Geographical Magazine

Change is never easy. But sometimes, it’s necessary. This month’s
features reveal just how varied and visceral the challenges of change
can be. In Cairo, (see Page 42) we witness the physical costs of
transformation, where roads now run through the historic heart of
the City of the Dead – a place where life, death and heritage once coexisted. In India, the challenge is scale. On Page 34, we consider whether the economic expansion that’s lifting millions out of poverty in India can do so without tipping the planet further into crisis? Mark Rowe’s investigation asks whether one of the world’s fastest-growing economy’s can also be a green one. Meanwhile, on Page 24, in Syria, writer Leon McCarron returns to a country still reckoning with the wreckage of dictatorship and war. Here, the fight is not just for political stability, but for memory itself – for ancient theatres, forgotten ruins and the fragile threads of cultural continuity. In each of these stories, we see the push and pull of preservation and progress, the desire to move forward without leaving everything behind. Change is happening. The real question – as ever – is who benefits, who pays, and what is lost along the way?