North Korean defectors, now living in South Korea, prepare to release balloons carrying propaganda leaflets denouncing North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-Il at Imjingak, near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea on December 28, 2011 in Paju, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A chef cooks raw dog meat at a restaurant on July 5, 2005 in Gwacheon, South Korea. Dog meat is a traditional dish in Korea dating back to the Samkuk period (period of the three kingdoms BC 57 – AD 668). Although many recipes existed historically for dog meat, now chefs only make soups, or dishes using boiled or roasted meat. Koreans traditionally eat dog meat on the hottest day of the summer, for it's reputed benefits of virility, invigoration and health. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

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.

“MSC Fabiola is a container ship owned by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the largest such vessel ever to dock in North America. In March 2012 the ship shifted from its initial Asia-to-Europe service to begin trans-Pacific service. On March 19, 2012, Fabiola docked at the Port of Long Beach, breaking earlier records for the largest container ship at a US port, and at any North American port”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The container ship MSC Fabiola (R) is seen docked at the Port of Oakland on March 22, 2012, in Oakland, California. The MSC Fabiola is the largest container ship ever to dock at any seaport in North America with an overall length of nearly one quarter mile long. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

North Koreans who signed up to join the army train in the midst of political tension with South Korea, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang August 23, 2015. Top aides to the leaders of North and South Korea resumed talks on Sunday after negotiating through the night in a bid to ease tensions involving an exchange of artillery fire that brought the peninsula to the brink of armed conflict. (Photo by Reuters/KCNA)

A North Korean soldier looks through a window at Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (L) and her partner Tim Mathieson (C) while they visit the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC) meeting room at the border village of Panmunjom, between South and North Korea, on April 24, 2011 South Korea. Gillard will visit Japan, the Republic of Korea and China during a bilateral tour of North Asia from April 20-27. (Photo by Jeon Heon-Kyun-pool/Getty Images)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (front) stands on the conning tower of a submarine during his inspection of the Korean People's Army (KPA) Naval Unit 167 in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang June 16, 2014. (Photo by Reuters/KCNA)