National Geographic magazine, December 2025 Issue

The most unforgettable photos of 2025. National Geographic stories take you on a journey that's always enlightening, often surprising and unfailingly fascinating. This month–the most unforgettable photos of 2025.

In this issue: 2025: The Pictures of the Year — From the thousands of images made by our photographers all around the world this year, we present the ones that moved and inspired us most.; Behind the scenes: The making of 2025's Pictures of the Year — From setting up camera traps to piloting high-flying drones, National Geographic photographers go to great lengths to get the perfect shot.; Closer Look: 18 hours captured in a single photo — Sixteen years ago, photographer Stephen Wilkes created a concept called "Day to Night," which uses digital photo techniques to merge time into one image. He takes us through his creative process.; Rethinking how the Egyptians built the pyramids — A lost diary and a hidden waterway are offering a surprising origin story for Giza's ancient wonders.; Extreme amnesia cases, AI, and our imagined futures: in conversation with a Harvard memory researcher — Harvard cognitive psychologist Daniel Schacter’s work has underpinned a sea change in how we think about memory; namely, that the act of remembering might be the key to how we imagine our futures.; Are you better than AI at guessing what makes a photo memorable? — Research has found that AI is better than humans at predicting what images people will remember.; He remembers nothing. She remembers everything — In the archives of the brain, our lives linger or disappear.; The unexpected ways Ozempic-like drugs might fight dementia — They were designed to treat diabetes, then prescribed for weight loss, and now—as researchers are finding—they might hold the secret to staving off Alzheimer’s, too.; How smelling roses could help you make stronger memories — A scent, a touch, or a sip can be just what you need to lock an important moment into your mind forever.; Making sense of the Egyptian pyramids’ enduring conspiracies — For 5,000 years scholars, generals, and mystics have been fascinated by the Egyptian pyramids. That obsession persists in the modern age.; The race to save climate secrets trapped in ice — Can the ancient information locked away in the polar ice sheets be found before it all melts?; The oldest known city map is startlingly precise — It took decades for archaeologists to realize this 3,500-year-old tablet depicts an ancient city at scale. But how did its creators pull that off?; Tracking disease outbreaks to the ends of the Earth — Climate change is speeding the spread of global pathogens. Can an early-warning system for animal viruses help stop pandemics before they start?