25 Most Breathtaking National Geographic Photographs

In the coastal town of Essaouira, Morocco this dog clears a gap in the beach wall with the African coastline looming in the distance.

On these sawtooth peaks in the eastern Alps of Italy hikers rest on a well kept field sloping down one side of the mountain.

These women walk well beyond the confines of their refugee camp in West Darfur risking their lives to gather fire wood that will sell for about 50 cents per sack back at their camp of roughly 15,000 people.

During the harvest celebrations in Tamil Nadu, India locals partake in a sport known as jallikattu where the young men of the village will try to hang onto a decorated bull as long as possible while it charges through the crowd.

The loose social hierarchy of these Japanese Macaque monkeys allow them to huddle together for warmth while disregarding the fact that high ranking and low ranking members are in such close proximity.

Mohammed Jawed, a stunt driver, relies on the magic of centripetal force to keep his car going in circles around the Wall of Death during this show in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The disk of feathers you see circling this gray owl’s face are used to channel sound back from the ground towards its ear thus helping it to catch small animals.

The hills of the Tehachapi-Mojave Wind Resource Area are covered with over 3,000 wind turbines that produce enough electricity to power over 250,000 homes every year.

Lightning surrounds the ash plume resulting from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano. These so called “dirty thunderstorms” often occur when rock and ice kicked up from the blast crash together in the atmosphere.

Quite possibly one of the most recognized photos in recent history, this picture of a young orphaned Afghan girl was taken at a refugee camp in Pakistan during the Soviet Invasion. It came to fame after being featured on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic and the girls haunting green eyes became a symbol of the plight of refugees the world over. In spite of several attempts to locate her afterwards, the girl’s identity remained a mystery until 2002 when she was found living in the mountains of her homeland. Starting with the bombing of her home and the death of her parents her story was revealed to be one of brokenness, hardship, and devastation with her brother explaining that the only happy day in her life was probably her wedding.