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Congo Family, Republic of the Congo
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic
Photo of the Day debuted on April 21, 2001, with this photograph of a Pygmy family setting out for a fishing trip in a flooded forest in the Congo. Celebrate ten years of daily National Geographic photos with this anniversary gallery featuring one picture from each year chosen by our editors.
Photograph from the October 2000 feature story "Megatransect."
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Colosseum Nightscape, Rome, Italy
Photograph by Winfield I. Parks, Jr., National Geographic
May 30, 2001
Memory-haunted arena of the ancients, Rome's 1,900-year-old Colosseum saw bloody gladiatorial duels, battles with wild beasts, and mock naval engagements on its flooded floor. Christians banned the spectacles, and in later centuries presented church dramas here. Time, earthquakes, and stone scavengers took their toll. Still, the treasured monument survived and again serves Rome—as a traffic circle. Cars at evening rush hour create streaks of light in this time exposure, which also captures horse-drawn carriages waiting at curbside for tourists.
Photograph and text from the June 1970 feature story "When in Rome."
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Bathing Tigress, India
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic
March 20, 2002
With feline grace abandoned, Bachhi takes her picture by breaking an infrared beam at an unmanned remote-camera in Bandhavgarh. Sweltering in 120-degree heat, she seeks relief in a pool, despite its fetid brew of rotting leaves and monkey urine.
Photograph and text from the December 1997 feature story "Making Room for Wild Tigers."
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Ganesh Chaturthi Festival, Mumbai, India
Photograph by Steve McCurry, National Geographic
August 26, 2003
Celebrants powder their faces for the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival in Mumbai.
Photograph and text from the May 1997 feature story "India—Fifty Years of Independence."
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Vestmannaeyjar Lava, Iceland
Photograph by Emory Kristof, National Geographic
July 7, 2004
Lava creeps over a house in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland's most important fishing port, forcing evacuation of its inhabitants as well as 5,000 others during Iceland's 14th volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the July 1973 feature story "An Icelandic Village Fights for Its Life."
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Kunming Lake, Beijing, China
Photograph by Macduff Everton, National Geographic
March 24, 2005
Trees line the edge of Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace in Beijing. The palace boasts the largest imperial garden in China, covering over 716 acres of land.
Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the September 1998 feature story "Heart of the Celestial Empire."
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Archeï Oasis, Chad
Photograph by George Steinmetz, National Geographic
August 23, 2006
Knee-deep wading is bliss for camels in Chad's Archeï, a canyon whose trapped waters hold a zoological surprise. Fertilized by beasts' droppings, algae are eaten by fish that are preyed upon by an isolated group of crocodiles.
Photograph and text from the March 1999 feature story "Journey to the Heart of the Sahara."
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Louri Creek Croc, Gabon
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic
April 2, 2007
A days-old Nile crocodile, Crocodylus niloticus, takes his first swim through the tannin-stained Louri Creek, deep in the heart of the 380,000-acre Loango National Park.
Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the August 2004 feature story "In the Land of the Surfing Hippos."
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Aurora Borealis, Acadia National Park, Maine
Photograph by Michael Melford, National Geographic
April 2, 2008
Nature's light show—aurora borealis—bathes Maine's Acadia National Park in a pink glow. These dazzling patterns in nature, called aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere, are created when charged particles outside the Earth's atmosphere collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere, producing a glowing display of curtains, arcs, and bands stretching across the sky.
Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the November 2005 feature story "Autumn in Acadia National Park."
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Northern Spotted Owl
Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic
September 30, 2009
A tagged northern spotted owl swoops toward a researcher's lure in a young redwood forest.
See more photographs from the October 2009 feature story "Redwoods."
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Dead Sea
Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin, National Geographic
March 30, 2010
Floating on dreams and whispers, girls from a West Bank village cool off in the salt-laden waters of the Dead Sea. With its main tributary, the Jordan, at less than a tenth of its former volume, the inland sea has dropped some 70 feet since 1978.
See more photographs from the April 2010 feature story "Parting the Waters."
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