Hull of a job: Ship Breakers of Bangladesh

WELCOME to one of the world's largest ship graveyards, where the giants of the ocean go to die

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A silhouette of a worker is seen in one of the broken ships

Photographer Sahil Ali, 24, took the stunning images at Bangladesh’s Chittagong ship breaking yard - the location for a scene from this year's superhero box office smash Avengers: Age of Ultron.

 Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard is located in Faujdarhat along the 11 miles Sitakunda coastal strip, 12 miles northwest of Chittagong.

Retired ships wait to be scrapped in one of the world's largest ship graveyards

The entire facility has 80 active yards and employs around 200,000 people who take apart entire vessels with their bare hands.

All the ships on site are broken up, melted down and recycled or sold.

The parts of the broken ship are recycled or sold

The shipbreaking industry started its operations in the 1960s when a Greek ship ‘MD Alpine’ was stranded on the shores of Sitakund, Chittagong, after a severe cyclone.

 The ship remained there for a number of years before the Chittagong Steel House brought the vessel and scrapped it.

The skeleton of a retired ship is rusty and worn

Sahil said: “Our eyes could see nothing but the carcasses of half-cut retired ships and sea liners scattered across the water.

“I was astonished to see how a few dozen men with their bare fingers could dismantle a colossal cruise liner within two weeks.

The ship is broken apart by hand by 200,000 people

“The environment in which they have to work is truly extraordinary and the dangers in which they face every day are difficult to comprehend.”

One of the men has a brief rest while his colleagues work amongst the dirt and scrap metal

According to a 2012 World Bank report: “The industry grew steadily through the 1980s and, by the middle of the 1990s, the country ranked number two in the world by tonnage scrapped. In 2008, there were 26 ship-breaking yards in the area, and in 2009 there were 40.”

Ship carcasses and spare parts litter the landscape

The entire beach lies hidden by piles of metal, machinery, cylinders, and hundreds of thousands of other ship parts.

The 200,000 workers perform gruelling work in the hot sun

Sahil said: “ One of the old workers informed me that no major investments were required for engaging in ship breaking.

"The present type of ship breaking in Bangladesh just requires a large winch, some blowtorches and maybe a bulldozer. The rest of the operation is just raw human manpower.

“Poverty and millions of people without education are looking for livelihood opportunities.”

Salvageable parts are sold on while the waste rubber and plastics are burnt - potentially exposing the workers to poisonous fumes.

And Sahil revealed that Chittagong's giant scale and haunting beauty led director Joss Whedon to use it for a scene in his Avengers sequel.

He said: “The workers told us about a big Hollywood production that came with their crew to shoot the partly destroyed ships - perhaps the scene of an apocalypse.

“We learned later that the film was The Avengers: Age of Ultron.” 