National Geographic MagazineWallpapers anno 2011[237 foto]

Photograph by Carsten Peter From "Australia's Canyons," National Geographic, October 2011 In Gardens of Stone National Park, labyrinths of pagoda rocks—beehive-shaped formations sculpted by erosion along sandstone scarpments—present a treacherous obstacle for hikers but a wonderland of slots for canyoneers to explore.

Photograph by Michael Aw From "Whale Sharks," National Geographic, October 2011 In a surprising interaction at sea, colossal whale sharks home in on fishing nets near the island of New Guinea—and fishermen dole out snacks to the pilfering beasts.

Photograph by Peter Essick From "Ansel Adams Wilderness," National Geographic, October 2011 Melting snowpack sluices down Shadow Creek.

Photograph by Ira Block From "Hothouse Earth," National Geographic, October 2011 Inuit Johnny Issaluk holds a recent photo of a South Carolina swamp. That’s what his home, near the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island, would have looked like 56 million years ago, when summer water temperatures at the North Pole hit 74°F.

Photograph by Peter Essick From "Ansel Adams Wilderness," National Geographic, October 2011 Rocky spires known as the Minarets rise above 12,000 feet in the Ansel Adams Wilderness.

Photograph by Jim Lo Scalzo From "Visions of Earth," National Geographic, October 2011 United States—In windswept Iowa, ears of mature corn dry ahead of the autumn harvest. Last year the state yielded nearly 62 million tons of the crop—vital for livestock feed and ethanol production—making it the top U.S. grower of golden kernels.

Photograph by Peter Essick From "Ansel Adams Wilderness," National Geographic, October 2011 High winds and gathering clouds signal the approach of a winter storm.

Photograph by Mark Leong From "Ulaanbaatar," National Geographic, October 2011 An ocean of green, Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country in the world, with just under three million people in a landmass larger than Alaska. Mongolian culture—physical, mobile, self-reliant, and free—developed out here on the steppe. "When people move to Ulaanbaatar, they bring that mentality with them," says Baabar, a well-known publisher and historian.

Photograph by Carsten Peter From "Australia's Canyons," National Geographic, October 2011 A canyoneer endures the deluge of a waterfall in Empress Canyon. Canyoneers say even a relatively easy rappel like this one can feel like drowning in midair.

Photograph by Ira Block From "Hothouse Earth," National Geographic, October 2011 Today in the arid Bighorn, rust red bands of oxidized soil mark the sudden warming that occurred there 56 million years ago—which dried up the swamps that had been home to reptiles similar to the Okefenokee alligator pictured here.

Photograph by Peter Essick From "Ansel Adams Wilderness," National Geographic, October 2011 A setting moon makes a fitting backdrop for a lunarlike landscape near Donohue Pass.

Photograph by Carsten Peter From "Australia's Canyons," National Geographic, October 2011 "It feels like being swallowed by the Earth," says photographer Carsten Peter of the Black Hole of Calcutta in Claustral Canyon. Experienced canyoneers avoid it after heavy rains.

Photograph by Peter Essick From "Ansel Adams Wilderness," National Geographic, October 2011 Late summer thunderheads build above Garnet Lake.

Photograph by Michael Aw From "Whale Sharks," National Geographic, October 2011 Vying for position under a bagan, male whale sharks—two of about twenty that visit this spot—scramble for a snack. Typically an adult shark might cruise night and day at a sedate one to three miles an hour, sucking in enough seawater to feed itself. This group likely spends a lot of time in Papua's Cenderawasih Bay, making it one of a few places where the species gathers year-round. Scientists hope to cooperate with locals to launch studies of the giants.

Photograph by Jason Hawkes From "Hothouse Earth," National Geographic, October 2011 The source of the carbon surge 56 million years ago is uncertain, but it was natural. Today’s surge, which may prove much faster, is human made. Oceans and forests absorb atmospheric CO2 but can’t keep up with emissions from stacks like this one (at center) at a coal-fired power plant in England—the country where the industrial revolution began.

Photograph by Peter Essick From "Ansel Adams Wilderness," National Geographic, October 2011 Frost filigrees a quaking aspen leaf in late October.

Photograph by Carsten Peter From "Australia's Canyons," National Geographic, October 2011 Veteran guide John Robens (at far left) leads a soggy team through a moss-covered passage in Claustral Canyon, a few hours' hike from their exit point. Canyoneering is all about the serendipity of discovery, he says. "You walk for miles and suddenly you find yourself in this magical spot."

Photograph by Peter Essick From "Ansel Adams Wilderness," National Geographic, October 2011 A mix of rain and sleet turns a hillside into a pointillistic portrait.

Photograph by Jami Tarris, Corbis From "Visions of Earth," National Geographic, October 2011 Indonesia—A tender moment transpires between mother and infant orangutans in Borneo's Tanjung Puting National Park. The arboreal species has one of the longest intervals between births among mammals, typically around eight years.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Middle Fork of the Salmon River Salmon-Challis National Forest, Idaho 104 miles protected since 1968

Photograph by Alex Saberi From "Visions of Earth," National Geographic, November 2011 United Kingdom—A lone mute swan stretches its wings upon a brook as the mists of dawn filter through London's Richmond Park. By tradition, the British monarch has the right to claim ownership of unmarked birds of this species in open water.

Photograph by Joel Sartore From "Africa's Rift Valley," National Geographic, November 2011 A tree-climbing lion stirs in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Photograph by Robert Clark From "Anglo-Saxon Treasure," National Geographic, November 2011 The wall built by Roman emperor Hadrian runs along the top of a cliff at a place known as Peel Crags. From that vantage soldiers could have seen across the countryside for miles.

Photograph by Joel Sartore From "Africa's Rift Valley," National Geographic, November 2011 Elephants have miles of unbroken savanna to roam inside Uganda's Queen Elizabeth Park, where their numbers total 2,500, a dramatic rise after heavy poaching in the 1980s. Outside the preserve villagers kill elephants that trample and eat crops, though attacks have diminished with the digging of trenches to protect fields from wild trespassers.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Chattooga River Sumter National Forest, South Carolina 58.7 miles protected in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia since 1974

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Tinayguk River Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska 44 miles protected since 1980

Art by Daniel Dociu From "Anglo-Saxon Treasure," National Geographic, November 2011 The treasure's flashy ornaments announced the status of men like this aristocrat riding to war. At the battlefield he would have dismounted and joined the rest of the warriors as they formed a defensive wall with their shields. Combat was gory, conducted at close range with swords, spears, and axes.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Merced River Yosemite National Park, California 114.5 miles protected since 1987; 8 additional miles since 1992

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Bruneau River System Bruneau-Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness, Idaho 94.7 miles protected since 2009

Photograph by Joel Sartore From "Africa's Rift Valley," National Geographic, November 2011 In a region bursting with people, a few big open spaces remain—like the Rift floor in Queen Elizabeth Park, pocked with crater lakes formed by volcanic explosions. If protected areas hadn't been set aside in the Albertine Rift from the 1920s to the 1960s, conservationists doubt any large wilderness areas would exist today.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Snake River Headwaters Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming 387.5 miles protected since 2009

Photograph by Robert Clark From "Anglo-Saxon Treasure," National Geographic, November 2011 Hadrian's Wall, named for the second-century Roman emperor who built it, stretches 73 miles across Britain. It separated the civilized realm of Rome from the "barbarians"—restless Picts in the north. As the Romans withdrew, the northern tribes stormed across the border.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Tlikakila River Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska 51 miles protected since 1980

Photograph by Christopher Swann, Biosphoto From "Visions of Earth," National Geographic, November 2011 Mexico—Surfacing in warm winter waters off the Baja California coast, a gray whale flashes its baleen plates by a boat. The area's lagoons and bays provide breeding and calving grounds for the giants, which migrate from as far north as the Bering Sea.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Owyhee River Owyhee River Wilderness, Idaho 120 miles protected in Oregon since 1984 and 67.2 more since 1988; 171.1 miles protected in Idaho since 2009

Photograph by Carsten Peter From "Africa's Rift Valley," National Geographic, November 2011 Exhaling clouds of gas, a cauldron of lava boils in the mile-wide crater of Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Congo that threatens two million people. Eruptions have blistered the region for millions of years, since the African tectonic plate began to split apart to create the Albertine Rift.

Photograph by Joel Sartore From "Africa's Rift Valley," National Geographic, November 2011 African buffalo create tracks in the salty mud at the edge of a crater lake in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Snake River Headwaters Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming 387.5 miles protected since 2009

Photograph by Joel Sartore From "Africa's Rift Valley," National Geographic, November 2011 Alert to human visitors, a young mountain gorilla and its mother sit tight in Bwindi Impenetrable Park. When the park opened in 1991, villagers resented losing access to forest where they had gathered honey and wood. Today the park shares the fees from gorilla-watching tours with the locals, a small victory in the Rift's unending clashes for livable space.

Photograph by Michael Melford From "America's Wild Rivers," National Geographic, November 2011 Allagash River Moonlight bathes a birchbark canoe on Maine's Allagash River, a tranquil spot for paddlers.

Photograph by Steve Winter From "Wild Tigers," National Geographic, December 2011 A tiger peers at a camera trap it triggered while hunting in the early morning in the forests of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Tigers can thrive in many habitats, from the frigid Himalaya to tropical mangrove swamps in India and Bangladesh.

Photograph by Chia Ming Chien From "City Solutions," National Geographic, December 2011 Singapore The vertiginous "infinity pool" at the Marina Bay Sands resort offers a sweeping view of Singapore, a country that's achieved success while building up instead of out.

Photograph by David Guttenfelder From "Japan's Nuclear Zone," National Geographic, December 2011 After the disasters of March 11, tens of thousands were ordered to leave their homes in the vicinity of the damaged nuclear plant, their footprints now frozen in the mud.

Photograph by Jim Richardson From "King James Bible," National Geographic, December 2011 The 15th-century church of Rodel on the Isle of Lewis, built for the warlike chiefs of the MacLeods, towers over the sea lochs of Scotland's Outer Hebrides. Nothing in early modern Britain, from its cities to its remotest corners, was more political than religion. The church in every parish—nearly always the most imposing building—was as much a symbol of worldly control as a shrine to God.

Photograph by Stephen Wilkes From "City Solutions," National Geographic, December 2011 Rebirth New York, New York The liveliest show in town, Times Square buzzes with reborn energy. A 30-year redevelopment project turned a seedy stretch of Broadway into today's neon-lit shopping and entertainment walkway. Some dislike the theme park commercialism of the redo, but almost all applaud that the streets are alive with a city's valued resource—people.

Photograph by Miloslav Druckmüller From "Magellanic Clouds," National Geographic, December 2011 The Magellanic Clouds—two gauzy patches of light (at far right)—share the sky above the Patagonian Andes with a streaking comet and the luminous band of the Milky Way.

Photograph by Matthew Niederhauser, Institute From "Visions of Earth," National Geographic, December 2011 China—As if swimming in a fantasy aquarium, a school of decorative fish hovers inside Beijing's renovated Water Cube. Where Olympic swimmers used to compete, visitors now frolic in a wave pool and on elaborate water-park rides.

Photograph by Steve Winter From "Wild Tigers," National Geographic, December 2011 A mother rests with her two-month-old in Bandhavgarh National Park, where—contrary to the global trend—managers have built up tiger numbers. Compensation for loss of life caused by cats outside the park gives villagers some consolation.

Photograph by Martin Roemers From "City Solutions," National Geographic, December 2011 Street Life Istanbul, Turkey By foot, rail, and automobile, people pass through Taksim Square, animating the modern hub of Istanbul. Schemes to restrict the area to foot traffic worry planners who fear the famous crossroads could lose its creative energy.

Photograph by NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) From "Magellanic Clouds," National Geographic, December 2011 Stars a hundred times more massive than the sun pierce the roiling haze of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Gas and dust from exploding stars serve as seed matter for new stars, making this one of the most active stellar nurseries in our galactic neighborhood.

Photograph by Richard Mosse, Institute From "Visions of Earth," National Geographic, December 2011 Democratic Republic of the Congo—Healthy vegetation in a verdant area of South Kivu Province appears reddish when captured with infrared photography. Such imagery aids foresters, cartographers, and the military.

Photograph by Steve Winter From "Wild Tigers," National Geographic, December 2011 Meet Smasher—the male in the background. That's the name Steve Winter gave this youngster, cooling off in a watering hole in Bandhavgarh National Park, after he slapped the automated camera trap until it stopped clicking. Both tigers are thought to have killed people, and Smasher is now in captivity.

Image by NASA/ESA/Chandra X-Ray Telescope/Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/STSCI/AURA/John Hughes, Rutgers University From "Magellanic Clouds," National Geographic, December 2011 Image produced by combining and coloring optical and x-ray data. A centuries-old supernova remnant, its rose-tinted shock wave blasting outward at more than 11 million miles an hour, hangs in the Large Magellanic Cloud like an iridescent holiday ornament.

Photograph by Leon Chew From "City Solutions," National Geographic, December 2011 Affluent City Seoul, South Korea Seoul's electrifying growth, from impoverished war-torn capital in the 1950s to economic powerhouse, has turned its cityscape into a dense grid of housing and office towers. Its transformation proves that rapid growth can bring rapid wealth.

Photograph by Jim Richardson From "King James Bible," National Geographic, December 2011 The fallow deer in the park at Knole, Kent, have looked down at the world with long-nosed lordliness since the days of King James. The deer park is a rare survival from the roughly 700 in early 17th-century England. The grandeur of this aristocratic style seeped into every corner of King James's England—and into the language used by the translators of his Bible. It was an age in which social hierarchy was considered a reflection of the divine order of the universe.