National Geographic marks 125 years

A young male polar bear investigates a camera trap, Svalbard, 2009.

This image is one of scores of incredible photographs featured in National Geographic magazine's "Around the World in 125 Years" - a three-volume set of some of the publication's best photography, including many never-before-seen pictures, published by Taschen.

Watch more: National Geographic showcases 125 years of amazing images

Easter Island

There's no question how this moai arrived in this place: It was dropped there after having been made for a 1994 movie. There are still plenty of questions, however, as how the many genuine moai scattered over the surface of Easter Island arrived at the spots they did, 2011.

Marshall Islands

There was no blinding flash that morning of July 25, 1946, only a massive column of water and vapor tossing the target ships about like bathtub toys. The 23-kiloton Baker bomb had been detonated 90 feet beneath the waters of Bikini Lagoon, one of the far-flung Marshall Islands whose inhabitants had been evacuated before the blast. Their descendants are still unable to return, although the bomb, dubbed Helen of Bikini, did give rise to the name of a famous swimsuit.

Egypt

A rebuilt Vickers Vimy bomber, a speedy two-engine biplane, flies over a familiar scene while retracing the epic first London-to-Australia flight of 1919, which took 28 days to complete and was fully recounted in the March 1921 Geographic, Egypt, 1989.

South Georgia Island

A yacht, steering for the island of South Georgia, is nosing its way through a field of icebergs that, having calved off from distant Antarctica, had been sculpted into fantastic forms by the sea during their long drift northward, 1986.

New Mexico

While a confused motorist receives directions from a state trooper, a dog doesn't look like it plans on going anywhere, New Mexico, 1939.

Thailand

A summer sun rises over mist-shrouded Chiang Mai, gradually revealing some of the ancient city's more than 300 Buddhist temples, many of which date form the 13th and 14th centuries.

California

A bridge painter's view of the Golden Gate takes in the blue waters of the straight, the brown hills of Marin County, and tiny Sausalito tucked into its bay, 1955.

Italy

Pausing in their labors, two women of Cortina d'Ampezzo probably converse in neither Italian nor German but rather in Ladin, an obscure Alpine tongue rarely heard outside their valley, Italy, ca. 1930s.

Antarctica

The distant "Terra Nova" is framed in an ice grotto, one of the lovelier features found on the windswept surroundings of Cape Evans, base camp of the Scott expedition, Antarctica, 1911.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Gagged for silence, a village-dwelling boy joins nomadic Mbuti pygmy lads in a ritual dance, part of a five-month-long initiation ordeal, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2004.

Russia

After 75 years confined to their few remaining churches, Russian Orthodox priests -- like this one, enjoying the bracing winter air at Svyato-Kazansky -- reemerged with the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and again entered the mainstream of Russian life.

India

His working days behind him, a 60-year-old Asian elephant named Rajan carries his mahout, or handler, for a morning swim in the Andaman Sea, 2009.

South Carolina

Civil rights leader Esau Jenkins rallies underprivileged youngsters on John's Island, offshore Charleston, with the call "Look upward, do something better!"

Jenkins, who died shortly after this photograph was taken , founded schools and programs to fight illiteracy among the island's Gullah people, as the local African Americans are called.

Vatican City

James L. Stanfield/Victor R. Boswell, Jr./National Geographic

Paved, walled, and vaulted in rococo beauty, the Vatican's Sala Regia, or Royal Room, was completed in the 16th century and today serves as a kind of diplomatic reception chamber, 1985.

India

Rats roam freely throughout a temple to the Hindu goddess Bhagwati Karniji in Rajasthan, 1976.

Fiji

Once mariners steered clear of such Fijian Islands as the Mamanucas, volcanic peaks here seen rising out of the sea in the archipelago's western reaches, because these were the "Cannibal Isles." Today, however, visitors flock to Fiji, one of the leading tourist destinations in the South Pacific.

Lebanon

A shepherd leading his charges down a busy Rue Georges Picot epitomizes the contrast often encountered in mid-20th-century Beirut: He wears Arab garb but also a Western-style jacket, 1957.

Michigan

Sitting behind his revolving camera tray and holding his flashgun, pioneering wildlife photographer George Shiras demonstrates how, gliding silently by canoe over midnight lakes, he would approach and photograph wild animals along the shores. Michigan, 1893.

Saudi Arabia

A veiled Saudi Arabian woman extends her henna covered hands.

Mexico

A strange sight in a Mexican dugout canoe: two captive jaguars sprawled out, greeting the photographer with a growl, off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, 2011.

California

Tourists photograph Yosemite's majestic rock formations, California, 1965.

Red Tomahawk

Red Tomahawk, a famous American Indian warrior, ca. 1913.

Antarctica

An Emperor Penguin rockets through the water, Antarctica, 2012.

California

A wealthy group of young people relax by a pool in California, ca. 1950s.

Canada

Nestled deep in British Columbia's verdant rainforest, a "spirit bear" devours a salmon. Canada, 2011.

Sri Lanka

Perched on wooden stilts, Sinhalese men fish spotted herring in the monsoon-lashed surf pounding Sri Lanka's south coast, 1995.

Easter Island

Marshall Islands

Egypt

South Georgia Island

New Mexico

Thailand

California

Italy

Antarctica

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Russia

India

South Carolina

Vatican City

India

Fiji

Lebanon

Michigan

Saudi Arabia

Mexico

California

Red Tomahawk

Antarctica

California

Canada

Sri Lanka

Sudan