National Geographic History

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FROM THE EDITOR

National Geographic History

Spanish Galleon Wreck Found on Oregon Coast • Years of sleuthing by scientists and beachcombers led to the location and recovery of Oregon’s mysterious “Beeswax Wreck.”

The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island • This Nicoleño woman’s life has been imagined in history and fiction as a romantic castaway tale, but archaeologists and historians are revealing a more complex story.

THE NICOLEÑO

NEW NAME, NEW CAREER

COMPLICATED LEGACIES

LEGENDARY ORIGINS

A Toast to Champagne • Raising a glass of France’s most iconic sparkling wine originated in the unique weather of Champagne, where cold winters helped put the bubbles into bottles of white wine.

The Champagne Name Game

Arctic Murder Mystery: Voyage of the U.S.S. Polaris • Led by Charles Francis Hall, the 1871-73 American expedition attempted to reach the North Pole but ended in one disaster after another—beginning with Hall’s death.

PREDECESSORS OF THE POLARIS

A COLD CASE?

MYSTERIES OF TUT • One hundred years after the discovery of the teenage pharaoh’s tomb, much is known about him, while many questions linger around his family, his life, and his death.

DIGGING FOR A KING

THE MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS WONDER OF THE ANCIENT WORLD • The monumental tomb that Mausolus had built in Halicarnassus was soon recognized as one of antiquity’s seven wonders for its sumptuous construction and richly sculpted decoration.

THE PERSIAN POT

TREASURE HUNT

WONDROUS SCULPTURES

HERODIUM HEROD’S DESERT PALACE • Designed by Herod the Great as a Roman country club, Herodium boasted a theater, pools, and gardens. It also housed the king’s own mausoleum, whose whereabouts was, until recently, a mystery.

DESERT PALACE • Situated on the border of the Jewish political heartland of Judaea and the religiously symbolic region of Idumaea to the south, Herodium was chosen by Herod as a site of importance.

THE THEATER ROYAL

PIECES OF THE PUZZLE

TOMB OF HEROD THE GREAT • Once standing 80 feet high, the mausoleum reflects Herod’s allegiance with Greco-Roman culture, with a nod to the Nabataeans, the Arab culture to which his mother had belonged. Its large, square stones (ashlars) are carved from a limestone known as meleke, or royal stone, as it was used for royal constructions. Although historians are convinced this is indeed Herod’s tomb, no inscription has yet been found to definitively confirm it as such.

DEFYING GRAVITY GOTHIC CATHEDRALS • Across Europe construction of Gothic cathedrals pushed the limits of technology ever higher as ambitious architects and skilled artisans strived to reach the heavens.

RISE OF THE GOTHIC

JANE AUSTEN Love and Marriage in Regency England • Through her novels, this British novelist created extraordinarily vivid and insightful portraits of how her social class, the rural English gentry, lived and loved at the beginning of the 19th century.

LADY OF LETTERS

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: DRAMATIS PERSONAE • Jane Austen’s beloved 1813 novel depicts the troubles of a rural English family of the gentry class in the early 19th century.

SPIRITUAL CENTER OF BAGAN

Soaring Buddhist Temples of Bagan • Brought to greatness by a unifying ruler, the kingdom of Bagan was home to thousands of towering Buddhist temples. The seat of an empire, this sacred skyline would enthrall pilgrims for...