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)

This photo taken on November 7, 2023 shows winter swimming enthusiasts taking photos at Beiling Park after snowfall in Shenyang, in China's northeastern Liaoning province. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

People view pelicans napping on a footpath in St James’s Park in London, United Kingdom on a mild day October 18, 2021. (Photo by Stephen Chung/Alamy Live News)

Dancers from Xinjiang delegation perform during the Opening Ceremony for the 9th National Traditional Games of Ethnic Minorities of the People's Republic of China on September 10, 2011 in Guiyang, China. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

MAKS (Russian: МАКС, Russian: Международный авиационно-космический салон, International Aviation and Space Salon) is The International Air Show took place near Moscow, Russia on Zhukovskiy LII air field on 16-21 August 2011.

A villager pours brine into troughs at ancient salt fields on May 5, 2005 in Yantian Village on Hainan Island, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

The National parks department hosts the 30th annual “All-Women Lifeguard Tournament” in Sandy Hook NJ. July 30, 2014. (Photo by Anthony Causi)