Peruvian shamans holding a poster of Russia's President Vladimir Putin perform a ritual of predictions for the new year at Morro Solar hill in Chorrillos, Lima, Peru, December 29, 2015. The ritual is an end-of-the-year tradition and the shamans called for world peace and wished good luck for the upcoming elections in Peru and the U.S. (Photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

Those lights are actually bioluminescent shrimp, better known as sea fireflies, or, in Japan, as “umibotaru”. Visible every year from May until the end of October, they live in the sand around very shallow sea water and are often seen floating between the extremes of high and low tides. Here: Bioluminescent sea fireflies glittering like diamonds on the rocks and sand. Okayama, Japan. July 2016. (Photo by Trevor Williams/Jonathan Galione/Getty Images)

These sand-swept images show the ghostly remains of what was once a mineral-rich mining community. In its heyday, the town of Kolmanskop, Namibia, was home to about 700 families. Now all that remains are empty homes filled with sand, while cast-off items such as bathtubs are scattered about the surrounding area. Over time, the sand of the stunning dunes that encircle the town of Kolmanskop has been blown towards the abandoned residences, coating everything from streets to the interiors of houses and workshops. Here: Kolmankop, an abandoned mining town in Namibia. (Photo by David Ogden/Caters News)

A receptionist dinosaur robot performs at the new robot hotel, aptly called Henn na Hotel or Weird Hotel, in Sasebo, southwestern Japan, Wednesday, July 15, 2015. From the receptionist that does the check-in and check-out to the porter that’s a stand-on-wheels taking luggage up to the room, the hotel, that is run as part of Huis Ten Bosch amusement park, is “manned” almost totally by robots to save labor costs. (Photo by Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Photo)

High winds blow sand across the highway near the original north shore of Owens Lake, now miles from the nearest pool of water, on May 5, 2007 near Lone Pine, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly officially designated November 19 as World Toilet Day, which is coordinated by UN-Water in collaboration with governments and partners. Here: An open-air toilet and a hot spring shower are seen in the middle of nowhere on the road to the Krafla geothermal power station and lava fields, near Reykjahlid and Lake Myvatn in northeastern Iceland, on August 19, 2012. (Photo by Mariana Suarez/AFP Photo)

Bia Zaneratto of Brazil celebrates after scoring the second goal of her team during the Women's CONMEBOL Copa America 2022 Semi Final match between Brazil and Paraguay at Estadio Alfonso Lopez on July 26, 2022 in Bucaramanga, Colombia. (Photo by Mariana Greif/Reuters)

Dutch artist Maxim Gazendam works on his sand sculpture during the third edition of the European Championship Sand Sculpting 2014 in Zandvoort aan Zee, The Netherlands, 08 August 2014. Eight sculptors from different European countries will each create an impressive sculpture on the main theme “Music and Dance”. (Photo by Remko De Waal/EPA)