In May 2016, Singaporean photographer Armam Pan took on the rare opportunity to film the secretive capital of unquestionably the most hermit country in the world, North Korea. The video footage was conducted from the air, or what was one of three flights authorized to Pan from the North Korean government. The footage reveals beautifully colored edifices, in the pinky, green and blue; from above, the entire city looks tidy and peaceful, a universe of its own.

There is one building in Pyongyang, however, which has attracted international attention perhaps more than any other site downtown the capital. For nearly three decades, the Ryugyong Hotel has loomed spookily dark in the night with its 105 stories. Not a single guest has been able to book a room there apparently. Counting as one of the most famous construction efforts fails ever, the hotel is also as nearly old as North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.

There is a single light that usually flashes on the very top of the dark tower so to signal possible hovering aircrafts. On rare occasions, it happens that several upper floors light up in the darkness, but only for short, and just for long enough to generate speculations that perhaps the hotel is going to be opened soon. And this has been ongoing for years.

The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang got started as one of the grandest projects dedicated to Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim. Five years after its construction began in 1987, all efforts went to halt as North Korea suffered through a period of economic crisis following the break up of the Soviet Union. At this point, the building stood topped out, but it didn’t have any windows or interior fittings whatsoever.

In 2008, constructions on the site resumed, this time backed by funds enabled by Egypt’s Orascom Telecommunications Holdings, which has emerged in the meantime as a North Korean partner looking for a joint venture in the capital. Reportedly, the Egyptian company has funded about $30 million, and though progress in the building effort was apparent by 2011, the high rise remained vacant. At least two false alarms of Ryugyong’s opening were announced since.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang has also undergone considerable changes in its city skyline as Kim has commissioned the construction of dozens of other skyscrapers. On the Ryomyong Street, this city saw the rise of a 70-stories high resident building which now counts as the country’s second tallest high-rise, just after the Ryugyong Hotel. Also, there is a new cluster of futuristic-like edifices that got completed on Scientists’ Street, one of which stands 50 stories high.

Rarely who has seen the Pyongyang’s Ryugyong Hotel interior anyway. According to Simon Cockerell, a general manager at Koryo Tours, a foreign company active in North Korea, the delay of the ultimate completion of the hotel has been due to “money problem.” He has also seen a video of the hotel, of how it was supposed to be, reportedly featuring external elevators and at least five luxury restaurants. But many of such lavish features has now been dropped out of the plan due to the lack of fundings.

Of course, lack of funding is the most often reason of why ‘dark towers’ go dormant elsewhere around the world. In Louisiana, U.S., the Plaza Tower which counts as the third tallest of all buildings in this state, for years stood vacant in the city center.

The edifice has been unused ever since 2002 due to raised environmental concerns and presence of toxic mold and asbestos. The property was purchased in 2005 by a new developer so to convert the office tower into a 197-unit condominium tower, beautifying the edifice with a new facade all along, but all plans got halted after Hurricane Katrina.

Then there is also the world’s tallest slum so to say, the building of La Torre de David in Venezuela. The construction of this edifice commenced as early as 1990, and although it has no electricity, not even running water, technically the building is not abandoned.

Due to the shortage of housing in the country, this 45 stories high skyscraper in Caracas became a slam, a shelter for homeless people who have come to live in the building on their own.

Pyongyang’s Ryugyong Hotel continues to be the world’s most massive unoccupied building, outranking Plaza Tower or La Torre de David. Whether it finally opens sometime in the near future and who will be its first tenants are also questions yet to be answered.