An archway adorned with vulnerable flora and fauna.

Originally meant to hold a statue of King William IV, this support sat empty for years. Today, it hosts a rotating cast of public artwork.

A mysterious shape catches the eye in this 16th-century painting.

The sumptuous ceiling was one of the last things Charles I saw before his execution.

One part local history, 99 parts gruesome haunted house.

The "lost friend” is the most famous of the six moai statues that were removed from Easter Island.

A cluttered and astounding collection of antiquities and curiosities.

The anatomical-pathological collection of a man who changed surgery.

This inn of the court provides a fascinating window into London’s legal and architectural history.

Tombstones and enigmatic inscriptions hide within a vault beneath a popular London arts venue.

Classic game cookery takes center stage at what's widely considered London's oldest restaurant.

The pretty iron lamp is a reminder of the architecture underneath London's streets.

These ornate arches show how the course of the River Thames has changed.

The second largest surviving chained library is housed in this 12th century church.

A Victorian natural history and ethnographic museum with wonderful turn-of-the-century, science-book-esque evolution displays.

The author of Frankenstein is buried here, along with her parents and the heart of her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

1513 Turkish world map, full of European state secrets and snarky commentary.

A small etching on the white marble parapet was written in runic script by a Viking mercenary.

The ancient latrines of the Greeks, in all their public glory.

Seven early Christians were sealed into a cave where legend has it they slept unharmed for centuries.

Carvings in Turkey's Marble Road may have directed ancient Romans to a hidden brothel.

Descend 2,030 years into the past in an ancient tunnel built to support Jerusalem's most famous wall.

The only quarter of the Old City not dedicated to a major world religion.

A "miracle" that seems to produce more holy fistfights than holy revelations.