Vardzia is a cave monastery site in southern Georgia, excavated from the slopes of the Erusheti Mountain on the left bank of the Mtkvari River, thirty kilometres from Aspindza. The main period of construction was the second half of the twelfth century. The caves stretch along the cliff for some five hundred metres and in up to nineteen tiers. The Church of the Dormition, dating to the 1180s during the golden age of Tamar and Rustaveli, has an important series of wall paintings. The site was largely abandoned after the Ottoman takeover in the sixteenth century. Now part of a state heritage reserve, the extended area of Vardzia-Khertvisi has been submitted for future inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List

More than 700 underwater images were submitted for the 2012 Annual Underwater Photography Contest, hosted by the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science. This year, for the first time, the University of Miami set up a “Fan Favorite” category for its underwater photo competition. Internet users could vote for their favorite among five pictures. Todd Aki's photo of a jellyfish took the prize, snaring 599 of the 1,221 votes cast. (Photo by Todd Aki)

A member of staff stands in front of a CRH high-speed train at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station during its test run on May 11, 2011 in Shanghai, China. After 3 years construction, from April in 2008, with total investment estimated at 220.9 billion yuan (around 32.5 billion U.S. dollars), the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway begins a one-month trial operation. It is expected to start operation in June this year, with the travel time between the two cities reducing to five hours from the previous 10. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

A five-month-old female slender loris waits to be given her first health check by the veterinary team at London Zoo on July 21, 2011 in London, England. Two female baby slender lorises, who are yet to be named, were given health checks, their s*x determined and micro-chipped. Slender Loris is the common name for the strepsirrhine primates who are nocturnal and originate from India, Sri Lanka, and southeast Asia. London Zoo supports conservation of lorises in Sri Lanka, where populations are thought to be under threat from deforestation. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Revellers paint faces at Worthy Farm in Somerset for the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Performing Arts on Worthy Farm near the village of Pilton in Somerset, South West England, on June 21, 2017. The largest greenfield festival in the world Glastonbury Festival is now a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts. The Somerset Festival, which Michael Eavis started in 1970 when several hundred hippies paid just £1, now attracts more than 175,000 people. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

Bride Katty Malang Mikunug with friends, takes a photo before the wedding on October 21, 2017 in Saguiaran in Lanao del Sur, southern Philippines. Paulo Mamayo Ambor, 22, a resident of Marawi who got displaced by the fighting between government troops and IS-inspired militants, weds Katty Malang Mikunug, 22, a resident of an adjacent town in Saguiaran. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte declared Marawi liberated, following the death of Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon and one of the Maute brothers, Omar Maute, after nearly five months of fierce urban battle inside the besieged city. The fighting started May 23, and left more than 1,000 people dead, whilst displacing at least 400,000 people. (Photo by Jes Aznar/Getty Images)

An injured woman is pictured near the Blue Parrot nightclub in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Ro state, Mexico where 5 people were killed, three of them foreigners, during a music festival on January 16, 2017. A shooting erupted at an electronic music festival in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen early Monday, leaving at least five people dead and sparking a stampede, the mayor said. Fifteen people were injured, some in the stampede, after at least one shooter opened fire before dawn at the Blue Parrot nightclub during the BPM festival. (Photo by Victor Vargas/AFP Photo)

Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, shouts out as he is rescued on a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift “Dust Off”, Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after he got shot in the stomach outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan on June 11, 2011. The Army's 'Dust Off' crew needed two attempts to get him out, as they were fired upon and took five rounds of bullets into the tail of their aircraft. (Photo by Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo/File)