got necessarily see that. But I hope I do. And I think I will.
goose bumps. I had no idea what the cause of the
infection was, but I did know it destroys the immune Fauci’s work at the NIH made him uniquely prepared
system. As a physician/scientist trained in infectious to face the coronavirus pandemic: He had already
diseases and immunology, if ever there was the dis- worked on treatment and prevention efforts for the Zika
ease that was made for me, it’s this. virus, Ebola, anthrax, pandemic flu, HIV, tuberculosis,
and others. But he’s acutely aware of the public’s short
I made a decision then that I was going to com- memory. We say we learn from experience, but how
pletely change the direction of my research. I had can we make sure that’s really true?
been extremely successful in my career, and my
mentors, the people who recruited me here years I think when you get further and further away from
ago, told me I was crazy. They said, “Why are you a really profoundly defining event, the impact of
throwing away a promising career to go chasing after that just attenuates. In 1918, during the Spanish flu
a disease that’s a fluke?” I decided that I was going to
do it anyway. I felt obliged to explain it to the world.

Unfortunately, it turned out that I was right. It
exploded into one of the most extraordinary pan-
demics in the history of our civilization.

Homophobia was clearly pervasive at the outbreak
of AIDS. Because I was spending most of my time
with sick gay men, I would see homophobia in soci-
ety—and by association as their physician be on the
receiving end of homophobic attacks.

I don’t think I ever had any element of homopho-
bia or even any inkling of that in me. I think it gets
back to my parents and their tolerance for other
people. Empathy was a big component of my growing
up in the family in which I grew up—and again, it was
solidified and underscored in the training, in Jesuit
training in high school and in college.

I have always felt an empathy towards people who
were being treated unfairly, as well as the unfairness
of the prejudice against a person whose sexual per-
suasion is beyond their control. It’s just who they are.
The injustice of that dominated my attitude about
what homophobia was and is. It made me angry to
see people have that attitude. It made me a defender
of someone’s right to be who they are.

My optimism is that there are going to be bad actors
and there are going to be better angels. But I think
there are more better angels than bad actors.

I’m really not afraid of very many things. But what I’m
most concerned about is not getting the opportunity

18 PHOTOS, FROM TOP: ANTHONY S. FAUCI ARCHIVE; NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

pandemic, my father was eight years old. I’m sure the Fauci, on page
horror of that year and a half influenced him as he got and screen
into his teenage years and his 20s and his 30s. And
then it probably got less and less, but he never forgot it. The documentary film Available November 2
Fauci explores the life where books are sold,
For those of us like myself who only read about it and career of America’s Fauci—Expect the Unex-
as a vague story in a history book, it doesn’t have the top infectious disease pected: Ten Lessons on
same impact of being there yourself or being inti- expert. From National Truth, Service, and the
mately connected with someone who experienced it... Geographic Documentary Way Forward is a book
Films, it’s now streaming drawn from interviews
World War II ended when I was five years old. on Disney+. for the documentary film.
The people who came back from the war and the
experience they had could never be translated to later in the Oval Office, it was like we were buddies
people 40 years later: What do you mean you were again. I don’t think he had a deliberate, malicious
in a place where you invaded an island and 10,000 disdain for science. I think he just didn’t think it was
of your friends got killed? important. It’s not even disdain; it’s a disregard...

I don’t think not understanding is a failing. It’s I felt my job was to do whatever I can to get us
just the way life is. Unless you’re connected with out of this outbreak. So, leaving was not an option.
something directly, it doesn’t mean much to you. The only option I had was to take the chance, right
The COVID-19 epidemic is like nothing we have in that venue, to contradict him. I could either keep
experienced in the past 102 years. Let us not forget quiet, which would be violating my own principles,
that we were not as prepared as we thought we were or leave, which would have meant I can’t do any
or as we should have been. So let’s get to being able good anymore. I felt the only way I could maintain
to say, “Never again. We’re never going to let this scientific integrity was to speak up.
happen again.” What I’m afraid of as we get out of this
is that it’s going to be five years from now, 10 years It was clear that my message to the American
from now, and people are just going to either forget public was contrary to his message, so he allowed
or not care how this outbreak completely gripped the legions around him to try and undermine my
the world. They’re going to forget. credibility. On the other hand, he had this interesting,
complicated relationship with me, and I really don’t
And I say this with a little bit of despair: that we’ve think he wanted to hurt me. I think he was torn by
always been aware of health disparities. We’re always the fact that, deep down, he knew that what I was
aware that African Americans and Hispanics get the saying was true. He liked me, but what I was saying
short end of the stick when it has to do with diseases. was unacceptable to him.
And their disproportionate burden with COVID-19
now is staring us right in the face. One of the things that still completely baffles me is
the lack of acceptance by some people in this country
Let us make a commitment that in the next three that COVID is a problem. There are people who think
or four decades, we’re going to do something about that this is a hoax, that this is some made-up thing
that. Sounds great. But five years from now some for one reason or another, when the facts are staring
other problem is going to come along, and we’re us right in the face. That tells me that we have some
going to forget about COVID-19. fundamental lesions in this country that need to
be addressed and healed. I know that people who
I have worked with seven presidents over the course are feeling that way are looking at me and saying
of 11 terms. I learned from the very beginning, you’re I’m the crazy one. But I’m sorry, I have to call you
doomed to failure if you are afraid of not getting asked on this. That’s crazy to think that this is not real.
back, if you’re afraid of saying something that’s going
to get somebody upset. Nobody wants the president I hope that if historians look back at what I’ve done
of the United States to be upset with you. in my life, they see a life of commitment to having
a positive impact on society. And I have had some
During the Trump administration, every once in degree of success in doing so. Maybe somebody
a while, I would say something that they didn’t like, many, many years from now goes back and reads
and then I would be off television for a week or so. about this and says, Hey, that guy was pretty good. j
But I would always come back. I didn’t want to lose
that. I didn’t want to lose the direct messaging to the
American public.

Donald J. Trump and I kind of liked each other. I
don’t know...maybe it was the having-New-York-in-
common thing...And we developed, as I think both
of us have described, an interesting relationship, a
good relationship. But more than once, as we would
get into the press conferences, I would have to fine-
tune something that he said. That seemed to be
surprisingly OK until things started to get a little bit
more tense. And yet when I would see him two days

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 1 19

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August 2021 OPH.21.07.0014

E X P L O R E | CAPTURED

D I S PATC H E S
FROM THE FRONT LINES

OF SCIENCE
AND INNOVATION

THESE BEES BED Where globe mallow bees don’t make hives; PA L E OA N T H R O P O L O GY
DOWN IN BLOOMS plants bloom in the females sleep in ground
western United States, nests, males on plants. WHO WAS ‘DRAG
P H OTO G R A P H BY J O E N E E LY you’ll often find a spe- Near sunset, the Neelys
cies of bee that shares saw bees enter one AN UNEARTHED SKULL FROM MO
the plant’s name and flower after another. YEARS AGO MAY REPRE SENT A N
taps it for food. Nature “They’d just kind of
photographers Joe and crawl in and plop over,” N E A R LY 9 0 Y E A R S A F T E R it was hidden
Niccole Neely were Joe says. And when one doned well, a stunningly preserved skull i
walking in an Arizona more bee alighted and The artifact may represent a new human
field when they saw saw all blooms occu- “dragon man” (reconstruction above). At l
the bees’ other use for pied, it converted a cranium sports a mash-up of ancient and m
the blooms: as crash single into a double. it’s closely related to us—even more so t
pads. Globe mallow researchers say. “I’ve held a lot of other hu
—PATRICIA EDMONDS never like this,” says study co-author Xijun
at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Y
debate, with some experts suggesting it
mysterious Neanderthal sister group rep
No matter its identity, the skull undersc
branches are in our human family tree.

ILLUSTRATION: CHUANG ZHAO. PHOTOS (FROM TOP): ROBBIE SH

BREAKTHROUGHS | E X P L O R E E X P L O R E | DATA SHEET

Evidence of ‘birth of art’?
Found at Germany’s Unicorn Cave,
this 2.2-inch-long piece of deer bone
carved with slanted lines more than
50,000 years ago suggests Neander-
thals were capable of creative expres-
sion. Archaeologist Thomas Terberger
co-wrote a study of the piece; he says
it shows “the start of abstract thinking,
the birth of art.” —A N D R E W C U R RY

GON MAN’? OCEAN WARMING ANIMALS IN SPACE

ORE THAN 146,000 More depth
NEW HUMAN SPECIES. = less color

at the bottom of an aban- As seas warm, some
is getting its day in the sun. fish are descending
n species: Homo longi, aka to cooler waters and
least 146,000 years old, the may see less color,
modern features that show recent study mod-
than Neanderthals, some els show. Photos
uman skulls and fossils, but below simulate
n Ni, a paleoanthropologist what copperband
Yet dragon man is stirring butterflyfish may
t could be a Denisovan, a see at depths 66
presented by scant fossils. feet apart; one
cores just how tangled the researcher likens the
dimming effect to
—MAYA WEI-HAAS “going back to the
days of black-and-
white TV.” Reduced
color perception
can jeopardize a
fish’s critical ability
to identify others—
to tell prey, pred-
ator, and potential
mate apart.

—HICKS WOGAN

BY TAY LO R M AG G I AC OM O A N D A L E X A N D E R ST E G M A I E R

Two Soviet steppe tortoises once they did, whether they’d be able to
had already flown around the moon by operate a spacecraft. While the research no
the time Neil Armstrong set foot on it in longer involves canine cosmonauts (above),
1969. In fact, dozens of animals, includ- decades on, mice, fruit flies, even jellyfish
ing insects, traveled into space before continue to expand our understanding of
humans did. In the 1940s, scientists began biology in space and on Earth. The stud-
to explore the limits of our atmosphere. ies may one day hold the key to sending
They wanted to understand if humans humans to the outer reaches of our solar
could survive a weightless environment system and to better treating earthbound
and the rocket journey to get there—and diseases such as osteoporosis.

HONE; LEONARDO STABILE, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS (BOTH) 24 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

E X P L O R E | DATA SHEET U.S.S.R./RUSSIA

ISRAEL 69 MISSIONS (1951-2014)

1 MISSION (2019) The U.S.S.R./Russia has launched the second

An Israeli vessel highest number of animal missions (after Dezik and
containing tardigrades Tsygan (1951)
crashed on the moon the U.S.) into space. Dogs were early
during an attempted
landing in 2019. favorites as they were thought to Radiation ZIB (1951)
withstand longer periods of inac- sensor

tivity better than other animals. Satellite
From 1975 to 1996, the gov- transmitter
ernment allowed NASA to
IRAN
run experiments aboard its
3 MISSIONS (2010-13)
Bion satellite missions. LAIKA’S DOGHOUSE (1957)
As recently as 2013,
Iran sent monkeys into Cabin A young Moscow stray, Laika was the
space in a step toward first animal to orbit Earth, on a planned
developing a human Fargam Pishgam one-way mission in 1957. She became a
spaceflight program. (2013) (2013) Soviet space hero, but her death soon
after launch sparked an international
debate on the treatment of animals.

CHINA V

9 MISSIONS (1964-2018) Xiao Bao Otvazhnaya (1958) Marfusha Belka and Strelka (1960)
(1966) Made seven flights, the (1959) First dogs to survive
China’s animal research Earth orbit
began in the mid-1960s; Shan Shan most of any dog
efforts slowed after the (1966)
Cultural Revolution Rat (1960)
ended a decade later.
There’s been limited
public information on the
space program since it was
revitalized in the 2000s.

FRANCE Hector Steppe tortoises Guinea pig
(1961) In 1976 two tortoises set (1960)
6 MISSIONS (1961-67) the record for the longest
Veterok and time in space, 90.5 days. Tardigrades
Before the European Ugolyok (1966) These hardy microscopic
Space Agency (ESA) Spent 22 days
was established in 1975, creatures survived expo
France independently in orbit sure to space outside
researched space travel protective enclos
and trained 14 cats for Félicette (1963)
spaceflight. Only one First and only
successfully made a cat in space
round trip, in 1963.
Martine
(1967)

Pierrette (1967)

MICROGRAVITY LAB Japanese African
quail chick clawed frog
Initial animal studies focused on adaptability to and logistics
of travel as many nations attempted the race to space. Animals (1990) (2001)
were often jetted into the sky by themselves or in small groups,
some even making multiple trips. Today, genetic sequencing ANIMAL TYPE Thick-toed JAP
and our understanding of an animal’s life on Earth inform which gecko
creatures are best suited for a research mission. (2014) 5 MISS
Japanes
Primate Rodent laid egg
research
Dog Amphibian the arch

Cat Arthropod

Reptile Other

Died during mission EVERY KNOWN PRIMATE, DOG, CAT, AND TURTLE SENT TO SPACE
Returned alive IS SHOWN; OTHER ANIMALS REPRESENT MULTIPLES OF THEIR KIND,
SHOWN ONCE PER MISSION. ILLUSTRATIONS ARE NOT TO SCALE.

Animals in overlapping Fruit fly UNITED STATES
circles represent joint (1947)
missions. 98 MISSIONS (1947-present)
Albert II
(1949) Albert IV Fruit flies from the U.S. were the first animals
(1949) to reach space, in 1947. Since then, NASA
Enos (1961)
First and only Gordo (1958) has supported research on over 30 species.
chimpanzee Primates were used early on; rodents
to achieve now are most common. The U.S. and
Earth orbit others often contract with private
companies such as SpaceX to
carry animals to the Interna-
tional Space Station (ISS).

d Able and Baker (1959)
Abrek and Bion (1983) First primates, a rhesus monkey
and a squirrel monkey, to visit

space and return safely

Drinking
water

Scatback Bonnie
(1961) (1969)

Verny and Gordy (1985) HAM’S COUCH (1961)

Jerosja and Drjoma (1987) Moon To test his function in micrograv- Performance
jellyfish ity, Ham, the first chimpanzee in test panel
(1991) space, was taught to pull levers in
exchange for food. He experienced Blood
six minutes of weightlessness pressure
during his 1961 journey. sensor

Fire-bellied newt
(1994)

Zhakonya and Zabiyaka Tobacco
(1989) hornworm
(1995)

Krosha and Ivashi Nematode Garden
(1992) (1996) spider
(2003)
Exhaust Oyster toadfish
filter (1998)

Lapik and Multik Food ISS RODENT HABITAT (2014-PRESENT)
(1996) and water
The design of rodent enclosures for
- Crawfish NASA experiments has remained
ea (2013) largely unchanged for almost a decade.
ure. Using similar environmental conditions
across studies allows scientists to
compare research done years apart.

Monarch butterfly
(2009)

Fans

Carp (1992) Parasitic DATA ARE BASED ON BEST AVAILABLE
wasp PUBLIC INFORMATION FOR ANIMALS
PAN (2018) REACHING HIGHER THAN 62 MILES ABOVE
EARTH. BECAUSE OF SPORADIC RECORDKEEPING,
IONS (1992-present) Research ethics Bobtail squid DATA ARE NOT COMPLETE. COUNTRY AFFILIATION
se fire-bellied newts In early years, animals’ survival (2021) IS BASED ON FUNDING AND LAUNCH ORIGIN, AND
gs during the first animal rates varied. Now space agen-
h mission launched from cies factor in animals’ pain and INCLUDES KNOWN ESA MISSIONS.
hipelago, in 1995. distress, and whether they are
integral to a research mission. TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO, NGM STAFF; ALEXANDER STEGMAIER
SOURCES: NASA; INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR SPACE
OMICS PROCESSING; JAXA; ESA; RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF

SCIENCES INSTITUTE OF BIOMEDICAL PROBLEMS; UNIVERSITY
OF TSUKUBA; OLESYA TURKINA, SOVIET SPACE DOGS; GILLES
CLÉMENT, FUNDAMENTALS OF SPACE BIOLOGY

E X P L O R E | BEST OF THE WORLD

NATURE MAKES A COMEBACK
IN MOZAMBIQUE

BY MARYELLEN KENNEDY DUCKETT

G U E R R I L L A F I G H T E R S once roamed determined to protect its biodiversity, AFRICA
the rugged mountains and misty which includes 76 plant and animal
forests along Mozambique’s border species found nowhere else. MOZAMBIQUE
with Zimbabwe. Now birdsong fills
the air, and adventurers look for ele- Initiatives such as MozBio (Mozam- PLACES OF A LIFETIME
phants, hike to waterfalls, and marvel bique Conservation Areas for Biodi- Mozambique is one of
at ancient rock art in what is one of versity and Development) balance the National Geographic’s
the country’s newest national parks. needs of both wildlife and humans by Best of the World destina-
promoting environmental awareness tions for 2022. Check out
Since its designation in June 2020, and sustainable economic activities— the full list at natgeo.com/
Chimanimani National Park has been beekeeping, nature-based tourism, bestoftheworld.
an example of how conservation proj- shade-grown coffee farming—that help
ects are working to bolster this East reduce rural poverty in Chimanimani’s LOCAL BEAUTY
African country’s protected wildlands. border communities. Manica sugarbush
(Protea caffra gazensis)
During civil unrest from 1964 to National Geographic Explorer Jen is found mainly in the
1992, the Chimanimani region was Guyton, an ecologist and photojour- massifs and mountains of
ravaged by poaching and sown with nalist who participated in two Chi- the Chimanimani region.
land mines. In recent years, illegal manimani biodiversity surveys, says
gold mining and slash-and-burn one goal of the expeditions was train-
agriculture have destroyed habitat and ing young Mozambican scientists to
degraded soil and water. be conservation leaders. Says Guyton,
“Their passion and their optimism
Today the park attracts scientists give me great hope.” j
and public-private partnerships

PHOTO: JEN GUYTON



E X P L O R E | PLANET POSSIBLE Waste not! That goes for
leftover cafeteria food,
PLANET feathers that still fluff,
and fix-it-yourself devices.
For more stories about how
to help the planet, go to BY CHRISTINA NUNEZ
natgeo.com/planet

1

CAN YOU FIX IT? GOT EXTRA FOOD? 3 RECYCLING DOWN YIELDS

Rating Repairability COLLEGE STUDENTS FLUFF F OW L - F R I E N D LY G E A R
May Reduce Replacing ACROSS THE COUNTRY FLIES
Sometimes all that ARE COLLECTING SUR- AGAIN If you’re in the market for a
stands between your PLUS CAFETERIA FARE winter jacket, keep an eye out
things and the landfill AND DELIVERING IT TO for one with recycled down.
is whether they can AREA GROUPS IN NEED Several retailers are gather-
be fixed if they break. THROUGH THE FOOD ing feathers for new products
That’s why France now RECOVERY NETWORK. from reclaimed bedding and
requires products (such FIND A CHAPTER OR apparel. Longtime sustain-
as smartphones and START ONE YOURSELF: ability advocate Patagonia
laptops) to be labeled says the practice has mark-
with a repairability F O O D R E C OV E RY N E T W O R K .O R G edly cut its carbon footprint
score. Worldwide, the related to insulation.
“right to repair” move-
ment appeals to people
who want the ability
to service their own
products, from cars to
tractors to electronics,
instead of buying new
ones. Feel handy?
Find repair guides and
scores at ifixit.com.

4 LEAVE THE LEAVES

Skip the annual ritual
of raking and bagging
fallen foliage. When left
on the ground, autumn
leaves provide shelter
and food for beneficial
insects and other wild-
life. They can also enrich
the lawn; running a
mulching mower over
leaves grinds them into
nourishment for turf.

PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): ISRAEL SEBASTIAN, GETTY IMAGES; NATA ZHEKOVA, GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO;
COURTESY ARKET; BABAK TAFRESHI, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION

TAKE A
SMART STEP
TOWARD A
MORE SECURE

FUTURE

Establishing a charitable gift annuity
with the National Geographic Society is a
great way to receive guaranteed payments
for life and save on taxes—while protecting
our planet for generations to come.

COPYRIGHT 2021 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIET Y
PHOTO COURTESY OF EDSON VANDEIRA

SIMPLE + SAFE . SECURE YOUR FUTURE WITH LIFETIME PAYMENTS.

E X P L O R E | TOOL KIT

1 34
2
5

7

6

FORENSICS ON THE WING

32 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

9 1. Avian skull
8 The Smithsonian houses
the world’s most diverse
10 bird skeleton collection,
including this skull of an
11 American bittern. (See
other aspects of the same
12 species at 2 and 5.)
2. Study skin
PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE Also in the archives are
more than 500,000 bird
F O R M O R E T H A N 2 0 Y E A R S Carla Dove has run the Feather Identifica- specimens, or study skins,
tion Lab at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in representing 85 percent of
Washington, D.C. Her team of forensic ornithologists receives more than avian species worldwide.
10,000 avian remains a year from aircraft collisions—bird strikes—and 3. Feather sample
matches them to specimens in the museum’s collections, using morphol- Dove (that’s her hand pic-
ogy and DNA analysis. An example: After the “Miracle on the Hudson” tured) and her team match
emergency landing in 2009, Dove’s lab ID’d the birds involved as Canada mailed-in whole or partial
geese. By knowing what species are struck most, airfield staff can deter feathers to study skins by
birds and reduce the number of damaging strikes. — H I C K S WO GA N color, size, or pattern.
4. Scanning electron
photomicrograph
A scanning electron micro-
scope reveals distinguish-
ing features in downy
feathers’ structures.
5. Snarge
A term for blood, guts, or
other bird tissue scraped
off a plane (here, an MD-10
aircraft in Miami in 2006).
6. Hand lens
This allows a close look at
small birds—horned larks,
mourning doves, swallows—
the size most often hit.
7. Probe, forceps, scissors
These tools aid in handling
feather fragments or pre-
paring samples for study.
8. DNA sampling plate
Once a tray is filled with
96 bird strike samples, off
they go for DNA testing,
or bar coding.
9. Field guide
Which species live near a
strike site? Alas, no book
can explain some outlier
IDs, such as parrots at New
York’s JFK Airport.
10. Microslide supplies
Lab staff use microscopy
to study a feather’s bar-
bules (seen in 4) and
barbs, the branches
extending off its shaft.
11. Light microscope
Some barb traits are
unique to groups of birds;
with a light microscope, an
expert can tell a duck from
a pigeon, for example.
12. Reference microslides
The Smithsonian team
can compare slides of
feathers from bird strikes
with slides of feathers
taken from study skins in
the museum’s collection.

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 1 33

PAID CONTENT FOR

AN
ECOSYSTEM

UNDER
THREAT

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Without greater protective measures, Hong Kong’s vibrant marine
ecosystem could collapse, as two National Geographic Explorers warn.

Diving below the waves can to dig deep into the

be like entering another world, seabed to extract

but for Hong Kong-based Nation- OD\HUV RI VHGLPHQW

al Geographic Explorer Jonathan containing fossils

Cybulski, it is also like travelling that provide a win-

EDFN LQ WLPH $ KLVWRULFDO PDULQH dow into the past—

ecologist specializing in coral, and potentially a

Cybulski uncovers the stories lifeline for the future.

RI KRZ XQGHUZDWHU HFRV\VWHPV

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what can be done to reverse their SODLQV +RQJ .RQJ·V

decline. coral has declined

in the past few de-

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to set a historical baseline,” says tors such as pol-

Cybulski. “What were they like OXWLRQ DQG KXPDQ
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that change, which—surprise!— this regard include Tolo Harbour SUDFWLFHV DQG VHDIRRG FRQVXPS-

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conserve or restore it for the fu- FRXOG GLVDSSHDU IURP +RQJ .RQJ Reef Fish Survey”.

ture?” waters forever.

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as a heavily urbanized concrete

3K ' LQ (FRORJ\ DQG %LRGLYHUVLW\ 6WDQ 6KHD 0DULQH 3UR- jungle,” says Shea, “but our loca-

at The University of Hong Kong JUDPPH 'LUHFWRU DW RFHDQ- tion in the sub-tropics gives us in-

+.8 6ZLUH ,QVWLWXWH RI 0D- LF FRQVHUYDWLRQ 1*2 %ORRP credible underwater biodiversity.”

ULQH 6FLHQFH 6:,06 86 ERUQ Association Hong Kong, is However, as Shea explains, pop-

Cybulski has gained a unique another National Geographic XODWLRQV RI PDQ\ VSHFLHV KDYH

LQVLJKW LQWR +RQJ .RQJ·V FRUDO ([SORUHU FRPPLWWHG WR VDIHJXDUG- EHHQ GHFLPDWHG E\ GHFDGHV RI

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volves scuba diving to collect his- V\VWHPV 7KLV LQFOXGHV UDLVLQJ tion, and a greater focus on

torical data, using a coring pipe DZDUHQHVV RI VXVWDLQDEOH ÀVKLQJ sustainability is urgently needed

if the territory is to stand a chance
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the endangered Hong Kong grou-
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the critically endangered Chinese
bahaba (giant yellow croaker).

The city also lags far behind

international standards in the

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with only 5% of Hong Kong wa-

ters designated, or planned to be
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EDQQHG IURP OHVV WKDQ RI Driving Change Through Awareness
Hong Kong waters. WWF Hong

Kong has pinpointed seven pri- Faced with such grave chal- ZLWK PDQ\ HQYLURQPHQWDO LVVXHV

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E X P L O R E | CLOSER LOOK

The Bièvre River flows through a park in the suburb of Fresnes, one of the few places it can be seen above ground.

THE LOST RIVER OF PARIS

VICTOR HUGO WROTE ABOUT THE BIÈVRE. NOW CONSERVATION
EFFORTS ARE BRINGING PARTS OF THE HISTORIC WATERWAY BACK.

BY MARY WINSTON NICKLIN

A R I V E R U S E D TO M E A N D E R through my Left Bank upstream suburbs, and the Paris mayor’s office has
neighborhood in Paris. From the southern city limit launched a feasibility study to look at uncovering
that’s now Parc Kellermann in the 13th arrondisse- stretches in the city. The renaissance of the Bièvre
ment, the Bièvre fed mills and tanneries before its reflects a green shift in city planning. “There’s new
confluence with the Seine in the 5th arrondissement. momentum for this project as we face the climate
But by the early 20th century, the Bièvre had become crisis, increasing heat waves, and the threat to biodi-
so odoriferous and polluted that it had been buried versity,” says Dan Lert, the deputy mayor overseeing
underground, its water diverted into the sewers. Paris’s ecological transition, climate plan, water, and
energy. “We can’t continue the way we used to with
Although the Seine evokes romance, the Bièvre is urban development.”
largely unknown to the millions of travelers who visit
the French capital every year. But many Parisians The Bièvre bubbles up from its source in Guyan-
have harbored a long-standing dream of resurrecting court, roughly 22 miles southwest of Paris. From
a river that, to them, has taken on mythic status. This this boulder-strewn stream, it snakes through the
dream is now close to becoming a reality. In recent land, spilling into ponds that fed the fountains at the
years, sections of the river have been reopened in Palace of Versailles and hydrating a string of suburbs.

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E X P L O R E | CLOSER LOOK

A late 19th-century illustration depicts the Bièvre River the French monarchs. According to lore, something
rounding a bend in the Gobelins district of Paris. special in the Bièvre’s water helped create the vivid
red color that established the dyers’ global reputation.
Today fewer than 13 miles of this route are in broad
daylight, and the river’s waters are funneled into a Fascination with the Bièvre has only grown since
sewage-treatment plant just outside Paris. the last open-air stretches of it in Paris were covered
completely in 1912. “It’s a tiny river with a weak flow
Historically the Bièvre has been profoundly altered rate, but historically it’s attracted great interest,”
by humans. Early monks channeled it for irrigation, says Alain Cadiou, a water expert and the head of
tanners soaked animal skins, and ice cutters hacked the Union Renaissance de la Bièvre, a collective of
blocks from ponds to source the city’s ice supply. 30-some nonprofits. Each of these organizations has
Competition for water access in this dirty, hard- a different focus—from promoting the river’s cultural
working fiefdom soon led to conflicts between trade heritage to protecting the environment.
groups: dyers versus laundresses, tanners versus
butchers. In the 1300s Parliament ordered butchers to After an extensive study in 2001, Bertrand Delanoë,
dump animal guts in the Bièvre rather than sully the mayor of Paris at the time, decided that rehabilitating
Seine, then reversed course but couldn’t stop the flow the ancient river was too expensive. But nonprofits
of refuse. The Bièvre turned into a rancid cesspool. alongside government coalitions in the Bièvre water-
shed have continued to campaign. The resulting
Over the years the Bièvre also collected legends— reopening projects in the suburbs have been a victory.
some as muddied as its currents. There’s the tale of
Gentilia the nymph, transformed into the river by The suburb of Fresnes unveiled a park in 2003—
the goddess Diana to escape a Trojan soldier in hot today a lush, forested area along the Bièvre and rich
pursuit. Then there’s the dragon said to have terrified with wildlife. In 2016, L’Haÿ-les-Roses followed suit,
the land before Bishop Marcel banished the beast to reopening a 700-yard stretch of the river with a walk-
the Bièvre in the fourth century. ing path tracing the newly landscaped banks. And the
cities of Arcueil and Gentilly—the closest southern
Although small, the Bièvre had a mighty reputa- suburbs to Paris—will show off a joint reopening
tion, good and bad. The river inspired artists and project in the Parc du Coteau-de-Bièvre in 2022.
writers such as François Rabelais and Victor Hugo,
who referenced it in Les Misérables. It also became “The Bièvre will return to the gates of Paris and
the great powerhouse of Parisian industry. The once again find its confluence with the Seine,” says
Bièvre’s biggest claim to fame was the Manufacture Lert. With two million people, Paris is the most
des Gobelins, which began as a riverside dye works densely populated city in Europe, and urban plan-
in the 15th century and later supplied tapestries for ners have no intention of digging a canyon or tearing
down buildings to uncover the river. But the Bièvre is
less than 10 feet underground in open spaces such as
the Square René Le Gall. Occupying the former veg-
etable garden of the Manufacture des Gobelins, this
park is one of three spots identified for potentially
reopening the river, along with Parc Kellermann and
the Natural History Museum annex.

The Bièvre’s renaissance isn’t just a means of cool-
ing the city, fighting global warming, and returning
nature to the urban milieu. It also creates a better
living environment for residents like me, who dream
of walking on a greenway instead of concrete, sharing
summer aperitifs with neighbors on the riverbanks
once roamed by Rabelais. “The Bièvre flowed in Paris
for thousands of years,” says Cadiou. “It would be
sensible to return it.” j

Mary Winston Nicklin is a freelance writer and editor based
in Paris and Virginia.

Changing Course Seine

The river didn’t always follow its current route (shown). Paris
In the early Neolithic period, the Bièvre flowed in what Guyancourt

is now the Seine’s riverbed in Paris, while the Seine Bièvre
curved around the hill of Montmartre. Floods and
erosion allowed the Seine to seize the Bièvre’s course— Paris
just as it stole the Bièvre’s place in people’s imagination.
FRANCE

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NOVEMBER 2021

F EAT U R E S Archaeology: 100
World Wonders. . . . . . . . . . P. 40
Crisis in Ethiopia. . . . . . . . . . P. 82
An Icy Realm in Peril ..P. 100
A Journey’s Lessons....P. 122

100

‘PENGUINS ARE
IMPORTANT
SENTINELS
FOR THE WIDER
HEALTH OF
THE OCEANS.
SHIFTS IN
PENGUIN
POPULATIONS
IN THE
WATERS OFF
ANTARCTICA—
THE SOUTHERN
OCEAN—ARE
WARNING SIGNS
THAT THE
ECOSYSTEM
IS BEING
DISRUP TED.’

PHOTO: THOMAS P. PESCHAK

Our understanding
of H U M A N H I S T O RY has increased

dramatically during the past two centuries,
as E X C AVAT I O N S on six continents—

aided by breakthroughs in technology—
have unlocked the S T O R I E S
of O U R A N C E S T O R S .

100 WONDERS OF

Terra-Cotta
Warriors, 210 B.C.

Buried to accompany
China’s first emperor
in the afterlife, life-
size statues of soldiers
and servants were
discovered by farm-
ers in 1974. Since then,
archaeologists have
unearthed some 8,000
warriors, as well as
horses, chariots, acro-
bats, and musicians.

O. LOUIS MAZZATENTA

ARCHAEOLOGY
41

Tomb of a Teenage
Pharaoh, 1322 B.C.

After archaeologist
Howard Carter
opened King Tut’s
treasure-filled tomb
in Egypt in 1922, the
young pharaoh became
a global celebrity. His
gold funerary mask, a
star attraction at the
Egyptian Museum in
Cairo, is one of the
most famous artifacts
ever found.

KENNETH GARRETT



Angkor Wat,
A.D. 802-1431

At its height in the 13th
century, the capital
of the Khmer Empire
was the most extensive
urban site in the world.
As archaeologists search
for clues to the city’s
downfall, the temple
complex in Cambodia
endures as a revered
religious shrine.

KIKE CALVO



BY ANDREW LAWLER Last Moments
of Pompeii and
DIGGING FOR Herculaneum, A.D. 79
TREASURE
IS AS OLD AS Touring Pompeii in 1981,
THE FIRST a group studies victims
PLUNDERED of the volcanic erup-
GRAVE. tion of Mount Vesuvius
that entombed two
wealthy Roman towns.
“Suddenly we are faced
with human beings out
of the dim past at their
very moment of death,”
wrote archaeologist
Amedeo Maiuri, who
was in charge of Pom-
peii’s excavations from
1924 to 1961. “Some
show an attitude of
fierce struggle against
their fate; others recline
peacefully as though
in sleep.”

DAVID HISER

T H E U RG E TO U N C OV E R B U R I E D W E A LT H has obsessed countless new discipline also ushered in an
searchers, enriching a few and driving others to the brink unprecedented era of discovery
of madness. that revolutionized the understand-
ing of our species’ rich diversity, as
“There are certain men who spend nearly all their lives in well as our common humanity.
seeking for—kanûz—hidden treasures,” wrote the British
traveler Mary Eliza Rogers after she visited Palestine in the If this seems an exaggeration,
middle of the 19th century. “Some of them become maniacs, imagine a world without archae-
desert their families, and though they are often so poor that ology. No luxurious Pompeii. No
they beg their way from door to door, and from village to breathtaking Thracian gold. No
village, they believe themselves to be rich.” Maya cities looming out of dense
jungle. A Chinese emperor’s terra-
Not all the fortune hunters whom Rogers came across were cotta army would still be hidden
desperate vagabonds. She also encountered sahiri, roughly beneath the dark soil of a farm-
translated as necromancers, “who are believed to have er’s field.
the power of seeing objects concealed in the earth.” These
esteemed clairvoyants, often women, entered a trance that Without archaeology, we would
Rogers said allowed them to describe in minute detail the know little about the world’s earli-
hiding places of valuable goods. est civilizations. Lacking a Rosetta
stone, we would still puzzle over the
Archaeology transformed those “objects concealed in the enigmatic symbols on the walls of
earth” from simple treasures into powerful tools that allow Egyptian tombs and temples. The
us to glimpse the hidden past. world’s first literate and urban
society, which flourished in Mes-
At first, the fledgling science emerging in Rogers’s day opotamia, would be known only
differed little from old-fashioned plundering, as European dimly through the Bible. And the
colonialists competed to fill their display cabinets with
ancient statues and jewelry from faraway lands. But the

46 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C