If you are looking for a glimpse of the dazzling yet terrifying power of nature, then perhaps there isn’t a better place than the spot where Venezuela's Catatumbo River runs into Lake Maracaibo.
The area is renowned for 260 storm days each year, which cause 28 lightning strikes to hit the lake each minute.
Guinness World Records has crowned it as the place with the world's most lightning, with an average of 1.2 million lightning strikes per year. The strikes are so intense that they are even visible from a distance of 400 miles.
Scientists attribute the frequency to the unique topography and wind patterns in the region.
But the grand sky show hit an abrupt five-week pause in 2010 as the country struggled with a drought.
Lightning has a special significance in Venezuelan history, with books recording that it helped thwart two nocturnal invasion attempts. The first was in 1595, as the flashes illuminated English ships revealing their surprise attack to Spanish soldiers in Maracaibo.
The other was during the Venezuelan War of Independence in 1823, as it prevented a Spanish fleet from sneaking ashore.
