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)

For more than a century, the Barcelona skyline has been graced (or marred, depending on who’s talking) by the spectacle of the Basilica designed by Anton Gaudi, first started in 1882. If you want to know what it’ll look like when finished, don’t fret — 2026 is right around the corner. Or you can watch this video, released last week on YouTube by Basílica de la Sagrada Família and titled simply “2026 We Build Tomorrow,” a 3-D artists’ rendering of the building stages through completion.
(If 144 years sounds like a long time to finish a cathedral, keep in mind that there were decades that they didn’t work on it — and that Notre Dame de Paris took 182 years, although the 13th century Parisians didn’t have diesel-powered industrial cranes.) Now, if only the video could show us what the admission and hours will be in 2026 (and how to avoid the inevitable long lines).

A freediver uses weights, yoga and camera tricks to create the illusion of walking underwater for a film which took three years to shoot and was completed in 2013 in El Hierro, Canary Islands. Like a scene from a Hollywood science-fiction movie, this trick footage shows a man apparently walking on water. The underwater film was shot by biologist Armiche Ramos and brothers Armando and Francisco del Rosario, who used their expertise in freediving to create the illusion. No computer graphics were involved in the production, with the team relying solely on their own skills – and a few hidden secrets. (Photo by Ocean Brothers/Barcroft Media/ABACAPress)

Team Kazakhstan throw Zhaklin Yakimova of Kazakhstan into the air while they perform their routine in the Mixed Team Acrobatic during the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup 2024 - Stop 2 at Aquatics Centre on May 05, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

A woman representing the Nuestros Pilares feminist group, plays a violin during a demonstration against gender-based violence marking International Women's Day, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP Photo)

Colombia supporters having fun during the FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 Group H match between Germany and Colombia at Sydney Football Stadium on July 30, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Carl Recine/Reuters)

Dallas Cowboys cheerleader performs during the game against the Detroit Lions at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on October 13, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Jairaj/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters)

A person jumps on a trampoline before Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York City, U.S., July 4, 2017. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)