Blue, white and red brassieres, the colours of the French national flag, hang from a balcony in Marseille, France, November 27, 2015 as the French President called on all French citizens to hang the tricolour national flag from their windows on Friday to pay tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks during a national day of homage. (Photo by Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)

Mirlene Verdieu watches television as she rests in a room at the Hospital of the State University of Haiti, which is one of the centers affected by a three-month-long strike by health workers demanding a pay rise and resources, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, June 20, 2016. (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

13-year-old Emmanuel Festo from Tanzania poses for a portrait with a plush toy that he says makes him feel safe at night and that he sleeps with, in New York's Staten Island, September 21, 2015. Albino body parts are highly valued in witchcraft and can fetch a high price. Superstition leads many to believe albino children are ghosts who bring bad luck. Some believe the limbs are more potent if the victims scream during amputation, according to a 2013 United Nations report. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Polar frame, by Dmitry Kokh, Russia. When Kokh’s boat approached the small island of Kolyuchin in the Russian High Arctic, which had been abandoned by humans since 1992, he was surprised to spot movement in one of the houses. Binoculars revealed polar bears – more than 20 in total – exploring the ghost town. Dmitry used a low-noise drone to document them. (Photo by Dmitry Kokh/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022)

Buns are stamped the Chinese characters “Ping An”, meaning peaceful and safe, inside a bakery, at Hong Kong's Cheung Chau island, China May 17, 2015, ahead of the upcoming Bun Festival on May 25. The festival celebrates the islanders' deliverance from famine many centuries ago and is meant to placate ghosts and restless spirits. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

A man dressed in a traditional Perchten costume and mask performs during a Perchten festival in the western Austrian village of Huben November 22, 2014. Each year in November and January people in the western Austria regions dress up in Perchten (also known in some regions as Krampus or Tuifl) costumes and parade through the streets to perform a 1,500 year-old pagan ritual to disperse the ghosts of winter. (Photo by Dominic Ebenbichler/Reuters)

Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.

Nepalese army personnel pay tributes before the body of a person who died of COVID-19 before cremating the same in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, August 17, 2020. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)