Sydney
By Bill Bryson
Photographs by Annie Griffiths Belt

When the Summer Olympics turn the spotlight on Sydney, Australia’s host city will go for the gold in presentation, originality, and unpretentious gusto for life.

• Also in this issue: a Sydney Olympics tear-out map

* Read an excerpt of this article.

• NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER’s “Amazing Australia”—Two Aussie Adventures

• Get the facts on Australia from Map Machine.

People of Heaven
By Peter Godwin
Photographs by Ed Kashi

Scarred by apartheid and ensnared in bloody conflict, the Zulus, South Africa’s most populous ethnic group, seek hope for the future by taking pride in tradition.

• Explore South Africa’s parks through photos, audio, and more.

• Get the facts on South Africa from Map Machine.

Monsters of Madagascar
By John Flynn and David Krause
Photographs by Maria Stenzel and Mark Thiessen
Art by Mark Hallett

Pug-nosed herbivorous crocodiles, flesh-eating birds, and what may be the oldest dinosaurs ever found enrich the fossil record of Mesozoic creatures.

Fungi
Article and Photographs by Darlyne A. Murawski

Nature’s recyclers, these ubiquitous organisms both nourish and destroy life by living on plants, animals, and even us.

• Read “Body Beasts” from the December 1998 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.

Phips’s Fleet
By R. James Ringer
Photographs by Bill Curtsinger

Retreating from a failed attack on Quebec in 1690, Sir William Phips lost at least one of his ships in the St. Lawrence River. Its discovery sheds new light on everyday life in the American Colonies.

• Explorer Bob Ballard found the lost ships of World War II’s Battle of Midway.

The Temples of Angkor
By Douglas Preston
Photographs by Steve McCurry

Preservationists in Cambodia struggle to keep Angkor’s sacred temples intact while looters threaten to erase the few remaining traces of the ancient Khmer Empire.

Big Sur
By Pico Iyer
Photographs by Frans Lanting

Along 90 miles [145 kilometers] of California coastline, Big Sur rises in a spectacular meeting of pounding sea and stark wilderness. In this rugged sanctuary nature is as unforgiving as it is beautiful.

• Hit the road to California with photos, audio, games, and more.