Coconut Palm, New Caledonia, France, 2000 Photograph by Peter Essick

A coconut palm stands on a breezy tropical beach in France's New Caledonia. Tourists enjoy these sun-soaked beaches, but botanists explore the island’s incredible plant diversity. Out of 3,400 identified native plant species, three-quarters are endemic to this archipelago and many can be traced to the Cretaceous era.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "New Caledonia: France’s Untamed Pacific Outpost," May 2000, National Geographic magazine)

Taming of the Shrew.jpg from commons.wikimedia.org, provided by Adam Cuerden

Tutankhamun Tomb Mural, Valley of the Kings, Egypt, 2005 Photograph by Kenneth Garrett

A mural on the north wall of Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb maps out his journey to the next world. Here, the sky goddess Nut, second from left, welcomes Tut to the realm of the gods. The black, zigzaggy symbols in Nut's open palms symbolize a greeting.

Carved into the Valley of the Kings, Tut's tomb hid his mummy and funerary regalia until archaeologist Howard Carter revealed its contents to world acclaim in 1922. Though the peripheral rooms were looted in antiquity, the burial itself remained untouched.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The New Face of King Tut," June 2005, National Geographic magazine)