Grand banqueting halls, opulent lobbies and vast ballrooms; you could easily be forgiven for thinking this was a collection of photographs was documenting some of Europe’s grandest hotels. However, a closer look will reveal the majestic rooms to be engulfed in swathes of dust and moss; hotels that once hosted royals and high society abandoned to the elements. This is the latest result of urban exploration photography, going beyond “no entry” signs to capture images of dilapidated buildings across Europe. IT worker Thomas Windisch, from Graz in Austria, indulged his passion for photography by traveling across the continent, visiting over 100 abandoned hotels along the way. Here: inside a hotel in Austria. (Photo by Thomas Windisch/Caters News)

Yuandudu, a camera-shy panda cub, covers her eyes in Beauval ZooParc in France in November 2021. The three-month-old and her twin are fed once each by their mother every day, taking 150-200g of milk per feed. In between they have one bottle feed per day from the specially trained keepers who were sent from China to supervise their birth and early care. (Photo by Eric Baccega/Naturepl.com/LDY Agency)

A girl runs as she plays in a fountain at a shopping mall in Beijing, Friday, June 23, 2023. Authorities issued a rare red alert for high temperatures in parts of China's capital on Friday, the highest level of warning, as highs were expected to once again climb to around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Farenheit). (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

Indian passengers travel on a local train in New Delhi, India, October 2017. Constructed in 1975 to bypass the crowded and passenger-heavy Old Delhi, New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations, the railway line once used to be the lifeline of the capital. (Photo by Ankur Dutta/Barcroft Media)

A man shaves blocks of salt from the Danakil Depression on 28 March 2017, in Afar, Ethiopia. Every morning, hundreds of men converge on a dry lakebed in a remote corner of Ethiopia, where they cleave the ground open with handaxes to extract salt, just as their fathers and grandfathers once did. (Photo by Zacharias Abubeker/AFP Photo)

The mobile home “De Markies” was an entry in the “Temporary Living” competition 1985 and was conceived as a mobile home. Onthe road it measures 2.00 m by 4.50 m, and once it has arrived at its destination its floorspace can be increased threefold in a matter of seconds. “De Markies” was awarded the Public Prize at the Rotterdam Design Prize 1996. For further information please visit Bothlink.

Latin dancing featured on the opening day of the 98th Blackpool Dance Festival in the Empress Ballroom in the city’s Winter Gardens on May 28, 2024. (Photo by James Glossop/ The Times & Sunday Times)

Yakutsk, a remote city in Eastern Siberia along the Lena River, is the coldest city in the world. Located 1840 km away from Irkoustk and 5000 km away from Moscow, this city founded in 1632 by the Cossacks imposes upon its inhabitants an extreme way of life. And yet, despite particularly harsh conditions, Yakutsk boasts a population of 270,000, or a quarter of the entire population of Siberia. No other place on the planet experiences the temperature extreme found here: in winter, the temperatures regularly fall to minus 40° (the coldest temperature recorded was –64°C) and in summer often reaches temperatures above 30°C. Photo: January 2013. A scene in Yakutsk, Siberia, the coldest city in the world. (Photo by Steeve Iuncker/Agence VU)