John Pollack and Garth Goldstein combined shipbuilding and buoyancy to create an ingenious craft made of 165,321 corks. They set sail on an improbable, 17-day journey on Portugal's Douro River. This story is by National Geographic Adventure magazine.

A team of forensic scientists is hoping the teeth of the eight crew members who went down with the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley 138 years ago will shed light on the lives of Civil War sailors. View a 360° image of the interior of the H.L. Hunley.

Newly revealed inscriptions at an ancient pyramid in Guatemala suggest that the Maya civilization, at its peak, was dominated by two powerful city-states that engaged in a protracted "superpower" struggle.

Conservators using techniques as old as the masterpieces themselves can spend months if not years painstakingly filling in chips and cracks to return a work to its former glory—a process called inpainting. Now scientists have developed a computer program that could dramatically speed up the inpainting process. Hollywood and the U.S. Navy, among others, have expressed interest in the technology. This story airs on our U.S. cable television program National Geographic Today.

A record number of people will gather in Sharpsburg, Maryland, this weekend for the 140th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, which stands as "the bloodiest day in American history." U.S. Park officials say many visitors to the battlefield over the past year have looked to the historic event for inspiration in national renewal after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Repairing the damaged section of the Pentagon within a year of last year's terrorist attacks was deemed impossibly ambitious, but dedicated construction workers raced to meet a self-imposed deadline. Now, the reconstructed offices are open and ready for business—the product of a remarkable spirit of teamwork, dedication, and duty. Full story and photo gallery:

A year after the terrorist attacks of September 11, National Geographic.com sat down with a group of young Muslim students at the Islamic Center of Maryland to discuss how their lives have been affected in the past year. Most agree: "A lot of people have become curious about Islam." Full story and photo gallery:

At the one-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, two organizations that help children cope with trauma are presenting art made by young people in the days and months after the tragedy. Full story and photo gallery:

Since Sharbat Gula, the Afghan girl with the fierce green eyes, was "rediscovered" earlier this year, her story has moved thousands of people to contribute nearly half a million dollars to a fund established by the National Geographic Society and The Asia Foundation to improve the lives of girls and young women in her war-ravaged country.

For a class of fourth-graders whose school is just four blocks from ground zero in New York City, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were all too vivid. A year later, they describe that horrible day and its aftermath in a National Geographic TV documentary, airing on EXPLORER this weekend. Full story and photo gallery:

Every year crossbow marksmen from two Umbrian towns in Italy match skills in a target-shooting competition that has been held for more than 350 years. This weekend the Gubbio and Sansepolcro teams meet for the second stage of the event, which includes medieval pageantry. Full story and photo gallery:

The remains of Kennewick Man, a nearly intact North American skeleton more than 8,000 years old, have been at the center of a controversy since they were found in 1996. Native American tribes have claimed the bones as those of an ancestor and objected to scientific study, but a federal judge has ruled in favor of the scientists.

National Geographic Today sent producer Max Block, photographer Charles Walter and soundman/video editor Charles MacDonald to Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, to create a portrait of this city plagued by continuous conflict for almost a quarter century. Their challenge was to understand how a city in a country so isolated and unknown could, in the span of one week in September, suddenly occupy the world's center stage. What happened there? Why Afghanistan? And why now?

The omission of sustainable tourism from the agenda of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, wrapping up in Johannesburg today, was almost unfathomable, says National Geographic Traveler Editor-in-Chief Keith Bellows. "It's astounding that tourism wasn't front and center in the discussions, because it's central to the economies of most countries—and arguably among the three biggest industries in the world."

Archaeologists have discovered a well and the remains of a building inside the boundaries of James Fort. The find suggests that the fort housing the first English settlers to arrive on the shores of North America in 1607 was larger than originally believed.