Monks take pictures with their mobile phones of the mummified body of a monk at Puzhao temple in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China, January 10, 2016. According to local media, the monk named Fuhou died three years ago at the age of 94 and his remains was placed in a vat and turned into a mummy as a sign of respect. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

An elephant calf yawns as mahouts paint elephants ahead of celebrations for the water festival of Songkran in Ayutthaya, Thailand on April 11, 2019. The annual elephant Songkran event is held to promote the tourism industry. Songkran Festival is held also to mark the Thai traditional New Year falling annually on 13 April, and it is celebrated with people splashing water and putting powder on each other faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the past year. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

The Borobudur temple seen illuminated during Vesak Day, commonly known as “Buddha's birthday”, at the Borobudur Mahayana Buddhist monument on May 6, 2012 in Magelang, Indonesia. Buddhists in Indonesia celebrate Vesak at the Borobudur temple annually, which makes it the most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia. Vesak is observed during the full moon in May or June and the ceremony centers around three Buddhist temples, whereby pilgrims walk from Mendut to Pawon, ending at Borobudur. The stages of life of Buddhism's founder, Gautama Buddha, which are celebrated at Vesak are his birth, enlightenment to Nirvana, and his passing. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

China has sent its first woman into space on a mission to dock with an orbiting station, the latest step in an ambitious programme to go to the moon and on to Mars.

Photo: China's first female astronaut Liu Yang, waves during a sending off ceremony before she departs for the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rocket launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, China, Saturday, June 16, 2012. China will send its first woman and two other astronauts into space Saturday to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming only the third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

“Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American space transport company founded by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. It has developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets, both of which are built with a goal of being reusable launch vehicles. SpaceX is also developing the Dragon spacecraft to be carried to orbit by Falcon 9 launch vehicles. SpaceX designs, tests and fabricates the majority of their components in-house, including the Merlin, Kestrel, and Draco rocket engines. In December 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft (a Dragon)”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp, speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club April 5, 2011 in Washington, DC. Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) and Tesla Motors, held the news conference to announce SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket which could complete missions to the International Space Station and Moon and should be ready for use by the end of 2012. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

This undated image provided by World View shows World View capsule and balloon spacecraft that will rise to 100,000 feet above Earth for passengers to see the curvature of the planet and the blackness of space. Space tourism companies are employing designs including winged vehicles, vertical rockets with capsules and high-altitude balloons. While developers envision ultimately taking people to orbiting habitats, the moon or beyond, the immediate future involves short flights into or near the lowest reaches of space without going into orbit. (Photo by World View via AP Photo)

Masked dancers perform a ritualistic dance at Kathmandu Durbar Square during the procession of erecting a sacred pole locally called “Ya: Shi”, marking the formal start of Indra Jatra dedicated to rain god Indra in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 15, 2024. (Photo by Subaas Shrestha/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)