People walk in the Old City of Damascus, Syria, decorated for the upcoming Christmas holidays, Tuesday, December 14, 2021. (Photo by Omar Sanadiki/AP Photo)
Pedestrians use their smartphones to capture the newly illuminated Christmas tree at the Syntagma square in Athens on November 23, 2023. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP Photo)
A man wearing a mask walks past the “Christmas Cab” sculpture displayed along Fifth Avenue on December 02, 2020 in New York City. The annual Holiday Sculptures display is organized by the Fifth Avenue Association and consist of 10 sculptures that runs from 50th Street to 59th Street. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Illuminated installations light up the Heligan Night Garden on November 17, 2022, set amidst the atmospheric Lost Gardens in Cornwall. The Lost Gardens of Heligan have worked with The Lantern Company to illuminate the Gardens which is now open to the public. (Photo by South West News Service)
Afghan women pray at the Karti Sakhi shrine on May 13, 2011 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Within many mosques women have separate areas from the men for prayer, however, in many parts of Taliban controlled Afghanistan, women are only allowed to pray at home. (Photo by Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
Ryo Minemizu, one of Japan’s emerging stars in the field of marine life photography and the 2017 winner of the Nikkei National Geographic photography prize, captures the beauty and complexity of plankton that drift in our planet’s oceans and other bodies of water in meticulous detail. Here: Batesian mimicry by a Soleichthys fish larva. (Photo by Ryo Minemizu/The Guardian)