Formed millions of years ago by the collision of primeval continents, the Himalayas have always held significance for humanity. For centuries, pilgrims trekked in search of the divine. More recently, mountaineers seek the limits of human experience.

Few places on Earth display the contrast between ancient and modern as graphically as South Korea. Overlooking Seoul and its 10 million citizens, is Bukhansan, an ancient rocky summit rising nearly a thousand metres above the city’s apartment blocks.

The Alps, once sublime and untouched, are now redefined by modern engineering with highways and tunnels. They serve as a playground for adventurers, highlighting humanity’s impact on these pristine environments and the potential costs of such taming.

At Africa's Heart, the spectacular and fabled Mountains of the Moon have one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. When colonial powers left, the people of the Rwenzori faced ethnic strife and genocide, the mountains were their last refuge.

Once the domain of the Incas, the Andes today are home to the highest body of navigable water on the planet, the world’s highest town and even the highest gym on earth. It’s a place of extreme beauty, agriculture, mineral wealth, poverty, peril.