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)

Yanelis Blanco, 24, center, dances with a group of friends at Santa Maria beach, about 15 miles from Havana. It is the closest beach to Havana. Others, from left to right are Jackson Miranda, 21, Dayan Suarez, 24, and Melisa Oliva, 15. The men in the group have a rap group together. The government is demolishing buildings all over the coast of East Havana and recovering and restoring beach dunes. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

The anthropometric record card of Sarah Giles, a servant who was convicted of stealing in 1897, on display making up part of a mosaic of cards on a table top during a press preview for the Crime Museum Uncovered exhibition at the Museum of London in the City of London, Wednesday, October 7, 2015. Drawn from Scotland Yard's private collection, the show charts more than a century of violence and suffering, from the murders of Jack the Ripper to IRA and al-Qaida bombings. But it also celebrates the brains, bravery and scientific advances that helped catch perpetrators and solve crimes. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)

A woman carries water during during a visit by a European Union delegation, at an IDP camp in Azaza, east of Ad Damazin, capital of Blue Nile state, October 21, 2015. The camp houses people displaced by war between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) rebels and the Sudanese government. (Photo by Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters)

“24.27 N, 81.44 W. These coordinates mark the spot of the final resting place of an old brave soldier, the USS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. In 2009 it underwent a complete change when the creaky steel monster became a mystical bearer of secrets. In May of that year, the Vandenberg was lowered down into the darkness of the ocean off the coast of Florida to become an artificial reef, where it would dwell in rigor mortis at a depth of 130 feet. This lively, animate, secretive nothingness, this menacing, wild emptiness would haunt and seduce the renowned Austrian photographer and passionate diver Andreas Franke...”. – The Sinking World (Photo by Andreas Franke)

Christopher Tubbs embraces his wife Sarah after arriving home during the homecoming of the USS Enterprise at the Norfolk Naval Station July 15, 2011 in Norfolk, Virginia. In its 184 days away from Norfolk, the USS Enterprise cruised nearly 60,000 miles while supporting operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

US actress Glenn Close, US actress Sarah Paulson, US actress Teyana Taylor, US reality TV personality Kim Kardashian, US actress Niecy Nash-Betts and British actress Naomi Watts pose during a photocall for the premiere of “All's Fair” TV series in Paris on October 21, 2025. (Photo by Bertrand Guay/AFP Photo)

Collin Williams (front) and Sarah Putnam of Nevada, protesters affiliated with the Occupy Las Vegas movement, participate in a “zombie walk” on the Las Vegas Strip October 30, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The demonstrators are protesting what they believe is greed and corruption among banking and business leaders in solidarity with other Occupy movements around the world. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)