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)

Moldova's Victor Ciobanu in action with Georgia's Dato Chkhartishvili during the men's 60kg semi final at the World Wrestling Olympic Games Qualifier in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 8, 2021. (Photo by Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)

A motorist drives a car through a flooded expressway in Brooklyn, New York early on September 2, 2021, as flash flooding and record-breaking rainfall brought by the remnants of Storm Ida swept through the area. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo is seen in Midtown on September 06, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)

In this undated photo released by Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, a newly born Sumatran rhino calf walks in its enclosure at Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary at Way Kambas National Park, Indonesia. The critically endangered Sumatran rhino was born on Sumatra Island Saturday, November 25, 2023, the second Sumatran rhino born in the country this year and a welcome addition to a species that currently numbers fewer than 50 animals. (Photo by Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry via AP Photo)

Wind gusts, blowing down King Street, twist umbrellas during Hurricane Ian in Charleston, S.C., on Friday, September 30, 2022. (Photo by Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier via AP Photo)

A cow sits on an empty beach near Barbate, in Cadiz province, south of Spain, Saturday, February 5, 2022. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

Players, Sophie Powell, Cara Gainer and Gabriella Cowley and their caddies look on as a fire nears the 10th hole during day three of The Rose Ladies Series on The West Course in the first ever ladies professional event at Wentworth Golf Club on August 07, 2020 in Virginia Water, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)