Masked guests attend the “Grand Bal Christian Dior” during the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2018 fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, January 22, 2018. (Photo by Kamil Zihnioglu/AP Photo)

A general view of atmosphere at the annual VOLT Festival in Sopron, 208 kms west of Budapest, Hungary on August 16, 2016. (Photo by Mudra László/Rockstar Photographers)

A man takes his pet African spurred tortoise called Lupin for a walk during a heatwave in Tokyo, Japan on July 3, 2022. (Photo by Masatoshi Okauchi/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A bully greenfinch (left) got its comeuppance when a small but fiery dunnock (right) defended itself with its talons in Suffolk, United Kingdom on April 18, 2022. The smaller bird was perched peacefully before the finch burst onto the scene and aggressively squared up to the dunnock. But as the finch tried to peck at the dunnock, the small brown bird expertly used its foot to slam its mouth shut. (Photo by Paul Sawer/Solent News & Photo Agency)

This photo provided by the McKinney Fire Department shows officials at the site of a crash involving a small plane and a vehicle near Aero Country Airport, Saturday, November 11, 2023, in McKinney, Texas. Authorities say a small plane overshot the runway while trying to land at a Texas airport and struck a car that was driving along a nearby road, injuring one person. (Photo by McKinney Fire Department via AP Photo)

A small series by illustration Alex Solis remembering those things that used to rule the world.

A man prepares cookies at a small traditional factory for the Eid al-Adha, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 29, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

The stone huts and streets of this Italian city look like a scene from a fairytale. The buildings you see before you are called trulli. The rise in popularity of such houses was in 19th century when they were constructed as storehouses and temporary field shelters or as permanent shelters by agricultural laborers and small proprietors. Wouldn’t it be amazing to own such a house? To become engulfed by the fairytale as you sip a cup of coffee, looking out of a small window onto a crowded street.