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)

A Sphynx cat stares sitting on its owner's lap during an international feline beauty competition in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, April 14, 2018. More than 250 cats take part in the two-day competition in the Romanian capital. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Pedestrians look at a Maurician oil tanker Tresta Star stranded on Tremblet coast in Saint-Philippe, south-east of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, on February 4, 2022 after the passage of the tropical cyclone Batsirai as the island was placed under a cyclonic red alert. (Photo by Richard Bouhet/AFP Photo)

A person dressed as a horned evil spirit known as “Krampus” parades with a torch through the small town of Goricane, Slovenia on November 18, 2023. (Photo by Borut Zivulovic/Reuters)

Waves to the height of 10m reaching 20-30m at the point of impact smashed against the coastline of the idyllic coastal city of Saint Malo, France on April 10, 2024. The extreme tidal waves were the result of Storm Pierrick. (Photo by Mathieu Rivrin/Solent News & Photo Agency)

“Monorail Subway, Capitol To Senate. The Car. Senators Swanson And Townsend As Passengers, 1916”. (Photo by Harris & Ewing Collection). (Please click to enlarge)

An Israeli spectator watches a giant T-Rex balloon during the Purim parade festival in Petah Tikva, Israel, Thursday, March 24, 2016. The Jewish holiday of Purim commemorates the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Book of Esther. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

A woman from the Turkana tribe waits at a shop at the village of Lorengippi near the town of Lodwar, Turkana county, Kenya, July 3, 2020. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)