Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is the most culturally and linguistically diverse country on the face of the Earth. Over 800 distinct languages are spoken here - roughly one-eighth of all the languages that exist. The eastern half of the island of New Guinea, plus hundreds of smaller islands, holds communities that were completely isolated from each other by impenetrable jungle, towering mountain ranges, and vast swamp systems for thousands of years. The result is an explosion of human diversity that has no parallel anywhere.

This is a country where first contact with some highland tribes did not happen until the 1930s, and where dense interior regions remain among the most remote and least explored places on the planet. The Highlands are home to massive sing-sing festivals where hundreds of tribes gather in spectacular body paint, feathers, and ceremonial dress. The Sepik River cultures produce some of the most extraordinary art in the human tradition. The coastlines and islands hold World War II battlefields, active volcanoes, and coral reefs that rival any in the Pacific.

Modern Papua New Guinea is a complicated, challenging, fascinating place. Port Moresby is one of the toughest capital cities in the Pacific, resources extraction drives the economy, and development reaches unevenly into the interior. But the cultural richness, the biodiversity, and the sheer wild grandeur of the landscape make it one of the most remarkable countries on Earth.