Nourished from the north by three rivers from two nations and from the south by the Bay of Bengal, the world’s largest mangrove forest brings together not only rivers and sea, but also hundreds of plant and animal species as well as some 4 million people who live and work in and around the Sundarbans. Protected by both India and Bangladesh, the Sundarbans is listed as a UN World Heritage Site, its name meaning “beautiful forest” in Bengali. As populations and sea levels continue to rise, so too do the challenges.

The script could have been lifted from one of Central Asia’s traditional oral epics: A nomad woman spends her 97-year lifetime defending, ruling and ultimately uniting dozens of tribes, losing a husband and a son to enemies while laying the foundation for a nation. But it’s true: Kurmanjan was her name, and her country is Kyrgyzstan, where a new film tells her story to the world.

Open to artists of any background and awarded in June for the fourth time, the biennial Jameel Prize recognizes contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition, encouraging what one judge calls the “alternative modernities” that are “happening everywhere.”

Iftar means “fast breaking” in Arabic, and the socializing, sharing and community that goes along with it is a worldwide hallmark of the month of Ramadan.

Though her Turkish name Hürrem meant “laughing one,” she proved better at breaking barriers —first by marrying the sultan, and later by directing more of the Ottoman Empire’s affairs than any woman before her.

When Spanish settlers came to America’s Southwest in the late 1500s, they brought a much older irrigation practice that both distributed water and organized communities: the acequia. Today, nearly 1,000 of them are still flowing.