“The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and also the Riau Islands. In Thailand, this festival is called Tesagan Gin Je, the Vegetarian Festival. It is celebrated throughout the entire country, but the festivities are at their height in Phuket, where about 35% of the population is Chinese. It attracts crowds of spectators because of many of the unusual religious rituals that are performed”. – Wikipedia. Photo: A devotee gest pierced at the Bang Neow shrine in Phuket. (Photo by Paula Bronstein)

An extraordinary work of art has just been completed in Scotland. The Kelpies by figurative sculptor Andy Scott surge upwards in steel, whinnying and snorting alongside the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal near the town of Falkirk. These fantastic beasts from Gaelic mythology have risen again as monuments to the horse-powered industrial heritage of Scotland.

There are a number of swamps in Louisiana. Lake Martin is one of them. Swamplands are marshes with different kinds of shrubs and trees. Louisiana Swamplands have different kinds of animals, including the American Alligator and the American Black Bear. Swamplands are usually located on the plains of humid states or countries. Louisiana is not the only home to great swamplands; other flat states with humid enough climates may also house them. One way to find swamplands is to follow the alligator population.

Believers burn dried oak branches, which symbolizes the Yule log, on Orthodox Christmas Eve in front of the St. Sava temple in Belgrade, Serbia, January 6, 2016. Serbian Orthodox believers celebrate Christmas on January 7, according to the Julian calendar. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Heather Larsen from Golden, Colorado, USA performs a split while walking the slackfline or highline across two towers in the Tower of David citadel complex overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem 02 May 2016. Larsen is one of the world's top female highliners, or slack liners and walked the lines as part of a Kickstarter campaign for an outdoor product. The tower at left was built by King King Herod some 2000 years ago. (Photo by Jim Hollander/EPA)

A girl plays in the Eshash el-Sudan slum in the Dokki neighbourhood of Giza, south of Cairo, Egypt September 2, 2015. Residents of the slum clashed with police in late August, when about 50 ramshackle huts were destroyed and at least 20 people were injured by teargas, local media reported, as authorities attempt to clear the area and rehouse residents. The slum dwellers, some of whom have called Eshash el-Sudan home for 50 years, say there are not enough apartments built nearby to house them. The residents of the slum eke out a living by disposing of rubbish or baking bread. Schooling is too expensive for most of their children, who play with salvaged rubbish amid shacks made out of discarded wood and leather. (Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Juno, a Beluga whale, greets a young viewer at the Mystic aquarium in Connecticut, USA on December 5, 2015. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis)

“Exactly one year before the long awaited Sochi Olympics, Vladimir Putin went to Sochi personally to see how the construction is going. After receiving a report saying the ski jumps that were supposed to be ready in 2011, are not completed still, while their price has sky-rocketed from 1.2 billion to 8 billion roubles, he commented, “Good for you. Good job”, and then fired the vice president of the Olympic committee. Russian artist Vasily Slonov painted his view of the upcoming games, giving a new interpretation to the adored Russian mascot Cheburashka, and combining officially endorsed stereotypes of Russia with grimmer and less accepted ones”. – Ruskie.info. (Photo by Vasily Slonov)