Kaupo Kikkas has taken some amazing photographs, but perhaps nothing compares to the eerie beauty of his “End of the World Cinema” series. The photographs show an abandoned outdoor cinema in a desert outside Cairo, Egypt.

The cinema was built in the early 2000s by an eccentric Frenchman who wondered why there are no cinemas in the desert. According to Kaupo:

“He flew back to Paris and arranged some money. After that he went to Cairo to buy original old seats and projection equipment from an old cinema theatre. Then came back to Sinai, arranged generator for electricity a monsterous tractor to pull up the screen that was like a gigantic sail. And now everything was more or less ready for the premier.”

Unfortunately, no movies were ever shown here. Egyptian authorities shut the place down at the first screening. And yet the cinema stands, a monument that would have been the perfect place to watch Lawrence of Arabia.

You can see Kaupo’s page on the series here and his full website here. You can even look at the cinema on Google Maps.