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)

Pablo Holcer tests out a VR system made by Neurable that allows the user to control with their thoughts as the EEG headset interprets thoughts into actions in the VR environment at SIGGRAPH 2017 in Los Angeles, California, July 31, 2017. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

1st Place in Wildlife: A male orangutan peers from behind a tree while crossing a river in Borneo, Indonesia. (Photo by Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year contest 2017)

A performer gestures at the Harbin Ice-Snow World in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, December 25, 2021. The 23rd Harbin Ice-Snow World opened to the public on Saturday. (Photo by Xie Jianfei/Xinhua News Agency/Profimedia via AP Photo)

Mary Pickford takes a picture of husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who is executing a handstand on the roof of a building on December 19, 1920. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

An Atlantic seal pup lies amongst the rocks at St Martin's Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales, Britain October 8, 2018. Seal pups are born with fluffy white non-waterproof coats which they moult out in their fourth week. (Photo by Rebecca Naden/Reuters)

A youth skates next to a road in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia on August 15, 2018. (Photo by Edgar Su/Reuters)

Tourists enjoy hot pot and spring at the hotpot shaped spring during winter at a hotel in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province on December 26, 2018. (Photo by Sipa Asia/Rex Features/Shutterstock)