Video by Ami Vitale @amivitale | In the Angolan highlands, where the Okavango Delta's waters originate, there is a profound relationship between people and the land. The Okavango Basin connects lives, cultures, and identities. Communities rely on its life-giving waters for sustenance while embracing a deep responsibility to safeguard its vital ecosystem. Through sustainable practices and conservation efforts, they are protecting this connection for future generations. Their commitment demonstrates the powerful synergy between humanity and the environment, highlighting the crucial role communities play in preserving the natural world. | Through a five-year partnership, @debeersofficial has joined National Geographic to help protect the source waters of the Okavango Delta, which are a lifeline for endangered species and more than a million people. #OkavangoEternal

At the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York, more than 70,000 objects help tell the stories of victims, responders, and survivors. Many are seemingly ordinary, but all are uncommon, silent witnesses to history. Donors range from victims’ family members and survivors to rescue and recovery workers involved in the 9-month reclamation of the World Trade Center site. Photographer Henry Leutwyler photographed these artifacts for National Geographic. Pictured in order: A map book of New York City, recovered from the twin towers, courtesy of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. EMTs Benjamin Badillo and Edward Martinez were dispatched to the towers after the first attack. Hearing an awful roar, Badillo saw “the top of the building coming down.” Their ambulance was destroyed, but part of its map book survived. A prayer card recovered from the Pentagon crash site. The pilot of American Flight 77, Charles F. Burlingame III, carried a laminated prayer card from the funeral of his mother, who had died less than a year before. Recovery workers found the card largely intact. This is a gift from the family of Capt. Charles F. Burlingame III. An engine part from Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked during the attacks, courtesy of the National Park Service, Flight 93 National Memorial. When passengers tried to retake the flight, hijackers aiming for Washington, D.C. crashed the jet in Pennsylvania. One piece of the Boeing 757’s engines was found lodged in a field; another fell into a pond. The pants of volunteer EMT Greg Gully, worn on 9/11. After learning of the attacks, Gully grabbed supplies and made his way to the towers. When he returned home, he put his pants on a hanger and attached a note: “Pants worn on 9-11-01 at the WTC. Please DO NOT WASH. The ash is the remains of those that died. God Bless Them!” This is a gift from Greg Gully, EMT. The helmet of FDNY firefighter Joe Hunter recovered from the wreckage of the attacks at the twin towers, courtesy of Bridget Hunter and family. When the tower collapsed, Hunter and his squad mates perished. Hunter’s helmet was found in the wreckage several months later. See more of the artifacts at the link in bio.

Photos by @spencerlowell_ | The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a safety deposit box for the world’s agricultural heritage, located on the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Circle. Leveraging the naturally frigid environment, which was a very challenging place to photograph, the vault is designed for long-term storage. Established in 2008, it serves as a backup for an extensive variety of plant seeds. Its importance lies in its role to ensure food security and preserve biodiversity for future generations. In the face of challenges like climate change, natural disasters, and conflict, the vault provides a fail-safe way to restore lost crops and protect the genetic diversity essential for agriculture.

Photo by @brentstirton | Kaudulla, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka is an agricultural nation, with a great deal of crops planted in former elephant habitats and, in many cases, very close to national parks. I returned a few times to this area where elephants would cross out of the park to raid crops or visit an ill-conceived garbage dump. I wanted something at night because that felt more surreptitious and cunning. These elephants are smart and know exactly what they are doing, and I wanted a different-looking image that maybe had a little of that. My dominant thought was that I was running out of light; the sun had gone down, and the moon was rising. I needed it to be late and to have the blue tone, but I also needed to freeze the elephant as it stepped over the electric fence. Fortunately, cameras are amazing these days, and we can work in conditions like this. I was on a 400mm lens lying flat on the ground with a tarp over me, handholding and trying not to breathe. I’m sure this elephant knew I was there, but he got tired of waiting and eventually stepped over in just the right place. The magazine story talked about the pressure elephants are under from habitat loss as human development expands. This picture felt as if it could be part of that conversation. Read the full story at the link in bio.

Photo by @thomaspeschak | Mozambique's Niassa Special Reserve upends the myth of Africa’s pro­tected areas as Edens untouched by human presence. For thou­sands of years people here have gathered food from the land and coexisted with wildlife. They weren’t displaced when the reserve was created, and some now help maintain this conservation wilderness, with its braided rivers and jutting granite inselbergs. I spent three months photographing the relationship between people and wildlife in this remote corner of Africa. Niassa is one of the most fascinating places on the planet. I had the privilege of witnessing a nocturnal honey harvest by firelight in a giant baobab tree and had close encounters with dozens of baboons at a sacred ceremonial site. Read the full story at the link in bio.

Photo by @amytoensing | A curious hand checks out the tiger’s tongue on the carousel during the last weekend of the New York State Fair in Syracuse, where more than 900,000 attended this year over its 13-day run. The country’s first state fair was held in Syracuse in September 1841. Today there are about 2,000 county and state fairs nationwide.

Read more at the link in bio. Until now, the earliest architectural evidence found in and around the tomb complex dated to the Crusader period, making it no older than 1,000 years. While it is archaeologically impossible to say that the tomb is the burial site of Jesus of Nazareth, new dating results put the original construction of today’s tomb complex securely in the time of Constantine, Rome’s first Christian emperor. Photograph by Oded Balilty, AP for National Geographic

Photos by @bertiegregory | Meet my favorite African animal, the wild dog. We spent a month in Botswana’s Okavango Delta following a pack as they attempted to raise 14 tiny pups. Twenty years ago, the population of wild dogs was estimated at over 500,000 worldwide. Because of conflict with humans, now fewer than 7,000 remain, making them one of Africa’s most endangered predators. In “Animals Up Close,” we wanted to find out what it’s like to be a wild dog: Why are the dogs’ lives so challenging, and what’s being done to turn their fate around? Don’t miss “Animals Up Close” coming to @disneyplus September 13! #AnimalsUpClose

Photo by @joelsartore | This fiery-colored bird is a crimson topaz hummingbird I photographed while visiting Weltvogelpark, a bird park in Walsrode, Germany. Found in the rainforests of northeastern South America, this hummingbird species uses its bright colors to mark and defend territory, with males flashing their feathers toward potential intruders. The species is predominantly solitary, and a male's territory includes his mate and their chicks—no other males or mated pairs from the same species are allowed. To see more species featured in the Photo Ark, follow me @joelsartore. @weltvogelpark #PhotoArk

Photos by @dina_litovsky | As a photographer, my favorite assignments are those that are personal. In 2018 I flew to Kyiv, Ukraine, to photograph a unique tradition called the Last Bell for the magazine. The ceremony, which originated in the Soviet Union, marks the last day of classes for high school students before summer. They take over the city in an exuberant celebration, bathing in fountains and having picnics on the bank of the River Dnieper. I grew up in Ukraine, so I was aware of the tradition, but my family emigrated before I was of age to participate. Photographing it for National Geographic gave me a chance to experience it. To read the full story, go to the link in bio and follow me for more @dina_litovsky.

Photos by @christiehemmklok | Making, hiding, hunting, and collecting marbles is an ever growing hobby in Humboldt County, California. Some enthusiasts have amassed collections so large that they can no longer keep count. Others have dived headfirst into making their own custom marbles, a painstaking process I had never witnessed until I began this assignment for Nat Geo. Read the full story at the link in bio.

Read more at the link in bio. The name itself is both alarming and self-explanatory: the death cap mushroom. Unlike an edible mushroom—which they can be hard to distinguish from—death caps can cause extreme damage to the liver and kidneys, or in some cases, death. In fact, they're responsible for 90 percent of the mushroom-related fatalities that occur every year. Photograph By Yves Lanceau/Nature Picture Library