Unforgiving temperatures of up to 60℃ (140℉) beat down on these saltminers on a daily basis. The mines, situated in the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia, stretch across 38,000 sq miles and at their lowest point are more than 300ft below sea level. Joel Santos travelled to capture the area’s dry, brutal beauty. Here: Dromedaries and donkeys are used to transport the salt. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)

Renowned amphibian and reptile photographer Matthijs Kuijpers has released his first book, “Cold Instinct”. Kuijpers says the aim of the work is “for the viewer to abandon the fear and negative thoughts that often surround these animals”. What’s left is the bizarre beauty of these creatures in their simplest form – no backgrounds and no distractions. Here: Mossy frog (Theloderma corticale). (Photo by Matthijs Kuijpers/The Guardian)

These stunning pictures of beautiful Icelandic waterfalls will take your breath away. The mesmerizing shots show the striking waterfalls set against the night sky and the hypnotic green glow of the northern lights, as well as the picturesque Icelandic scenery and stunning sunrises. Here: A mesmerising waterfall in the Icelandic country-side. (Photo by Arnar Kristjansson/Caters News)

Ryo Minemizu, one of Japan’s emerging stars in the field of marine life photography and the 2017 winner of the Nikkei National Geographic photography prize, captures the beauty and complexity of plankton that drift in our planet’s oceans and other bodies of water in meticulous detail. Here: Batesian mimicry by a Soleichthys fish larva. (Photo by Ryo Minemizu/The Guardian)

A series of beautiful shots of divers swimming near sunken ships have emerged. Alex Voyer, 39, was sailing around the Caribbean on a 60-foot boat when he stopped for a dive. The images show amazing shipwrecks as free divers explore the seabed. Here: A diver swims in the shallow water under a pier. (Photo by Alex Voyer/Caters News Agency)

A boy pushes a donkey cart loaded with bundles of cotton blooms that were collected by women cotton pickers in Meeran Pur village, north of Karachi September 25, 2014. Women make up the bulk of Pakistan's half a million cotton producers, but labour rights activists say they are often exploited by overseers, who often withhold their wages and may subject some of them to sexual harassment. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

Members of the Mayossa Folk Dance Group pour water on young women in Kiskunmajsa, some 140 kms southeast of Budapest, Hungary, Monday, April 2, 2018. According to a several hundred years old tradition of Hungarian villages young men pour water on young women who in exchange present their sprinklers with beautifully colored eggs on Easter Monday. (Photo by Sandor Ujvari/MTI via AP Photo)

Hannan Iskandar gets ready before she starts to drive her car in her neighborhood, in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia on June 24, 2018. Saudi Arabia ended its longstanding ban on women driving on June 24, 2018 – and the second the clock struck midnight, women across the country started their engines. (Photo by Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters)