Meet the keepers of US-grown saffron—a spice prized around the world—who have cultivated it as a culturally important ingredient for generations.

Musky and sweet, oud wafted its way into the culture of the Arabian Gulf from South and East Asia. Now the resin that is processed into an essential oil is sweetening perfume and room fragrance in the West.

In over seven decades, we have strived to establish a connection between nature and cultures. Through cover stories about species, habitats and conservation efforts in lands far from their own, readers have gained insight into the natural world.

While artificial intelligence tools can enhance efficiency, customer engagement and communications, many specialists find AI lacking when they need to converse in languages with multiple dialects, such as Arabic. With public and private sectors alike requiring Arabic, efforts are underway to advance AI’s accessibility and application.

Part 3 of our series celebrating AramcoWorld’s 75th anniversary highlights the magazine’s emphasis on experts and institutions that push the boundaries of present-day knowledge while paying homage to historical figures and writings that paved their way.

Underwater photographer and writer Eric Hanauer’s work for AramcoWorld exposed an entirely new audience to the rich marine life of the Red Sea. From his home in California, he reflects on his four-plus-decade career.

Tunisia, where figs are one of the signature crops, has been an integral part of a just-concluded Mediterranean research project, FIGGEN, to assess how the trees thrive while climate changes are causing other crops to fail. For nearly four years scientists have worked to identify specific genetic traits that enable figs’ resilience and which varieties cope best with heat and drought. When FIGGEN publishes the results, farmers concerned for their future livelihoods may choose to grow the most promising types. Additionally, the study aims to plant a seed for preserving the biodiversity of increasingly arid ecosystems.

Mangroves have been drawing increasing global attention for a quiet superpower: the ability to store up to five times more carbon than tropical forests. While coastal development, uncontrolled aquaculture, sea-level rise and warming temperatures have all contributed to the 35 percent decline in mangrove forests worldwide since the 1970s, government agencies, scientists and local communities are increasingly rallying to protect and replant mangroves. One group is taking restoration to notably new heights.

Stimulated most recently by nutrition studies and marketing, pistachios are more available worldwide than ever. But today’s efforts are possible only thanks to patient bioengineering some 3,000 years ago.

Until the 1990s, the reed marshes of Iraq were Eurasia's most extensive wetlands, with a unique ecology that supported the Marsh Arabs' distinctive way of life. Then the marshes were drained and the people scattered. Azzam of Alwash, the emigré son of an Iraqi hydrologist, now works with international aid groups and Iraqi authorities to restore the desiccated marshlands. Reeds are sprouting, birds and fish are returning-and so are people. "A 7000-year-old culture doesn't die in a decade, he says.

Strength, speed and a lustrous coat made the Karabakh horse a symbol of status, power and beauty in its native Azerbaijan, and beyond. Wars over the past century nearly eliminated them, but now breeders are steadily restoring their numbers.

In northwest Saudi Arabia, scattered across an area twice the size of Portugal, archeolog|sts and aerial surveyors have identified more than 1,000 roughly built, low, rectangular stone structures that date back 7,000 years to an era when today's deserts were savannas. These mustatils-"rectangle" in Arabic-have been long-known to regional tribes, and in 2018 archeologists began to investigate and excavate. Discoveries of animal bones and horns point toward ritual purposes. The great number of mustatils may be evidence of population and social organization. But why are there so many-and in so many different places? While no two are quite the same in length and width, all are close in height and shape. Amid more questions than clues, archeologists continue to dig.