May 6, 2001

Where:Southern Bolivia
When:1999
Photographer:Maria Stenzel

“Generations of skill flow through nimble fingers as Chipaya women plait another’s hair. When finished, she’ll wear a hundred ribbon-thin braids in the style of her ancestors, contemporaries of Peru’s Inca. Despite drought, cold, and the lure of city life, some 2,000 Chipaya remain bound to their Altiplano homeland.”

—From “Vanishing Cultures,” August 1999, National Geographic magazine

Where:Devon Island, Canada
When:1999
Photographer:Peter Essick

“Light snow and the otherworldly glow of an Arctic summer night lend an alien aura to Haughton Crater on Canada’s Devon Island. Deemed similar to craters on Mars, Haughton has become a proving ground for future missions to the red planet.”

—From “Mars on Earth,” July 1999, National Geographic magazine

Where:Indonesia
When:1999
Photographer:Tim Laman

“Room service: A red-knobbed hornbill arrives with breakfast, which he will regurgitate for his roughly three-month-old chick safely inside a nest hole in an Alstonia tree. Though its mother has left the confines of the nest, the chick remains within for another few weeks, dependent on its parents until it fledges.”

—From “The Shrinking World of Hornbills,” July 1999, National Geographic magazine

Where:Iran
When:1999
Photographer:Alexandra Avakian

“Hearts turn to mourning in the Islamic month of Muharram. On the tenth day, when performers reenact the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Husayn, people weep for the dead, including martyrs from the 1980s war with Iraq.”

—From “Iran: Testing the Waters of Reform,” July 1999, National Geographic magazine

Where:Northern Kenya
When:1999
Photographer:Maria Stenzel

“[A] newly circumcised bride (right) spends much of the [wedding] celebration in her mother’s hut in the company of her best friend.”

—From “Vanishing Cultures,” August 1999, National Geographic magazine

Where:Okavango Delta, Botswana
When:1999
Photographer:Chris Johns

A female cheetah and her three cubs.

Where:Bandhavgarh National Park, India
When:1997
Photographer:Michael K. Nichols

“Jaws that can crush a backbone become a tender conveyance as Sita totes a cub to a new den, a constant chore to safeguard her young from leopards, wild dogs, and other tigers. Hiding cubs well is critical, since she may be away hunting for 24 hours or more. Sita is living proof that this endangered species can flourish if only given enough room and enough prey.”

—From “Making Room for Wild Tigers,” December 1997, National Geographic magazine