A hunter holds her tamed golden eagle during a traditional hunting contest near the village of Tole Bi in Almaty region, Kazakhstan on November 9, 2024. (Photo by Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters)

A military cadet refreshes her lipstick before the National Day parade in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, December 1, 2023. Tens of thousands of people turned out in Romania's capital on Friday to watch a military parade that included troops from NATO allies to mark the country's National Day. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

A member of Sakura circus team performs during the second day of a one week show in Padukka, near Colombo, Sri Lanka November 28, 2016. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

A woman eats candy in the shape of a phallus during the Kanamara Matsuri, or Iron Phallus Festival through a street near the Kanamara shrine in Kawasaki outside of Tokyo April 5, 2015. The festival celebrates fertility and is used to raise awareness and money for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A military guard carries flowers through the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia where the remains of former Cuban President Fidel Castro were entombed December 4, 2016 in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. The tomb stands to the side of a memorial to the rebel soldiers killed in an attack that Castro led on Santiago's Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953, and in front of the mausoleum of Cuban national hero Jose Marti. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“A snapshot from mountaineer's life”. Have you ever wondered how does a mountaineer's day start? I will give you a hint: you wake up at 3 am, set the stove, wake up your partner, pretend it is warm, quickly consume a high-calorie breakfast, watch your friends slowly ascending the icy slopes of your dream summit with their tiny head torches glimmering against perfectly blue ice, and hope for the good weather. One would ask: why all this trouble? The answer is easy: for the love of the adventure and the unknown. Location: Chamonix, Haute Savoye, France. (Photo and caption by Kamil Tamiola/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

A Syrian rebel walks past Sham 2, a homemade armored vehicle, in Bishqatin, Syria, on December 8, 2012. From a distance it looks rather like a big rusty metal box but closer inspection reveals a homemade armored vehicle waiting to be deployed. Sham II, named after ancient Syria, is built from the chassis of a car and touted by rebels as “100 percent made in Syria”. (Photo by Herve Bar/AFP Photo)

A woman throws olives into a freshly-harvested pile beneath a tree, during the harvest season in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 5, 2023. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP Photo)