An ‘obsession’ created a vast monument
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY REUBEN WU
| | What came over these people? In as little as a century, without metal tools or the wheel, they erected Stonehenge—and many of southern Britain’s huge stone circles and grand avenues of standing stones.
Was it religious zeal, bravura, a sense of impending change? “It was like a mania sweeping the countryside, an obsession that drove them,” archaeologist Susan Greaney tells us in the cover story of August’s edition of National Geographic.
At the heart of the 4,500-year-old mystery: Which vanished people built this? And why go through the trouble to create Stonehenge—and an array of equally mysterious monuments, some even grander?
Read the full story here.
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 | ILLUSTRATION BY FERNANDO G. BAPTISTA, RONALD PANIAGUA AND LAWSON PARKER, BASED ON MODELS FROM ENGLISH HERITAGE
| | Above, sledges carrying weights up to 45 tons were likely pulled across timber tracks to reduce friction. At top, photographer Reuben Wu uses a powerful light attached to a drone to illuminate the landscape, capturing multiple exposures of a scene and layering them to create the final image.
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 | PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALICE ZOO
| | Above left, Druid Adrian Rooke communes with a standing stone at Stanton Drew; above right, Londoner Gary Forrester and his baby daughter Vivienne walk barefoot at Stonehenge on a late summer evening.
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 | | ART BY TOMÁŠ MÜLLER | | | Not oil or gas: An energy plant is rising in southern France that will allow by far the most extensive tests on nuclear fusion, which may become a key way to power the world without inflaming climate change. Here’s how it will work (illustration above). | | | |
| Fantastic fungi: Mushrooms spout in nature’s damp corners, a Nat Geo report (and casual foragers) find. The image of these orange fungi sprouting in a cloud forest in Ecuador got more than 300,000 likes on our Instagram page. Many researchers believe mushrooms are the key to life, but we may not be doing enough to protect them.
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 | | There is a lot of rhetoric that emerging technology is coming, it’s inevitable, it’s flawless, and we don’t have a choice. But that’s not true. We have a choice…We all have a right to shape how technology impacts our communities and society. | | | | Ariam Mogos | | Learning technologist, designer, Nat Geo Explorer | | |
 | | ILLUSTRATION BY FERNANDO G. BAPTISTA, AND EVE CONANT, NGM STAFF; PATRICIA HEALY; SHIZUKA AOKI; MICHAEL STANFEL; MATTHEW TWOMBLY | | Trouble staying cool? Heat waves have enveloped large swaths of the world. One group of animals has learned how to endure broad extremes in weather—those of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. See how they have adapted here. (Shown above, meerkats stand with their bellies facing the sun to absorb morning heat.)
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| Today’s newsletter was edited and curated by Heather Kim, David Beard, and Monica Williams. Have an idea or personal Stonehenge story for us? Write david.beard@natgeo.com. Have a good week ahead! | | | |
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