A small, peaceful sculpture garden with a grim memorial to a disaster that took place a few blocks away.

A bright California graveyard with a decidedly dark side.

Stairs often replace streets on the steep slopes of this old mining town.

A living snapshot of a different time in America is preserved and maintained by a community of volunteers.

This reclusive Hopi village in Arizona has been continuously populated longer than anywhere else in America.

What is the Thing?

A motel dedicated to Southwestern nostalgia.

Ancestral Puebloan ruins, natural arches, and box canyons abound in this seldom-visited corner of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.

The story of Two Guns, Arizona could easily be described as a Shakespearian tragedy on Route 66.

A pair of giant roadside arrows are all that remains of a former Route 66 trading post.

The installation’s official name, “You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies,” says it all.

A basement full of treasures lies beneath this inn that has worn many hats throughout its 140+ years.

Three vintage horses survived a 1976 inferno and found a home on a sister carousel.

The L.A. Zoo has a secret garden of rare bootleg cycads, a palm specimen dating back 280 million years.

Raised illegally, Reggie now lives at the Los Angeles Zoo after authorities spent years tracking him down.

A whimsical bridge adorned with decorative dragons.

This one-time health resort was used by aristocrats around the world.

A statue in Budapest's Liberty Square honors the former U.S. president's efforts to end the Cold War.

Uh, pardon me, ma'am, but I couldn't help noticing that there's a Columbo statue in the middle of Budapest.

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

A series of caves under Castle Hill that once held the prisoner Vlad Tepes, better known as Count Dracula.

A trail of iron footwear stands as a monument to the thousands executed along this riverbank during WWII.

The yawning maw of this pagan visage is said to bite off the hands of liars.

This community on a small Venetian island has taken to painting their houses in bright neon hues.