

A picture taken from one of the highest buildings in Istanbul shows the city covered with snow on Jan. 9, after heavy snowfall blanketed Turkey's commercial hub, paralyzing daily life and disrupting air traffic and land transport.

The Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Aug. 6, 2012.

The illuminated track for the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix night race in Singapore on Sept. 17, 2012.

A gas and oil refinery in the early morning hours of July 30, in Bismarck, North Dakota.


Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah competes on Jan. 8 during Stage 4 of the Dakar 2013 race between Nazca and Arequipa, Peru.

A musher competes on Jan. 18 in Megève, France during the departure of a stage of the Grande Odyssée sled dog race.

Ice sheets float along the river Oder at the German-Polish border in Ratzdorf, Germany on Feb. 10.

An aerial view of Kora National Park in Kenya on Jan. 28.



The shadow of Air Force One carrying U.S. President Barack Obama flies over marshland while on approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Sept. 24, 2012.



Planes belonging to the German airline companies Lufthansa and Air Berlin are parked at the Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany on Aug. 1.



An olive tree orchard shot on Sept. 15, 2012 in Santa Rosa, California.

Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France on July 24.


The village of Oudwoude, in the Netherlands, on Nov. 20, 2012.



The town of Coin and its surroundings, near Malaga in Adulusia, Spain, seen after a wildfire burned through the area, on Sept. 1, 2012.

This shot, taken from an plane on Nov. 18, 2012, is of the Paro Airport in Paro, Bhutan. The country's only international airport, it is one of the most dangerous places in the world to make a landing. Only eight pilots are said to be able to land at the airport, which has a short runway and is surrounded by the Himalayan mountains.

A desert landscape in Namibia.

Snow-covered alpine mountains seen from a commercial flight on Feb. 21, 2012 in Zurich, Switzerland.
