A familiar otherworldly creature guards this 12th-century Scottish abbey.

Pumpkin-like gargoyles and grotesques peer down from the rooftop of this unassuming apartment building in Illinois.

The sci-fi villain is a little-known inhabitant of the U.S. capital's largest cathedral.

A midcentury ranch house hides a literal treasure trove of unique rocks and minerals.

This gorgeous beach hides behind two headlands in Oregon's Ecola State Park.

An unusual, super-sized grocery adventure awaits in an Ohio suburb.

Three prestigious academic collections come together to create a world-class natural history museum.

The thousands of shades on display — some toxic, others impossibly rare — are a library of more than just color.

A museum dedicated to an elusive cryptid.

Decades' worth of lost and forgotten objects make up the collection of this tantalizingly odd little museum.

A lighthouse built to save lives that took quite a few with its treacherous location.

Commonly referred to as the most photographed Victorian home in the United States.

The mysterious wonder of an underground waterfall is illuminated by multicolored lights.

A faded sign from the 1920s remembers Baltimore's resistance toward banning alcohol.

At this former Prohibition speakeasy, electric birds signaled the arrival of hooch.

An extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and mummies.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

Quite simply the largest tree in the world (by volume).

This incredible collection of vintage pinball machines can be played at 25 cents a pop.

James Turrell's total color immersion art installation, hidden on the top floor of a luxury handbag shop.

The massive, incredibly rare instrument is over 11 feet tall with a range so deep it goes lower than humans can hear.

A reproduction of earth's many biomes.

Miniature art that tells an enormous story.

The first patented shaved-ice machine heralded a snowy wonderland of iced treats at a favorite New Orleans summer shack.