Giant animal sculptures are created with the rice straw leftover from the fall harvest each year.

Sidle into a side alley for a taste of sumo wrestlers' traditional hot-pot soup, in a tiny restaurant founded by a former competitor.

A restaurant modeled after feudal Japan, where the waitstaff are trained as ninjas.

The first archaeological site discovered by aerial photography.

Thousands of exquisitely carved stone water storage wells, hundreds of stone steps fill this exquisite medieval stepwell.

This museum explores the history of the city's public transportation. Its collection includes the world's oldest preserved electric trolley car.

A rare chance to ride one of the few continuous elevators still in operation.

This conservation area is also home to many of the region's desert tortoises.

The foundation of this ancient stupa dates back to the 1st-century.

The rocks are a time capsule of a 407-million-year-old Earth.

Witness traditional silk production in the Uzbek city that's been a hub of sericulture for over a thousand years.

These "50 Fortresses" have been unearthed in the ancient oasis of Khwarezm.

This "tower of death" has acted as an observatory, a religious hub, and an executioner's lair.

Once a bustling fishing port, this semi-ghost town is now more than 90 miles away from the shore.

Light still pours into the ruins of this ancient Islamic observatory.

The Avenue of Mausolea is a series of grand palatial tombs.

Giant cauldrons overflow with Uzbekistan's favorite rice dish at this cavernous dining hall.

Home to what was once considered the largest gate in central Asia.

A floating museum that was sunk by a flood and left to rot in the tides.

Over 600 vacuum cleaners stack the shelves of what may be the cleanest museum in America.

This small town bank is very aware of its name thank you very much.

A late sculptor's last project was to turn this abandoned cement factory into a castle-themed amusement park.

A cave 150 feet beneath Kansas City is the perfect climate for growing 10,000 delicate orchids.

A museum celebrating the Victorian obsession with hair art.