This story appears in the August 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine. The royalty of India—Hindu and Muslim—understood long ago that power was best wielded from the back of an elephant.

This story appears in the September 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine ... All at once baby elephants emerge from the brush, a straggled procession of 18 flap-eared brown heads, their ...

This story appears in the October 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine ... of their images remind us that a photograph has the power to do infinitely more than document.

Peter Gwin is an editor at large for National Geographic and cohost of the award-winning podcast Overheard. He began as a staff writer for the magazine in 2003, and has contributed stories from an ...