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)

A picture made available 27 November 2015 shows a handler putting his head between the gaping fangs of a crocodile during a show at the Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo, Samutprakarn province, outside Bangkok, Thailand, 26 November 2015. The farm and zoo claims to be the world's largest crocodile farm with more than 80,000 freshwater and marine crocodiles, and offers shows such as crocodile wrestling to attract tourists. (Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA)

The thousands of students gathered at Newcastle Racecourse near Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom on March 3, 2019 for a booze-filled night of mayhem. The last race ended at approximately 8pm then the grandstand became like a night-club. (Photo by Craig Connor/North News and Pictures)

Pedestrians look at a Maurician oil tanker Tresta Star stranded on Tremblet coast in Saint-Philippe, south-east of the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, on February 4, 2022 after the passage of the tropical cyclone Batsirai as the island was placed under a cyclonic red alert. (Photo by Richard Bouhet/AFP Photo)

A Brazilian dancer performs during the flowers parade as part of the 137th edition of Nice's Carnival with the theme “King of Animals” in Nice, France, February 13, 2022. (Photo by Eric Gaillard/Reuters)

People wait for a subway train to depart Union Square station, in New York City on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Kevin Coombs/Reuters)

Alessandra Perilli, of San Marino, competes during the trap women's qualification at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, August 7, 2016. (Photo by Hassan Ammar/AP Photo)

A man flies a kite on the Bund while buildings of Pudong's Lujiazui financial district stand across the Huangpu River as the sun rises in Shanghai, China, on Friday, October 2, 2015. (Photo by Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)