Participants bathe in ice-cold water during a ceremony at Teppozu Inari Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, 12 January 2025. 80 men and women took part in the ice water endurance ceremony to purify their souls and pray for good health in the new year. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)

Located in Siberia, Laka Baikal is the largest freshwater lake on the planet that contains approximately 20 percent of the Earth’s freshwater. Apart from being the oldest lake in the world at over 25 million years old, Lake Baikal is also home to over two thousand varieties of flora and fauna, of which almost 1,600 are endemic to the lake. The water of Lake Baikal is renowned for being some of the clearest in the world. When the lake freezes during the winter, an amazing phenomena takes place: large shards of transparent ice form on the surface of the lake, giving the amazing appearance of turquoise ice.

“I was born in 1977 in Warsaw, Poland. I had graduated from the High School of Art in Warsaw. My journey into the world of photography began in the early 90's, but at that time my biggest passion was painting. Painting helped me develop vision that was hard to create. Unfortunately I had to leave the paintbrush and canvas. A few years ago, I opened “the door” to my own world with help of a different key”... – Michal Karcz. Photo: “Last Outpost”. (Photo by Michal Karcz)

People dressed as Adam and Barbara Maitland from “Beetlejuice” ride the subway after leaving New York Comic Con 2022 on October 08, 2022 in New York City. The four-day event, which began Thursday morning at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, is expected to attract over 200,000 comic, fantasy and pop culture fans from across the country and world. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

The fin of a tuna is seen on display in the outer part of the Tsukiji fish market, the Jogai Shijo, in Tokyo January 4, 2015. The famous Tsukiji wholesale fish and seafood market, is scheduled to leave its fabled 80-year-old halls to move into bigger, more modern facilities next year ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The outer part of the market, the Jogai Shijo, that caters to the public will stay in its old place, but critics wonder about its chances for survival without the world's biggest fish trading place at its doorsteps. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A man salvages his belongings after a raging fire engulfed around 2,000 houses in Quezon city, metro Manila January 1, 2015. At least eight people, including a seven year-old child, died and thousands were displaced after a fire broke out in different locations in metro Manila as the New Year kicked off, local media reported. (Photo by Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

Chinese artist Kong Ning poses in a costume symbolizing a butterfly, which is decorated with 365 masks on its wings to represent the number of days in a year, during her performance art at the Badaling section of the Great Wall on the outskirts of Beijing January 1, 2015. Kong, whose works include themes related to China's air pollution problem, named her new performance art “Hua Die” (transforming into a butterfly) and performed it on the first day of the new year as she hopes that China has clean air for this year. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

The President of the sushi restaurant chain Sushi Zanmai, Kiyoshi Kimura, cuts a blue fin tuna outside his main restaurant at the outer Tsukiji market in Tokyo January 5, 2015. The 180 kg blue fin tuna traded at a price of 4.5 million yen (37,500 USD) and was the most expensive fish at this year's New Year auction at the Tsukiji market, local media reported. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)