Best of December 2019
Gondolas fill the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, for the annual regatta. The traditional race dates back to at least the 1840's.
Photograph by William Albert Allard, Nat Geo Image Collection
In Chita, Russia, in the early 1990s, a contestant waits backstage for the 'Miss Siberia' pageant.
Photograph by Steve Raymer, Nat Geo Image Collection
The Gateway Arch cuts across the night sky in St. Louis, Missouri. The monument is an ode to westward expansion, and it features a tram that goes all the way up and down the Arch.
Photograph by Jim Richardson, Nat Geo Image Collection
A hobbled horse rolls in the dirt to scratch its back, now free of a saddle. The landscape is the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, a wild area the size of Maine in British Columbia.
Photograph by Michael Christopher Brown, Nat Geo Image Collection
Fireflies flash and streak through a summer night in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The aim of the spectacular light show is to seduce prospective mates.
Photograph by David Liittschwager, Nat Geo Image Collection
A woman walks her dog past some classic cars in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
Photograph by Amy Toensing, Nat Geo Image Collection
Pears ripen on a window sill in Moscow, Russia. In the background, the Kremlin is visible.
Photograph by Sam Abell, Nat Geo Image Collection
Roads and terraced fields create an intricate pattern in Sarawak, Malaysia. The fields are where oil palms grow, an industry that has tripled in the past twenty years, and led to the destruction of rain forest ecosystems.
Photograph by Mattias Klum, Nat Geo Image Collection
Divers watch a school of smallmouth grunts swim around a sunken ship. The USCG Duane was intentionally sunk off the coast of Florida to create an artificial reef.
Photograph by David Doubilet, Nat Geo Image Collection
The Faro del Comercio towers over Monterrey Cathedral in Monterrey, California. At 230 feet tall, it was built in 1984 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Chamber of Commerce.
Photograph by Melissa Farlow, Nat Geo Image Collection
Divers swim in the Indian Ocean as a part of one of Jacques Cousteau's expeditions in the 1950's. The water is coloured by a dye that will help the divers find their way back to the boat—Cousteau's famous Calypso.
Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic
A child plays with an empty washing tub after his mother and grandmother have completed the laundry. In this small apartment in Zimbabwe’s first high-density township, Mbare, three generations of women and children gather in the room where they study, laugh, and sleep.
Photograph by Nichole Sobecki
A motion-triggered camera captures two arctic wolves feeding on a large male musk ox carcass on Ellesmere Island, Canada's northernmost landmass.
Photograph by Ronan Donovan, National Geographic
Rocks containing rare earth minerals like neodymium, widely used in electronics, glow in the exposure of an ultraviolet flashlight. This valley is at the base of mineral complex in southern Greenland that is the site of a proposed rare earth mine.
Photograph by Kiliii Yüyan
The Raohe Street Night Market is a maze of delicious food, shops filled with curio, and bright lights. The night markets is one of the oldest and most popular in Taipei, Taiwan. Hannah Reyes Morales
Photograph by Hannah Reyes Morales
