Farmer Tom Spilman harvests some of the 125,000 pumpkins at Spilman's Pumpkin Farm in Sessay, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, UK on Monday, September 25, 2023, ahead of the opening of Pumpkin Fest 2023 on Saturday. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)
Waves crash against the lighthouse in Seaham Harbour, County Durham in northeast England on Friday, November 24, 2023. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
Pop singer and composer Shakira performs during her “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran”, or Women Don't Cry Anymore, world tour at the Metropolitano stadium in her hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia, Thursday, February 20, 2025. (Photo by Fernando Vergara/AP Photo)
Leon Samson, 24-year-old showman, grimaces as an automobile is driven across his chest at Perth, Australia on October 9, 1960. Samson said the towel on his chest is to prevent the wheel from tearing his flesh. (Photo by AP Photo)
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)