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)

“I’d come to the Altai Mountains on an Adventure Sherpas tour. Our group of 12 was made up mostly of Minnesotans who’d left warm weather and falling leaves for frosty Mongolia. We’d come to sleep in cozy ger tents, the traditional yurt abode of the Mongolian steppe; sip mare’s milk tea; climb mountain glaciers; ride horses to an ancient battle site, and attend the annual Eagle Hunting Festival in Ölgiy...”. – Kathryn Kysar via The Star Tribune. Here: hunter Berek and his eagle outside his home. (Photo by Brad Ruoho/The Star Tribune)

A gibbon drinks from a soft drink bottle, given by a tourist, at a zoo in Kunming, Yunnan province, June 18, 2015. (Photo by Wong Campion/Reuters)

American rapper from Memphis GloRilla attends the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards at Dolby Theatre on April 01, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

A man falls from his motorcycle after hitting a water buffalo on his way to work outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, September 6, 2024. Cambodian animal owners have been warned to keep their animals, which often cause traffic accidents, leashed and could face prison time if relatives of those who die or are injured in such accidents initiate legal proceedings. (Photo by Heng Sinith/AP Photo)

Devotees gather to take part in the celebrations to mark the Krishna Janmashtami festival at a temple in Jalandhar on August 26, 2024. (Photo by Shammi Mehra/AFP Photo)

A person practices ski-joering at the Avoriaz resort in the French Alps on February 11, 2021. (Photo by Jeff Pachoud/AFP Photo)

A model wears a floral headdress at the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower show in London, Britain, May 22, 2017. The prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, held annually since 1913 in the Royal Hospital Chelsea grounds, is open to the public from the 23rd to the 27th of May, 2017. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)