Dr. Adolfo Roitman presents a part of the Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, inside the vault of the Shrine of the Book building at the Israel Museum on September, 26, 2011. in Jerusalem, Israel. For the first time some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are available online thanks to a partnership between Google and Israel's national museum. (Photo by Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

Afghan policemen take position at the site of a suicide attack followed by a clash between Afghan forces and insurgents after an attack on a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, August 25, 2017. Gunmen stormed a Shiite mosque in the Afghan capital while worshippers were at Friday prayers, setting off an explosion that killed a security guard outside and pushing into the shrine, officials said. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

Ra Paulette is an American cave sculptor based in New Mexico who digs into hillsides to sculpt elaborate artistic spaces inside mountains. Reviewer Martha Mendoza in the Los Angeles Times described the caves he created as shrines, as hallowed places, a “sanctuary for prayer and meditation” while others describe the caves as works of art. The caves are finished with “scallops, molded curves, smooth ledges, inlaid stones, narrow pods and crusty ledges”. His caves attract visitors worldwide.

The “voodoo” wrestler known as Panthère utters incantations above the alter of his shrine in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on July 27, 2023. In the capital of DR Congo, dozens of men and women – including former wrestlers – practice “voodoo wrestling”, using traditional fetishes and animals. Fights are organised in some of the city's poorest and most densely populated districts. (Photo by Alexis Huguet/AFP Photo)

A reveller sleeps on the pavement during the Sanja Matsuri festival in the Asakusa district of Tokyo May 17, 2015. The Sanja Matsuri festival attracts over about one million visitors over its duration of three days, when parties of revellers carry portable shrines through the Asakusa neighbourhood, rocking and shaking them in a belief that this intensified the powers of the deities that reside inside them. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Lu Wei-ming (L), priest of the Wei-ming temple, and a worshipper burn a Taoist paper amulet during a prayer ritual at the temple in New Taipei city January 8, 2015. The shrine, down a narrow alleyway in a bustling district of the city, is dedicated to a deity who has watched over homosexuals for four centuries. Priest Lu founded the temple in 2006, at a time gays were excluded from most religious ceremonies. (Photo by Pichi Chuang/Reuters)

A man wear a phallic-shaped hat during Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus) on April 1, 2018 in Kawasaki, Japan. The Kanamara Festival is held annually on the first Sunday of April. The pen*s is the central theme of the festival, focused at the local pen*s-venerating shrine which was once frequented by prostitutes who came to pray for business prosperity and protection against sexually transmitted diseases. Today the festival has become a popular tourist attraction and is used to raise money for HIV awareness and research. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

A performer wearing a lion mask performs the Ise Daikagura lion dance at the remote village of Yamanawa on February 08, 2021 in Ryuo, Japan. Ise Daikagura is a group of traditional Lion Dance performers who pray in front of farmers houses and businesses for good grain harvests and disease-free lives. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)