An extraordinary library and archive dedicated to the history of the Arctic and Antarctic poles.

The Vatican's secret porn-festooned bathroom was painted in erotic murals by one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance.

Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

Goethe's "Faust" was inspired by these rock formations known as the "Devil's Pulpit" and "Witches' Altar."

A crumbling Beaux Arts monument to the Bay Area's age of rail.

An extraordinary collection of scientific instruments - and Einstein's chalkboard - inside the world's oldest purpose built museum building.

Rare and wonderfully wormy cadaver art captured in brass for centuries.

Whether hero or rogue, his silver bullet is said to have taken down the murderous "Beast of Gevaudan."

A sanctuary for wolves in a community which once trembled in fear of the murderous "Beast of Gévaudan."

A 100-year-old purveyor of curiosities, curios, and kitsch featuring mummies, shrunken heads, and a Fiji Mermaid.

Faceless white figures loom over the city from the rooftop.

The century-old bell and clock tower at UC Berkeley is the third-tallest in the world, and has fossils.

A vast city of the dead, where the deceased outnumber the living by more than a million.

Visible below the waves are memorials to the city's Gold Rush dead.

Gold Rush-era tombstones line the park's paths.

A limestone wonderland of water and subterranean secrets.

The face of the famed flier in a hillside in her hometown.

The ruins of a lighthouse on the island Amelia Earhart never reached.

The "lovely red Vega" of the legendary record-settling pilot.

The first home of the doomed aviatrix Amelia Earhart.

A Maori village obliterated by an 1886 volcanic eruption.

The former Naval shipyard is open for exploring - mostly.

Home to three historic ships from the age of Vikings.

Where the polar bear watches over everything, and every drink is a double.