This unassuming layer of clay boasts an out-of-this-world origin story.

This monster board rode a monster wave to break two world records.

From pre-war whiskey cocktails to prohibition-era speakeasy secrecy, this bar has seen it all.

An historic and oft-filmed spot for musclebound iron pumpers on the Pacific coast.

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

Enormous crabs, bioluminescent jellies, and other amazing creatures from the ocean’s depths—some of which are in an aquarium for the first time ever.

This lonesome Monterey cypress has survived centuries of wind, salt, and at least one attempt at arson.

Haunting and beautiful trees, doomed to die.

For almost 100 years, this site of peace and spirituality has existed on the California coast.

Former headquarters of the KGB.

World's largest bell sits on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow.

One of the world's tallest statues is also one of its most hated.

This building holds the embalmed remains of the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Two very green residential towers cleaning the air in one of Europe's most polluted cities.

Milan's duomo is covered in beautiful carving including a curious "dinosaur-like" beast.

This grisly effigy displays an early Christian martyr who was skinned alive and beheaded.

A tower-like theater in the Swiss Alps built to withstand the high winds and avalanches of the mountain pass.

This fountain is dedicated to the workers who perished constructing the Fréjus Rail Tunnel.

This gas station offers wine tastings and craft beer.

Housed in a century-old building, this museum's dedicated not just to soft drinks, but to the free enterprise system.

Decades of discarded bottle caps line this alleyway, a fixture of Texas A&M.

This curious, round temple is the oldest still-standing marble building in Rome.

The Italian revolutionary's legendary wife is portrayed on horseback waving a gun and holding her child in this memorial on the Janiculum.

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