"Nothing lasts forever under the moon" - this phrase very accurately describes the state of affairs in some places on our planet. Under the influence of various factors, they are doomed to disappear. And contemporaries will most likely be the last ones who can still follow their distinctive routes.
Omo Valley tribes, Ethiopia
The lower reaches of the Omo Valley are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Here you can find unique nature and archaeological finds, as well as local tribes with their special way of life. The most famous is the colorful Murei tribe, whose women adorn the lower lip with round clay plates. Probably, the original way of life of the Murey will disappear completely in the next decade, and the once warlike and so unlike people will put on their amazing outfits only for the entertainment of visiting foreigners. The reasons are the development of tourism and the consequences of the construction of the dam upstream of the Omo River. Today, it has become difficult to engage in agriculture, since the river no longer overflows to the same extent, and national parks, protected from economic activity, are now appearing on the territory where herds used to pass.
Timbuktu Mosques
In fact, Timbuktu is not a bay at all, but a small town located on the very edge of the Sahara. Founded in the 12th century by nomads, it was the starting point for caravan routes and an Islamic center of education. The best preserved adobe Old City with the oldest mosques in West Africa. Timbuktu contains many ancient manuscripts containing religious, historical and scientific texts. Due to their venerable age, they are able to crumble into dust at any moment. The same fate threatens the clay mosques themselves, which float and fall apart due to the influence of the sun, wind and rain.
Architecture of the Arkhangelsk region, Russia
The wooden laces of the Russian North are sharpened by the most serious bug - time. Many of the temples and chapels of the XVI-XVII centuries are located in remote and depopulated settlements, where there is no opportunity not only to restore monuments, but even to protect them from vandals. However, there are also places where you can get by car and see this disappearing beauty. In the vicinity of Kargopol, on the left bank of the Onega, there is a whole necklace of such churches. They have survived in the villages of Bolshaya Shalka, Lyadiny and Saunino, but, perhaps, one of the most easily accessible and picturesque Sretino-Mikhailovskaya church, built in 1665. The ghost temple stands in the deserted village of Krasnaya Lyaga. Fundraising for the reconstruction of the monument has been opened, but so far the church continues to collapse. There is another interesting place nearby - Kuchelalda, an extinct village with a unique arrangement of houses lined up in a circle next to a dry lake.
Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia
10,000 square kilometers of salt deserts are the legacy of a distant ecological catastrophe. There were lakes here in prehistoric times. But today even these photogenic places are threatened with extinction. Everything is prosaic: the sparkling salt crust hides colossal deposits of lithium. The Bolivian government has high hopes for these deposits. After all, their development can turn the poorest country in South America into a prosperous state. Several large foreign investors are already interested in the developments. The construction of new large-scale lithium production facilities is planned for 2019. Should the Bolivian government surrender to investor pressure, the cosmic landscapes of Uyuni will give way to much less picturesque industrial landscapes.
