In this Wednesday, March 18, 2015 photo, limestone quarry workers walk through a cloud of dust spewed into the air by rotor blades of the stone-cutting machinery in the desert of Minya, southern Egypt. Around 45,000 people, including children, work in an estimated 1,500 quarries, digging out stones that later will be used in construction or powdered to be used by pharmaceutical and ceramic companies. (Photo by Mosa'ab Elshamy/AP Photo)

People in Kathmandu joke that the face mask has now become part of the national dress – an indispensable accessory in an effort to protect themselves from the dust. Nepal has the worst air quality in the world, according to the Environmental Performance Index. (Photo by Pete Pattisson/The Guardian)

Ethnic Miao men wearing traditional masks smear dust on a woman's face to wish her good luck during local celebration event for Lunar New Year in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, February 16, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Women are covered in dust after making it out of a building that collapsed after an earthquake in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City, Tuesday, September 19, 2017. A powerful earthquake shook Mexico City on Tuesday, causing panic among the megalopolis' 20 million inhabitants on the 32nd anniversary of a devastating 1985 quake. The US Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 7.1 while Mexico's Seismological Institute said it measured 6.8 on its scale. The institute said the quake's epicenter was seven kilometers west of Chiautla de Tapia, in the neighboring state of Puebla. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

Dust covered seats are pictured inside the lounge of the Jaisalmer Airport in desert state of Rajasthan, India, August 13, 2015. Two-and-a-half years after the completion of a new $17 million terminal building, the airport in Jaisalmer, a small and remote desert city in India's western Rajasthan state, stands empty. (Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)

A Lebanese man wears a mask to protect himself from the dust as a sandstorm blows over the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on September 8, 2015. An unseasonal sandstorm has hit the Middle East, reducing visibility and sending dozens to hospitals with breathing difficulties. (Photo by Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP Photo)

British South American Airways hostess Mary Guthrie with a pair of pineapples, on the return of the Lancastrian airliner 'Star Dust' to Heathrow Airport after a test-flight to Buenos Aires, 15th January 1946

Grand banqueting halls, opulent lobbies and vast ballrooms; you could easily be forgiven for thinking this was a collection of photographs was documenting some of Europe’s grandest hotels. However, a closer look will reveal the majestic rooms to be engulfed in swathes of dust and moss; hotels that once hosted royals and high society abandoned to the elements. This is the latest result of urban exploration photography, going beyond “no entry” signs to capture images of dilapidated buildings across Europe. IT worker Thomas Windisch, from Graz in Austria, indulged his passion for photography by traveling across the continent, visiting over 100 abandoned hotels along the way. Here: inside a hotel in Austria. (Photo by Thomas Windisch/Caters News)