How Spain flowered before Columbus
In today’s newsletter, we witness a symbol of Spain’s full flower of culture, examine a bird flu crisis threatening seabirds in Scotland, watch Henry VIII’s wives take center stage … and see a Nat Geo photographer swimming with many, many sharks.
In these polarizing times, it’s worth remembering that Spain reached its full flower in places where Christian, Muslim, and Jewish people, forging a common cultural identity, created breakthroughs in architecture, design, science, and thought.
The multicultural union was not exactly tolerance as we would know it, historian María Rosa Menocal wrote, but the “often unconscious acceptance that contradictions—within oneself, as well as within one’s culture—could be positive and productive.” The age came to a swift end; royals Ferdinand and Isabella persecuted the Moors and the Jews—and sent out explorers who, in seeking vast riches, would persecute Indigenous people in the Americas.
But in Córdoba, Toledo, and Granada, you can see traces of Spain’s turbulent and collaborative history. Stunning Islamic and Christian styles are visible through Córdoba‘s cathedral-mosque complex (pictured above)—an “Ornament of the World,” as Menocal put it. (Below, the chapel of the Sacrarium.)
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STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING
• The first ascent of a massive Arctic sea cliff
• In ’Six’, the six wives of Henry VIII take center stage in a smash musical
• Unlocking the secrets of the North American monsoon
• In a warming climate, we need to rethink how we conserve nature
• In Scotland, bird flu strikes, threatening thousands of vulnerable seabirds
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Swimming with the sharks: Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer David Doubilet explores a shipwreck in the Bahamas as Caribbean reef sharks circle nearby in this 2008 image, recently featured in our Photo of the Day. Doubilet has produced more than 70 stories for National Geographic and is photographed here by his wife and partner Jennifer Hayes. Their recent work includes this eye-opening look at vibrant (but threatened) reefs in the Philippines.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Protecting the Amazon: A new documentary co-produced by Indigenous filmmakers offers an inside look at a community on the frontlines of deforestation, Nat Geo reports. Members of the Indigenous Jupaú surveillance team patrol the boundaries of their 72,000-square-mile reserve, which remains one of the last bastions of wilderness in the state of Rondônia, Brazil.
IN A FEW WORDS
Never let anyone tell you how your story ends.Samuel Ramsey, Entomologist, Nat Geo Explorer
LAST GLIMPSE
Nine epic train journeys: The names alone conjure romance and adventure. The Glacier Express. The Orient Express. The Train to the Clouds. Take a look at our top train journeys worldwide. (Pictured above, the eastbound California Zephyr travels from San Francisco toward the Rockies—and its final destination, Chicago.)
