Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Resident Taina holds her brother Ysaque in the hallway outside their apartment in an occupied building in the Mangueira “favela” community on August 13, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

A dog walks past a mural by street artist Alex Martinez outside a shop which sells bags at Psiri area, central Athens, on Thursday, January 25, 2018. (Photo by Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo)

Rowdy Alexander watches from atop his horse as a hillside burns on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Wednesday, August 11, 2021, near Lame Deer, Mont. The Richard Spring fire was threatening hundreds of homes as it burned across the reservation. (Photo by Matthew Brown/AP Photo)

Melissa Foley clears debris and helps in her neighborhood as the San Lorenzo River rises with emergency evacuation orders in Felton Grove, California, U.S., January 14, 2023. (Photo by David Swanson/Reuters)

British singer Rita Ora, 30, who is currently in Australia wished her Instagram followers a happy International Womens’ Day on March 8, 2021. (Photo by Instagram/The Sun)

Actress Edy Williams attends the 58th Annual Academy Awards on March 24, 1986 at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ron Galella/WireImage)

“Show us our butts! Mucawana tribe – Angola. In Soba village, the Muhacaona (Mucawana) tribe, perhaps the best place i have visited. They use cow dung and fat to make this so nice haircut, and love the beads. They asked me to make pictures of their backs... and butts to see on the camera screen if everything was perfect!”. (Photo and comments by Eric Lafforgue)