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 devotee takes a holy bath in River Saali in Sankhu on the first day of Swasthani Brata Katha festival in Kathmandu January 5, 2015. During the month long festival, devotees recite one chapter of a Hindu tale daily from the 31-chapter sacred Swasthani Brata Katha book that is dedicated to God Madhavnarayan and Goddess Swasthani, alongside various other gods and goddess and the miraculous feats performed by them. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Three-year-old orangutan from Sumatra, Berani, is pictured at the Pairi Daiza wildlife park, zoo and botanical garden in Brugelette, Belgium on August 2, 2019. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

Ngorongoro Crater (Tanzania). At 610m deep and 260 sq km, this is the largest unflooded caldera in the world. A blue-green vision from above it's a haven for engangered wildlife and Maasai livestock. The crater was formed three million years ago when a giant volcano, which could have been as high as Kilimanjaro, exploded and collapsed. The caldera formed the concentric fractures in the crust cracked down to a magma reservoir deep underground. (Photo by John Bryant/Getty Images)

People splash mud water in a paddy field on National Paddy Day in Tokha village, on the outskirt of capital Kathmandu, Nepal, 29 June 2021. Nepal is celebrating National Paddy Day with various events on 29 June. On this day, known as Asar Pandra, farmers begin the annual rice planting season and mark the day with various festivities such as preparing rice meals with muddy water, mud being a symbol for a prosperous season. Sixty percent of Nepal's agriculture industry relies on monsoon rain while 40 percent is carried out through irrigation. Agriculture is a major contributor to the country's GDP. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA/EFE)

Goats covered with cloth are tied next to a hut on a cold winter morning in New Delhi on December 26, 2023. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

Soldiers take part in a drill during a heavy snow in Heihe, Heilongjiang province, February 26, 2014. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A woman tries to catch snowflakes with her tongue during a snowfall on Chandragiri Hills in Kathmandu, Nepal on January 23, 2019. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)