An Indian Hindu married woman offers prayers during Karva Chauth festival in Jammu, India, Sunday, October 24, 2021. Hindu married women decorate their hands with henna, wear colorful bangles and observe a fast to pray for the longevity and well being of their husbands during this festival. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

Fire blows from a fogging machine as a worker sprays fumigation vapour to stem the spread of dengue virus along a street in Peshawar, Pakistan, October 18, 2021. (Photo by Fayaz Aziz/Reuters)

A woman and her son hold firecrackers during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in Mumbai, India, November 4, 2021. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)

Miss Universe contestant Carmina Olimpia Cotfas of Romania poses dressed in the national costume for Miss Universe Romania 2021, created by Israeli designer Aviad Arik Herman, in the hallway of the Romanian Atheneum, the reputed 19th century built concert hall, in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, November 22, 2021. The 70th Miss Universe pageant is being staged in the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat on December 12. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)

Steam comes out of the chimneys of the coal-fired power station Neurath near the Garzweiler open-cast coal mine in Luetzerath, Germany, Monday, October 25, 2021. The climate change conference COP26 will start next Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A spiritual leader (R) of the Huni Kui Indian tribe blows an herbal powder into the nose of a tribal member during a ceremony outside the village of Novo Segredo along the Envira river of Brazil's northwestern Acre state, March 9, 2014. Many indigenous groups, including the Huni Kui, Ashaninka, and Madija, live in villages in the Brazilian rainforest near the border with Peru. (Photo by Lunae Parracho/Reuters)

These heart-warming photograph show an incredible bond between a wild lioness and the men fighting to save her species. The picture show Sirga – a 110lb lioness – and her adopted pride Valentin Gruener (not pictured) and Mikkel Legarth. Incredibly she treats the two men just like she would other lions and with their help she can now hunt for prey on her own. As a cub she was driven out from a pride and rescued by German and Danish duo Valentin and Mikkel who could not stand by and watch her die. She is now a beacon for hoped success of the Modisa Wildlife Project, founded in Botswana, Africa, by Valentin and Mikkel with the hope of saving the lion population. (Photo by Caters News)

Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.