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.

These are incredible pictures of skilled aircraft pilots flying through raging infernos to put out enormous flames. Daredevil Italian photographer Antonio Grambone, 46, jumped up close to the blaze to capture the incredible images of forest fires in the National Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano, in the province of Salerno in Italy. At great risk to himself, Antonio captured these incredible shots making them appear like Italian masterpieces.

Photo: On target: Brave pilots are on a course straight into these enormous flames as they release tonnes of water onto the fire. (Photo by Antonio Grambone/Caters News Agency Ltd)

A female participant armed with a bottle of ketchup attacks in the annual Vegetable Battle in Kreuzberg district near Oberbaumbruecke Bridge on August 28, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The event pits Kreuzberg district residents againts Friedrichshain district residents for control of the Oberbaumbruecke, and the two sides pelt each other with rotten vegetables, other foods, ketchup, water guns and styrofoam bats until one side has pushed the other from the bridge. The event had originally been cancelled for today, but so many participants showed up anyway and began battling on the Kreuzberg side, where the situation escalated and began to threaten traffic, that police relented and let them later battle it out on the bridge. Kreuzberg claimed victory. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Yedam Kim (L) and Chaewon Kim, both of South Korea, look at a smartphone backstage after performing on stage during the first day of the 51st Prix de Lausanne at the Theatre de Beaulieu, in Lausanne, Switzerland, 30 January 2023. (Photo by Laurent Gillieron/EPA)

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)

Rabbits are seen in a cage, which is placed by authority as a test of the living conditions near the site of last week's blasts at Binhai new district in Tianjin, China, August 19, 2015. According to local media, the animals were alive after being placed near the blasts site for two hours. Four new fires have broken out at the site where two huge blasts last week killed 116 people, Chinese state media reported Friday soon after officials said safety hazards were found at almost 70 percent of firms handling dangerous chemicals in Beijing. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)