08.

2023

W H AT B E C A M E
O F A LO ST
EXPEDITION?
 FURTHER AUGUST 2023

C O N T E N T S On the Cover
Renan Ozturk captured this
drone image in Peel Sound,
Canada, as he lay on pack
ice that threatened to trap
the Nat Geo expedition
team during its Arctic voy-
age from Maine to Alaska
aboard Polar Sun.
RENAN OZTURK

P R O O F E X P L O R E

THE BIG IDEA

How a Discovery
Is (Dis)proved
If a scientist records a
celestial phenomenon
just once, is it a fluke—
or a breakthrough?
BY J O E PA LC A

TOOL KIT

Getting SheepShape
Meet Spud the ram
30
ARCHAEOLOGY

The Fertile Fossil

and his handler, carry- For two decades, one
ing on the tradition fossil has changed how
of livestock showing. paleontologists under-
BY C A I T L I N F I S H E R
stand dinosaur skin.
BY M I C H A E L G R E S H KO

WELLNESS

Colorectal Cancer
Cases Shift Younger
The Life Aquatic Seniors are affected—
You may not see them, but one in five cases
but they’re there. now is diagnosed
Images reveal the tiny, in people under 55.
eye-popping creatures BY TA R A H A E L L E
that float, swim, and
ALSO ALSO
squirm inside single
drops of seawater. Turtles by Moonlight In the Democratic Republic
P H OTO G R A P H S BY Retina-Scan Diagnosis of the Congo, an Explorer
A N G E L F I TO R When AI Hits the Slopes Fights Wildlife Trafficking
A U G U S T | CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S

No Way Out The Past Is Present Unlikely Refugees

Retracing Sir John At a Jordan sanctuary,
Franklin’s expedition Throughout U.S. We Helped Build wild animals that
through the Northwest history, many have This Country survived injuries, war
Passage meant facing struggled to secure Revealing the history of zones, and smugglers
its perils. the so-called four Chinese railroad crews. get help and a home.
BY M A R K SY N N OT T freedoms, including S TO RY A N D STO RY A N D P H OTO G R A P H S
P H OTO G RA P H S BY freedom from want P H OTO G RA P H S BY BY M U H A M M E D M U H E I S E N
R E N A N O Z T U R K . . . . . . . . . . P. 34 and fear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 74 P H I L I P C H E U N G . . . . . . . . . . P. 88 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 122

The Golden Age of A Kind of Freedom The World’s

Mummification The culture and Oldest Colony José Torres Ramírez
A B OV E :
Mortuary holds secrets experiences of Black Puerto Rican identity. participates in an annual
of Egypt’s embalmers. equestrians. S TO RY A N D reenactment of Britain’s
B Y J A S O N T R E AT S TO RY A N D P H OTO G RA P H S BY failed 1797 invasion attempt
A RT BY OW E N P H OTO G RA P H S BY C H R I S TO P H E R G R E G O RY at Fortín de San Gerónimo
F R E E M A N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 66 K E N N E D I C A R T E R . . . . . . P. 76 R I V E R A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P. 106 del Boquerón, Puerto Rico.
 WHERE M AG I C MEE TS THE SE A

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A U G U S T | FROM THE EDITOR

B Y N AT H A N LU M P PHOTOGRAPH BY RENAN OZTURK

W H E N I W A S A B O Y,I couldn’t read knowledge, none survived the expe- From what vantage was this
enough about polar exploration. dition. The mystery of what befell photo taken? Mark Synnott
explains that after losing
Robert Peary, Sir Edmund Hillary, Sir Franklin and his crew still intrigues the boat’s anchor, the team
Ernest Shackleton—the tales of these many. That includes writer Mark decided to tie the boat to
explorers and their crews, battling the Synnott and photographer Renan a stable ice boulder—and
“Renan, being the hero that
elements and the odds in the Arctic Ozturk, who boarded Synnott’s sail- he is, volunteered to go
and Antarctic, were filled with such boat in Maine last summer to trace the into the water and swim
drama and pathos that I was transfixed. expedition’s route on a quest to learn a line around the boulder.
He took this shot while
And I’m still an enthusiast, not only of what happened. he was swimming in the
the stories but also of the regions they Navigating the Northwest Passage water amongst all the ice.
explored, places both captivating in is easier now than in Franklin’s day— It saved us.” On the aft
deck, crew member Rudy
their beauty and of critical importance in part because of warming waters,
Lehfeldt-Ehlinger holds
for what they tell us about the ways sadly—but Synnott and Ozturk found what the Inuit call a tuk,
climate change is affecting our planet. it’s still a difficult, dangerous journey. a wooden pole used
This issue’s cover story is its own You won’t want to miss their story, to steer ice away from
the boat.
odyssey of Arctic exploration. In the which is also the subject of Explorer:
mid-19th century, Sir John Franklin Lost in the Arctic, a documentary that
led a crew of 128 men from England will premiere August 24 on National
in search of the elusive Northwest Pas- Geographic and stream the next day
sage, a sea route through Arctic waters on Disney+ and Hulu.
linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We hope you enjoy the issue.
After Franklin’s two ships became
trapped in ice, the men eventually
made it to shore, but to the best of our
 CONTRIBUTORS | A U G U S T

N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C E X P L O R E R S
These contributors have received funding from the
National Geographic Society, which is committed to illuminating
and protecting the wonder of our world.

Kennedi Carter
A resident of Durham, North
Carolina, Carter specializes
in showcasing the wide and
diverse range of Black expe-
riences, from adversity and
hardship to love and commu-
nity. Her photography has
appeared in British Vogue, the
New York Times, and Essence,
among other outlets. Page 76

Mark Synnott
The best-selling author, longtime adventurer, mountain guide, and
pioneering climber of remote rock walls has been an Explorer since
1999. In National Geographic’s January issue, Synnott wrote about
efforts to protect antiquities in the Himalayan kingdom of Mustang.
For this month’s cover story, he took a harrowing journey through Arctic
waters. At the end of the expedition, he left his sailboat, Polar Sun, in
Philip Cheung Nome, Alaska. How will he return it to his home in Maine? “I’m definitely
Photographs made by Cheung not going back through the Northwest Passage,” he vows. Page 34
have been exhibited at sev-
eral museums and featured in
publications such as Harper’s,
Vanity Fair, and Time. Based in
Los Angeles, he’s continuing to
develop his project about the
Chinese migrant laborers who
worked on the Central Pacific
Railroad in the 1800s. Page 88

Christopher Gregory Rivera

A Puerto Rican photographer Muhammed Muheisen
who makes his home in New A photographer who’s won the Pulitzer Prize twice, Muheisen also
York City, Gregory Rivera illu- established the Dutch nonprofit Everyday Refugees Foundation. He’s
minates lesser known stories been documenting the consequences of refugee crises around the
of the past to facilitate under- world for more than a decade, and he became an Explorer in 2023.
standing of the present. His In this issue, he turns his lens to rescued animals that have survived
images of COVID-19’s toll on traumas. ”As a human being, a photojournalist, and a Jordanian,” he
undocumented U.S. immigrants says, “I’m proud to tell the story of the Al Ma’wa wildlife sanctuary,
appeared last fall on national which gives a second chance to voiceless souls.” Page 122
geographic.com. Page 106

PHOTOS: MARA CORSINO (GREGORY RIVERA); RENAN OZTURK (SYNNOTT); COURTESY THE ARTIST (CARTER, CHEUNG, MUHEISEN)
 P R O O F

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

VO L . 2 4 4 N O. 2

THE LIFE
AQUATIC

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LO O K I N G
ANGEL FITOR AT T H E
E A RT H
Extreme close-ups reveal details F RO M
of the normally unseen but eye- E V E RY
popping organisms that occupy POSSIBLE
single droplets of seawater. ANGLE

8 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Photographer Angel Fitor
captured these zooplankton
during a starry night on the
Mediterranean Sea off
the coast of Spain. The tiny
animals were on their way to
the water’s surface to feed.

AUGUST 2023 9
P R O O F

In four to six years, this brittle star may be as big as a dinner plate. But during the larval stage, seen here, it’s only a sixteenth
of an inch long. Until the animal is large enough to sink to the seafloor, it will remain suspended in the water column.

10 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
This sea sapphire glitters like its namesake jewel. Scientists think the crustacean’s iridescence helps attract potential mates,
but the true scope of the “secret language of sea sapphires” remains a mystery, Fitor says.

AUGUST 2023 11
P R O O F

Two sphere-shaped phaeodarians drift inside neighboring droplets. The one on the left is surrounded by a swarm of
little crustaceans called copepods. Phaeodarians are a type of single-celled protist—not animal, plant, or fungus.

12 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Their soft cytoplasm cores are encased in a protective skeleton of crystal silica, which can come in a stunning variety of
shapes and textures, ranging from spiky and round to smooth and conical.

AUGUST 2023 13
P R O O F

A nereid polychaete worm stretches from one side of its droplet to the other. This rear portion of the animal separates from
the main body, swims up from the seafloor to breed on one night, and then dies.

14 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 THE BACKSTORY
T H I S P H OTO G RA P H E R I S O N A Q U E ST TO D O C U M E N T T I N Y
C R E AT U R E S I N T H E S E A , O N E D RO P O F WAT E R AT A T I M E .

they consti-
L I K E T H E VA S T E X PA N S E S the minute critters within it—a series
tute, drops of seawater teem with life. of images he aptly calls SeaDrops.
Scientists estimate that some may con- Detecting what’s lurking in a seem-
tain as many as a million organisms, ingly empty bead of liquid “is always a
most too small to see with the naked thrill,” he says, one he likens to opening
eye. But put a drop under a microscope, presents on Christmas morning when
and you will likely find free-swimming he was a child. “You never know what
fish larvae, crawling copepods, and is in a sample until you place it under
peculiar protists. While these minus- the lens. It feels like a genuine discov-
cule creatures and their water worlds ery,” he says.
are overlooked by most of us, Spanish Driven by what he describes as an
photographer Angel Fitor has made “insane passion, curiosity, and unfath-
them his muse. omable love for the sea,” Fitor trawls
As a teenager, Fitor spent much the shallows and dives the depths
of his time peering into the fish tank in search of promising specimens to
at his childhood home in Alicante. “My take back to his studio for a closer look.
relationship with the underwater world “Every new sample brings new oppor-
started actually behind the glass,” he tunities to further my appreciation of
says. Now 50 and also a self-taught the small yet determinant creatures
naturalist, he’s turned his passion into of our planet,” he says. Though he’s
a career. “I’m working behind the glass, amassed hundreds of images of stun-
only a different type of glass: a cam- ning and rarely seen microflora and
era lens,” he says. For the past several fauna, his work isn’t over. To truly sate
years, he’s been collecting water from his curiosity, Fitor says, “I’d need sev-
the Mediterranean and photographing eral lifetimes.” —A N N I E R OT H

In his home lab, Fitor uses a micropipette to prepare a shrimp larva for its portrait.

AUGUST 2023 15
 | T H E WO R L D I S A N A DV E N T U R E |
T R AV E L I T W I T H U S

T R AV E L W I T H N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Every National Geographic expedition is grounded in our legacy of exploration, the
promise of an authentic travel experience, and a commitment to giving back. With
unique travel experiences that aim to inspire people to care about the planet, and
access to National Geographic’s grantees and active research sites, our travellers go
further and deepen their knowledge of the world.

W W W.T R AV E LW I T H N ATG E O.C O M

© 2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. National Geographic EXPEDITIONS and the Yellow Border Design are trademarks of the National Geographic Society, used under license.
 IN THIS SECTION

Wildlife Crime Fighter

E X P L O R E Alzheimer’s Eye Exam

Showstopping Sheep
Dino Navel-Gazing

I L L U M I N AT I N G T H E M Y S T E R I E S — A N D W O N D E R S — A L L A R O U N D U S E V E R Y D AY

N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C VO L . 2 4 4 N O. 2

How a Discovery
Is (Dis)proved
A S C I E N T I S T O B S E RV E D O N E S TA R T L I N G C E L E S T I A L E V E N T —A N D T H E N
N O M O R E , F O R Y E A R S . WA S I T A B R E A K T H R O U G H O R A F L U K E ?

B Y J O E PA LC A

IF A SCIENTIST SEES A UNICORN, she’ll probably want

to see more than one before telling the world about
her discovery.
But sometimes one unicorn is enough.
In 2007 an astronomer named Duncan Lorimer
reported finding a spectacular new kind of celestial
event. It was a brief bolt of energy so powerful it
could reach Earth from a galaxy billions of light-years
away. He called his discovery a fast radio burst (FRB),
because it lasted less than a second and it was only
detectable using a radio telescope.
It was a remarkable find. If real, FRBs could be
used to measure the amount of matter in the space
between galaxies. I likened them to a kind of dipstick
for the density of the universe—a turn of phrase my
editor loved that also happens to be accurate.
The problem was, Lorimer found only one of these
spectacular new events. He predicted there would
be many more—but in 2007 he spotted just one.

AUGUST 2023 17
E X P L O R E | THE BIG IDEA

IT’S NOT UNHEARD OF FOR ONE EVENT TO

KICK OFF A WHOLE NEW FIELD OF SCIENTIFIC
I N Q U I R Y. A F R A G M E N T O F A P I N K I E
B O N E F O U N D I N A C AV E I N S I B E R I A A L L O W E D
ANTHROPOLOGISTS TO INFER THE
EXISTENCE OF AN ENTIRE POPULATION
O F H U M A N S W H O WA L K E D T H E E A RT H A RO U N D
THE TIME OF THE NEANDERTHALS.

It’s not unheard of for one event to kick off a “Magnetars were the number one suspect right
whole new field of scientific inquiry. A fragment from the get-go,” says Cornell University astronomer
of a pinkie bone found in a cave in Siberia allowed Shami Chatterjee. “Magnetars are neutron stars with
anthropologists to infer the existence of an entire extraordinarily intense magnetic fields.” Astrono-
population of humans who walked the Earth around mers think they’re what’s left after a massive star
the time of the Neanderthals. goes supernova. They’re huge enough to produce the
Still, it’s rare. kind of energies seen in FRBs, and they are known to
When Lorimer’s paper came out in the journal spit out pulses of x-rays and gamma rays.
Science, I was a science correspondent at NPR. Even The case for magnetars as the generators of FRBs
though I did a segment about Lorimer’s discovery got a huge boost in 2020 when astronomers detected
on the afternoon program All Things Considered, I an FRB in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Because
was skeptical. It showed in this sentence from my it was nearby, in cosmic terms, astronomers were
report for that broadcast: “Sometimes, what seems able to determine precisely where it was coming
like a remarkable scientific discovery turns out to be from. The source turned out to be a previously dis-
an error in the data.” covered magnetar.
Were these so-called Lorimer bursts, as some sar- But that hasn’t ended the discussion about the
castically referred to them then, just a technical glitch? origins of FRBs. The one discovered in the Milky
Way was not powerful enough to be seen if it had
gained momentum from
T H E G L I TC H E X P L A N AT I O N occurred in a distant galaxy. So either, as FRBs go,
a paper by a young graduate student named Sarah this was a small one or there’s some other celestial
Burke-Spolaor. Her thesis adviser assigned her the object capable of generating them.
task of finding more FRBs. Using observations taken “We don’t necessarily understand the mechanics
by the radio telescope at the Parkes Observatory in of how this magnetar in our own galaxy produced
Australia, the same radio telescope Lorimer used to this radio burst as well as we’d like,” Chatterjee says.
detect his FRB, she found more bursts that looked “But we certainly understand that this is one class
like FRBs. But because of the way they appeared in of FRB emission.”
the telescope data, she was virtually certain what
she was seeing was some kind of Earth-based radio ONE OF THE QUESTIONS that bothered me from the
interference. Although what was causing these events outset about FRBs was how astronomers could be
was a mystery at the time, she gave them a name: so sure FRBs were coming from a distant galaxy.
perytons. (See “The Peryton Explanation,” page 20.) The answer lies in something called the dispersion
As the years ticked by and no more FRBs were measure. When there’s a powerful burst of radio
discovered, some astronomers began to conclude waves from a nearby source, all radio frequencies that
Lorimer had found nothing more than an unusual make up the burst arrive at essentially the same time.
example of one of these perytons. When the radio bursts bump into electrons as they
There were, however, some hopeful signs that fly through space, they slow down ever so slightly. But
FRBs were real. In 2011 there was a report of a second they slow down at different rates. The high-frequency
one, but doubters were quick to point out that this component of the burst slows down less, so it arrives
FRB came from the same Parkes radio telescope that on Earth before the low-frequency component. In
the Lorimer burst and the perytons came from. In other words, the burst gets spread out in time. And
2013 four more were found, again from Parkes. even though there aren’t a lot of electrons floating
Finally, in 2014, there was a report of an FRB from around in intergalactic space, in the billions of light-
another radio telescope, at the Arecibo Observatory years between Earth and the source of the FRBs, there
in Puerto Rico. More discoveries started trickling in are enough electrons and other particles to cause the
from other telescopes on a somewhat regular basis. dispersion in the signals.
At last the conversation about FRBs shifted—from And that’s how FRBs can be used as a dipstick for
whether they were real to Where do they come from? the density of the universe (a phrase worth using at

18 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
ILLUSTRATIONS: ERIC THOMPSON AUGUST 2023 19
least twice). The amount of the dispersion tells you
how much “stuff” the radio waves are passing through.
To get an accurate estimate of the intergalactic
the peryton
stuff, you need to know the distance of the galaxy explanation
the FRB is coming from. To do that, astronomers
point other kinds of telescopes in the direction of a The Parkes Observatory radio
burst to see what’s there. telescope has one antenna with
The home galaxies of two or three dozen FRBs 13 separate feed elements, each
have now been determined. That number should pointing at a slightly different part
grow dramatically once a new set of radio telescopes of the sky. Normally, a signal from
comes online in 2024. These will complement a radio a celestial object will appear in
telescope called CHIME—operating since 2017—that just one of the feed antennas, or
another if it’s really strong. But a
is particularly good at finding FRBs because it sees
signal that appears in all 13 is what
a wide swath of the sky every night.
astronomer Evan Keane calls “rub-
“We’ve seen several thousand FRBs,” says Victoria
bish.” By that he means it’s most
Kaspi, a physics professor at McGill University and
likely radio interference from a
principal investigator on the CHIME/FRB team. With
source such as a leaky power line,
the complementary telescopes, Kaspi predicts she
lightning, or even a cell phone.
and her colleagues will be able to pinpoint the loca-
Now at Trinity College Dublin,
tion and distance of most FRBs that CHIME detects.
Keane was conducting research at
Such a large number of localized FRBs will provide the Parkes Observatory when Sarah
astronomers with the “opportunity for using them Burke-Spolaor reported radio astro-
to study the large-scale structure of the universe.” nomical signals there—and Keane
Imagine that. was pretty sure that was rubbish.
A coda to the story: A few years ago, an international Burke-Spolaor said she observed
team of astronomers reanalyzed the same data from multiple phenomena like the fast
the Parkes radio telescope that Lorimer used to find radio burst that Lorimer identi-
the first FRB. “They found one more that we missed,” fied, but they also appeared in the
Lorimer says now, “just using better techniques.” And telescope as Earth-based interfer-
since then, he adds, other teams have analyzed even ence might. She decided to name
older data and found FRBs in those datasets too. the signal after “something that was
“They were just sitting there, waiting to be dis- both natural and man-made”—and
covered,” he says. j chose peryton, a mythical creature
Joe Palca is a freelance science journalist based in Washington, that looks like a deer with wings but
D.C. For 30 years he was a science correspondent at NPR, and he casts the shadow of a man, accord-
co-authored the book Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us. ing to Jorge Luis Borges’s Book of
He wrote about the science of annoyance in the January 2020 Imaginary Beings.
issue of National Geographic.
The breakthrough in determin-
ing the real source of perytons
came in early 2015. An instrument
installed at the telescope to mon-
itor ground-based interference
detected three bursts of it at the
exact time the radio telescope
recorded three new perytons.
A bit of sleuthing revealed the
source. Investigators were able
to re-create the peryton signal—
by opening the door of the staff
kitchen’s microwave oven before
the cooking cycle finished. That
explains why most perytons were
seen after the normal lunch break
was over, Burke-Spolaor says:
“These were people who were
really hungry,” impatient, and
unwilling to wait.
So, a putative celestial object,
it turns out, had less to do with
humanity’s quest for knowledge
than the quest for lunch. —JP

20 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
E X P L O R E | TOOL KIT

PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE

GETTING SHEEPSHAPE
22 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 1. Fitting stand
Equipped with an adjust-
able head piece and
hydraulic crank, it posi-
tions the sheep “exactly
the way they’d stand in
the show ring,” Penny says.
2. Hand shears
5 Kept sharp for fine trim-
ming, these prized tools
6 can be passed down as
family heirlooms.
3. Electric clippers and
electric shears
The former allow safe
shaving close to the
sheep’s belly, which makes
the animal look taller; the
latter quickly remove
chunks of wool.
4 4. Bay rum
A type of men’s after-
7 8 shave, it breaks apart
the wool tips and imbues
scents of bay leaves, soap,
and Caribbean spices.
5. Pump sprayer
The mist of bay rum,
grooming oil, fly spray, and
water softens wool, pre-
vents dulling of the tools,
10 and keeps pests away.
6. Brush
11 Right before the sheep
enters the ring, stray
9 bits of hay are removed.
7. Heading shears
These make short work
of trimming tight areas,
such as under the armpits,
behind the ears, and on
the rear.
8. Hand carders
The same implements that
process wool for spinning
are used to tease the coat
into a fluffy cloud.
9. Baby wipes
Ears, hooves, armpits, and
eyes get a cleansing swipe.
10. Hoof-pick and
hoof trimmer
began primping sheep for show at
F O U RT E E N -Y E A R- O L D P E N N Y K E M P Any muck is removed from
age seven, entering the long tradition of livestock competitions, a sta- the hooves, which are
ple of state and county fairs across America. Now she can “fit” Spud the then trimmed to prevent
ram in less than four hours, transforming him from a woolly blob into disease and maintain the
a first-rate representation of his rare heritage breed, Romeldale CVM. sheep’s proper gait.
11. Hair polish
Penny works with the Youth Conservationist Program and a summer
This volumizes wool on
camp at Connecticut’s Henny Penny Farm to involve more youngsters. the sheep’s legs and head.
“I like seeing the kids connect with the animals, especially when Penny calls Spud’s pom-
kids don’t come from agricultural backgrounds.” — C A I T L I N F I S H E R pom hairdo “the pouf.”

AUGUST 2023 23
Desert X AlUla:
The Art of the Desert

AlUla’s oasis has inspired

artists for millennia: Recently,
Desert X AlUla has brought a
fresh artistic resurgence to this
striking desert landscape.

Image: Dana Awartani’s “Where the Dwellers

Lay” is one of the spectacular art installations
at Desert X AlUla that seeks to reflect the
region’s history, culture, and geology.
Credit: Royal Commission on Alula
 PAID CONTENT FOR ROYAL COMMISSION FOR ALULA

In the searing heat of the desert, a aromatics, and more across the
sculptured pool of stainless-steel grueling desert from southern Arabia
shimmers as it reflects the bright to the Mediterranean. Later, with
sunlight, the image constantly the spread of Islam, thousands of
changing with the time of day and pilgrims from across the world passed
angle at which it is viewed. It stands through AlUla’s oasis each year as
as an artistic representation of a they traveled the pilgrimage routes to
mirage—or at least it stood. Because the holy cities of Makkah (Mecca) and
this work of art, like a mirage and Medina. Such international exposure
the shifting sands of the desert, made AlUla a meeting point of
is transient, and now that the art cultures, influencing the area’s long
exhibition has closed, it leaves and artistic traditions.
behind no trace. It was one of the
monumental installations of Desert
X AlUla, a temporary art exhibition
staged on a spectacular scale in the
striking sandstone landscape of
Saudi Arabia’s AlUla oasis.

Desert X has its roots in the Coachella

Valley of California where, since
2017, exhibitions have brought
the desert to life through artistic
installations modeled on and
within the landscape. The works by
acclaimed international artists aim
to amplify the beauty of the desert
while expressing profound ecological,
cultural, and spiritual themes shared
by indigenous peoples and the wider
global community. For Desert X, art
is a medium for cultural exchange,
and this was reflected in the choice of These early artworks often drew
AlUla as its first location for a Desert inspiration from nature, depicting
X exhibition beyond the U.S. animals that the artists saw, hunted,
or even feared—from lions and ibex
For millennia, AlUla has been a to ostriches and Arabian leopards.
vibrant center of cultural exchange
due to its unique position as an Spirituality also emerges in carvings
oasis in the vast Arabian desert. of abstract human figures carrying
The life-sustaining waters of AlUla what are interpreted to be ritual
ensured that it become a vital stop offerings, while AlUla’s prehistoric
for ancient traders carrying spices, tombs show artistic qualities with

This is paid content. This content does not necessarily reflect the views
of National Geographic or its editorial staff.
 PAID CONTENT FOR ROYAL COMMISSION FOR ALULA

their distinctive stone walls forming “tails” and might be sphinxes, eagles, and griffins—all
other elegant shapes in the landscape. powerful symbols from Egypt and Persia. And
yet, Hegra’s artists didn’t adopt any single style,
Around 500 B.C., AlUla may even have had its but instead blended all these influences into
own sculpture school, with the people of Dadan their own unique style.
crafting exquisite art that may have reflected
wealth, or may have been used in religious And art wasn’t only for AlUla’s wealthy patrons:
practices. Among the most impressive works Many houses in AlUla Old Town were colorfully
are the life-size and even larger statues found at decorated with pictures painted onto their
the temple of Dhu Ghabat: All look alike—men lime-washed walls. Natural pigments, from red
with strong limbs, defined stomachs, and broad iron oxide to a synthetic blue indigo, were used
shoulders, standing with hands clenched, left to create images of local plants and animals,
foot forward, and stern gazes. Stylistically these household objects, as well as geometric patterns
figures closely resemble statues found in ancient and abstract symbols, including some inspired
Egypt and Greece, but with Arabian additions by Islamic art. This artistic tradition continued
such as headbands and bracelets—the artistic through the centuries with more recent paintings
exchange given a local twist. showing cars and buses as artists again drew
inspiration from the world around them.
AlUla’s monumental art took on its most
sublime form in the colossal tomb facades of And then there’s the desert itself: the majestic
Hegra, and here, too, we see far-flung cultural sweeping landscapes of rolling sand dunes
influences engraved into the desert. The highly and rugged sandstone cliffs, the vast sense
skilled masons who carved these enormous of openness and quiet in which rusty colors
and intricate facades into the desert cliffs drew contrast with bright-blue skies and eruptions
inspiration from across the ancient world: a tomb of lush, green vegetation. With its varied and
might include Greco-Roman columns supporting constantly changing pallet and ever-shifting
a triangular pediment and stepped crenellations shapes, AlUla’s desert has captivated and
from Mesopotamia, while guarding the entrance inspired for millennia.

Above left: The monumental architecture of the tombs at Hegra combines artistic influences from across the ancient world, including
Rome, Greece, Egypt, Persia, and Mesopotamia. Above right: Thousands of years ago, ancient artists drew inspiration from the landscape
around them in AlUla, carving enduring images of long-lost native wildlife into the soft sandstone rock. Credit: Matthieu Paley
Above: “Geography of Hope” by Abdullah AlOthman is one of the monumental works of art that debuted at Desert X AlUla,
a temporary exhibition by international artists featuring the theme Sarab, meaning “mirage.” Credit: Krystle Wright

Onto this landscape, international artists came migration, and water equity. Claudia Comte’s
together to establish Desert X AlUla, first in 2020 “Dark Suns, Bright Waves” mimicked the
and again in 2022, in different canyon locations. movement of desert dunes with a striking
progression of black-and-white walls depicting a
section of algorithmic pattern based on geological
and natural shapes. A concave geometric
Featuring the theme Sarab, structure against a timeless sandstone backdrop,
meaning “mirage,” the most Dana Awartani’s “Where the Dwellers Lay” pays

recent exhibition explored homage to Nabataean tombs while reflecting the

contours of AlUla’s mountains, gorges, caverns,
ideas of mirage and oasis and rock formations. A few of these works remain
that are so intrinsic to in situ, others have moved to new locations, and
desert culture. some, like a desert mirage, are gone. But looking
to the future, the ambition is to build upon these
successes to create an unprecedented experience
of permanent art in direct dialogue with the
The 15 newly commissioned artworks included landscape. Within a larger context, Wadi AlFann,
ideas reflecting upon dreams, camouflage, which means “Valley of the Arts,” plans to bring
fiction, appearance and disappearance, together artists from around the world to create
extraction, illusion, and myth. Wandering era-defining works set within the monumental
through the canyons, where they experienced art landscape of AlUla. The canvas is prepared and
interacting with nature on a monumental scale, awaits the artists’ touches to bring it to life: Like
visitors explored a series of spectacular works. AlUla’s rock carvings, statues, and tomb facades,
this awe-inspiring art will stand the test of time—
Down the rock face of one canyon poured a the art of the desert.
meticulously crafted tapestry woven of yellow
jugs known in Ghana as Kufuor gallons, these
To learn more about AlUla visit
distinctive plastic containers are commonly
www.nationalgeographic.com/journey-to-alula
repurposed there and used for storing water.
For artist Serge Attukwei Clottey, his “Gold To plan a trip to AlUla visit
Falls” addressed the experience of globalization, www.experiencealula.com
E X P L O R E | BREAKTHROUGHS

AI, learning the slopes

Artificial intelligence that chose
moves by trial and error needed
D I S PAT C H E S to view about 80 billion screen
frames to beat the 1980s Atari
FROM THE FRONT LINES video game Skiing. Another
OF SCIENCE AI system triumphed in roughly
A N D I N N OVAT I O N 13 million frames—after it was
enabled to read the instruction
manual first. — PAT R I C I A E D M O N D S

WELLNESS

Retina may
help assess
Alzheimer’s
A recent study links
changes in the ret-
ina to the earliest
signs of Alzheimer’s
disease. Working
from postmortem
retinal and brain
tissue samples from
86 human donors,
researchers found
that higher levels
of beta-amyloid
protein in the ret-
ina corresponded
to higher levels in
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
the brain and more
severe cognitive

UNDER THE MOONLIGHT decline. Examining

the retina—the only
WHILE MANY SPECIES CAN BE FOUND RELAXING IN part of the central
S U N S H I N E , T U R T L E S TA K E B A S K I N G I N T O OV E R T I M E . nervous system
that can be directly
On a nighttime canoe trip in Townsville, Australia, two biologists
stumbled upon a scientific discovery. As they paddled along the
observed—could
Ross River, Eric Nordberg and Donald McKnight noticed freshwater help doctors inter-
turtles basking just as they do during the day—but by moonlight. vene earlier in
A variety of animals, including freshwater turtles, bask in sunlight Alzheimer’s disease.
to regulate their temperature and metabolism. Many freshwater —CONNIE CHANG
turtle species can be spotted resting on logs and rocks while they
take in the sun’s rays. But until Nordberg and McKnight’s canoe
trip, night basking had never been studied.
It isn’t unique to the Krefft’s river turtles (Emydura macquarii
krefftii) that they observed in Townsville either. The biologists’
further research, recently reported in Global Ecology and Conserva-
tion, documents that at least 13 species of turtles across six families
bask at night, in tropical and subtropical spots around the world.
The behavior has nothing to do with the moon, it turns out. Turtles
simply leave the water when it becomes too warm, in a reversal of
what they do during the day. — J E S S I C A TAY L O R P R I C E

PHOTOS: ERIC NORDBERG (TURTLES); ACTIVISION (GAME); DAVID LIITTSCHWAGER (EYE)

 CAPTURED | E X P L O R E

COLORECTAL CANCER UP
AMONG YOUNGER ADULTS

Although people diag-

nosed with colorectal
cancer are usually older
adults, now one in five
cases occurs in those
under age 55, Ameri-
can Cancer Society data
show. That’s up from one
in 10 cases in 1995. Rea-
sons for the increase
likely include genetic
and environmental fac-
tors, Western diets, obe-
sity, and low screening
rates, a study in Science
reports. —TA R A H A E L L E

PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

E X P L O R E

INNOVATOR
ADAMS CASSINGA
BY NINA STROCHLIC PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA HALE

He fights for wildlife

in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
Adams Cassinga has had many identi-
ties: Refugee. Journalist. Mining con-
sultant. And now, defender of wildlife.
As a child, he was captivated by
animals—gorillas lived in the forests
outside his hometown of Bukavu in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo—
but his path to conservation was circu-
itous. In the mid-1990s, civil war sent
him to South Africa, where for a time
he struggled to survive. Later he found
jobs in journalism and then mining.
One day, while flying to a gold mine
in northeastern Congo, Cassinga
gazed down on the green canopy near
Garamba National Park and decided
to change course. Armed groups,
poachers, and black-market profi-
teers operate in the country’s parks.
So in 2013, he started Conserv Congo,
a group of undercover investigators—
including police officers, politicians,
and students—who track wildlife
criminals. The nonprofit has worked
on more than 6,000 criminal cases,
rescued hundreds of trafficked ani-
mals, and seized wildlife contra-
band. In an industry dominated by
foreigners, the National Geographic
Explorer hopes to pave the way for
Congolese conservationists. CONSERV CONGO HAS
“If we want our children to see these WORKED ON MORE
animals, we have to do it,” Cassinga THAN 6,000 CRIMINAL
says. “Other people come as part of
CASES AND RESCUED
their job, but it’s not their responsibil-
HUNDREDS OF
ity to protect what’s ours.” j
TRAFFICKED ANIMALS.
The National Geographic Society has
funded Adams Cassinga’s work since
2020. Learn more about its support of
Explorers at natgeo.com/impact.
E X P L O R E | BREAKTHROUGHS

For two decades, a single fossil has revolutionized paleontologists’

understanding of dinosaur skin. And it may yield still more surprises.

BY MICHAEL GRESHKO

In the entryway of Frankfurt, Ger-

many’s Senckenberg Natural History
Museum, a remarkable ambassador
from the distant past holds court: a
dog-size dinosaur called Psittacosaurus
that died some 130 million years ago.
The creature is so well preserved, sci-
entists can see the finest details of its QUILL
skin with astounding fidelity. THRILL
The specimen—officially known as Described in 2002, these
SMF R 4970—left China in the 1990s filaments along the dino-
saur’s tail were the
under legally dubious circumstances,
first non-scale skin struc-
amid a rash of fossil smuggling out of tures ever found on an
the country’s Liaoning Province. After ornithischian, the large
the fossil traveled through the U.S. and diverse group of
and Europe in the hands of a German dinosaurs that includes
dealer, the museum bought it in 2001 Psittacosaurus, Tricer-
atops, and Stegosaurus.
to keep it available to science (repa-
triation efforts at the time fell apart).
Ever since, the dinosaur has yielded
one stunning discovery after another.
Dinosaur-skin fossils aren’t unheard
of: North American hadrosaur “mum-
mies,” for instance, preserve areas of
scales. But this Psittacosaurus has pos-
sibly the most skin preserved from a
single non-avian dinosaur—and even
contains vestiges of its melanin pigmen-
tation. “It’s been such a treasure trove,”
says Jakob Vinther, a paleontologist at
the U.K.’s University of Bristol who has
closely studied the dinosaur.
It also keeps yielding surprises. In
2021, a team led by Vinther found that
this Psittacosaurus is the only known
non-avian dinosaur with a preserved
cloaca, an all-purpose orifice for def- ANCIENT
ecation, urination, and sex. Last year, ALLURE
researchers doing a deep-dive study of The cloaca somewhat
the dinosaur’s scales announced that resembles those in living
they had spotted its “belly button”: crocodilians, except its
two dark-colored “flaps”
a wondrous snapshot of the ancient
have a distinctive flare.
creature’s time in ovo. The structure seemingly
What else lurks within this fossil? advertised the cloaca in
If the past is any guide, plenty more. j social and sexual settings.

30 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 NAME Psittacosaurus sp.

ORIGIN Liaoning Province, China

Beijing DISTINCTION A fossil of the dinosaur
Liaoning
Province at Germany’s Senckenberg Natural
C H I N A History Museum contains uniquely
complete and well-preserved skin
and tail bristles, enabling a series of
TAIWAN
groundbreaking scientific studies.

NAVEL
GAZING
In 2022, research by
paleontologists Phil Bell,
Christophe Hendrickx,
Thomas G. Kaye, and
Michael Pittman revealed
the scar where the dino-
saur’s umbilical cord
would have attached
to various membranes
within an egg.

STEALTH
MODE
A 2016 study led by
paleontologist Jakob
Vinther found that the
dinosaur had a dark
back and light stomach—
a kind of camouflage
called countershading—
and most likely lived
in diffusely lit habitats
such as forests.

NGM MAPS. PHOTOS: MICHAEL RICKS (WHOLE SPECIMEN); THOMAS G. KAYE, FOUNDATION FOR SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT, AND MICHAEL PITTMAN, CHINESE U. OF HONG KONG
(SOFT-TISSUE DETAILS, USING LASER-STIMULATED FLUORESCENCE); BOB NICHOLLS ART 2020 (DETAILS, MADE UNDER CROSS POLARIZED LIGHT). ILLUSTRATION: GABRIEL UGUETO
 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C AUGUST 2023

Northwest Passage . . . . P. 34
Mummification . . . . . . . . . . . P. 66
Black Equestrians . . . . . . . . P. 76
Chinese Rail Workers. . P. 88
Puerto Rican Identity. . P. 106

F EAT U R E S Jordan Sanctuary . . . . . . P. 122

ANIMALS RESCUED FROM

122 FA I L I N G Z O O S , WA R Z O N E S ,
OR OTHER TRAUMA—SUCH
AS THIS SHORT-TOED SNAKE
EAGLE— GET A HELPING HAND
AT A REFUGE IN JORDAN.

PHOTO: MUHAMMED MUHEISEN

A National Geographic team set out to
retrace the doomed voyage of 19th-
century explorer Sir John Franklin and
search for clues to his disappearance in
the fabled Northwest Passage. But the
Arctic doesn’t give up its secrets easily.

BY MARK SYNNOTT

PHOTOGRAPHS BY
RENAN OZTURK
Photographer Renan
Ozturk surveys Can-
ada’s Pasley Bay from
atop the mast of Polar
Sun. He and writer
Mark Synnott were
attempting to navigate
the Northwest Pas-
sage when their boat
became trapped in a
maze of ice floes. With
winter approaching,
much like the ill-fated
Franklin expedition,
they risked being
stranded in the Arctic.

35
In tracing Franklin’s
route, Polar Sun sailed
along Greenland’s west
coast where slabs of
glacial ice slide into
the sea, forming huge
icebergs. “Sometimes
these frozen islands
would shed large
chunks,” says Synnott,
“setting off big waves
and causing the iceberg
to dramatically rise
in the air and rotate as
it settled on its new
center of gravity.”
Blasted by spray, first
mate Ben Zartman
(at right) and crewman
Rudy Lehfeldt-Ehlinger
hoist Polar Sun’s main
sail in heavy seas.
The crew faced many
harrowing challenges
during the voyage
from Maine to Alaska,
including dodging sub-
merged drilling plat-
forms, a collision with
a beluga whale, and
riding out remnants of
Typhoon Merbok in
the Bering Sea.
JAC O B K E A N I K S C A N N E D H I S B I N O C U L A R S
over the field of ice surrounding our sail-
boat. He was looking for the polar bear that
had been stalking us for the past 24 hours,
but all he could see was an undulating car-
pet of blue-green pack ice that stretched
to the horizon. “Winter is coming,” he
murmured. Jacob had never seen Game of
H.M.S. Erebus in the Ice
Thrones and was unaware of the phrase’s A 19th-century paint-
reference to the show’s menacing hordes ing imagines the fate
of one of Franklin’s two
of ice zombies, but to us, the threat posed ships. In 1859 a note
was found on Canada’s
by this frozen horde was equally dire. Here King William Island,
describing the death
in remote Pasley Bay, deep in the Cana- of Captain John Frank-
dian Arctic, winter would bring a relent- lin (above left) and the
crew’s intention to trek
less tide of boat- crushing ice. If we didn’t more than 600 miles
toward a trading post.
find a way out soon, it could trap us and
destroy our vessel—and perhaps us too.
It was late August, and we’d ducked into
the bay to ride out a ferocious gale. For more
Follow the 2022 team
than a week, the wind had raged, sweeping in Explorer: Lost in
the Arctic, premiering
six-foot-thick chunks of frozen seawater August 24 on National
down from the polar cap. Some were the size Geographic and
streaming the next day
of picnic tables, others as big as river barges. on Disney+ and Hulu.
Here and there, small icebergs jutted skyward like would be almost comical. Our crew of five had
miniature floating Alps. The pieces of this drifting left Maine in my sailboat, Polar Sun, more than
mosaic bobbed around the boat, rasping as they two months earlier to follow the route of the
ground against each other and fizzing as they legendary explorer Sir John Franklin. He’d set
slowly melted and released trapped air bubbles. off from England in 1845 in search of the elu-
Any one of these floes could be the torpedo sive Northwest Passage, a sea route over the icy
that pierced our fiberglass hull, so we’d traded top of North America that would open a new
watches around the clock, constantly steering trading avenue to the riches of the Far East. But
the ice away from the boat with long wooden Franklin’s two ships, Erebus and Terror, and his
poles the Inuit call tuks. As one day became two, crew of 128 men had disappeared. What no one
and two became three, the ice slowly closed in knew at the time was that the ships had become
like a vise. On day nine, when Jacob and I awoke trapped in ice, stranding Franklin and his men
to find the water between the floes had frozen, deep in the Arctic. None lived to tell what hap-
it seemed certain we were going to be trapped pened, and no detailed written account of their
here for the winter. A cold knot formed in my ordeal has been found. This void in the histor-
gut as I wondered if this was how Franklin felt. ical record, collectively known as “the Frank-
If our situation hadn’t been so urgent, its irony lin mystery,” has led to more than 170 years of

PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; RICHARD BEARD, BRITISH NAVAL NORTHWEST PASSAGE
EXPEDITION, 1845-48, SCOTT POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (PORTRAIT) N O WAY O U T 41
Silt-infused freshwater
runoff creates a sum-
mer halo around Cana-
da’s Devon Island, the
world’s largest unin-
habited island. Since
1997, NASA has used
it to simulate Mars for
research. In 1845-46,
the Franklin expedi-
tion spent its first
winter camped on tiny
neighboring Beechey
Island (distant back-
ground), before sailing
deeper into the North-
west Passage.
Wearing a dry suit,
Renan Ozturk wades
toward a large ice floe
in Pasley Bay, hoping
to find a place to attach
an ice screw and tie up
Polar Sun. But summer
temperatures had soft-
ened the ice, leaving it
mushy, “like ice cream,”
Ozturk says.
RUDY LEHFELDT-EHLINGER
 C h u
RUSSIA k c h
Uelen i
S e
it a
ra 70°
Be r i n g S t
Point Hope Final challenge Floating floes Mistaken myt

160°
The exposed shore of the Sea ice is unpredictable. Chan- Believing that
Polar Sun weathers 80°

W
Beaufort Sea is often ice free nels and sounds of the North- only close to
Typhoon Merbok by September, but early cold west Passage can be ice free, thought he co
Sept. 15-18
Shishmaref fronts can push ice from the but wind and currents can fill north over an
top of the Arctic southward— them with dangerous floating Ocean. He ma
leaving vessels exposed. chunks of ice within hours. tude before r
N o

Utqiaġvik
Nome Kotzebue (Barrow)
r t

END Sea Ice Coverage

Sept. 20 Fatigue
h
A

June 26–August 17, 2022

Bay A Borden I.

150
S
lo

°
Selawik
Less More
L

Norton
Polar Sun covers 192 nautical R
p

Sound
e

miles in a single day

Sept. 13
Mackenzie
B

O C King I.
I.
rick
R
AR

Pat E
B
T ce
S
O

Prin
CT

O Prudhoe Bay C
HUNTING e 140° N
IC

K I E F
a for a clea
K
CI

E E
FOR CLUES S u
RC

C U
f Q
LE

R
A

The evidence of the fate of o A

A M
Franklin and his men comes from N r
N
el

M
t vi
a scrawled note, a scattering of G lle

’C
E

lu
remains, two sunken ships, and Inuit Polar Sun sails at top I.
130°

re
oral testimony passed through gen- Gjøa
Gjoa makes frequent speed through 30-knot

St
stops to dodge ice winds and 12–15-ft waves
erations. The National Geographic

ra
it
team believed more answers would S B A N K S P
lie in an undiscovered tomb of e
Gjøa stuck in ice a I S L A N D
Franklin. They searched for 10 days Sept. 2, 1905–Aug. 10, 1906
on all-terrain vehicles across rugged 110°
DA ES

and lake-dotted tundra, but a

NA TAT

tomb eluded them. Gjøa sailors see an eastbound ship

CA D S

Tuktoyaktuk and realize they’ve made it through

N. ON
E

.T.
IT

Aug. 26, 1905

A
YU

W
UN

120°
m
Inuvik

VUT
.
V
u
Cairn Graves and human remains

N.W.T
n
d

I C

NUNA
Known Franklin expedition camp Relics s
e
Fort n Ulukhaktok

T
McPherson G

O
ul

R
Mack f I
Terror and Erebus Cape Felix en A
abandoned Clarence Is. Polar Sun sails with
IS
zie

April 22, 1848 only two crew members

between Cambridge L
A
Bay and Tuktoyaktuk N
Ja m D
es
Victory Point note Ro Almost pushed into
May 28, 1847, and ss Sutton I. shore by storm Cambridge Bay
St Sept. 6
April 22, 1848 ra Dolphin and
Franklin Point it Union Strait
Collinson Inlet
NU HW RIES
NO RRI

Tennent Matty
TE

Cape
NA

Island C or
RT TO

Tent peg found Collinson Inlet Island Kugluktuk o n a ti o n G u l f Colborne

VU T

base camp Q
T

u
ES

Erebus K I N G
Bay
LONG, COLD JOURNEY
W I L L I A M The core route of the Northwest Passage 2022: Trapp
Ducking into
is occasionally navigable a small portion of
avoid a storm
the year, during the Northern Hemisphere’s walled in by ic
Terror Bay I S L A N D summer. National Geographic’s Polar Sun nine days, the
trait

Mount Matheson crew was lucky enough to make it through vered out, av
2022 expedition camps 463 ft
141 m in a single season, while others ended up of the Erebus
e S

Fitzjames I.
Terror wreck
Washington Bay
START trapped in ice for years at a time.
Searched Polar Sun crew’s
Ra

by boat found 2016 overland route YEAR ONE YEAR TWO YEAR THREE
40 men seen by Inuit
July 1848 EREBUS AND TERROR
Gjoa Haven Leave from England Franklin dies
Si Immobilized
mp Named for the May 19, 1845 by ice June 11, 1847
so
n vessel Gjøa
St
ra Wintering at Beechey Island Stuck in ice off King
it Todd I.
POLAR SUN
Starvation Cove June 3—Sept. 20, 2022
Ogle Pt.
A D E L A I D E Small boat
10 mi
Stuck in ice, Pasley Bay
Erebus wreck Dozens of skeletons found
10 km
found 2014
PENINSULA
SOREN WALLJASPER AND PATRICIA HEALY, NGM STAFF
SOURCES: DOUGLAS STENTON, UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO; JONATHAN MOORE, PARKS CANADA; GEIR KLØVE
NATIONAL SNOW AND ICE DATA CENTER, CIRES/UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO; MATTHEW BETTS, HMS TERROR;
 S
D

A MYSTERY LOCKED IN ICE

th
N

t sea ice formed

land, Franklin North
A
EL

ould sail due Pole

PA C I F I C
L

LES

n ice-free Arctic MAP AREA

In 1845, British explorer Sir John Franklin and his crew of 128 men set out in
S

ade it to 77° lati-

CE T IC
Axe

I
MER

reversing course. search of the Northwest Passage—a fabled sea route from the Atlantic

AN
O AN
l H

CANADA
to the Pacific that would hasten trade between Europe and Asia. None of

TL
O
E

C
e

A
U.S.
Franklin’s crew survived. The Norwegian ship Gjøa in 1903-06 made the A

E
ib

H N
ISLAND
er

T first successful passage. In 2022, a National Geographic team attempted

g

E to retrace Franklin’s expedition to find fresh evidence of its undoing.

Ell

I.
ef

B
Rin

A
gne

Z Amund Route of Polar Sun Route of Gjøa Route of H.M.S. Terror

s

I Ringnes I.
I.

Dalrymple Me l v i l l e B 2022 First successful and H.M.S. Erebus

L Rock ay
transit of the 1845–48
E Cape Dudley Digges
Northwest Passage
Franklin searches Franklin last seen G 1903–06 Stops
R Town
ar northern route by Europeans
July 28, 1845 E Other
Upernavik E
B N 100 mi
Bathurst a 100 km
Island f Uummannaq L
f A
Iceberg seen
Cornwallis D E V O N I. i on page 36 N
Island
Beechey I. n Ilulissat D

LE
Disko I.
a Resolute

RC
r r y Qeqertarsuaq Qasigiannguit
C h

CI
a n n e l Navigates around (Godhavn) Disko Bay
70°

C
a large ice mass and

TI
Bylot I. battles headwinds e Aasiaat

RC
ut Whale Fish Is. A
ro B Polar Sun hugs
ed Last resupply
la

Somerset
d islands and fjords
su

Island en Early July 1845

Int
Pond for shelter
B r o d e u r Pe n i n

Inlet Nova
M’Clin

Zembla I.
a

Prince
of Wales Sisimiut
Peel
y

Island Sound
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Polar Sun Spire

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Terror and Erebus r
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King Hall Beach 7,044 ft O
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SEA ICE NAVIGATION OVER TIME T A

ped again H.M.S. Terror and H.M.S. Erebus—first built as warships—were
A E
Pasley Bay to C
outfitted with vanguard technology of the time, including O
60° W
m, Polar Sun was
ce floes. After reinforced hulls, heating systems, steam engines, and retract-

60° N
e crew maneu- able propellers. The Gjøa and Polar Sun vessels had simpler
oiding the fate designs with shallow drafts but more maneuverability, allowing
s and Terror. them to navigate especially narrow channels through the ice.

YEAR FOUR

Polar Sun Gjøa Terror

Ships abandoned (built 1982) (1813)
(1872)
April 25, 1848

William Island

6 ft 6 ft Reinforced
16-ft draft
47 ft 70 ft
ER, FRAM MUSEUM; WALT MEIER, 102 ft
MARK SYNNOTT; TOM GROSS
speculation. It has also spawned generations of harbors, and see what they saw. I also hoped
devoted “Franklinites” obsessed with piecing to complete the voyage that Franklin never
together the story of how more than a hundred did: to sail from the Atlantic into the mazelike
British sailors tried to walk out of one of the most network of straits and bays that makes up the
inhospitable wildernesses on Earth. Northwest Passage and emerge on the other
Over the years, I too had become a Franklinite. side of the continent, off the coast of Alaska.
With morbid fascination, I read all the books I Now, after nearly 3,000 nautical miles—
could find on the subject, imagining myself as a roughly half the journey—my quest to immerse
member of the doomed crew, and puzzling over myself in the Franklin mystery had become a
the many unanswered questions: Where was little too real. If Polar Sun were iced in, I could
Franklin buried? Where were his logbooks? Did lose her. And even if we somehow made it safely
the Inuit try to help the crew? Was it possible that ashore, a rescue here could be difficult. And of
a few of the men almost made it out? In the end, course, there was also that polar bear.
I couldn’t resist the urge to go looking for some of
these answers myself and hatched a plan to refit the British had
BY T H E T I M E F R A N K L I N S E T S A I L ,
Polar Sun so that I could sail the same waters as been searching for the Northwest Passage for
the Erebus and the Terror, anchor in the same three centuries. Each expedition pushed a bit

48 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 contains two separate entries. The first, dated
May 1847, says the Erebus and Terror became
trapped in ice eight months earlier, 15 nautical
miles northwest of King William Island. It ends
with: “Sir John Franklin commanding the Expe-
dition. All well.” The second entry was added less
than a year later and says the ships were aban-
doned in April 1848 and that the crew had lost 15
men and nine officers, including Franklin, who
died two weeks after penning the first note. It
ends by saying the surviving crew, now under the
command of Francis Rawdon Crozier, intended to
walk toward the nearest Hudson’s Bay Company
trading settlement, more than 600 miles to the
south. If there was any hope to be gleaned from
this desperate note, it was that Crozier was a vet-
eran of multiple Arctic explorations. He’d already
endured an expedition that had been trapped in
ice and spent time among the Inuit, who had
Synnott was joined
by his wife, Hampton given him the name Aglooka (Long Strider).
Synnott (at left), a U.S. Back in London, however, the British had a
Coast Guard–licensed very different view of the situation. In 1854, five
captain who helped
crew Polar Sun for years before the note was found, another account
part of the voyage. had emerged. John Rae, a Scottish fur trader and
“Navigating in the explorer, recounted meeting an Inuit named
Arctic is incredibly
nerve-racking,” she In-nook-poo-zhe-jook who said that a group of 35
says. “Picking our way or 40 koblunas (white men) had starved to death
through ice chunks years earlier, near the mouth of a large river. The
and maneuvering
around bergs that Inuit showed Rae dozens of relics they’d col-
can calve or flip at lected from the site, including a medal Franklin
any moment—you had received in 1836. But In-nook-poo-zhe-jook
spend your life
on boats avoiding also described a camp that bore signs of Frank-
these situations.” lin’s men having been driven to what Rae called
“the last dread alternative”: mutilated bodies,
pieces of which still sat in kettles in which they
had been cooked.
farther north, sending the mariners’ compasses When Rae shared this grisly account, the
spinning in circles as they approached magnetic English public, inflamed by none other than
north. Their ships often became trapped in ice Charles Dickens, refused to believe the crew
during the interminable darkness of the polar had resorted to cannibalism. “The noble con-
winter. Many expeditions ended in tragedy, but duct and example of such men, and of their own
none so spectacularly as Franklin’s. According to great leader himself … outweighs … the chatter of
the British version of the story, the Erebus and a gross handful of uncivilised people,” Dickens
Terror were last seen by whalers off Greenland’s wrote in his magazine, Household Words. The
coast in July 1845—and never heard from again. influence of the famous author was such that
A crucial clue emerged 14 years later. A private most Britons came to believe it was the Inuit who
expedition financed by Franklin’s widow found had killed Franklin and his men—not the brutal
a note tucked inside a metal cylinder at a place elements, the unpreparedness of the crew, or just
called Victory Point on the northern tip of Can- plain bad luck. And as a result, most subsequent
ada’s King William Island. reconstructions of the expedition’s final days
The Victory Point record, as it came to be failed to consider extensive Inuit oral histories
known, is the most significant written account that would’ve told a strikingly different story.
to emerge from the Franklin expedition. The note When the sunken wrecks of Erebus and Terror

N O WAY O U T 49
were found in 2014 and 2016, respectively, most who’d exhumed three of the crew from gravesites
Franklinites shifted their attention to what would on Beechey Island, where the expedition had
be recovered from them by archaeologists. But spent its first winter in the Arctic. The men’s
I’d heard about one guy living in the far reaches faces had emerged from the permafrost eerily
of Canada’s Northwest Territories who was still preserved. “It was like a crazy time warp, where
searching for what he believed to be the mystery’s I wasn’t sure if we had stepped back into their
holy grail: the tomb of Sir John Franklin. time or they had come into ours,” he said. The
experience had sent him on a reading jag,
TOM GROS S WENT TO BED one night in 1990 absorbing everything he could find on the sub-
and dreamed he found the final resting place ject. And then came the dream. When he woke
of Sir John Franklin. “I dreamed I found him in up, Tom decided to plan his first search.
Toronto,” he said. “I remember thinking: This On the phone, he described how over the
can’t be right.” next 27 years, he’d mounted 40 Franklin search
I had tracked down Tom’s number and called expeditions. In between shifts as a maintenance
him at his home in northern Canada. He told me manager for the Northwest Territories housing
his Franklin fascination had begun when he’d authority, he’d covered a mind-boggling 12,000
watched a documentary about archaeologists miles by foot and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) across
King William Island. He’d also spent dozens of his burial served as a depot of information left
hours crisscrossing the same area in his own for future explorers to find. Franklin’s tomb
small plane. Unlike many Franklinites, Tom lived might hold the ship’s logbook, which would
in the Arctic. He’d moved to Nunavut 39 years provide a daily account of the voyage, as well
ago and had a child with an Inuit woman. While as diaries and letters. The ship had included a
hunting and trapping with his Inuit friends, he naturalist, whose scientific observations may
always paid close attention to the stories they be stashed there, and the men had carried early
told about their ancestors’ encounters with white photographic equipment; conceivably there
men, and he became convinced that the Inuit could be images. “It could be a historical trea-
accounts were the key to finding Franklin. Over sure trove,” Tom said.
the past decade, he’d been joined on his searches His most promising lead came in 2004 when
by Jacob, an Inuit guide and former Canadian an Inuit hunter named Ben Putuguq told him
wildlife conservation officer. about a rectangular “stone house” that he’d
Tom emphasized the prize wasn’t just finding found on the north side of King William. Inside,
Franklin but all that would’ve been buried with Putuguq saw four stone vaults. The structure
him. He explained that when the leader of a Brit- had large black rocks surrounding its doorway
ish expedition perished during such a journey, and was dug into the side of a ridge, and Putuguq
was adamant that it was unlike anything Inuit
would build.
For a time, Tom was convinced that Putuguq’s
story matched older Inuit testimony collected by
Armed with a shot-
gun to ward off polar an eccentric American explorer named Charles
bears, Synnott visits Francis Hall, who’d spent 1860 to 1869 living
the graves of three with the Inuit and gathering hundreds of pages
men from the Franklin
expedition who per- of testimony about the Franklin expedition. An
ished on Beechey Inuit man named Supunger told him about trav-
Island during the eling to the north end of King William Island
winter of 1845-46.
Explorers searching and stumbling onto a ragged tent, a skeleton of a
for Franklin found the partially clothed kobluna, and a strange wooden
graves and a large pillar with a decorative ball carved into its base.
rock cairn but no note
explaining which way The wooden pillar, which was especially out
the ships had headed. of place since there are no trees on the island,
In the 1980s, a team marked an area where several large stones were
of forensics experts
exhumed the three carefully fitted together. Supunger pried open
bodies and determined the rocks, revealing a stone vault in which he
that the mariners found a knife, a leg bone, and a skull.
died from a combina-
tion of tuberculosis Even with these descriptions, finding a stone
and pneumonia. structure on King William Island’s rocky expanse
would be akin to winning the explorer’s lottery,
but in 2015, Tom thought he’d done just that. He
and Jacob and two friends were flying in a small
plane south of Victory Point, the place where the
famous last note was found, when he noticed
two black stones on a ridge. “They didn’t belong
there,” he told me. “And as I flew closer, I could
see a perfectly rectangular structure that was
built into the side of the ridge.” He estimated it
was roughly 12 by 16 feet.
But in the excitement of the moment, he’d
failed to record the coordinates on the plane’s
GPS. He and his co-pilot assumed their path
would be easy to retrace, but on subsequent
flights, the stone structure eluded them, lost in a

N O WAY O U T 51
With midnight
approaching, the sum-
mer sun remains above
the horizon on King
William Island. Many
historians believe that
somewhere in this
sprawling landscape of
lakes, bogs, and gravel
fields Captain John
Franklin is buried,
perhaps with a cache
of logbooks, letters,
and other information
about the expedition.
labyrinth of homogenous gravel ridges shrouded Tom Gross (far right)
by fog and rapidly changing weather. After sev- and Matthew Irving
repair an ATV during
eral more seasons of searching, they’d systemat- a 10-day, 500-mile
ically ruled out everywhere but a 30-square-mile search for Franklin’s
grid—the area he planned to search during his tomb on King William
Island. The team found
next trip. “You’re welcome to join us,” he said. “We a few artifacts, includ-
can always use another pair of eyes.” ing a fitting possibly
from a ship’s steam
engine (above). “When
I met Tom, Jacob, and the other
I N L AT E J U LY, we found those clues,
members of the search team in Gjoa Haven (pro- I thought we were so
nounced JOE-uh HAY-vin). The only settlement close to finding Frank-
lin,” Synnott says.
on King William Island, it was named after Roald
Amundsen’s ship, the Gjøa, which the Norwe-
gian explorer anchored in the harbor for two years
during the first documented navigation of the
Northwest Passage, completed in 1906. Many of in a convoy with Jacob leading us through the
the settlement’s 1,100 Inuit, who subsist mainly island’s interior toward Cape Felix, about a
by hunting and fishing, use its original name, hundred miles north. The topography varied
Uqsuqtuuq, which means “lots of fat,” referring between fields of limestone gravel and misty
to the plenitude of sea mammals. bogs, broken only by the occasional cairn, little
Jacob and Tom are both 62 and seasoned out- stacks of flat stones marking old Inuit hunting
doorsmen, capable of operating in the Arctic’s routes. Since it was summer and the sun never
difficult terrain and extreme weather, but the set, the temperature remained steady, yet the
outward similarities end there. Tom is barrel- damp air held a permanent chill that kept us
chested, an eager conversationalist, and favors bundled in fleeces and rain gear.
baseball caps, while Jacob is rawboned, a quiet It was molting season, and white goose feath-
observer, and seems to live in a fur-lined bomber ers floated in the air all around us like thistle-
hat with earflaps. I liked them both right away, down. Without their plumage, the geese couldn’t
and Tom’s enthusiasm was infectious. “I’m pos- fly, and as they ran hither and yon, their honk-
itive we’re going to find the tomb,” he told me. ing ever present, we saw a number of scraggly,
“It’s practically a sure thing.” black-furred arctic foxes in hot pursuit. And I
After packing our gear on ATVs, we set off wondered how many of these birds Franklin’s

54 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
men may have harvested during the summers the sun on its 24-hour circuit around the horizon,
they spent here on the island. he shared bits of his background. He was born
Late on our second day, we stopped atop a on the Canadian mainland, on the shore of the
hill marked with a prominent cairn. Jacob said McNaughton River, about 130 miles southwest
it was likely built by the Thule, Inuit ancestors of Gjoa Haven, the youngest of nine children. His
who lived on this island 800 to 1,000 years ago. parents adhered to a seasonal calendar, hunting
Hunters had been using it ever since. “The caribou, muskox, and polar bear in the summer;
camps are always on the high places because spearing arctic char in the rivers in the fall; and
it’s where you can see the game,” Jacob said. A sealing on the coast in the spring. During winter,
ring of stones was arranged around the cairn and they lived in igloos, which were lit and heated
covered with bright green moss. Jacob explained with seal-oil lamps.
the stones were used to hold down the corners When Jacob was five, Canadian authorities
of the hunters’ sealskin tents, and the moss had forced the family to move to Gjoa Haven so the
been fed by the decomposition of animal car- children could receive formal education. The
casses slaughtered here. family was given a small house and a modest
During the day, Jacob didn’t say a lot, but in allowance, but the money wasn’t enough to
the evening, as we sat drinking tea and watching afford the imported food sold at the Hudson’s

N O WAY O U T 55
After seeking refuge “I was worried a floe
in Pasley Bay from would slice the hull
a storm, the crew of or we’d get bulldozed
Polar Sun woke one onto land,” says Syn-
morning to find the nott. “But also, that
boat surrounded by the whole bay would
pack ice blown down freeze and we’d be
from the polar cap. stuck, like Franklin.”
Bay store, and the hunting around Gjoa Haven a ring of limestone boulders caught my eye—
was poor. At school, Jacob struggled to fit in. “I another tent circle. Here, I found a scattering of
had caribou clothes—caribou pants, caribou camp items, including an old ladle, a rusty fox
mitts, caribou everything,” he said. “The kids trap, and a few bullet casings.
teased me about it because they had new cloth- But there was one item that didn’t fit the pic-
ing that came from the south.” ture of an old Inuit camp: a hunk of metal that
Jacob’s parents would leave Gjoa Haven looked like a brass pipe fitting. It had four open-
during summers to hunt, but Jacob remained ings, three of which had hexagonal heads. One
in the settlement and eventually trained as a hex head had a section of pipe threaded into it.
conservation officer. His tasks included darting “What do you think it is?” I asked Tom.
polar bears, measuring them, and taking blood “I’d say that it looks like a piece of the Erebus
and fur samples. These days, Jacob worked as a or Terror’s steam engine,” he replied.
hunting guide and served as the president of a Jacob and I also found a ball of iron pyrites—
local Inuit museum. used as a fire starter in England in the 1800s.
That night, we camped at the mouth of a bur- Another member of the team then picked up
bling river that drained a chain of large lakes into a wooden tent peg. It measured precisely 16
Collinson Inlet. It was a mild evening, and wispy inches. Jacob said that Inuit didn’t use tent pegs,
cirrus clouds curled across the troposphere. and when they cut wood, they did it by eye and
Tom sat on a cooler with his “Franklin bible”—a not to exact measurements.
leatherbound journal filled with nearly three We assumed these were Franklin artifacts and
decades’ worth of handwritten notes, photos, that we must be close to the stone house Tom
and sketches. had seen from the air. But King William Island
He flipped the book open to show me draw- has a way of hiding its secrets. For the next four
ings of the stone house: four walls and a door- days, we scoured the gravel ridges that extend
way. The roof was gone, and inside were the four like bony fingers from Collinson Inlet into the
rectangular vaults. “This is what I saw from the interior, but the terrain was maddeningly uni-
air in 2015,” he said. “And it matches exactly with form. After a while, it felt as if we were traveling
the testimony of Ben Putuguq.” in circles—a fact confirmed by my GPS.
Tom’s description of the stone house also bears Frustrated that our “sure thing” was turning
a striking similarity to an important account by a into a wild-goose chase, Tom shifted our efforts
whaler named Peter Bayne, who’d met some west to a place called Erebus Bay.
Inuit in the winter of 1867-68. They’d recounted
to him how two large ships had become ice- Jacob, Tom, and I sat around
T WO DAY S L AT E R ,
bound off the west coast of King William a driftwood campfire on the shore of the bay. As
Island. The sailors set up camp on shore with the flames crackled, Tom opened his Franklin
tents filled with sick and dying men. Most of the bible and recited another Inuit account.
dead were buried on a nearby hill, but one man In 1866, Charles Francis Hall wrote that he met
died aboard the ship and was “brought ashore an Inuit named Kok-lee-arng-nun, who said he’d
and … not buried in the ground like the others, been invited aboard a ship off the coast of King
but in an opening in the rock … and many guns William Island. The Inuit described the chief of
were fired.” The Inuit spoke of “several cemented the ship as “an old man with broad shoulders,
vaults” that lay inside the tomb, one large and a thick … with gray hair, full face, and bald head”
few smaller ones, which they believed contained and referred to him as Too-loo-ark (Raven). Tom
only papers. The Inuit account was so detailed showed us a copy of a daguerreotype of Franklin.
that Bayne drew a map that seemed to put the In his pointed, black bicorne hat and long dark
location somewhere near Victory Point. overcoat, raven-like seemed a fair description
for the British captain. The ship was anchored
AROUND MIDMORNING the next day, Tom led in a large bay, where “a great many, many men
us north, out onto a skinny, hook-shaped pen- on the ice had guns + many had knives with long
insula that protruded into a cobalt blue sea. handles,” and they stretched in a line across the
The water was calm and mostly ice free, save bay, where they drove caribou onto the ice and
for the occasional car-size chunk floating along “killed a great many.”
the shore. As we traversed the sliver of land, After he finished reading, Tom asked, “What

58 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 The freezing temperatures gave way
to a blazing midday sun that
seemed to light a fuse in the mass
of ice encircling our boat. Every few
minutes, the bay echoed with the
sound of melting chunks shattering
and crashing into the water.
would the Inuit do if they came to hunt on King midday sun that seemed to light a fuse in the
William Island and found white men killing all mass of ice encircling our boat. Every few min-
the game?” He was looking at Jacob, but his utes, the bay echoed with the sound of melting
friend said nothing. Having lived among the chunks shattering and crashing into the water.
Inuit for most of his life, Tom was used to such Two days earlier, we had tied a line around a large
silences and answered his own question. “The floe, which had protected us from the swirling
Inuit shamans would have put a curse on Frank- chunks. Now, without warning, a huge piece of ice
lin’s men,” he said. “I’m convinced that the Inuit broke off, spawning a wave that caused the boat
may have once known where Franklin’s tomb to shudder as if we had been rammed by a whale.
is located, but they didn’t want it to be found “It’s time to go,” Jacob said calmly as he began
because it was cursed.” pulling in lines and Polar Sun’s first mate, Ben
Jacob remained silent. He stared at the steam Zartman, started the engine. While Jacob and I
rising from his boot liners, drying by the fire. perched on the bow, tuks at the ready, Ben drove
After Tom went back to his tent, Jacob looked at us into a basin of open water the size of a swim-
me. “When I was a kid, my mom told me to never ming pool. But we were still blocked by ice.
talk about shamans,” he said. “It’s bad luck.” Ben revved the engine. “Whoa, slow down!”
I yelled. But Ben didn’t hear—or didn’t care
surrounded by the ice in the
A M O N T H L AT E R , to hear. The boat hit the ice with a sickening
middle of the Northwest Passage, I had bigger crunch that lifted the bow out of the water. She
concerns than our failed search. After we left tipped on her side; then all 17 tons of her slid
King William Island, Jacob joined our crew on backward into the basin, leaving a black streak of
Polar Sun to help guide us through a situation paint on the ice. But Ben’s aggressive ramming
just like this. But given the amount of ice, there worked. A tractor-trailer-size chunk had broken
wasn’t much anyone could do except hope for a loose, opening a narrow lead.
southeast gale that might blow all the ice out of For the next two hours, we followed one tiny
the bay. Instead, the wind blew northwest. Hard. channel after another as we threaded our way
And every day, more and more ice crowded into north into James Ross Strait. When Polar Sun
the bay, threatening to crush Polar Sun. Or per- finally escaped into open water, my relief was
haps worse, drive her up onto shore out of the tempered by the knowledge that we still had 2,100
water, where she would reside forevermore as nautical miles to go—the equivalent of crossing
a blight on this magnificent landscape—and a the Atlantic Ocean—and any day, the pack ice
monument to my own hubris. could blow down from the Beaufort Sea and
And then, just when we’d all but lost hope, pinch off our escape through the Bering Strait.
we caught the break that had eluded Franklin: We pushed Polar Sun hard fleeing west across
The freezing temperatures gave way to a blazing the central Arctic as summer came to an end.

N O WAY O U T 59
Below deck, Ozturk
prepares to go on
watch. Polar Sun’s crew
rotated watches every
two hours, taking turns
navigating through ice
and fog. “Sleep depri-
vation became a way
of life,” Ozturk says.
“And the pressure
was intense.” Halfway
through the journey,
the sun began dipping
below the horizon,
adding darkness to the
difficulties they faced.
The night returned, but a gray curtain of clouds Strait, the unofficial finish line of the North-
hung over the sky, and we couldn’t make out any west Passage. As we crossed the Chukchi Sea,
stars. I wanted to soak in all the natural beauty I received a satellite text from my wife: “Have
of this place, sights Franklin would’ve noted. We you heard about Typhoon Merbok?” she asked.
saw pods of shimmering white beluga whales, a The National Weather Service was calling it “the
dozen or more traveling below the surface in a strongest storm in over a decade.” A typhoon
perfect arrow formation, and huge huddles of in the Arctic, I thought; you can’t make this up.
walruses, their countless round faces and long We anchored a few miles off the coast of Point
tusks bobbing in the frigid sea. Gulls constantly Hope, Alaska, to ride out the gale-force winds
circled the boat, swooping in front of the bow and 11-foot swells. As the wind screamed in Polar
with the daring of fighter pilots. We also saw Sun’s rigging, I passed the time reading about
other vessels, including the Canadian icebreaker Franklin and revisiting the eternal question of
the Henry Larsen and a huge red ship that sailed what happened to him and his men.
a grid pattern, presumably in search of offshore Of the 105 men who abandoned ship in April
oil deposits. 1848, the remains of only about 30 have been
Finally, we rounded Alaska’s Point Barrow located to date. So, what became of the rest? In
and made the turn south toward the Bering the 1870s, some Inuit told an American whaler
that they’d met a group of white men years ear- a decade of Arctic winters, only to die just short
lier on the Melville Peninsula, nearly 300 miles of reaching a trading post and the chance to
east of King William Island. The white men were make it back home. In that moment, riding out
led by a chief who wore a uniform with three the last of the typhoon, I believed I understood
stripes on his sleeve. The Inuit testified these what their longing for home must’ve felt like.
strangers had stashed papers inside a cairn, and
as proof of the encounter, they displayed a silver POLAR SUN SLID into Nome’s inner harbor at 7:30
spoon that bore Franklin’s crest. p.m. on September 20. After 110 days and 5,877
Around that time, another Inuit presented a nautical miles, I had mixed feelings about the
sword to a trader at a Hudson’s Bay Company out- expedition coming to an end. Part of it was that
post, reporting that a “great officer” of the Frank- Jacob wasn’t there to help me tie up at the public
lin expedition gave it to him in 1857 as thanks for dock. He’d left the expedition after we escaped
taking care of his men over the winter. from the ice. He was probably already hunting
Was Crozier the “great officer” who may have caribou out in the same lands where we had
hung on into the mid-1850s? In some ways, this searched for Franklin’s tomb. But before he’d
struck me as the saddest part of the Franklin left the ship, Jacob had dropped a bombshell: “I
story, that Crozier, or someone, made it through know where Franklin is buried,” he said. “Tom
thinks we already looked there, but we didn’t.”
Jacob pointed on a map to a spot a few miles
from where we’d been searching. There it was.
The location, he explained, had been passed
Some of Franklin’s
men sat for daguerreo- down as family lore from ancestors who’d trav-
types before leaving eled to the north end of King William Island to
England in 1845. Many collect driftwood, which they used for making
were hardened veter-
ans of daring expedi- spears, knife handles, and dogsleds. Long ago,
tions. Francis Rawdon his great-grandmother had found a grave on a
Crozier (top row, far gravel ridge. Whether it was the “stone house,”
left), second-in-com-
mand, had survived he couldn’t say. But on the ground nearby, she
being stranded in the had found a scattering of musket balls and prune
Arctic on a previous pits—objects that she and her people had never
voyage. After Franklin’s
death he took com- seen before.
mand, but the details For whatever reason, Jacob had waited to tell
of what happened next me until there was nothing I could do with the
remain unknown.
information. When I pressed him as to why, he
From top left: Francis Raw-
don Crozier, James Reid,
smiled and said something to the effect that
James Fairholme, Edward maybe I’d return to Gjoa Haven someday, and we
Couch (middle row) James
Fitzjames, Charles Hamilton
could continue the search—with Tom, of course.
Osmer, Henry Thomas Dun- But I wondered if it might also be that he doesn’t
das Le Vesconte, Charles
Des Voeux (bottom row)
actually want to find the tomb. One night, while
Graham Gore, Henry Foster sitting in the cabin of Polar Sun, as I stoked the
Collins, Harry D.S. Goodsir,
Stephen Stanley
woodstove, Jacob turned to me and said, “It’s
PHOTOS: RICHARD BEARD, NATIONAL
bad luck to mess with dead people’s things.”
MARITIME MUSEUM, GREENWICH,
LONDON (CROZIER); RICHARD BEARD,
Later, I called Tom and told him what Jacob
BRITISH NAVAL NORTHWEST PASSAGE
EXPEDITION, 1845-48, SCOTT POLAR
had said. “What’s the location?” Tom asked. I
RESEARCH INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF
CAMBRIDGE (ALL OTHERS)
told him. There was a long pause. “We already
searched there,” he said. Another pause, “Maybe
we’ll search there again next year.” j

Adapted from Into the Ice, by Mark Synnott, to

be published fall 2024 by Dutton, an imprint of
Penguin Publishing Group. Copyright ©2024 by
Mark Synnott. Renan Ozturk photographed the
search for new frog species in Guyana’s isolated
Pakaraima Mountains for the April 2022 issue.

N O WAY O U T 63
Enjoying a brisk wind
from the stern of Polar
Sun, Synnott scans the
Baffin Island coast.
Over 110 days, his crew
covered 5,877 nauti-
cal miles and endured
nearly every challenge
the sea can hurl at a
sailboat. “Even with
modern technology
and a warming Arctic,”
he says, “the North-
west Passage remains a
serious adventure. We
were lucky to make it.”
Captiontk ipsem lorem
uis vend occab ipsam
res et et larum et lame
ipis ea que molor pore
pro blaceribus diosm
quis aspie brndan isa
adipsus cearu ptatemp
ipis ea que molor pore
pro blaceribus diosm
quis aspie brndan isa
adipsus cearu ptatemp
ossimil litatur sin pore
nulpa consequo berro
quae. Ucillori omll auda
dolorecus ul volporm
orum quat gium quiat.
Excavations of an ancient mortuary complex in
Egypt are shedding light on how the craft was once
a booming business—and not just for pharaohs.
B Y J A S O N T R E AT • I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y O W E N F R E E M A N

THE GOLDEN AGE OF

MUMMIFICATION
66
AMONG THE EMBALMERS
DEEP IN AN UNDERGOUND embalming work-
shop, or wabet, in the Egyptian necropolis of
Saqqara, the 70-day mummification process
begins. A priest wearing a mask of jackal-
headed Anubis, god of funerary rites, officiates.
By the 26th dynasty (664-525 B.C.) the embalm-
ers—illustrated here based on the excavations
and theories of the late archaeologist Ramadan
Hussein—would have been dedicated to mak-
ing the dead appear as lifelike as possible. Only
then could a priest reunite the body with its
spirit, or ka, and the deceased begin its final
journey to the hereafter.
BRANDON SHYPKOWSKI
SOURCES: SUSANNE BECK, UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN;
SALIMA IKRAM, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO
 T H E E VO LU T I O N O F
M U M M I F I C AT I O N
I N A N C I E N T E GY P T
GATEWAY TO THE AFTERLIFE 3000 B.C.
1st dynasty
T H E N E C R O P O L I S of the ancient capital of Early Dynastic Period
Bodies are wrapped in
Memphis, Saqqara is situated on the Nile Riv- linen bandages treated
er’s west bank, the direction in which the sun 2nd
with resin and mineral
salts; entrails are left
sets and where the Egyptians believed the after- First royal burials
inside the body.
at Saqqara
life began. The workshop, discovered in 2016,
3rd
offers new evidence that embalming took place
underground. The burial shaft known as K24 was 4th
Old Kingdom
Elite nonroyals are
found a year later. Both date to the 26th dynasty 2500 mummified. New
in ancient Egypt’s Late Period. By this time the introductions include
5th molding bandages
rituals and processes of mummification had around each append-
developed for more than two millennia. Mum- age, eviscerating the
body, and placing the
mies found in Saqqara in the Early Dynastic 6th entrails in sacred jars.
Period were believed to be royal. As early as the
7th and 8th
Old Kingdom, however, priests and other elites
also hoped to live among the gods. First Intermediate Period

11th
2000 Middle Kingdom
Techniques occasionally
diversify to include brain
AS 12th removal via the nostrils
EUROPE
and the injection of resins
IA

to dissolve entrails, which

EGYPT MAP Ancient Egyptian site could then be extracted
Nile R. AREA Ancient desert route 13th and 14th through body orifices.
AFRICA
Oasis
Second Intermediate Period
Mediter ra nean
1500
S ea
Gaza 18th

Alexandria New Kingdom

ile River Delta Removal of the brain
SUEZ becomes standard
LOWER EGYPT CANAL 19th practice.
Giza Pyramids Cairo
Saqqara Memphis 20th
necropolis SINAI
El Faiyum
Gu
Eas

Beni 1000
lf o

Suef Third Intermediate Period

21st
ter

Bahariya The 21st dynasty is the

fS

apex of the trade. Efforts

ue
n

to make the body look

z

El Minya
lifelike include stuffing
De

W UPPER EGYPT Red the cavity to preserve

es
se

te Sea its shape.

N

rt

Farafra Asyut
ile
rn

Wadi Gasus
De

Sohag Late Period

26th dynasty
se

Abydos Qena Some early practices

are abandoned, but
rt

Valley of Luxor 500 embalmers continue

Dakhla 27th
Kharga
the Kings (Thebes) to try to preserve the
100 mi 28th outward appearance
29th of the dead.
100 km 30th
Modern-day coastline
and drainages shown
Aswan
Kurkur
Philae

Lake
Nasser

B.C.
A.D.

68 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 UNDERGROUND
WORKSHOP Ibu
AND TOMBS Purification tent

Ventilation
shaft

A S AC R E D S PAC E
The surface of the facility
likely featured an ibu, a
sacred tentlike structure
Tomb 1
used for funerary rites. Here
(not excavated)
bodies were ritually washed
and bathed in natron, a
mineral salt critical to the
mummification process.
K24
Burial
shaft Tomb 2

Tomb 3 Tomb 4

Wabet
Embalming workshop

42 ft
The 18 mummies and
skeletons buried here exhibit
THE WORKSHOP a range of socioeconomic
The wabet was found con- statuses; some lacked coffins,
nected to a separate shaft while others had elaborate
over 40 feet underground. sarcophagi and grave goods.
The cooler chamber might These 12 mummies,
have been used for disem- including two chil-
boweling the body and dren, were buried
applying oils and resins. here once lower lev-
els had been sealed.

CLASS DIVISIONS Tomb 5

The deeper a body was
buried, the more wealthy
or important the individual
was likely to have been in
life. Hieroglyphics on cof-
Locus 7
fins also yielded clues to Locus 8
status. Once lower levels
Locus 2
were occupied, the shaft
was filled with rubble. Locus 6 Locus 9
Tomb 6
Locus 5 Locus 1
Two priests were found DIGGING DEEP
interred here, along The limestone at
with a bowl holding Saqqara is unstable
Locus 4
traces of a precious in some areas; rooms
resin called dammar. could only be carved
Locus 3 out of the rock at
certain depths.
A priestess was buried
98 ft
here with a funerary mask
of gold and silver.

RILEY D. CHAMPINE AND BEN SCOTT, NGM STAFF; BRANDON SHYPKOWSKI

SOURCES: SUSANNE BECK, UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN; SALIMA IKRAM,
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO; MATTHIAS LANG AND PHILIPPE KLUGE,
UNIVERSITY OF BONN; THE OXFORD HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT,
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS; GREEN MARBLE
T H E 70 - DAY M U M M I F I C AT I O N P RO C E S S I N T H E L AT E P E R I O D
First day Next 40 days
Brain removal Evisceration Cleansing Desiccation
A hooked iron tool is Entrails are removed The corpse, The body is
inserted into the left nos- through a slit in the left side including the immersed in the
tril or back of the skull. The of the body, desiccated, interior cavity, is sacred mineral
brain is loosened and dis- anointed with oils and resins, rinsed with water salt, natron, to
carded; resins are injected. and placed in jars. and palm wine. dry it out.

Ventilation
The subterranean cham-
ber was significantly
cooler than the ground
above. Shafts connected
to the surface kept air
flowing through the
chamber, freshening
the room.
Reed mats
Mummies were wrapped
on platforms or funeral
beds. Patterns from the
reed mats on which the
body rested have been
found imprinted on
mummy wrappings.

Embalming vessels
Multiple containers
inscribed with notes on
their use were found in
the wabet. Biomolecular
analysis of resinous
remnants in the vessels
has allowed scientists
to identify specific Stomach
ingredients in Duamutef
these mixes. (jackal)

Lungs
Hapi
(baboon)

Intestines
Qebehsenuef
(falcon)

Liver
Imseti
(human)

Drainage
The main feature of the
room was a platform cut
from stone. A carved
channel allowed blood
and other bodily fluids
to flow to the floor.
Remaining days
Oiling Wrapping ‘Opening of the mouth’
The skin is massaged with The body cavity is filled with sawdust This final ritual, performed by a priest, is
imported juniper and cedar or textiles soaked in resinous oils. Linen intended to restore the mummy’s senses
oil, as well as domestic bandages are wrapped tightly around the for its journey to the afterlife, an idealized
lettuce oil and castor oil, to appendages, then around the entire body. version of Egypt often called the Field of
make the limbs more pliable. Wrappings are embedded with amulets. Iaru, or Field of Reeds.

Fumigation
Excavators discovered a large
brazier, or pan, with remnants
of charcoal incense in this cor-
ner. Burning incense would
have invoked the gods. It also
served to keep insects away
and deodorize the chamber.

Linens
Bandages, called wyt or
wenkhyt, were dipped
in resins and fragrant oils
before being wrapped
around the body.

REUNITING BODY AND SOUL

W R I T I N G I N T H E fifth century B.C., Herodo-
tus described three methods of mummification,
with varying effort and cost. The classic mum-
mification depicted here is based on the ancient
Greek historian’s texts and modern scholarship.
Canopic jars
Internal organs were
In the embalming workshop in Saqqara, Hussein
extracted from the body and his team of archaeologists found bowls and
and placed in four con-
tainers, each decorated
beakers with remnants of resins and oils. Hus-
with the head of the sein believed that bodies were disemboweled
organ’s protective god.
The deities were collec-
on this raised table-like area. Once washed and
tively known as the Four desiccated with natron, the body was oiled and
Sons of Horus.
wrapped in linen bandages. The entire process
culminated in a ceremony believed to allow the
body to regain the use of its senses.
BRANDON SHYPKOWSKI
SOURCES: SUSANNE BECK, UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN;
SALIMA IKRAM, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO T H E G O L D E N AG E O F M U M M I F I C AT I O N 71
E M BA L M I N G
RECIPES
The vessels found at
Saqqara provided two ‘To be given to his ‘For making the skin beautiful’ ‘To make his
head’ Ruminant animal fat, heated beeswax odor pleasant’
valuable clues: the hiero- Elemi and pistacia Ruminant animal
glyphs that spelled out resins, oil or tar of fat, degraded
what they were used for juniper/cypress “To wash” torchwood resin
and the residues inside and cedar, olive oil, Conifer oil or tar
that helped scientists animal fat
determine ingredients.

Great Britain E U R O P E
Carpathian
A TLA NT IC Danube M

ts.
JUNIPER/ L P S
O CEA N CYPRESS A
Crimea Cauc

Ca
asus Mt
PISTACIA Black Sea s.

sp
ian
Iberian Rome

Sea
Peninsula ANATOLIA
M e d Sicily Athens CEDAR
it Ti
Gades e r Syracuse
Carthage ra

gr
Strait of Gibraltar ne Crete Babylon

is
a n Sea Cyprus
es

M
Tyre op JUNIPER/
.
M t s PISTACIA Cyrene o
Jerusalem E tami CYPRESS
las Sais uph a
CEDAR At BITUMEN rates
Persepolis
Saqqara

Pe
necropolis Teredon si

r
an
Ahaggar EGYPT Thebes AR G.
Mts. 26th dynasty AB Gerrha
664–525 B.C. IA
S A H A R A N

Re
il e
PEN
INSULA
N

Nubian

d
Desert i
A F R I C A hal

Se
b‘ al K
Ru

a
Timbuktu Meroe
S A H E L Zula Marib
Arabian
N

en Sea
ig

r of Ad
e

CANARIUM Gulf

a
Ethiopian

ul
s
r Guinea Highlands n in
Uppe ali
Pe
U ba
ngi Som

o
Cong L. Albert

Congo
INDIAN
Lo Lake
a Mts.

D I STA N T O R I G I N S Basin Victoria

w

Some of the ingredients found in

er

embalming vessels would have

Mitumb

Lake
been impossible to source directly Tanganyika
Gu

Ka

from Egypt. These ranges represent

sai
inea

the potential origins of materials

from faraway lands.
Lake
Nyasa
CEDAR
Evergreen tree with wood that Zambezi
r

produces aromatic oils

sca
aga

JUNIPER/CYPRESS
Na

Evergreen trees that produce

mib

Mad

aromatic oils Kalahari

Desert

Desert
PISTACIA
Evergreen trees and shrubs with
needles and resinous cones

BITUMEN
A dense oil-based tar, also known as
asphalt, likely from the Dead Sea Cape of
Good Hope
CANARIUM
A family of tropical trees that RILEY D. CHAMPINE, NGM STAFF;
produce a resin called elemi BRANDON SHYPKOWSKI
SOURCES: SUSANNE BECK, UNIVERSITY OF
TÜBINGEN; SALIMA IKRAM, AMERICAN
DIPTEROCARPACEAE UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO; MAXIME RAGEOT,
A family of tropical trees used for tim- LUDWIG MAXIMILIAN UNIVERSITY OF
ber and for resins such as dammar. MUNICH; PHILIPPE BEAUJARD, THE WORLDS
OF THE INDIAN OCEAN: A GLOBAL HISTORY
 Preserved entrails
Resins used to
‘To be wrapped with it’ treat eviscerated ‘Imseti’ ‘Duamutef’
Oil or tar of juniper/cypress internal organs Protective god of the liver Protective god of the stomach
and/or cedar, elemi, animal were found in two Oil or tar of juniper/cypress Heated beeswax
fat and/or plant oil canopic jars and elemi

A S I A
Alt r
ay Amu
Mo
unta
ins

S h a n
a n sert Yellow
T i Gobi De
Taklimakan
K

n
Desert PACI FI C
ns

lai
ai

or
aP
N
unt

ea
dus Kunlun Mo Linzi A
In Luoyang N. Chin P O CE A N
Taxila J A
H Tibetan Plateau Xianyang
e
I tz
M CANARIUM ng
Bra
Ya

A h m aputra Shu Ying East

Ga L A China
Mathura ng Y A
es Sea
Varanasi

Ujjain Re
Xi
Taiwan ANCIENT LINKS
Mekong

d Trade routes that moved people

Tamralipti Panyu
Bharuch and goods over land and sea con-
I N D I A Hainan nected Egypt to other ancient
Luzon civilizations. How exactly embalm-
Ph ing ingredients reached Saqqara is
Bay of ili
I nd ochina South not known; these routes represent
pp

Bengal Penin su la China likely pathways.

ine

Sea
Isla

Trade routes circa 600–400 B.C.

nds

Anuradhapura
Maritime Overland
Ma

Sri Lanka
lay

(Ceylon) Modern-day coastline

and drainages shown
Pe
n.

DIPTEROCARPACEAE
S
u

OCEAN
m

Borneo
New
a

Sulawesi Guinea
t

r
a
Ja v a S e a

Java

FAR-REACHING TRADE
T H E B U S I N E S S O F mummification by the
26th dynasty was an established industry,
and a costly one: Sourcing ingredients from
the far reaches of the ancient world took time
and money. Residues found in the discarded
embalming vessels at Saqqara included many
from trees and shrubs that were not native to
the Nile River Delta—and, in some cases, might
have originated thousands of miles away. These
materials were precious: The dammar found
buried in Tomb 6, for example, could have come
from Southeast Asia. Mummification may have Watch Kingdom of
shaped life—and death—in ancient Egypt, but the Mummies, a
four-part National
the afterlife industry that grew along the banks Geographic series
of the Nile likely had repercussions far and wide. streaming on Disney+.

73
 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR FREEDOMS

HE
T

IS

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERED

WITH THE FOR FREEDOMS ARTIST
GROUP ON A SERIES OF PHOTO ESSAYS
INSPIRED BY AMERICAN HISTORY.

74
 AUGUST 2023

IN THIS SECTION

76
A KIND
OF
FREEDOM

The American story of

Black equestrians

for Thanksgiving dinner. A man

A L A R G E F A M I LY G AT H E R S 88
stands up at a town meeting to speak, his eyes full of hope. WE HELPED
BUILD
Individuals clasp their hands in prayer. A couple tuck
T H I S C O U N T RY
their small children into bed. These are among painter
Uncovering the
Norman Rockwell’s most enduring images, a quartet of history of Chinese
intimate, small-town scenes inspired by what U.S. presi- railroad workers

dent Franklin Delano Roosevelt called the four essential

human freedoms: freedom from want, freedom of speech,
freedom of worship, and freedom from fear.
Nearly eight decades later, the artist collective For Free-
106
THE WORLD’S
doms reimagined these tableaux in a sweeping and exu-
OLDEST
berantly varied series of photographs and other visual art COLONY
“that represent the multitudes of American identities.” Crisis, struggle,
The artists have displayed their work on billboards in all and strength
in Puerto Rico
50 states and Puerto Rico, in exhibitions and town halls,
on social media and lawn signs, and in magazines, in an
effort to inspire thoughtful conversation and civic engage-
ment. “By wielding the power of art,” they write, “we aim
to deepen and expand our capacity to interrogate what is
and imagine what could be.”
Recognizing the power of art to challenge and change
us, National Geographic partnered with For Freedoms on
a collaboration to help artists document the resilience
ONLINE
of communities across the nation—unveiling distinct
stories about America’s past and strengthening our under- Find more stories from
this collaboration at
standing of the present. j natgeo.com.

75
 1 THE PAST IS PRESENT

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR FREEDOMS

A KIND
OF
FREEDOM
The American story of
Black equestrians
STO RY A N D P H OTO G R A P H S BY
K E N N E D I C A RT E R

Horse trainer Silas have made their

Plummer holds Kash mark in many areas
outside Child’s Arena of horsemanship. In
stables in Bridge the United States,
City, Louisiana. From for example, an
wranglers to rodeo estimated one in four
riders to jockeys, cowboys in the late
Black men and women 19th century was Black.

76
 1 THE PAST IS PRESENT

I was maybe six

T H E F I R S T T I M E I S AW A B L AC K H O R S E M A N ,
years old. I’m 24 now, grew up in the suburbs of Durham,
North Carolina, but my mother’s family is from Dallas, and
we’d drive back to visit. I remember this as one of those
things where you’re chilling in the back seat, you see some-
thing crazy, your head does a complete 180. Cowboys! The
white-man-on-a-horse archetype; battles with Indigenous
people: That’s what I was most familiar with, from going to
the movies with my grandfathers. So about five years ago,
as I began to photograph on film, I thought it would be very
interesting to turn that cowboy narrative inside out a bit.
It’s always important to expand the narrow confines of what
we perceive to be American culture, and how we as Black
people sit inside it.
I’ve had a whirlpool of feelings, being a witness to these
people. There’s a rich history of Black American cowboys, but
for my work I’ve used the word “equestrian”—more inclusive
now, I think. For a long time I observed from the ground,
asking equestrians whether I could photograph them; I’d
never ridden a horse myself until I climbed onto one while
visiting trainer Silas Plummer outside New Orleans. Did I feel
fully comfortable or at home? No. I thought a lot about not
falling off. But in the Louisiana town where my grandfather
was born, his sharecropper family didn’t have cars, so one
assumes they were using horses or mules to get around. That
was beautiful to circle back to, very ancestral.
And my biggest takeaway, working with all the equestrians,
is just how alive they feel when they’re on a horse. There’s
a freedom that comes from interacting with animals, with
nature, with the land. This is what one form of that freedom
looks like. j

78 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 MaLana Lewis first
rode a horse at age
five during a camping
trip. Her family later
got her into barrel rac-
ing classes, and she has
collected 24 first-place
ribbons with her horse,
Star. This photograph
was taken in 2020,
when Lewis was nine.

A KIND OF FREEDOM 79
 1 THE PAST IS PRESENT

AB OVE RIGHT

Nat Love, also known Trigger was Vinsha

as Deadwood Dick, Torain’s first horse,
was born into slavery and the two have
on a Tennessee plan- ridden together since
tation in 1854. After the college student
the Civil War he moved was 13. Torain helps
west and spent 20 run the family ranch,
years driving cattle. started by her grand-
He got his nickname father, in Siler City,
in Deadwood, South North Carolina, and
Dakota, after beating also heads Torain
out every other com- Ranch’s riding club,
petitor in roping and composed mainly of
shooting contests. Black women.
COURTESY DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY,
WESTERN HISTORY COLLECTION

80 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
A KIND OF FREEDOM 81
82 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
In the early 1900s, north of Bonham,
Black communities held Texas, in 1911. The
festivals and rodeos in annual event involved
cattle country across four days of parades,
various southern states. music, and rodeos.
Here a group of cow- Racers also competed
hands show off their for prizes of $2 to $50.
steeds at the Negro ERWIN E. SMITH COLLECTION OF THE
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ON DEPOSIT
State Fair on the Fannin AT AMON CARTER MUSEUM OF
County Fairgrounds AMERICAN ART, FORT WORTH, TEXAS

A KIND OF FREEDOM 83
 1 THE PAST IS PRESENT

AB OVE RIGHT

Born to formerly After barrel racing as

enslaved parents a teen, Esperanza
in Texas, Bill Pickett Tervalon now trains
became the best with JaxieBaby in Bend,
known Black rodeo star Oregon, to “go low
at the turn of the 20th and slow” in western
century. He created the pleasure riding com-
sport of bulldogging, or petitions. The political
steer wrestling. Pickett consultant turns to
performed around the horses to bring peace
world and was the first to her life. “I get cen-
Black man inducted tered. I always leave the
into the National barn feeling better than
Rodeo Hall of Fame. when I walked in.”
COURTESY NORTH FORT WORTH
HISTORICAL SOCIETY

84 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
A KIND OF FREEDOM 85
 1 THE PAST IS PRESENT

AB OVE RIGHT

Isom Dart, born into Jamel Robinson puts a

slavery as Ned Hud- client’s horse through
dleston in 1849 in exercises on a trail in
Arkansas, was killed in Siler City. He started
1900 in Colorado by a riding when he was
bounty hunter. A jack of four and training
many trades, including horses when he was 17.
cook, miner, stunt rider, Robinson plans to stay
and horse and cattle in the business, which
thief, he was, ironically, he learned from his
shot for suspected father. “Horses keep
cattle rustling once me in a good mind
he’d gone straight. space,” he says.
COURTESY DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY,
WESTERN HISTORY COLLECTION

86 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
A KIND OF FREEDOM 87
A freight train passes
through Palisade
Canyon in Nevada.
As many as 20,000
Chinese were recruited
during the building of
America’s first trans-
continental railroad.
They lived in segre-
gated areas, earned
less than their white
counterparts, and were
denied citizenship after
Congress passed the
Chinese Exclusion Act
in 1882. Descendants,
historians, and activists
are fighting for recog-
nition of the Chinese
workers’ contributions.
2 THE PAST IS PRESENT

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR FREEDOMS

WE
HELPED
BUILD
THIS
COUNTRY
Uncovering the history of
Chinese railroad workers
STO RY A N D P H OTO G R A P H S BY
PHILIP CHEUNG
 Barbara Pence from
the Institute of Canine
Forensics searches with
a dog named Asha for
the remains of Chinese
laborers who died
during construction
and operation of the
Central Pacific Rail-
road in Terrace, Utah.
Chinese workers were
excluded from the offi-
cial cemetery. The flags
indicate where human
remains were found.

W E H E L P E D B U I L D T H I S C O U N T RY 93
 2 THE PAST IS PRESENT

Historic Preservation Officer Chris Merritt

A F T E R U TA H S TAT E
showed me the ruins of Kelton, the last of the railroad ghost
towns he wanted me to see that day, a storm whipped up
on the horizon. I stood there watching the landscape, these
clouds, the winds blowing up the dust, and I thought about
what life was like more than 150 years ago for the Chinese
workers who lived here then, laying rail and inhabiting this
thrown-together desert settlement thousands of miles from
home. There’s a fenced cemetery, not far away, where vol-
unteers with dogs are helping locate remains outside the
fence—probably the bones of Chinese workers, because the
Chinese weren’t allowed to be buried where the white people
were. I stood there too, and what I felt, for these people who
worked so hard to help build America, was shame.
I grew up in Toronto, and when I first found out that Chinese
workers had helped build the Canadian railways, I wanted to
know more. The monumental story I learned is the heart of
this photographic project: Before Canada’s construction ever
got under way, immigrant laborers from China—10,000 to
20,000, according to the haphazard records—had built the
hardest, most dangerous segments of the transcontinental
railroad in the western United States. Through the Sierra
Nevada mountains and across Utah’s high desert, it was
mostly Chinese men who blasted tunnels and pounded track
into place. The history of these immigrants who literally laid
foundations for North American rail travel and the economic
expansion of the American West is being told now by scholars,
activists, and the workers’ own descendants, like Christopher
Kumaradjaja, the great-great-grandson of the Central Pacific
Railroad worker Hung Lai Woh. To this day, Kumaradjaja told
me, people ask him where he’s “from.” He’s a fifth-generation
American, he replies, and sometimes wants to add: Are you? j

94 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
Michael Solorio is
a sixth-generation
descendant of railroad
worker Lim Lip Hong,
who fled famine in China
and arrived in California
in 1855. Solorio lives in
Berkeley, California,
and graduated from
Stanford University,
founded by the Central
Pacific Railroad com-
pany’s first president,
Leland Stanford.

95
 Snowsheds shielded
railroad tracks from
storms and avalanches
in the Sierra Nevada,
but they were not built
until after many Chi-
nese workers had been
swept away to their
death. At least one
spring, frozen bodies
of workers trapped in
snowslides were found,
some with shovels still
in their hands.

96 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
W E H E L P E D B U I L D T H I S C O U N T RY 97
98 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 Chinese railroad
workers risked their
lives blasting 15
tunnels and building
protective snowsheds
on the route through
the granite bedrock
of the Sierra Nevada.
The tracks they helped
lay cut travel time
from the East Coast
to the West Coast
from 118 days to six.

W E H E L P E D B U I L D T H I S C O U N T RY 99
 2

RIGHT
Arabella Hong Young’s
grandfather Hung
Lai Woh came to the
U.S. as a teenager in
the 1860s and helped
blast the path for the
railroad. A Juilliard-
trained singer, Young
performed in the
original Broadway cast
of the 1958 musical
Flower Drum Song.

OPPOSITE

Yale University
student Naima Liang
Blanco-Norberg, here
in her San Francisco
bedroom, is a sixth-
generation descendant
of Lum Ah Chew, who
worked as a railroad
cook and waiter at
the summit tunnels
near Lake Tahoe that
bored through the
Sierra Nevada.

100 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 THE PAST IS PRESENT

W E H E L P E D B U I L D T H I S C O U N T RY 101
102 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 “Catfish Pond,” high in
the Sierra Nevada, may
have been stocked to
feed Chinese workers
in the 1860s. Dried
fish, vegetables, and
boiled tea supplied by
Chinese importers also
kept these workers
healthier than their
Irish counterparts, who
often got sick from the
communal water supply
and less varied meals.

W E H E L P E D B U I L D T H I S C O U N T RY 103
104 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 Along the route of the
Central Pacific Rail-
road, time has wiped
from the landscape
many traces of the
Chinese laborers who
laid rails more than 150
years ago. The former
station of Kelton, Utah,
once home to many
Chinese, is a ghost
town after the main
line was redirected
in the early 1900s.

W E H E L P E D B U I L D T H I S C O U N T RY 105
3 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR FREEDOMS

Tourists climb on a
rusting U.S. military
tank on Flamenco
Beach in Culebra,
an island off the east
coast of mainland
Puerto Rico. Culebra
and the nearby island
of Vieques were used
for weapons testing
and military exercises
that lasted until 1975
and 2003, respectively.
 THE PAST IS PRESENT

THE WORLD’S
OLDEST COLONY

Crisis, struggle, and strength in Puerto Rico

STO RY A N D P H OTO G R A P H S BY
C H R I S TO P H E R G R E G O RY R I V E R A

107
 3 THE PAST IS PRESENT

Flamenco, has been named one

T H AT B E AC H W I T H A TA N K ,
of the top 10 beaches in the world. I’m Puerto Rican, and
by photographing it like this, I’m trying to make a point.
This place that is beautiful—and enjoyable, and a tourist
destination—has a complicated history that’s important to
understand, for both visitors and locals. When I was a child
in San Juan schools, a lot of our story was glossed over: The
islands were “discovered” by Christopher Columbus, the
Taíno Indians were decimated, the U.S. “happened” into
possession of it, Puerto Ricans were made U.S. citizens in
1917, in 1951 there was a referendum, our constitution was
written, we lived happily ever after. You know? It wasn’t
until I began to learn more deeply about these episodes that
many of the injustices I was seeing, in the present, started
to make sense.
Puerto Rico is considered the world’s oldest colony. The
legal word for our status is “territory,” but this is a land com-
pletely shaped by colonialism and conflict. It will take years
to finish removing the unexploded ordnance on Vieques and
Culebra islands, from the decades of U.S. military testing. To
this day, divorcing yourself from that reality does a disser-
vice to the people who live here. Except for the Taíno, we’ve
never known existing without a foreign power ultimately
in control—we are citizens, yes, but without full political
rights—and we’re grappling with this history now. There’s
much discussion about the political future of Puerto Rico,
the current austerity measures that Puerto Ricans basically
have no vote on, and the gentrification and displacement,
especially since the pandemic. A lot of my work is to educate
people and unlock a better understanding of where we are
and who we are—and where we could possibly go. j

108 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 Kariel Argenis Díaz
Maisonet, a multi-
disciplinary artist who
performs in drag here
to honor ancestors,
takes part in a cultural
event in Loíza, on
Puerto Rico’s north-
eastern coast. The
town dates to the 16th
century, when Africans
were first brought to
these islands. In recent
years the area’s people,
like many Puerto
Ricans, have reexam-
ined color prejudice
and more openly
embraced African and
Indigenous heritages.

THE WORLD’S OLDEST COLONY 109

 Historical reenactors
take part in a mock
battle in the town of
Aibonito, where in 1898
Spanish and Puerto
Rican fighters stopped
the advance of Ameri-
can troops during
the Spanish-American
War. “We have always
been a people willing
to fight,” says reenactor
and former U.S. marine
Pablo José Pérez, pic-
tured on the ground.

110 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
THE WORLD’S OLDEST COLONY 111
 3

RIGHT
When Gen. Nelson
Miles of the U.S.
Army invaded the
southwestern town
of Guánica in 1898,
it marked the start of
Puerto Rico’s second
colonial chapter. The
U.S. flag shown here is
thought to have been
brought by soldiers
when they first landed.

OPPOSITE TOP LEFT

U.S. soldiers received

this medal for their
participation in Puerto
Rico’s occupation.

OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT

This hat is from a 1950s

golf club that featured
a nine-hole course built
on the grounds of
Castillo San Felipe del
Morro, also known as
El Morro, in San Juan.

OPPOSITE BOTTOM

Capt. Henry Whitney

drew this map of
waterways around San
Juan in 1898. During
his undercover mission
in advance of the
U.S. invasion, Whitney
posed as a British mer-
chant marine officer
to avoid detection. His
detailed maps of the
island proved crucial
for the military landing.

112 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 THE PAST IS PRESENT

SAN JUAN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE ARCHIVAL COLLECTION (MEDAL, HAT, MAP)
 Cacimar Cruz Crespo
retires a banner of
pro-independence
activist José Rafael
“Fefel” Varona at the
end of a remembrance
ceremony in San Juan.
Varona led protests
against the draft for
the Vietnam War and
died in 1968, after
sustaining injuries in
North Vietnam from a
U.S. air raid at an agri-
cultural cooperative
school he was visiting.

114 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
THE WORLD’S OLDEST COLONY 115
 3

RIGHT

Ian Pagán Roig runs

a family farm in the
northern mountains
surrounding the town
of Toa Alta as well as
the Josco Bravo Project.
The program teaches
sustainable agriculture
practices to help a
new generation of
farmers restore plots
of land to supplement
imported produce.

OPPOSITE

Martín Díaz Veguilla,

a founder of the
Indigenous cultural
group Concilio Taíno,
died last February.
The Taíno people
were decimated by
Spanish colonizers,
but evidence of their
existence remains at
archaeological sites
and is present today
in the DNA of many
Puerto Ricans.

116 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 THE PAST IS PRESENT

THE WORLD’S OLDEST COLONY 117

 The Caribe Hilton, built
nearly 75 years ago to
help draw tourists to
Puerto Rico, looms over
a reenactor straighten-
ing the Spanish flag
at an 18th-century fort
in San Juan. Puerto
Rico was a Spanish
colony for 400 years;
in 1898, after losing the
Spanish-American War,
Spain ceded dominion
to the United States.

118 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
THE WORLD’S OLDEST COLONY 119
 Fireworks light up the
sky during massive
protests in summer
2019, which resulted in
the resignation of then
governor Ricardo Ros-
selló—a first in modern
Puerto Rican history.
The ouster followed
mounting discontent
over a series of issues
that boiled over with
a private-chat scandal
involving Rosselló
and members of his
administration.

120 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
THE WORLD’S OLDEST COLONY 121
 At a sanctuary in Jordan, wild animals
that survived war zones, injuries, and
smugglers find respite.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY

MUHAMMED MUHEISEN

122
Scooter, tortoise a musculoskeletal
At the New Hope disease that left
Centre in Amman, him paralyzed. After
Jordan, Scooter eats eight months of
lettuce with caretaker treatment at New
Khalifa Allozi’s help. Hope, the tortoise can
Rescued from a now move his limbs.
Gaza zoo in 2016, He gets around by
Scooter developed using a skateboard.
Sukkar, Asiatic
black bear
Now 13 years old,
Sukkar was one of a
few survivors rescued
from Magic World Zoo
near Aleppo, Syria.
Years of civil war had
killed dozens of animals
trapped there. He’s
been recovering at Al
Ma’wa for Nature and
Wildlife since 2017.
 I’d ever seen up
PA B L I T O WA S T H E F I R S T L I O N
close. The cub, about four months old, walked
toward me from the night room in his enclosure
at the New Hope Centre, a wildlife rehabilitation
facility in Amman, Jordan. Abruptly, he stopped
and stared at me. His eyes looked sad and vul-
nerable, as if he were trying to tell me something
in our common wordless language. I suddenly
felt responsible for telling his story.
Before I met Pablito, in 2018, I had been on
my way to photograph a little girl named Zahra.
She was then a seven-year-old Syrian refugee

EUR.
ASIA
MAP
TÜRKİYE AREA

AFRICA Spanning one of the

Aleppo
N. CYPRUS last remaining original
Mediterranean forests
S Y R I A in Jordan, the 274-acre
CYPRUS Al Ma’wa is the only
LEBANON sanctuary in the Mid-
Mediterranean dle East to provide a
Sea Al Ma'wa for permanent home for
Nature and
ISRAEL Wildlife
IRAQ mistreated animals
that can’t return to
WEST BANK
the wild.
GAZA Amman
STRIP Dead
Sea
SAUDI
JORDAN ARABIA
EG YPT
100 mi
100 km

CHRISTINE FELLENZ, NGM STAFF

living in a tented settlement in Jordan. Since facility for animals that eventually would be
2001 I had used my camera to tell stories of hope, moved to Al Ma’wa for Nature and Wildlife, a
resilience, and survival. Over and over again, I’d forested refuge about 30 miles away, which
visited places shattered by conflict and places sprawls over 274 acres in the Jerash mountains
where those who had fled disaster were strug- of northwest Jordan. The sanctuary was home to
gling to start new lives. a tortoise that had been paralyzed by a musculo-
Then I heard about the New Hope clinic, skeletal disease and rescued, in 2016, from
which offered a second chance for other defense- what’s been called the worst zoo in the world,
less souls: traumatized and neglected animals in Gaza. Al Ma’wa (Arabic for “the shelter”) also
rescued from mismanaged zoos, saved from war housed African lions and Asiatic black bears
zones, or confiscated from smugglers. from Magic World, a theme park and zoo on the
New Hope served as a quarantine and rehab outskirts of Aleppo in war-torn Syria.

U N L I K E LY R E F U G E E S 127
 1 2

4 5

7 8

128 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 1. Sky, Bengal tiger
At one month old, Sky
and her brother Tash were
confiscated from the trunk
of a car by authorities at the
Jordan–Saudi Arabia border.

2. Aussie, Syrian
brown bear
Along with his siblings
Hadi and Shojaa’, Aussie
came to New Hope from
3
a local zoo.

3. Loki, Syrian brown bear

Loki lives in a sprawling
habitat at Al Ma’wa with
Jamal and Rumi. The three
bears were rescued from
a Jordanian zoo.

4. Albino Burmese python

Seized from a trafficker at
an Amman airport, this four-
year-old python was very ill.
It died two months into its
rehabilitation at New Hope.

5. Greek tortoises
A caretaker holds two of
the 550 Greek turtles taken
from a trafficker at the
Jordan-Syria border. All
were later released.
6
6. Raghad, fallow deer
When Raghad was six months
old, her owner brought her
to Al Ma’wa, hoping to give
her a better life.

7. Little owl
This one-year-old was found
in a hotel room after being
posted for sale on Facebook.
The owl spent about a year
at New Hope and was then
released into the wild.

8. Mark, Arabian
gray wolf
Rescued from a Facebook
sale, Mark is now thriving in
a pack of five wolves.

9. Pablito, African lion

Seen here as a cub, Pablito
has a distinctive scar on
9
his nose.

U N L I K E LY R E F U G E E S 129
A LASTING SAFE HAVEN
RESIDENT ANIMAL ORIGINS
Almost all had suffered poor
living conditions or other abuse.

Burmese pythons, cheetahs, and Nile crocodiles are among the 50 Illegal trade confiscation* 32 animals
animal species sheltered at Jordan’s Al Ma’wa sanctuary since its
founding more than a decade ago. As of April 2023, more than 2,280 War zone zoo rescues 16
animals had been rescued, primarily from the illegal wildlife trade
Zoos and private collections 16
and zoos in war-torn regions. Most of the animals are rehabilitated and
released. But 70 animals, illustrated below, are permanent residents Smuggling confiscation† 6
due to health conditions or lack of natural habitats.

Arrival 2010 Name, Gender: Dobbie Scar Lint Ballou 2011 Asal Luna
ANIMAL: STRIPED HYENA VERVET MONKEY SYRIAN BROWN BEAR AFRICAN LION

Kiwi Something Special Tash Sky 2013 Nina Simba Masoud 2012
ARABIAN WOLF BENGAL TIGER

Animals in yellow
were rescued from
zoos in Syria, Iraq,
2014 Hawsa Shagra Bayhas Yerga Jade Sabreen and the Palestinian
HYBRID WOLF territories by Four
Paws International,
a welfare organi-
zation for animals
under direct
2016 Alpha Gamma Beta Max Muna 2015 Sultan human influence.

Dexter Magnun Twitch Scooter 2017 Fakhri Hanan Lina Om Fakhri Anbar
BURMESE PYTHON AFRICAN TORTOISE

Cassie Kahrba Dana Hamza Halab Lula Awad Samer

SPOTTED HYENA

Zaghloul Loz Sukkar 2018 Jameel Barakat Jana Pablo Raja

ASIATIC BLACK BEAR TURKISH WOLF

Aussie Malak 2019 Mark Layla Dohal Rumi Loki Jamal

During the
early months of
Hadi Shojaa’ Labwa Marion Laith Rocket 2020 the pandemic,
RACCOON caretakers were
required to live
on-site and strug-
gled to provide
enough food for
Kandaka Mansour 2022 Reyad Zaytoonah 2021 Bubloo Najwa the animals.
HIMALAYAN BROWN BEAR

*ILLEGALLY TRADED: BORN IN CAPTIVITY AND SOLD AS PETS; NATIVE JORDANIAN ANIMALS KEPT WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION
†SMUGGLED: SEIZED AT BORDER OR FOUND IN-COUNTRY ILLEGALLY

ALBERTO LUCAS LÓPEZ, NGM STAFF; KELSEY NOWAKOWSKI. SOURCE: MUSTAFA KHRAISAT, AL MA’WA FOR NATURE AND WILDLIFE
 I
regularly. Docu-
S TA R T E D V I S I T I N G
menting these creatures’ lives was

PABLITO, A RESCUED
eye-opening. My work had always
focused on people caught in the
middle of chaos, on human misery
and destruction. Now I was facing the ani-
LION CUB, STARED
mals left behind—victims of conflicts that had
nothing to do with them. Had they not been
AT ME. WE HAD A COMMON
rescued, these animals likely would have been WORDLESS LANGUAGE.
I SUDDENLY FELT
killed in bombings, caught in cross fire, or left
to starve.
One time, at New Hope, caretakers and a vet-
erinarian were preparing three striped hyenas,
RESPONSIBLE FOR
rescued from zoos in Jordan and Gaza, to be
released into the wild. The team darted each
TELLING HIS STORY.
hyena with a tranquilizer and performed full
medical checkups.
Once the hyenas were deemed fit for trans-
port, they were moved by van and released in
remote south-central Jordan. These animals
were lucky. Most that are rescued from failing declawed, and her feet were in pain. Later,
zoos or war zones—which often lack power and Princess Alia discovered that the circus’s per-
water, to say nothing of funding or caregivers— mits, from the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture,
have no home to return to. For these stateless were forged.
animals, the Al Ma’wa sanctuary provides per- Back then, Princess Alia says, many Jorda-
manent asylum. nians were unaware of animal welfare issues.
Pablito, the little lion cub, would become That’s when she says she recognized the need
one of those. Being locked up in a small cage at for an initiative like New Hope.
the zoo had traumatized Pablito, his caretaker Through her nonprofit, the Princess Alia
told me. The cub had a large scar on his nose Foundation, she partnered with Four Paws, an
from repeatedly trying to force his cage open. animal welfare organization based in Vienna. In
But after only a month at New Hope, Pablito January 2010 the New Hope Centre welcomed
was starting to recover. I spent hours watching its first patient, a four-year-old striped hyena
him play with tree branches and a burlap sack named Dobbie, rescued from a local zoo. Al
hanging from the ceiling of his 1,600-square- Ma’wa opened in 2011.
foot enclosure; he scrambled in and out of a kids’ “We do our best to make visitors understand
playhouse and roared. At night he’d fall asleep that the conditions for wild animals in zoos are
in a bed of hay. not proper,” Marek Trela, a veterinarian and the
Later, I met Scooter, the tortoise paralyzed CEO of Al Ma’wa, told me. “The ideal situation
by mistreatment. After eight months of inten- would be to release them in nature. However,
sive hydrotherapy and a diet rich in vitamins to if they are born in captivity, this is not always
help strengthen his muscles, Scooter had started possible.” But it is possible, he said, to give these
moving his limbs. He now moved slowly around animals improved living conditions.
the grounds atop a skateboard. At Al Ma’wa, which operates mostly on dona-
tions, animals are still surrounded by fences,

P
but they have access to the outdoors and enjoy a
RINCESS ALIA AL HUSSEIN, the eldest more natural environment. The sanctuary is in
daughter of Jordan’s late King Hus- one of the nation’s last remaining expanses of
sein, told me that she began to think Mediterranean forest, populated by evergreen
about establishing an animal sanc- oak, pine, and strawberry trees. And although
tuary in 2009, when a traveling the property isn’t particularly large, it comfort-
circus stopped in Jordan. Many of its animals ably accommodates 70 animals, including 24
were in poor condition. A lion cub had been African lions, eight Syrian brown bears, two

U N L I K E LY R E F U G E E S 131
African lion cubs
Veterinarian Abdelrah-
man Ahmad plays with
three-month-old lion
cub siblings, rescued
in August 2019 after
they were posted for
sale on social media.
The cubs later died of
feline leukemia virus,
a common and highly
contagious disease.
Asiatic black bears, two Bengal tigers, two individual, and they make sure each animal
striped hyenas, one spotted hyena, and eight has its cherished comforts.
wolves, one of which was rescued after being Max, a lion rescued from a Gaza zoo, has card-
listed for sale on Facebook. board boxes to tear apart. Kahrba, another lion,
Each week these animals consume more rescued from Aleppo, enjoys batting at burlap
than 1,200 pounds of meat—unsellable left- sacks filled with hay. Every few weeks, Ballou,
overs donated by supermarkets and slaugh- the Syrian brown bear, enjoys his favorite treat:
terhouses—and more than 4,000 pounds of a coconut.
fruits and vegetables. Most animals arrive at Caretakers ensure that visitors do noth-
the sanctuary without medical records; the ing to provoke these creatures, and visitors
details of their histories are largely unknown. learn about the differences between wild and
Caretakers spend time learning about every domesticated animals. While an individual

134 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C
 wild animal may be tamed, learning to live
alongside and even rely on humans, it takes
thousands of years of selective breeding for a
species to become genetically adapted to live
among us.

I
some sort of
S E N S E D A T A L M A’ W A
in-between space, in which animals
clearly connected with their caretak-
ers. They weren’t domestic, but they
weren’t truly wild either.
This became obvious to me when the tigers
Tash and Sky appeared, as if from nowhere,
the moment their caretaker made a sound.
And when Ballou clambered to the fence the
instant his caretaker called his name. I tried
calling some of the animals’ names myself, but
none paid any attention.
At Al Ma’wa, I was intrigued to see an Asiatic
black bear known as Sukkar, Arabic for “sugar,”
standing upright like a human being—a natu-
ral behavior. I photographed a short-toed snake
eagle, white and light brown in color, that lay on
the ground whenever I approached. A roughly
one-year-old little owl, confiscated from a
hotel room in Amman after being listed for sale
online, stared directly into my camera lens as I
leaned in to make a portrait. The owl later was
released into the wild.
I felt heartbroken to learn what each of these
animals had been through. Still, each time I left,
I couldn’t wait for the next time I could go back.
Whenever I’m in Jordan, I stop by.
Since the end of 2018, I’ve visited New Hope
and Al Ma’wa about 25 times. (New Hope con-
solidated its operations in September 2021,
moving all its staff and animals to Al Ma’wa.)
It’s almost enough to feel like a part of the ani-
Zoubia, short-toed mals’ lives—invisible and, I hope, trusted. I’ve
snake eagle
Raghad Zaitoun, a vet- watched some of them grow up. It’s a joy for
erinarian at New Hope, me to see them living the lives they deserve,
prepares to weigh and that’s what pulls me back again and again.
a short-toed snake
eagle. After a hunter Arriving at Al Ma’wa on a cloudy Friday in
accidentally shot the March, I was particularly eager to see the cats.
eagle in the head with As I neared one enclosure, a majestic-looking
a BB gun, the bird was
left blind in his right lion, tall and well muscled, approached the
eye. A veterinarian fence. He nodded at me, then calmly walked
rehabilitated the eagle toward the trees. From the small scar on his
for a year before bring-
ing him to New Hope. nose, I knew the lion was Pablito, the cub I had
first encountered five years ago—now called
Pablo, his grown-up name.
I couldn’t believe it: He recognized me. j

U N L I K E LY R E F U G E E S 135
 INSTAGRAM
GRETCHEN KAY STUART
FROM OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS

WHO In 2021 Stuart decided to spend the winter in Flor-

A wildlife conservation ida for the same reason many birds do: warmth. She
photographer based drove her camper for weeks around Merritt Island,
in the Pacific Northwest
WHERE
part of a biodiverse estuary, capturing images of birds.
Though Stuart has photographed over a hundred avian
Merritt Island National
Wildlife Refuge, Florida species across the country, she found those in the
WHAT Sunshine State to be less skittish. Sure enough, this
Canon Mark IV camera with roseate spoonbill wasn’t spooked by her camera when
a 100-400mm lens she came upon it one morning. Stuart sat quietly by
the road, observing the bird and snapping the shutter.
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