Activists attend a parade to demand rights of gender equality to LGBT community members in Santiago, Chile, November 25, 2017. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

Merit: A Night at Deadvlei. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means “dead marsh. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry. (Photo and caption by Beth McCarley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

Unforgiving temperatures of up to 60℃ (140℉) beat down on these saltminers on a daily basis. The mines, situated in the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia, stretch across 38,000 sq miles and at their lowest point are more than 300ft below sea level. Joel Santos travelled to capture the area’s dry, brutal beauty. Here: Dromedaries and donkeys are used to transport the salt. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)

A tourist take a photograph of a sulphur lake in the Danakil Depression on January 23, 2017 near Dallol, Ethiopia. The depression lies 100 metres below sea level and is one of the hottest and most inhospitable places on Earth. Despite the gruelling conditions, Ethiopians continue a centuries old industry of mining salt from the ground by hand in temperatures that average 34.5 degrees centigrade but have risen to over 50 degrees. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Elementary school children play outside their classrooms as mount Sinabung volcano spews thick volcanic ash in the background on February 10, 2017 in Karo, Indonesia. Mount Sinabung is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia and last erupted in May 2016, killing seven people. (Photo by Albert Damanik/Barcroft Images)

A baby baboon appears to ride its mother like a horse at the Chobe River, in The Chobe National Park, Botswana, Southern Africa in January 2023. Young monkeys often ride on their parent's backs, like this Chacma baboon, for protection. (Photo by William Steel/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A swarm of starlings flies over the Altare della Patria monument (Unknown soldier) in the city centre of Rome during sunset, on November 27, 2018. (Photo by Vincenzo Pinto/AFP Photo)

Students walk to school on the first day of their new school year in Giza, south of Cairo, Egypt September 25, 2016. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)