Few people haven’t heard about the ancient city of Persepolis, which lies at the foot of the Mountain of Mercy (Kuh-I-Rahmat). In ancient times, Persepolis was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire. Regretfully, it was burned by the Greeks in 330 BC after they looted the immense treasure of this city. It is said that Greeks needed 5,000 camels and 20,000 mules to carry all the treasures from Persepolis. The only thing of Persepolis that has survived the wear of time is the ginormous stone terrace 530 by 330 meters adorned by elaborate stone sculptures. It is amazing how intricately detailed some of the sculptures are, despite the fact that they were created many centuries ago.

National Diving School director Jerome Vincent, wearing a Gandolfi space suit, executes training procedures in a swimming pool in Marseille October 22, 2014. The underwater test session develops European expertise in spacewalk simulations under partial gravity for exploring the Moon, asteroids and Mars.The training is organised by Comex, a French company specializing in engineering and deep sea diving operations, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and with Apollo XI “Under the sea”. (Photo by Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

“Natural History” is a series of completely candid single exposure images that merge the living and the dead to create allegorical narratives of our troubled co-existence with nature. Ghost-like reflections of modern visitors viewing wildlife dioramas are juxtaposed against the antique taxidermied subjects housed behind thick glass, their faces molded into permanent expressions of fear, aggression or fleeting passivity. After decades of over-hunting, climate change, poaching and destruction of habitat, many of these long dead diorama specimens now represent endangered or completely extinct species”. – Traer Scott. (Photo by Traer Scott)

A visitor walks inside the initiation well at Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra October 6, 2014. Sintra became the first centre of European Romantic architecture in the 19th century, which influenced the development of landscape architecture throughout Europe. It was classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995. Its monuments are visited by more than 1.5 million of tourists every year, according to local media. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

A woman is assisted by medical personnel during a celebration in the Mission District in San Francisco, California October 29, 2014. The San Francisco Giants beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Wednesday to win their third World Series title in five seasons. (Photo by Robert Galbraith/Reuters)

In this Monday, October 27, 2014 photo, models wait to walk a runway before a show in Neve Tirza prison in Ramle, central Israel. Neve Tirza, Israel's only women's prison, hosted its first fashion show Monday where models on towering heels strutted on a red catwalk, showcasing clothes designed and made by inmates. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

There are not many sculptures in the world that were purposely made to be grotesque, especially on such a large scale. Thus, a Hungarian artist Ervin Loránth Hervé has apparently decided that there isn’t enough horror in this world and created the Feltépve – a sculpture of a stone giant ripping apart the earth in order to break free. However, when we look from another perspective this sculpture might depict a grouchy giant trying to cover himself with a blanket of earth so that everyone would leave him alone. The latter interpretation of this sculpture was probably not intended by the sculptor; however, the way the arms of the giant are positioned makes it look as if it was truly the case.

A girl floats in a bucket in the village of Ologa in the western state of Zulia October 23, 2014. This year the Catatumbo Lightning was approved for inclusion in the 2015 edition of Guinness World Records, dethroning the Congolese town of Kifuka as the place with the world's most lightning bolts per square kilometer each year at 250. Scientists think the Catatumbo, named for a river that runs into the lake, is normal lightning that just happens to occur far more than anywhere else, due to local topography and wind patterns. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)