Driving through the steppes of Russia’s Astrakhan region, one of the last things you expect to see is a 20-storey brick lighthouse towering over the arid landscape. It’s the type of structure you normally see near the coastline, but in this case, the nearest coastline is about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) away, so far that you can’t even see the sea from the top of the lighthouse.

Petrovsky Lighthouse is an architectural anomaly, but one that can easily be explained. In 1741, when Peter the Great of Russia commissioned the lighthouse, the entire area was a part of the Caspian Sea, with islands that housed a port where ships could moor.

Originally made out of wood, the lighthouse collapsed during a serious storm and had to be rebuilt. It wasn’t until 1876 that the brick lighthouse was erected, equipped with cast-iron staircases and sturdy observation platforms that still exist today.

The waters of the Caspian Sea had been receding for a long time, but at the beginning of the last century, the water in the area had become so shallow that the port had to be closed. Petrovsky Lighthouse continued to operate until 1930, by which time the Caspian Sea had receded completely.

The desert lighthouse of Astrakhan became the home of a small radio station during the 1990s, but ever since it stopped operating as a lighthouse in the 1930s, it has remained closed. Today, it is a designated national monument and functions as an unusual tourist attraction.