Inside the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia’s Danakil desert, camel caravans are used to carry salt. For centuries, the essential mineral has been mined by the Afar people, known for their ability to withstand extremes. The terrain is rugged, travelers are scarce and so are motor vehicles, where the average annual temperature is the highest in the world, and can rise to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, 50 degrees Celsius. (Photo by Ziv Koren/Polaris)

Illuminated Cut Paper Light Boxes by Hari & DeeptiDeepti Nair and Harikrishnan Panicker (known collectively as Hari & Deepti) are an artist couple who create paper cut light boxes. Each diorama is made from layers of cut watercolor paper placed inside a shadow box and is lit from behind with flexible LED light strips. The small visual narratives depicted in each work often play off aspects of light including stars, flames, fireflies, and planets.

David Hall’s photographs of scenery and creatures off the coast of Canada in the Pacific Northwest portray serenity under the water, which belie the extreme challenges he faces to get his images. For each shoot, Hall wears a dry suit, a neoprene body suit that covers all of his body but his head and traps air inside to keep him warm. Water temperature in Canada’s British Columbia typically ranges between 45 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Photo: Moon jellyfish and cross jellies. (Photo by David Hall)

A man takes photo of his colleague with a mobile phone on the burning oil tanker at the ship-breaking yard in Gaddani, Pakistan, November 2, 2016. Reports state that at least eighteen workers were killed and more than 100 were wounded in a blast at Gaddani ship breaking yard near Karachi on 01 November. Initial reports suggest the blast occurred when a gas cylinder exploded inside an oil tanker being broken up for scrap. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

Ra Paulette is an American cave sculptor based in New Mexico who digs into hillsides to sculpt elaborate artistic spaces inside mountains. Reviewer Martha Mendoza in the Los Angeles Times described the caves he created as shrines, as hallowed places, a “sanctuary for prayer and meditation” while others describe the caves as works of art. The caves are finished with “scallops, molded curves, smooth ledges, inlaid stones, narrow pods and crusty ledges”. His caves attract visitors worldwide.

Gunung Leuser National Park is a national park covering 7,927 km² in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, straddling the border of North Sumatra and Aceh provinces. The national park, named after Mount Leuser (3,381 m), protects a wide range of ecosystems. An orangutan sanctuary of Bukit Lawang is located inside the park. Together with Bukit Barisan Selatan and Kerinci Seblat national parks it forms a World Heritage Site, Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra.

Gohei Hayashi of Kyoto University is seen in side his movable eco and healing house, “Kujira (Whale) House” July 21, 2007 in Tokyo, Japan. The house is made from Japanese paper, bamboo and tatami mat. Hayashi has travelled 500 km from Japan's ancient city, Kyoto to Tokyo with his eco house to promote his house which can be placed both out inside and outside to provide a private space. The Kujira house is available at the price of 800,000 yen (roughly US$6600). (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)