inspiration for this new week

Year 2000 | Nepal

Prithvi Narayan Shah, first king of Nepal, called his realm "a garden for

all types of peope," including some 60 ethnic groups. Few had more influence

than the Newars, who were renowned for their art and architecture. In Bhaktapur,

a Newar (first photo) wears topi and khasto for a morning stroll. Nearby, a child plays

while her mother works in a brick factory. A Newar girl (third photo) visits

Swayambhunath, Nepal's oldest Buddhist stupa.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide, and Himalayan

nations may suffer most. In Nepal, the condition caused more than

80 percent of curable blindness. The reason the region is so affected is

unknown, but researchers suspect genetics, diet, and the intense ultraviolet

radiation at high altitudes. Lack of eye care is another factor. Nepal has one

ophthalmologist for every 300,000 people.

A family takes rooftop tea above the fray in the heart of Kathmandu.

The once rural valley, home to 1.6 million, is now threatened by

sprawl. Urban populations may double in the next decade.

Nepal has been called an "impossible phantasmagoria"-- a land of

harsh realities infused with the surreal. Like a young Tharu girl perched

on a support post of a traditional longhouse in the remote Dang Valley,

Nepal seems to levitate between East and West, past and future.

Such growth in population has lead to some of the worst smog

in Asia and pushed farmers to fertile lands to the south, beyond

steep hillside terraces like these near the town of Nagarkot.

"I'm goin' to Katmandu!" wailed rocker Bob Seger in the

70's as the city became a magnet for young foreigners looking

for an earthly Shangri-la. The flower children have given way to

adventure travelers in Thamel, the city's tourist quarter. Nearly

half a million tourists visit Nepal each year, fueling the economy.

Year 2000 | Libya

Sign of a devout household, butchered sheep, sacrificed for a Muslim holy

day, intrigue a Moroccan girl in Tripoli's Old quarter.

Grainfields and citrus groves border the Libyan coast, while farther inland

the Sahara covers 90 percent of the country. Oil fields make the nation of

five million people one of Africa's richest states.

Offices and high-rises, the latest stratum of buildings in 2,600-year-old

Tripoli, Libya's capital city, climb above the cramped urban core.

The Old Quarter huddles inside city walls built in the second

century by Romans, who also left behind the noble ruins of

Leptis Magna on the Mediterranean shore.

Preserved since the 12th century, a fortress-like treasury, honeycombed with

vaults, provided the villagers of Kabaw a place to hide grain from desert raiding parties.

Alone with the wind, Berber men, members of a once dominant

pastoral people, prepare for evening prayers in the Nafusah highlands.

A Vietnamese laborer endures the Sahara's sting as he works

in the Al Sharara oil feild.

Photos and excepts: National Geographic | November 2000