Every year, participants in the Burning Man Festival descend on the playa of Nevada's Black Rock Desert to form a temporary city – a self-reliant community populated by performers, artists, free spirits, and more. Last week, an estimated 68,000 people came to Burning Man 2013 from all over the world to dance, express themselves, and take in the spectacle. Gathered below are some of the sights from the festival, which lasted a week and came to its conclusion yesterday

“These are the mind-bending sculptures that take up to 40 hours to create – as they're made entirely from pipe cleaners. The fuzzy flexible figures are made entirely from the tobacco cleaning tools – which are now more commonly found strewn across nurseries and art classrooms – to construct the incredible life-like animals”. – Caters News. Photo: New Pipe Cleaner Wolf. (Photo by Lauren Ryan)

Japanese college students look at cheerleaders during a job-hunting rally in Tokyo January 29, 2014. According to the rally organizers, about 1,500 students from vocational schools attend the rally to boost their morale ahead of their job hunt. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)

The British rock and roll group the Beatles talk to Ed Sullivan at CBS Studio 50 before their live television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in New York, February 10, 1964. From left to right are, Sullivan, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, holding a cigarette, and Paul McCartney. (Photo by AP Photo)

A 19-year-old Japanese macaque monkey named Monday sneezes while suffering an allergy to pollen from the cedar tree, at Awajishima Monkey Center on March 26, 2012 in Sumoto, Hyogo, Japan. Some twenty monkeys are suffering the effects of hay fever at this time of the year, with the typical symptoms being the same as with humans. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

U.S. Marine soldiers from 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, Battalion landing team deployed from Okinawa, Japan, participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation at Pohang seashore on March 29, 2012 in Pohang, South Korea. Though South Korean has remained technically at war with North Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the tension of Korean Peninsula has again raised as Pyongyang's new leader Kim Jong-Eun administration announced to launch a “Satellite” between April 12 to 16. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Afghan children have ice cream during the Afghan New Year (Newroz) celebration in Kabul March 21, 2014. Afghanistan uses the Persian calendar which runs from the vernal equinox. The calendar takes as its start date the time when the Prophet Mohammad moved from Mecca to Medina in 621 AD. The current Persian year is 1393. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

Passengers from the ferry sinking off South Korea's southern coast are rescued by the South Korean Coast guard in the water off the southern coast near Jindo, south of Seoul, on April 16, 2014. Almost 300 people were missing after a ferry sank off South Korea on Wednesday, the coastguard said, in what could be the country's biggest peacetime disaster in nearly 20 years. (Photo by AP Photo)