Sumptous memorial to a controversial independence.

This ancient Silk Road outpost overlooking the Wakhan Valley is miraculously still standing.

Mediterranean castle on a tiny Turkish island.

An ancient church on a tiny island covered in stone bible stories has controversially been turned into a museum.

This famous city eluded concrete detection until the early 2000's.

Foreign invaders almost left this lovely Caucasus palace alone—almost.

Azerbaijani ghost town, decaying after a war left it an armed forces buffer zone.

A shrine of fire worship built on top of a natural flame.

Home to nearly a third of the world's mud volcanoes, Azerbaijan is home to a messy, bubbling, and sometimes explosive landscape.

Mysterious hillside with a continuously burning natural fire.

What might be the largest completely Jewish town in the world outside of Israel now faces dwindling numbers and empty streets.

Nestled in a peaceful valley, this Armenian monastery may have been saved from Mongols thanks to the eyes of God.

The world's longest nonstop reversible cable car soars through spectacular scenery to the medieval Tatev Monastery.

Centuries before the modern seismograph, Armenian monks measured quakes with this tilting pillar.

Right up until the 20th century this network of man-made caves was the biggest village in Eastern Armenia.

A geological oddity topped with a 2,000-year-old pagan temple.

Monks in the empyreal Alazani River valley have preserved their 1,000-year-old winemaking tradition.

The decaying remains of a once-luxurious Soviet spa town.

Underground monastery and fortress.

Ruins of a 13th-century fortress perched above a breathtaking Mediterranean bay.

Hidden amid the tropical forest in the Caribbean Sea are the decaying ruins of the Cocaine King's luxurious island party home.

Some 20,000 dust-covered unwanted vehicles languish in the desert.

A beautiful, dense forest in the shadow of Mount Fuji, with a tragic reputation.

The names Lúthien and Beren can be found inscribed on the shared grave of the famous writer and his beloved wife and muse.