National Geographic magazine, December 2024 Issue

Pictures of the Year. National Geographic stories take you on a journey that's always enlightening, often surprising and unfailingly fascinating. This month–pictures of the year.

In this issue: 2024: The Pictures of the Year — National Geographic's enterprising photographers have helped readers explore and learn about our beautiful world through their images for more than a century. Here is their best work from the past year.; Behind the scenes for the 2024 Pictures of the Year — For our photographers, it's all in a day's work: Monkeys dismantling camera traps, parrots shrieking like house alarms, and photobombing bats.; An exclusive look inside the restored Notre Dame—before it reopens its doors to the public — Five years after a catastrophic fire, Paris's beloved cathedral will open to great fanfare. Nat Geo got exclusive access to witness how an army of architects and artisans rebuilt the church back to its sacred splendor.; The key to protecting rattlesnakes from extinction? Clearing their name and reputation — These antiheroes of the American West are actually not so bad. New research reveals they're good parents and neighbors, and their venom may help save lives.; This Arctic boomtown is led by women studying climate change — A small Arctic research station in Norway has emerged as a scientific hub, and it’s home to an increasingly female-led contingent of experts doing some of the planet’s most important studies.; There’s no better time than the holidays to discover your family history — Documents and genealogies are helpful resources, but personal memories are invaluable keys to understanding your family history.; These remote Inca ruins rival Machu Picchu — A trek high in the Peruvian Andes reveals dazzling ancient buildings, stellar views, and mysterious llama art.; The forgotten history of cats in the navy — Sailors embraced their feline colleagues, giving them tiny uniforms and their very own hammocks. But cats are natural outlaws—so it couldn’t last forever.; This new tool will help upend everything we assumed about ancient gender roles — Proteomics, the study of proteins present in our genetic makeup, is a cheaper and easier method than using ancient DNA to determine sex.