National Geographic 1998 September

National Geographic, September 1998: the issue that politely invites you into the Valley of the Kings… by staging an intense, eyeliner-heavy face-off between ancient Egyptian royalty and your guilty conscience. The cover is basically two impeccably painted profiles leaning in like they’re about to kiss, argue, or review your recent life choices. Somewhere in the background, other identical faces hover in soft focus, which gives the whole thing the vibe of an extremely tasteful museum diorama and a glamour shoot for the afterlife.

This is classic late-90s Nat Geo: serious history wrapped in visuals so beautiful you forget you’re about to be gently educated for 120 pages. Inside, “Valley of the Kings” is the headline act—tombs, treasures, archaeology, mystery, and the constant reminder that humans have always been obsessed with immortality, status symbols, and leaving behind a room full of objects that will confuse strangers. (Honestly, the pharaohs walked so we could hoard IKEA storage boxes.)

But because it’s National Geographic, you don’t just get Egypt. You get a whole buffet of “how did we even end up here?” topics:

• A New Day for Romania – late-90s Europe in transition, where history is fresh, complicated, and still being negotiated in real time. It’s the sort of piece that makes you realise “post-something” doesn’t mean “sorted,” it means “now the paperwork starts.”

• Greenland Sharks – the deep-sea equivalent of a slow-moving nightmare who has absolutely no intention of dying on schedule. These are the sharks that look at your hectic modern life and respond by existing for centuries out of pure spite.

• Vermont: Suite of Seasons – a pastoral palate cleanser, because after tombs and transition politics and ancient sharks, you deserve leaves, weather, and the comforting certainty that autumn will still show up even if civilisation collapses.

• Catherine the Great – imperial drama, power, ambition, and the kind of historical energy that says, “Yes, I will modernise the state, and yes, I will do it while being discussed at dinner parties for the next 300 years.”

• Borneo’s White Mountain – wild landscapes, remote places, and that Nat Geo promise that somewhere out there is a mountain you haven’t thought about yet, quietly being magnificent without needing a personal brand.

The irony of this issue is that it’s called Valley of the Kings, but it reads like a catalogue of the many ways humans try to be unforgettable: build tombs, build nations, build empires, build a life in the seasons, build a legend in the ocean depths, build a story on a mountain. Everyone wants permanence. National Geographic just documents the various methods—then sells you the evidence in a yellow border.

Condition: Good, which is exactly right for a copy from Crappy Old Books: still handsome, still readable, still ready to make your coffee table look like you have interests beyond “scrolling.” Ideal for anyone who wants their evening to start with ancient Egypt’s impeccable profile game and end with the unsettling thought that the Greenland shark might outlive your entire family tree.

Buy it for the tombs. Keep it for the sharks. Pretend it was always about cultural enrichment.

Keep browsing: See more National Geographic books Other books by National Geographic