The Best rarely seen National Geographic photos (200 Pics)

An elevated view of the private gardens in Christchurch, New Zealand, January 1972.

A wealthy group of young people relax by a pool in California, 1940.

A solitary fisherman’s home keeps watch on quiet Placentia Bay in Newfoundland, Canada, 1974.

Irish Guards remain at attention after one guardsman faints in London, England, June 1966.

Two women gaze at heavy surf while lying on boulders on the coast of Nova Scotia, December 1961.

Gulls take food from travelers on a passenger boat off the Channel Islands, Great Britain, May 1971.

Motorists pass people on a scenic road atop a cliff overlooking a bay near Trieste, Italy, 1956.

Tourists explore massive dead tree with tunnel cut out for a road in Sequoia National Forest, May 1951.

Three shafts of sunlight illuminate the basilica and its mosaic floor in the Vatican, December 1971.

Hikers stand near the top of a natural rock bridge on Mt. Rainier, Washington, May 1963.

A kitten aboard a floating Victoria water lily pad in the Philippines, 1935.

Embracing the fjord, a dusk-dimmed Bergen laps against mountain walls, Norway, 1971

A shadow of a man holding a bicycle is cast on a wall near the Zambezi River, 1996.

Women use compact mirrors in packed crowd to catch sight of the queen in London, June 1966.

A well-worn stairway leads to a house on Oahu’s North Shore, November 1979.

A man sells goldfish in baggies tied to a tree branch in Beirut, Lebanon, February 1983.

Teenagers run and play on large white sand dunes in New Mexico, 1957.

A shark guides migrating salmon into the shallows off Baxter Cliffs in Australia, April 1995.

A combination sand and rain storm batters a lone automobile in Kuwait, May 1969.

A field turns from orange to green as harvesters pick marigold flowers in Los Mochis, Mexico, 1967.

High school friends enjoy a thermal spring near Gardiner, Montana, April 1997.

A young Kenyan woman holds her pet deer in Mombassa, March 1909.

Girls eat large swirls of cotton candy in Copenhagen, Denmark, January 1963.

Umbrellas and swimmers dot Arpoador Beach in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, March 1955.

A quiet mosque in Palestine, 1926.

An amateur orchid grower works in the window of his greenhouse in Silver Spring, Maryland, April 1971.

A sailor gets a tattoo on his arm in Virginia.

Children swim and play in oceanside pool, February 1955.

Girls watch artist painting picture of statue of Flemish artist in Bruges, Belgium, May 1955.

The Moulin Rouge at Montmartre in Paris, 1923.

Former soldiers study cake decorating at a vocational school in Puerto Rico, April 1951.

People sunbathe beside a swimming pool in Charlotte, North Carolina, 1941.

Surfers overpopulate the waves off of Bondi Beach in Australia, 1963.

A woman working on a mosaic of Mary and baby Jesus in Vatican City.

Girls standing in water holding bunches of American Lotus, Amana, Iowa, November 1938.

Young lovers embrace beside the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1960.

A park visitor films an American black bear and her two cubs in Yellowstone, December 1965.

Modestly attired Japanese women wade into water to bathe, October 1928.

Women sit in a modern chic boutique in Casablanca, 1971.

Fishermen load their catch of sardines into crates on the Adriatic Sea, May 1970.

Women enjoy the benefits of a heated whirlpool in Saint Petersburg, Florida, 1973.

The Statue of Liberty hails dawn over New York Harbor in 1978.

Dozens of visitors frolic in the water as seen through a palm frond in Acapulco, Mexico, 1964.

A rainbow arches over Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

A diver holding a hose for breathing compressed air feeds fish at Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida, January 1955.

A railway encircles thirty-five blocks of shops, offices, and hotels in Chicago, June 1967.

Young boys throw a ball on a lush green hillside below castle ruins in Warwickshire, England, 1968.

Two young girls enjoy the sun relaxing in their suits and wraps in England, September 1929.

Aerial of the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

A white fallow stag stands in a forest in Switzerland, 1973.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong floats in his space suit in a pool of water in 1967.

Welts, scars of beauty, pattern the entire back of a Nuba woman in Sudan, 1966.

People watching a solar eclipse squint through smoked glass or film on Rebun Island in Japan, March 1949.

South Africans relax on a sunny, cabana-lined beach in Cape Town, South Africa, August 1953.

A woman in a yellow dress uses an umbrella to keep dry in Saint Louis, Missouri, November 1965.

A man and his dog on the Overhanging Rock in Yosemite National Park, May 1924.

Seven siblings sit on a wooden fence in Quebec, Canada, May 1939.

Ear-deep in watermelon, a boy eats a juicy slice at a festival in Florida, December 1963.

Hutterite children peer into the window of a greenhouse at Deer Spring where the denomination lives without modern appliances, 1991.

A raft rests peacefully on Switzerland’s Lake Thun, September 1985.

Undated autochrome of a water lily garden.

Aerial view of Dusky Sound near the southwestern tip of South Island in New Zealand, September 1971.

A group of scarabs from the Scarabaeid family, July 1929.

American bison charge through heavy snow in Yellowstone National Park, November 1967.

Children circle around an ultraviolet lamp to get a dose of vitamin D in Murmansk, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, August 1977.

A teacher and a deaf student practice making sounds in front of mirror at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Massachusetts, March 1955.

A little boy is dwarfed by a supersized cabbage in Matanuska Valley, Alaska, July 1959.

A school girl soars twice her height in a standing version of a seesaw in Tokyo, Japan, November 1964.

Victoria Falls in Zambia.

Locals relax by the tulip fields along the canal in Haarlem, The Netherlands, 1931.

People strolling through a park in Finland during a wet May snowstorm, 1968.

A Native American sends smoke signals in Montana, June 1909.

A young girl plays in a replica of a lunar-module in Toronto, Canada, August 1975.

A boy sells lemonade from his front yard stand on Main Street in Aspen, Colorado, 1973.

A photograph from Yerkes Observatory depicts nebulae in the Pleiades, August 1919.

Sunbathers run for cover from a summer rain shower in Rio de Janiero, September 1962.

The three Pyramids of Giza are reflected in a pool of water, September 1926.

A flock of birds fly up from an enclosed courtyard in Old Havana, December 1987.

A bright orange river of sparks cascades from a high cliff in Yosemite National Park, May 1958.

A sled dog, tied to a whale rib, howls under the midnight sun in Alaska, 1969.

Steam pours over the streets of Broadway’s Time Square, November 1987.

Aerial view of seaside sunbathers encamped on beach towels or under umbrellas in Ocean City, Maryland.

Locals enjoy the view of the Surrey Hills in England, 1928.

Iron and manganese seepage creates streaks on a sandstone wall on Lake Powell in Utah, July 1967.

With claws bared, a kitten attacks its own mirrored reflection, 1964.

Two women on a shopping trip walk across a street in Havana, Cuba, 1947.

A woman stands in front of her flower stand on the Rambla in Barcelona, Spain, March 1929.

Bikes park near an arched stone bridge above bathers enjoying the water on Arran Island, Scotland, July 1965.

St. Lawrence River, Canada, 1974.

The Edgar Allen Poe Shrine in Richmond, Virginia, 1929.

Visitors stare in awe at the stained glass windows of Sainte Chapelle in Paris, May 1968.

A man herds sheep with the help of his collies in Scotland, 1919.

Four boys bob for apples in Martinsburg, West Virginia, 1939.

Man looks out on the Eiffel Tower.

Loggers and the giant Mark Twain redwood cut down in California, 1892.

The Halls of Mirrors reflects the reign of the Sun King in Versailles, France, July 1989.

Women in bright dress walk by a fountain with the Taj Mahal in the background, 1959.

A fortune teller displays her cards in Jemaa el Fna square in Marrakesh, Morocco, June 1971.

A mobile home shines amid eerie rock formations in Alberta, Canada, October 1970.

Traffic lights are made in Shreveport, Louisiana, and sent around the U.S. and abroad, December 1947.

Londoners seek shelter during WWII in the Aldwych tube station, April 1941.

A young woman admires flowers in a Baden garden in Germany, June 1928.

A trainer controls a flock of trained flamingos for photo opportunities in Nassau, Bahama Islands, November 1957.

Women rest at the Parthenon whose damaged structure is under repair, December 1930.

Women dance to send off a friend on an airplane trip in Mopti, Mali, 1966.

A farmer embraces his dog in his stonewalled field on Inishmore Island in Ireland, March 1971.

John F. Kennedy’s coffin lies in state beneath the Capitol’s dome, November 1963.

Men observe the giant statues of Easter Island in Polynesia, December 1922.

To spread political views, soldiers release balloons holding leaflets in Taiwan, January 1969.

Two women give food to a red and green macaw in a city garden in Brazil, 1944.

President and Mrs. Johnson and Vice President Humphrey watch Apollo 11 lift off at Cape Canaveral, July 1969.

An Egyptian belly dancer performs for tourists in a nightclub in Cairo, 1972.

Daredevil water skiers ride a foamy wake through a rock tunnel off St. George’s Bay, Beirut, Lebanon, April 1958.

A wave of rock shaped by wind and rain towers above a plain in Western Australia, September 1963.

To entertain the men, Captain Robert Scott took a gramophone on his South Pole Expedition. Chris, one of his dogs, was apparently also a fan, September 1911.

Portrait of an Ojibway, or Chippewa Indian girl in 1907.

Marine infantry in Taiwan practice using flame throwers in a simulated battle, January 1969.

Personifying evil, a costumed mapico dancer in Mozambique hides from spectators, 1964.

A group of people gather round and watch a snake charmer at work in India, 1923.

A fire hydrant refreshes youngsters on a hot day in Harlem, New York, 1977.

Emperor penguin chicks huddle for warmth with other chicks and adults in Antartica, September 1963.

Pedestrians walk on bustling Dotombori Street in Osaka, Japan, March 1970.

Greek emigrants to Australia take a farewell tour of the Parthenon, December 1963.

Two girls dressed as lobsters participate in the Lobster Festival in Rockland, Maine, September 1952.

A farmer buring the hoof of a horse before shoeing it in Scotland, May 1921.

A swimmer from a houseboat joins women diving in Weeki Wachee’s pristine spring waters in Florida, 1955.

A gondola from Sugarbush Resort takes skiers to the top of a peak in Vermont, August 1967.

Sutherland Falls thunders down a 1,904-foot drop from Lake Quill in New Zealand, January 1972.

Children play in pool they have dug out of the sand on the beach in Le Havre, France, 1936.

Bathers read magazines near shoreline while floating in the Dead Sea, December 1964.

In the light of early morning, the Vimy circles the pyramids at Giza on a dawn tour, May 1995.

A motorboat carries tourists to fishing grounds off Tahiti, July 1962.

Sightseers park to watch a Stratocruiser taxi across an underpass in Queens, New York, March 1951.

A colorful hallway in Casa Blanca, the Puerto Rican Governor’s Palace, December 1924.

Princess Grace Kelly in Monaco, 1962.

Visitors stroll in a clear tunnel beneath a pond of waterlilies in St. Louis, 1965.

Candles mark a procession leaving Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre in Quebec, 1971.

A view of the grand white castle of Schloss Neushwanstein in Germany, 1925.

Men stand beside a volcano’s crater eighteen months after an eruption on Tristan da Cunha Island, 1964.

Aerial view of Balandra Beach in Baja California, Mexico, October 1972.

Alan Shepard waits to become the first American in space, Cape Canaveral, 1961.

The first explorers to descend to the deepest part of the ocean were Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard in the bathyscaphe Trieste, January 23, 1960. 52 years later, James Cameron’s DEEPSEA CHALLENGER journeyed to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, nearly 7 miles below sea level.

Two dancers in costume stand between the columns of Poseidon’s Temple, Greece, 1930.

A farmer sprays a peach orchard with lime sulphur to prevent brown rot in Greer, South Carolina, March 1953.

Cat and white rat abide in peace. When different species grow up together, they often lose their enmity, April 1964.

Roaring out of Auyan-Tepui’s wall, a waterfall plummets over 3,000 feet in Venezuela, March 1963.

A tiny model farm built for lightning research and power line tests, June 1950.

Vacationers lounge poolside at Kailua’s Kona Hilton Resort in Hawaii, March 1975.

Cars parked at a drive-in theater with a 53-foot wide screen in Alexandria, Virginia, December 1941.

Women carry baskets on their heads while children play in Kotaka, Mali, 1991.

A woman walks a dachshund across pavement with undulating wave patterns in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 1955.

Scientists study the effects of light on plant life cycles in Beltsville, Maryland, August 1953.

Verdi’s opera Aida enthralls a packed house in New York City, July 1964.

A man stands dwarfed under the Ape-Ape leaves of Puohokamoa Gulch in Maui, Hawaii, 1924.

A hippopotamus and his mate line up at tank’s edge at feeding time, March 1957.

The glitz and glitter of Memphis’ Beale Street radiates energy like no other, February 1997.

Portrait of two young men dressed up as chinelos for carnival in Tepotzotlan, Mexico, December 1951.

A balloon vendor runs across a road with a trailing mass of balloons in Buenos Aires, November 1921.

Water from the Dez River in Iran is used for irrigating once-parched land, January 1968.

A man examines the teeth of a 10-month-old Alaskan Malamute puppy near the South Pole, 1957.

A twilight view of Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in Zambia, 1996.

Kangaroos propel themselves with powerful hind legs. Australia, December 1926.

A couple in a boat paddle on a lily pond and collect flowers in the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington D.C., 1923.

Scientists take samples to study radioactive discharges in the Susquehanna River in Maryland, March 1985.

Woman adorned like a Chinese goddess poses in a garden in California, 1915.

Palm trees and a photographer cast shadows on the ocean’s surface near Tahiti Island, Polynesia, May 1996.

Boys dressed up in school uniforms pose with king penguins at the London Zoo, 1953.

A natural swimming hole in Prairie Creek Park in California, June 1938.

Alexander Graham Bell and Mabel kissing within a tetrahedral kite, October 1903.

Laundry on a clothesline in Kharkov, Ukraine, September 1986.

Dummy pilot and seat soar, as engineers test a catapult escape system in Arizona, March 1963.

A girl sits by a lake with snow-capped mountains in the background, California, 1929.

Astronaut Bruce McCandless II floats a few meters away from Space Shuttle Challenger during the historic first use of a nitrogen-propelled manned maneuvering unit in 1984.

A group of dancers perform at the Mississippi State College for Women, 1937.

A woman stands before limestone cliffs in the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec, September 1934.

View of the Palace of Maharaja’s pond from the Island of the Sultans in Udaipur, India, 1923.

People swim and sunbathe around a fountain in salt water swimming pool in Devon, England, February 1946.

Two balls dropped from the tower in Pisa replay Galileo’s experiment, November 1974.

Locals walk the streets of Madison Square near the Flatiron Building in New York City, 1918.

A bull elk catches a camera string in his antlers, triggering a flash. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, July 1913.

A dog rests on a couch in a store in Texas, 1992.

Flamingos standing and feeding in a pool near salt beds, Netherlands Antilles.

A night shot on Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Children of coal miners play near a fire-prone wooden house in Siberia, September 1988.

Portrait of a woman dressed in clothing typical of Lagartera in Toledo, Spain, August 1924.

Schoolgirls in New Year’s costumes improvise a seesaw in Suwon, South Korea, March 1969.

Young women look out on Kalapana Black Sand Beach in Hawaii. The beach gets its black color from volcanic lava, November 1937.

A couple seated in a living room looks out a window at skiers on lawn in Duluth, Minnesota, September 1949.

Botafogo Bay and Rio de Janeiro at night, September 1920.

A Las Vegas hotel’s neon lights are reflected on a parked car, December 1992.

Girls in swimsuits sip from a water fountain in New York, July 1948.

Shepherd College buit this house to attract youngsters to summer courses. Bedroom, stairs, kitchen—everything is miniature. Shepherdstown, West Virginia, August 1948.

Swimmers compete in Hong Kong’s Annual Cross-harbor Race, 1953.

Original William Henry Jackson print held in the collection of the Colorado Historical Society. This is a hand-tinted print.

A view of the Taj Mahal on the Jumna River, 1923. 

The wind sculpts the dunes of the Sahara Desert in the Erg Bourarhet, Algeria, 1973.

A boy between two mounted lobsters caught off the New Jersey coast, February 1915.

The small monastic church of St John at Kaneo sits perched atop a rocky precipice overlooking Lake Ohrid in Macedonia, Yugoslavia, April 1982.

Ballet dancers appear in a love scene from Phedre by Jean Cocteau in Paris, 1952.

Thermal springs warm winter bathers in British Columbia, 1966.