National Geographic History

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FROM THE EDITOR

National Geographic History

Egyptian City Found After 3,400 Years Underground • An ancient industrial center’s discovery is shedding new light on everyday life in Egypt and a religious crisis that shook the throne.

IMPORTANCE OF EVERYDAY OBJECTS

Sweet Life of a Master Chef

Carême, The World’s First Celebrity Chef • Long before Julia Child and Emeril Lagasse, Antonin Carême gained international fame, by cooking for kings and writing cookbooks that brought haute cuisine into the home.

A HUNGER FOR FAME

WINDOW SHOPPING

Spiritualism: Communing With the Dead • Séances and spiritualists grew popular across the United States and Europe in the 19th century despite the skeptics.

Flotation Devices

OUTFOXED

Terror in the Countryside: The Beast of Gévaudan • Terror gripped France in the 1760s as a ferocious beast roamed the countryside, killing peasants in the valleys of the Gévaudan region with supernatural strength and stealth.

HUNTING GROUNDS

A LOCAL HERO

FACING THE AFTER LIFE • For millennia Egyptians mummified their dead to assure them of eternal life. Beautiful masks, sometimes crafted in gold and bearing the features of the deceased, would allow the gods to recognize royals and regulars alike after death.

FACE-TIME CONTINUUM

MIDDLE KINGDOM • CA 1975-1640 B.C.

NEW KINGDOM • CA 1539-1075 B.C.

GRECO-ROMAN PERIOD • 332 B.C.-A.D. 395

THE MASK OF PSUSENNES I

QUEENS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT • From the beauty of Bathsheba, to the ambition of Jezebel, to the heroism of Esther, royal women took center stage in some of the most dramatic scenes in the Old Testament.

DEATH OF A QUEEN

SPIRITUAL REVOLT

THE QUEEN OF PURIM

THE END OF THE WORLD IN THE MIDDLE AGES • In 784, as the armies of Islam occupied the Iberian Peninsula, a Spanish monk wrote a commentary on the Book of Revelation. After his death, copies of his work were adorned with terrifying and strange images, reflecting the zeal and upheaval of the age.

BEGINNING OF THE END

UNCOMMON VISIONS OF COMMON FEARS

DIVINE TESTIMONY

ANGELS AND DRAGONS

CALL OF BABYLON

APOCALYPSE NOW AND THEN

NEW BEGINNINGS

RISE OF THE GOLDEN AGE TREASURES OF TIMBUKTU • Along the banks of the Niger and at the edge of the Sahara, Timbuktu grew from a nomads’ camp to a sophisticated city of thousands, drawn by its wealth and wisdom.

TRADE, BOOKS, AND CONQUEST

Timbuktu’s Founders

ON THE MAP

Traveler’s Tales of Timbuktu

THE REAL DRACULA? VLAD THE IMPALER • Vlad III, prince of Walachia in the 15th century, was famous for his staunch resistance against the Ottomans—and infamous for grisly punishments inflicted on his enemies. Four centuries later, his name would be associated with the Count Dracula of Bram Stoker’s novel, but his real legacy is even more complicated.

A LIFE OF STRIFE

GATEWAY TO EUROPE

THE TOMB OF DRACULA

A MONSTROUS REPUTATION • Was Vlad Dracula the only inspiration for Bram Stoker’s best-selling vampire?

Mystery Massacre at Sandby Borg • On finding the corpses of murdered Swedish villagers, archaeologists pieced together a grim tale of societal collapse in the fifth century.