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)

Actress Marilyn Monroe poses for a portrait in a bathing suit and high heels with a bottle of Coca-Cola in a glass on a table behind her in circa 1953. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

American actress Bella Thorne is seen heading to the Diesel show during Milan Fashion Week on February 21, 2024 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

A ship on fire is picture during the parade of members of the Up Helly Aa “Jarl Squad” through the streets of in Lerwick, Shetland Islands on January 30, 2024 during the Up Helly Aa festival later in the day. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and culminates with up to 1,000 “guizers” (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat and setting it alight later in the evening. (Photo by Andy Buchanan/AFP Photo)

A protester aims a sling shot at police in Santiago, Chile, September 1989. (Photo by Marco Ugarte/AP Photo)

Carnival revellers take the metro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on February 19, 2023. Shaking the ground to the beat of their drums, Rio de Janeiro's famed carnival parades returned Sunday in a swirl of glitter, sequins and samba, the festival's first full-on edition since Covid-19 and Brazil's bitterly divisive elections. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

Jackie Leek takes her giant pet tortoise — an eight-year-old African sulcata called Mr Miyagi — on his regular walk to the Crossing Pub in Morecambe, UK on September 25, 2024. Mr Miyagi, who weighs about three stone and will eventually reach ten, also enjoys caravanning holidays. (Photo by William Lailey/South West News Service)

Sunrise at Rockford Common in the New Forest, UK where the heather is in bloom on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Steve Hogan/Picture Exclusive)