Kyaiktiyo, Burma, 1978. The Golden Rock at Shwe Pyi Daw (the Golden Country), the Buddhist holy place. Hiroji Kubota writes: “I was desperate to keep a distance from America for a while; luckily, I found Burma and its gentle and compassionate people. In the spring of 1978, on the top of the hill where I took this photo, I had two Leica bodies: the one with Tri-X and the other with Kodachrome 64. Soon after, I realised that the colour one looked very colourful and was more powerful. That was my decisive moment, to become a colour photographer”. (Photo by Hiroji Kubota/Magnum Photos)

A Tengger tribesman prays at Mount Bromo during the annual Kasada ceremony in East Java on August 12, 2014. The Kasada ceremony is a festival held every 14th day of the Kasada month in the traditional Hindu lunar calender to honour Sang Hyang Widhi (God Almighty) and is based on the legend of Roro Anteng and Joko Seger from the Majapahit Kingdom, from which their Tengger tribe name originates. Hundreds of worshippers from the Tengger tribe offer food and livestock as a symbolic sacrifice which they throw into the crater for the blessings of safety and prosperity to their familyies and community. (Photo by Juni Kriswanto/AFP Photo)

Paintings by Iris Grace, a 5 year old with an extraordinary talent to express herself through painting. She is Autistic and is only just starting to talk but is able to paint in a style far beyond her years. We wanted to share her art to raise awareness of her condition and inspire other families in similar situations to ours.

Models wait for their turn at an audition for the upcoming Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Summer/Resort 2017 in Mumbai, India, 14 December 2016. Around 83 national and international models participated in the audition from which five got selected. The LFW Summer/Resort 2017 is scheduled to start from 01 to 05 February 2017. (Photo by Divyakant Solanki/EPA)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

In this photo taken Sunday, October 5, 2014, a library official shows a 13th-century German prayer book containing the earliest evidence of the Yiddish language, at Israel's National Library in Jerusalem. This week, Israel's National Library gave The Associated Press a rare peek at a selection of rare historical manuscripts in its collection. (Photo by Sebastian Scheiner/AP Photo)

“Old Mursi woman”. Old woman by the huts of her village. Location: Marenke, Omo valley, Ethiopia. (Photo and caption by Jorge Fernandez/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

A nurse consoles herself with a box of chocolates as she reads a paper-back thriller. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Circa 1955