An ancient city exhumed from the depths of the ocean.

During World War II the Thorp building was guarded by the OSS, FBI, and US Navy because of the top-secret bombsight being produced there.

A railroad magnate's replica village has become home to a genetic seed bank for rare breeds of livestock.

This abandoned fishing settlement may well be the greenest village in the world.

Mirrored floors and arched shelves create the illusion of an infinite tunnel of books.

The library's graceful rotunda is like a bibliophile's temple.

This is not only one of the oldest collections in Europe, but also possibly the most beautiful.

A grove of "candelabra redwoods" deep in California's Lost Coast.

The longest living non-clonal organisms on Earth.

The world's largest bioluminescent area was undiscovered by science until 2005.

This scalding hot river was thought to be a myth until one geoscientist made it his quest to study the mystical waters.

Rainbow-hued in the summer and crystalline in the winter, this salty lake has inspired battles, temples, and plenty of awe.

For two weeks every June, fireflies in the Smoky Mountains perform an astonishing light show.

One of the world's oldest and most massive living organisms is a grove of quaking aspens.

This stunning mass of ice spans 121 square miles and is still growing.

A remote candy-striped mountain in the Peruvian Andes straight out of the pages of Dr. Seuss.

A plaque marks the site directly below the mid-air detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

The biblical sculpture honors those who lost their lives, homes and communities to the Chernobyl disaster.

One of the oldest used bookstores in the U.S. has been selling antiquarian treasures since 1825.

A men’s restroom became a sandwich shop.

Olfactory delights in San Francisco's Botanical Gardens.

An enormous, inside-out glass globe built in 1935.

This Boston medical museum features the skull of the famous medical case of Phineas Gage.

The Hveragerði fissure runs through this unassuming shopping center.