Orphaned mountain gorilla, Ndakasi, lies in the arms of her caregiver, Andre Bauma, on September 21, 2021 shortly before her death, which the park confirmed on September 26. Mr Bauma and others at the Senkwekwe Mountain Gorilla Center had cared for Ndakasi and other orphans for 13 years. Ndakasi had suffered a prolonged illness prior to her death. This is the only mountain gorilla orphanage in the world and takes in mountain gorilla orphans who have lost their families to poaching or conflict. A number of the orphans here were rescued from sales by poachers in sting operations carried out by Congolese National Park Authority (ICCN) rangers. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images)

The container ship NCL Salten ran aground at Byneset, outside Trondheim, Norway. A man in Norway woke up to find a massive container ship in his front garden. The 135-metre (443-foot) vessel missed Johan Helberg's house by a few metres at around 5am local time on Thursday, May 22, 2025 in Byneset, near Trondheim. Mr. Helberg was only made aware of the incident after his panicked neighbour, who had seen the ship heading straight for shore, repeatedly rang his doorbell and eventually called him on the phone. (Photo by South West News Service)

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.

1: Dubai's Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, but perhaps not for long. Saudi Arabia has announced plans to build a 1 kilometer (3,280 foot) tower into the sky, to be named the Jeddah Tower, scheduled for completion in 2020. The Burj Khallifa currently stands at 2,716 ft. (Photo by Matthias Seifert/Reuters)

An Airbus A400M military aircraft lands at the ILA Berlin Air Show in Schoenefeld, south of Berlin, Germany, June 1, 2016. The Aerospace Exhibition at Schoenefeld Airport near Berlin takes place from June 1 till 4. (Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

Actors, clowns and mime artists celebrate “Humor Day” in St Petersburg on April 1, 2022. April 1 is also referred to as “April Fool’s Day” and is a time for playing pranks in the country. (Photo by Anatoly Maltsev/European Press Photo Agency)

First graders of a cadet's lyceum attend a ceremony to mark the start of the new school year in Kiev, Ukraine, September 1, 2015. September 1 marks the start of a new academic year for students in Ukraine.(Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

A Cambodian villager rides a buffalo during the Pchum Ben festival, the festival of death, at Vihear Suor village in Kandal province on October 1, 2016. Thousands of Cambodians descended on the small village northeast of the capital on October 1 to cheer on the annual water buffalo race that marks the end of the 15-day festival for the dead. (Photo by Chor Sokunthea/AFP Photo)