An array of colours dwarf visitors to the Rainbow Mountains in the Andes Cordillera in Peru in January 2023, which owes its colours to the minerals contained in the soil. The sulfur offers the yellow colour, iron oxide gives the red and copper sulfate is green. In total, it is made up of 14 different minerals. It was probably caused by weather and volcanic activity. (Photo by Guillaume Astruc/Naturagency/Solent News & Photo Agenc)

A retrospective spanning Enzo Mari's 60-year career. at the Science Museum in London on March 27, 2024. This large-scale exhibition includes the full spectrum of Mari's output, from his work as a designer, but also as an artist, teacher, critic and theorist. In total, more than 300 objects will be on display – most have not been seen in the UK before. (Photo by Guy Bell/Alamy Live News)

Gisele Marie, a Muslim woman and professional heavy metal musician, holds her Gibson Flying V electric guitar as walks down stairs at the end of a fund raising concert for the Syrian refugees in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro November 8, 2015. Based in Sao Paulo, Marie, 42, is the granddaughter of German Catholics, and converted to Islam several months after her father passed away in 2009. Marie, who wears the burka, has been fronting her brothers' heavy metal band "Spectrus" since 2012. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

A Peugeot 408 car is displayed during the 2011 (15th) Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao International Auto Show at Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center on June 2, 2011 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province of China. The 6-day Auto Show will be held from June 2 to 7 with total exhibition area of 110,000 square meters. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

A bride gets ready during a mass wedding ceremony in the old quarters of Delhi February 20, 2015. A total of 12 couples took their wedding vows on Friday during the mass wedding ceremony organised by a Hindu religious organisation, an organiser said. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

“Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the “Key to England” due to its defensive significance throughout history. It is the largest castle in England.

The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 saw the tunnels converted first into an air-raid shelter and then later into a military command centre and underground hospital. In May 1940, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsey directed the evacuation of French and British soldiers from Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo, from his headquarters in the cliff tunnels”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The Repeater Station in the subterranean tunnels underneath Dover Castle, which has been restored by English Heritage for a public exhibition on June 3, 2011 in Dover, England. The evacuation of allied soldiers from Dunkirk was masterminded and co-ordinated from the secret command and control centre in the tunnels deep below the castle. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

A man gestures to a robot at a restaurant in Hefei, Anhui province, December 26, 2014. The restaurant, with a space of 1300 square metres and a total of 30 robots to cook meals, deliver dishes and welcome costumers, was reported to be the biggest robot restaurant in China. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)