Geo July 2015

Here are some of the highlights you will find in our July 2015 issue

PHOTOSTORY: THE FABRIC OF TIME

Photographer Enamul Hoque explores jamdani muslins from Bengal – simple, plain-weave cotton fabrics with equal warp and weft – explaining their rich history and global popularity


DOSSIER: THE GREAT ESCAPE

Hundreds of thousands are fleeing war and poverty. Yet as Mark Rowe reports, no country wants them, prompting concerns that obligations to help refugees are being eroded


POPULATION: OLD BONES

An ageing population is becoming a growing issue for many countries throughout Asia. In Laos, Melody Kemp discovers the harsh realities facing the rural poor and old struggling in villages ‘without laughter’


EDWARD WHYMPER – FROM DISASTER TO PROSPERITY

Anthony Lambert recounts Victorian mountaineer Edward Whymper’s fatal first ascent of the Matterhorn, 150 years ago this month, and how it gave tourism in the area a dramatic stimulus


TRAVEL: SCRAMBLES IN THE ANDES

Mick Conefrey traces Edward Whymper’s tracks around the Andes, and finds that there’s a thriving mountaineering culture in Ecuador


EXPLORE: EYES IN THE SKY

In science, sometimes you need to get out of the lab. For the 2014 Land Rover bursary recipient, Mark Allan, this meant a technologically-assisted trip to the Alps, complete with drone cameras and a hair-raising helicopter ride