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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

Wikimedia Commons, the most popular website for sharing and using photographs, has compiled the best pictures of 2011.

In the second part of this photo series, rediff.com presents some of the most popular photographs from Wikimedia Commons.

ALSO SEE: Wiki's Pictures of the Year - Part I

Olive ridley sea turtle nesting at Oaxaca, Mexico

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A LCVP from the US Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division onto Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944. American soldiers encountered the newly formed German 352nd Division when landing. During the initial landing, two thirds of the Company E became casualties.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A nearly full moon sets as the space shuttle Discovery sits atop Launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 11, 2009.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

The Atacama Dry lake, in Chile. At the horizon, the Licancabur volcano.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

Eilean Donan Castle, as viewed from the south-east at sunrise.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A hot air balloon being inflated before an air trip over Cappadocia, central Turkey, as seen from inside.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

Pollination by a bee.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A snowy ski lift on top of Areskutan, Sweden.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

Oil-on-oak-panel painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

Two boys at the beach. One is buried in the sand and the other is bending forward while holding the other's head.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the R136 super star cluster, near the centre of the 30 Doradus Nebula, also known as the Tarantula Nebula or NGC 2070.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A Red deer Cervus elaphus, in Freyr forest, near Han-sur-Lesse, Belgium.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

One of the Maid of the Mist tour boats approaching the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

El Golfo Beach in Lanzarote, Canary Islands (Spain).

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A mountain massif of Flakstadoya island in the background to the road to Nusfjord village, Lofoten, Norway.  

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A horse and his rider, made between 1766 and 1771 by the French anatomist Honore Fragonard. Museum Fragonard of the National Veterinarian High School of Alfort, in Maisons-Alfort, France. The technique used is still partially unknown.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A panoramic picture of Ratikon mountain range in Austria, near the border of Switzerland, with Austrian Alpine Club hut Tilisunah on the left.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

A broad view of Hurricane Isabel captured from the International Space Station.

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Wiki's Pictures of the Year

Mouth of the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska.

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TOP photo features of the week

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