Every May, townspeople welcome summer with a bizarre pagan parade led by a man wrapped in garlands.

Peek into a cave of giant, glimmering crystals.

This 16th-century monastery has been turned into a surrealist architecture compound.

Rebuilt several decades ago, its striking murals prevent it from being reconsecrated as a church.

A deeply beautiful 15th-century stepwell with a tragic story.

This magnificent stepwell is designed as an inverted temple and adorned with 1,500 sculptures.

The hallucinogenic center of the ancient world.

The palace of the King of Kings, burned by Alexander the Great.

A deadly ancient portal to the underworld.

These tombs were built into the side of a mountain so that ancient angels could reach the dead.

Roman ruins top white travertine terraces formed by ancient hot springs.

Sacked by Vikings, blessed by William the Conqueror, dealt a fatal blow during the French Revolution—these ruins have seen it all.

A former plague hospital turned medical museum.

A curious collection dedicated to human and animal anatomy and pathology.

Tucked in a nondescript downtown Brooklyn mall is a bar containing a remarkable turn of the century anatomical wax collection last seen in 1920s Berlin.

An amazing collection of wax anatomical models and terratological models.

A collection of wax anatomy by the great sculptor Clemente Susini.

An extraordinary collection of 18th century anatomical waxworks.

One of the best collections of wax anatomical models in the world.

France's most famous cemetery, with some of its most curious tombs.

A stunning cemetery famous for its extraordinarily delicate & lifelike mourning sculptures.

These blingy, baubled skeletons lie in glass boxes inside a baroque Bavarian church.

This extraordinary art museum is like a secret world on the edge of Mexico City.

The largest and most famous wax anatomical collection anywhere in the world.