France's national museum of scientific and industrial instruments.

A mechanized clock where a man fights off a dragon, crab, and rooster.

The oldest stone house in Paris was built by its most famous alchemist.

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

A starship has landed in Texas, a welcome break for weary travelers from a drab stretch of I-35.

This tiny, hurricane-resistant house in Galveston is one of the city's most notable architectural oddities.

A mythical chimera first sculpted in 1936 as a mix of the main animals of Texas livestock.

A "Texanic" (gigantic Texas) collection of Art Deco architecture at Dallas' historic Fair Park.

Campus tradition says couples who walk beneath this enormous oak will stay together forever.

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

The best place to send your postcards home from Antarctica.

An abandoned whaling station on an active volcano offers hot springs in Antarctica, surrounded by ruined giants of industry.

This replica of the Greek structure is in the heart of Nashville.

Home to the largest urban bat colony in North America, estimated at 1.5 million bats.

Turkish adventurer antiques in the heart of the Grand Bazaar.

Ancient serpentine sacrifice holder that has stood the test of time.

This remarkably well-preserved Egyptian plinth is pretty well traveled for a giant piece of stone.

A fountain standing as a testament to a doomed alliance.

Five sultans and their families rest in eternal splendor, teeming with overlooked beauty and drama.

A marvel of Byzantine engineering under the streets of Istanbul.

19th century museum with an eclectic mix of curiosities, from Egyptian artifacts to items on archery history to the skull of the world's oldest horse.

Public access to clean drinking water was an instant hit among the masses.

Scattered throughout London are ancient remnants of the city's former bounding wall.

An incarceration museum on the spot of possibly the oldest prison in England.