Built for over a million people, the city of Ordos was designed to be the crowning glory of Inner Mongolia. Doomed to incompletion however, this futuristic metropolis now rises empty out of the deserts of northern China. Only 2% of its buildings were ever filled; the rest has largely been left to decay, abandoned mid-construction, earning Ordos the title of China's Ghost City.

Takehiko Yagi is a rising star in Japanese photography, and his vibrant pictures of the Hindu spring festival of Holi won the Grand Prize at the fourth annual Nikkei National Geographic Photo Prize. Diving into the Colors of Holi is his first exhibition in the US, on show at Foto Care Gallery in New York until 28 September, 2016. Here: Jaipur, India, 2013, (Photo by Takehiko Yagi/The Guardian)

A dog swims as a resident navigates his boat in a neighbourhood flooded by the Purus river, which continues to rise from days of heavy rainfall in the region, in Boca do Acre, Amazonas state March 14, 2015. According the state civil defense, more than 20,000 people have been left homeless along the Purus river, where incessant rains have flooded the area and caused the river to burst their banks. (Photo by Bruno Kelly/Reuters)

This breathtaking view from the world's tallest building shows a thick blanket of smoggy fog smother Dubai. The mist almost completely covers the huge sculptures which dominate the skyline. And the spectacular view from the Burj Khalifa – standing at a staggering 828 metres tall – shows the city engulfed by the thick fog. And the smoggy fog reaches heights of up to 400 metres as it rises above the impressive skyscrapers in Dubai. (Photo by Bjoern Lauen/Solent News/SIPA Press)

A volunteer operates a remote controlled disinfection robot to disinfect a residental area amid the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on March 16, 2020. China tightened quarantine measures for international arrivals on March 16 as the country worries about a rise in imported cases of the deadly coronavirus and anger rages online at how Europe and the United States are handling the pandemic. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Indonesian firefighters spray disinfectant at the public area near an elephant enclosure at Ragunan Zoo prior to its reopening this weekend after weeks of closure due to the large-scale restrictions imposed to help curb the new coronavirus outbreak, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. As Indonesia's overall virus caseload continues to rise, the capital city has moved to restore normalcy by lifting some restrictions, saying that the spread of the virus in the city of 11 million has slowed after peaking in mid-April. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

Mount Sinabung, a highly active volcano on Sumatra island, erupted several times this week. A volcanology agency has declared a danger zone of about four miles from the crater after seven farmers were killed and two others seriously injured. Here: A man carries his dog as a giant ash cloud rises from the Sinabung volcano in Karo, Indonesia on May 26, 2016. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/Barcroft Images)