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.

Broadway Tower is a folly located on Broadway Hill, near the village of Broadway, in the English county of Worcestershire, at the second highest point of the Cotswolds after Cleeve Hill. Broadway Tower's base is 1,024 feet (312 metres) above sea level. The tower itself stands 55 feet (17 metres) high. The “Saxon” tower was designed by James Wyatt in 1794 in the form of a castle, and built for Lady Coventry in 1799. The tower was built on a “beacon” hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. Lady Coventry wondered if a beacon on this hill could be seen from her house in Worcester – approximately 22 miles (35 km) away – and sponsored the construction of the folly to find out. The beacon could be seen clearly.

The Moonlight Rainbow Fountain is the world's longest bridge fountain that set a Guinness World Record with nearly 10,000 LED nozzles that run along both sides that is 1,140m long, shooting out 190 tons of water per minute. Installed in September 2009 on the Banpo Bridge, former mayor of Seoul Oh Se-hoon declared that the bridge will further beautify the city and showcase Seoul's eco-friendliness, as the water is pumped directly from the river itself and continuously recycled. The bridge has 38 water pumps and 380 nozzles on either side, which draw 190 tons of water per minute from the river 20 meters below the deck, and shoots as far as 43 meters horizontally.

Winti spiritual leader Ramon Mac-Nack (2nd L) looks on as as his bride Melissa Karwafodi (2nd R) hands a gourd to a Maroon priest (L) as they are wedded in the first Winti marriage ever to be held in public, in district Para, Suriname, November 16, 2015. The Winti religion, which formed centuries ago out of elements of different religious traditions that African slaves brought with them to Suriname, was considered a form idolatry and prohibited by law since the days of slavery until it was finally officially recognized in 1971. (Photo by Ranu Abhelakh/Reuters)

Takeoka Chisaka, Hiroshima, Japan. “One morning in August 1945, I was walking home from the night shift at a factory in Hiroshima. As I reached my door, there was a huge explosion. When I came to, my head was bleeding and I had been blasted 30m away. The atomic bomb had detonated. When I found my mother, her eyes were badly burned. A doctor said they had to come out, but he didn’t have the proper tools so used a knife instead. It was hellish. I became a peace-worker after the war. In the 1960s, at a meeting at the UN, I met one of the people who created the atomic bomb. He apologised”. (Photo and caption by Sasha Maslov)

Aymara dolls are seen during the “Alasitas” fair, where people buy miniature versions of goods they hope to acquire in real life, in La Paz, Bolivia, January 24, 2017. Shoppers fill their baskets with miniature versions of things they desire – everything from cars, houses computers – to give to Ekeko the God of abundance, in the hope he will being therm good fortune. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

Volunteers try to keep alive some of the hundreds of stranded pilot whales after one of the country's largest recorded mass whale strandings, in Golden Bay, at the top of New Zealand's south island, February 10, 2017. Volunteers in New Zealand managed to refloat about 100 surviving pilot whales on Saturday, February 11, 2017 and are hoping they will swim back out to sea after more than 400 of the creatures swam aground at a remote beach. (Photo by Ross Wearing/Reuters)

Justin Nelzen, in red vest, joins others as they work to rescue up to 70 horses along Cypresswood Drive near Humble along Cypress Creek, Monday, April 18, 2016, in Houston. More than a foot of rain fell Monday in parts of Houston, submerging scores of subdivisions and several major interstate highways, forcing the closure of schools and knocking out power to thousands of residents who were urged to shelter in place. (Photo by Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle via AP Photo)