CURRENT ISSUE

March 2009

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Features

Fenestrelle Fortress

Fenestrelle Fortress, Italy

The Great Wall of the Alps

Church of the Nativity Bethlehem
Chan Chan Peru

Chan Chan, Peru

End of an Empire

The Hill of Tara

The Hill of Tara, Ireland

Where Kings Once Tread

City of Hasankeyf Turkey

The City of Hasankeyf, Turkey

A Sunken Treasure?

Buddha statue

Xumishan Grottoes, China

Under the Gaze of Buddha

Route 66
Dampier Rock Art Complex Australia
Visoki Decani Monastery
Jaisalmer Fort

Jaisalmer Fort, India

The Golden Stronghold

Harry Bingham in Marseille

Bingham's List

As Jews in France tried to flee the Nazi occupation, an American diplomat named Harry Bingham defied his own government to speed them to safety

The Feast of Esther

Out of Rembrandt's Shadow

Renowned in his day, Jan Lievens was later eclipsed by his friend and rival. A new exhibition establishes his reputation as an old master

Belfast mural

Getting Past the Troubles

A decade after Protestants and Catholics agreed on a peace treaty in Northern Ireland, both sides are adjusting to a hopeful new reality

Geoducks on a fishing boat

Happy As Clams

In the Pacific Northwest, fishermen and others are cashing in on the growing yen for a funny-looking mollusk turned worldwide delicacy

Departments

Indelible Images

Monument Valley Girl

Cindy Sherman's self-portrait plays with our notions of an archetypal West

Digs

Devil's Half Acre

The excavation of a notorious jail recalls Richmond, Virginia's leading role in the slave trade

My Kind of Town

Steeped in Story

The lyrical novelist says the city is more than her hometown, it's her life

Presence of Mind

Which Way Out?

The author discovers the surprising satisfactions of a home funeral

From the Editor

Paying Attention

Ten Sites and One Overlooked Hero

Letters to the Editor

Letters

Readers Respond to the January Issue

This Month in History

March Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Mosquitoes, New Zealand flightless birds, pink lizards and more

From the Castle

Science, yes!

Around the Mall

Bone Cops

Smithsonian researchers solve a colonial cold case

Around the Mall

Sing Like A Pirate

The Object at Hand

Under the Radar

The five-pound RQ-14A takes high-tech reconnaissance to new heights

Around the Mall

What's In A Name?

What's Up

What's Up

The Last Page

Let a Thousand Bobbleheads Bloom

How China's "Great Helmsman" became the King of Kitsch