Three Iranian women bathe in the sea on a shore of the Caspian sea in the city of Babolsar north of Tehran, on July 14, 2023 in Babolsar, Iran. The 7th National Festival of Sand Sculptures is being held in this town on the edge of the Caspian Sea. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

A performer wearing a lion mask performs the Ise Daikagura lion dance at the remote village of Yamanawa on February 08, 2021 in Ryuo, Japan. Ise Daikagura is a group of traditional Lion Dance performers who pray in front of farmers houses and businesses for good grain harvests and disease-free lives. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

A reveller drinks wine while waiting for the launch of the “Chupinazo” rocket, to mark the official opening of the 2023 San Fermín fiestas in Pamplona, Spain, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (Photo by Alvaro Barrientos/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.

Zulmira Jesus poses for a portrait at a street in Povoa de Agracoes, near Chaves, Portugal April 19, 2016. In the villages of Agracoes and Povoa de Agracoe, the steady drip-drip of emigration has brought down population numbers from more than 50 residents to fewer than a dozen each. These remaining villagers share the same glum acceptance that, after they have gone, their villages will die out too. It is the same desolate picture in scores of other backwater settlements in Portugal's interior, north to south. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

This picture taken on January 26, 2016 shows a monkey sitting on a bench during rehearsal at a monkey training school in a zoo in Dongying, eastern China's Shandong province. Shows featuring performing simians, popular in China and throughout Asia, are expecting a boost in the Lunar New Year of the monkey, which begins on February 8. But they are facing a growing backlash from Chinese people concerned about animal welfare. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

The 26th annual National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest is now accepting submissions. Official categories include: “Travel Portraits”, “Outdoor Scenes”, “Sense of Place” and “Spontaneous Moments”. The contest is accepting entries until June 30. Photo: “Forest lights”. Aurora Borealis over the forest of the Pyhae Luosto National Park, Finland. (Photo and caption by Nicholas Roemmelt/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

Rescue operations are undergoing to recover the sunken ferry MV Miraj 4 in the Megna River near Munshiganj, Bangladesh, 16 May 2014. The death toll in the Bangladesh ferry disaster rose to 26 on 16 May, including children and women and many more feared dead as the ferry, carrying more than 200 passengers on board, sunk during a storm on 15 may 2014, police authorities said. (Photo by Abir Abdullah/EPA)