The Rio de Janeiro Olympics kick off on August 5 for some two weeks of competitive games drawing athletes as well as audiences from around the world. As they prepare to cover the event, Reuters photographers look back on their favourite pictures from past Olympics where they captured the action on the ground as well as the participants' tears and joy that followed. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Dargavs is a small necropolis outside the village of Dargavs in North Ossetia-Alania. It comprises 99 different tombs and crypts. It is often called city of the dead. Some sources say the oldest of the crypts dates back to the 12th century, though others say the oldest crypt dates back to 14th century and some say it dates to the 16th century. At the back of the complex there is a tower, though the top of it is destroyed.

Armed Yemeni children sit in the back of a pick up truck with fighters loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in the Dar saad neighbourhood of the southern Yemeni city of Aden on May 10, 2015, as they continue to battle Shiite Huthi rebels. (Photo by Saleh Al-Obeidi/AFP Photo)

Heralds ride on horse-back through the streets of Moscow proclaiming the forthcoming coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, 1896. P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution.

A starling jealously guards a seed station in the back garden of the photographer’s Michigan home in January 2024. (Photo by Lisa Cavanary/Solent News)

Opossums on their mothers back at a game reserve in Central Minnesota, USA, on September 2, 2013. (Photo by Caters News Agency)

Greyhounds with stuffed and sprung model monkeys strapped to their backs before a hurdle race at Wellinborough. (Photo by E. Bacon). 21st April 1928

A mouse rides on the back of a frog in floodwaters in the northern Indian city Lucknow June 30, 2006. (Photo by Pawan Kumar/Reuters)