Made of giant chains and hung with shackles, this iron cross honors those unknowns who perished under American slavery.

This knobby, drooping New Orleans oak is a favorite place both for climbing and for meeting giraffes.

Despite the ever pressing encroachment of urban sprawl this grand New Orleans manse still stands.

A Cajun-style Christmas on the river also involves sky-high pyres and explosives.

The stone labyrinth in this New Orleans city park was laid to symbolize healing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Tiny historical streetcars wind through a small scale version of Crescent City in this whimsical train garden.

This racially troublesome eatery thought a new coat of paint could erase its offensive connotations.

A 19th-century Gothic, castle-like statehouse by the Mississippi River.

The second-largest ceremonial mound in the United States is an artificial hill that is loosely shaped like a pentagon.

An eerie and beautiful group of columns mark the site of a grand mansion lost to time and fire.

Built by prisoners of war, the largest small-scale model ever built includes eight miles of tiny streams that now sit abandoned.

Pensacola's UFO home has withstood many hurricanes—just as the experimental 1960s design intended.

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel, where they were hidden for nearly 500 years.

Eighteenth century house of the mysterious "Father of Raleigh."

This woodland architectural installation acts as a camera obscura for the heavens.

This New Orleans tree is filled with hidden chimes that produce a carefully tuned melody.

The angel of death appears to weep black tears at this grave marker.

Most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest.

Dramatic river bend surrounds a natural red-rocked pedestal.

An emerald-green grotto just a short trip from Austin.

Civil War dumping ground for the bodies of terrorized Union sympathizers.

Free public park and gardens filled with peacocks and peahens.

An enormous pink granite batholith, long attributed with spiritual powers by the Tonkawa Indians.

Giant pinnacles in the sun-scorched lands of Southern Utah have been nicknamed "white ghosts."