National Geographic magazine, June 2026 Issue

The lost fortress of the Inca. National Geographic stories take you on a journey that's always enlightening, often surprising and unfailingly fascinating. This month–the lost fortress of the Inca.

In this issue: Finding the Inca’s lost citadel — For centuries, the vanished Inca fortress of Ancocagua existed only in lore. Now, at a mountaintop site in Peru, researchers are zeroing in on a discovery that could reshape what we know of the empire’s last days.; How Antoni Gaudí built the Sagrada Família, his tower to God — The architect Antoni Gaudí died a century ago, but his celebrated basilica, the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, is only now nearing completion. Here’s a guide to his grand vision—and the work that still remains.; Solving the mystery of Africa’s Okavango wilderness — For more than a decade, a team of intrepid researchers have been exploring the river systems of southern Africa, one paddle stroke at a time. Here’s how the work led to the discovery of a lifetime.; Can India’s last lions be saved? — Decades after nearly going extinct, the world’s only existing population of Asiatic lions is overrunning a small reserve in western India. Now what?; How Alaska became the world's landslide laboratory — Across our warming world, the ground is growing less stable. Nowhere is the problem more evident than in Alaska, where one maverick geologist is now on a mission to discover where the next big disasters might strike.; How did Texas get its crop circles? — The peculiar geometry surrounding a Texas panhandle town is the legacy of one transformative mid-century innovation.; Why these butterflies have fake heads — Scientists are revealing more about how the distinctive, facelike markings found on certain insect wings may boost survival.; Sampling Sardinia’s legendary maggot cheese — A generation after casu marzu was banned across Europe, artisanal cheesemakers in Sardinia still elevate the controversial technique into a culinary art form.; Can Ibiza's colorful lizards survive a snake explosion? — Scientists are in a race against time to document and safeguard the diversity of lizards that live on the island and its neighbors, before predators gobble them all up.; Conservationist Krithi Karanth is helping people live with wild animals — Krithi Karanth, the 2026 Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year, is reimagining how wildlife conservation can work.; How a one-of-a-kind robot led researchers deep into the Great Pyramid — At the dawn of the consumer robotics era, National Geographic TV producers plumbed ancient secrets with help from this pioneering rover.