Sumptous memorial to a controversial independence.

This famed Silk Road oasis was one of the largest cities in the world before it was destroyed by a Mongol horde.

If you want to get married in the White Marble City of Ashgabat, you should do it in this surreal disco ball building.

A cemetery with goat-horn bedecked gravestones.

This harsh mountain path was built as a strange attempt to improve the health of Turkmen citizens.

A dictator's gold statue once rotated to face the sun on a 75-meter high marble tower.

A fiery crater has been burning in the Karakum Desert since 1971.

Few people have ever heard of, let alone visited, one of Turkmenistan’s most impressive natural attractions.

A blooming house of worship for the masses.

Budapest's Communist-era statues, banished to the suburbs.

A Trabant car, a kangaroo statue, and a plethora of plants take over this abandoned-factory-turned-bar.

Built in 1870 at the bridge that connected Buda and Pest, this spectacular incline railway was almost lost forever during World War II.

Historic fortifications form the boundary of Vatican City, but it’s not entirely surrounded by walls.

A 2,000-year-old computer demonstrates remarkable engineering and astronomical precision.

Pilgrims each carried a brick to the top of Mount Monserrate to help build this historic sanctuary in Colombia.

Home to 23 voluptuous and instantly lovable sculptures by one of Latin America's most celebrated artists.

Outdoor escalators and art have helped change what was once a notoriously dangerous part of Medellín.

Three hundred illuminated pillars form an “artificial forest” in Medellín.

The world's tallest palm trees look like the whimsical kind of plant you'd find in a Dr. Seuss story.

An unusual and beautiful form of mass transit serves the city's steepest neighborhoods.

This elegant Colombian fortress was one of the torture headquarters for the Spanish Inquisition.

The embalmed remains of the communist leader lie within a custom crystal coffin.

This smaller cousin of the Forbidden City has gone from ancestral sacrifice to tourist's whispers.

Ming Dynasty necropolis raided during the Cultural Revolution.