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)

Visitors wear shirts with an image of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong at the Shanghai World Expo site in Shanghai, May 2, 2010. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

A woman takes photos as Mount Agung volcano sends up another plume of smoke, seen from the Kubu subdistrict in Karangasem Regency on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on July 5, 2018. Mount Agung roared to life again on July 2, belching a plume of ash 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) high, as well as temporarily shuttering the airport and grounding hundreds of flights after erupting the week before. (Photo by Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP Photo)

Georgia Bulldogs cheerleaders celebrate at the conclusion of the Alabama Crimson Tide versus the Georgia Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff National Championship, on January 10, 2022, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Ivana Knoll, former Miss Croatia poses for a photo during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 quarter final match between Croatia and Brazil at Education City Stadium on December 09, 2022 in Al Rayyan, Qatar. (Photo by William Volcov/Brazil Photo Press/Splash News and Pictures)

A sparrow feeds its nestlings inside a hole in a building while waiting for food in Lalitpur, Nepal on Friday, March 17, 2023. (Photo by Skanda Gautam/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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 folk artist performs a stunning fire-pot performance on October 18, 2024 in Guangzhou,Guangdong Province of China.Huohu (fire pot) is a traditional folk performance art.Performers put well-burned charcoal into iron meshes on both sides and shake the meshes up and down so that the charcoal will flare up and blazing sparks will burst out of the meshes and light up the sky just like fireworks. (Photo by John Ricky/Anadolu via Getty Images)