«*» RUKHSANA«*» Best of National Geographic

National Geographic    Big Sur, California   |1999 | Frans Lanting   Each year more than three million visitors navigate the treacherous turns of Highway 1 and cross its soaring arch-span bridges, its narrow passes, and the unique curiosities, which artists have called 'the greatest meeting of land and water in the world.       Kastellorizon Island , Greece | 1979 | James P. Blair  Sunlight streams into a water-filled cavern.        Krabi , Thailand | 1994 | Jodi Cobb   Tourism has fed Thailand 's economy for many years yet now casts a dark shadow on the environment. Pollution and deforestation due to commercial logging are slowly being curbed by new environmental restrictions       Sydney , Australia  | 2004  | Catherine Karnow    "With a palm-framed view of downtown, Clark Park is typical of the small parks in North Sydney ."       Rio Grande , Texas - Mexico border |1993 | Bruce Dale  A tributary empties into the heavily polluted Rio Grande somewhere along its 1,250-mile (2,011-kilometer) Texas-Mexico border.         Grand Canal, Venice, Italy |1982 | James L. Stanfield  "Dressed in borrowed finery, Venice wears Byzantine arches and mullioned windows along the Grand Canal ."      Sequoia National Park, California   |1995 | Raymond Gehman  Navigating a road filled with smoke from a prescribed burn can be a dangerous drive.