The Year in Pictures 2009

Oasis
Crescent Moon Lake is a naturally occurring spring in the middle of the Gobi desert, along the Silk Road in Gansu province, China. Photographer Ariana Lindquist notes, "The picturesque pagoda you see in the photograph is a cheap stand-in for a Buddhist shrine that was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Crescent Moon Lake has become a typical tourist site, with camel and dune-buggy rides. Still, it's amazing to fly into this environment and imagine that 1,000 years ago, when it was part of the Silk Road, caravans would come across this immense desert to the little oasis town of Dunhuang. It's becoming famous now for clean energy. Just outside town, they're going to build one of China's largest solar-power stations."

• The Year in Pictures 2008