A group of sadhus (holy men) participate in a religious rally to mark the Mahashivaratri festival at Pashupati Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, 06 March 2024. The festival celebrated on 08 March, sees Hindu devotees from across the country and neighboring India gather to fast and offer special prayers to celebrate the birthday of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of creation and destruction. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA/EFE)

A devotee of the Chinese Ban Tha Rue shrine walks with guns pierced through his cheeks during a procession celebrating the annual vegetarian festival in Phuket, Thailand, October 17, 2015. The festival, featuring face-piercing, spirit mediums and strict vegetarianism celebrates the local Chinese community's belief that abstinence from meat and various stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain good health and peace of mind. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

A reveller (R), dressed as “Diablos de Luzon” (Luzon Devils), stands next to a person dressed as a “Mascaritas” during carnival celebrations in the village of Luzon, Spain, February 6, 2016. The “Diablos” cover themselves in a mixture of soot and oil and adorn their heads with black-stained bull horns as they parade throughout the village with cowbells clanging around their waists to expel the evil spirits. (Photo by Sergio Perez/Reuters)

Every year, participants in the Burning Man Festival descend on the playa of Nevada's Black Rock Desert to form a temporary city – a self-reliant community populated by performers, artists, free spirits, and more. Last week, an estimated 68,000 people came to Burning Man 2013 from all over the world to dance, express themselves, and take in the spectacle. Gathered below are some of the sights from the festival, which lasted a week and came to its conclusion yesterday

A Haka is performed before the ceremonial departure of the 'vaka' or traditional canoes ahead of their cross-Pacific voyage from Viaduct Harbour on April 13, 2011 in Auckland, New Zealand. Powered by sun and wind only, the 15,000 nautical mile journey to Hawaii via French Polynesia will set off on April 15, aiming to raise awareness of environmental issues such as ocean noise pollution, acidification and anoxic waters, whilst recapturing traditional Pacific voyaging. The votyage is named “Te Mana o Te Moana” meaning “The Spirit of the Sea”. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Mask dancers take part in a parade during the the International Festival of Masquerade Games “Surva” in the town of Pernik, some 30 km from Sofia, Bulgaria, 27 January 2019. In ancient times the old Thracians held the Kukeri Ritual Games in honor of god Dionysus – known as a god of wine and ecstasy. Even today these games are also known as the Dionysus' games. Among the Kukeri dancers' are many characters, including Dionysus and his satyrs as well as others from deep history such as the tsar, harachari, plyuvkachi, startzi, and pesyatzi. (Photo by Vassil Donev/EPA/EFE)

Tiharu Ram, 70, a follower of Ramnami Samaj, who has tattooed the name of the Hindu god Ram on his face, poses for a picture outside his house in the village of Chandlidi, in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, India, November 16, 2015. Denied entry to temples and forced to use separate wells, low-caste Hindus in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh first tattooed their bodies and faces more than 100 years ago as an act of defiance and devotion. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

Covered in prayer shawls, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men participate in a blessing during the holiday of Sukkot, in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem's Old City, Wednesday, September 30, 2015. The Cohanim, believed to be descendants of priests who served God in the Jewish Temple before it was destroyed, perform a blessing ceremony of the Jewish people three times a year during the festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)