A sober museum housed in the original administrative building of one of Stalin's largest gulags.

Rusting ships sit in a desert where a sea used to be.

This medieval citadel once guarded the western entrance of the Pamir Highway.

A building facade covered with the statues of 11 giants of Tajik literature.

The largest Lenin statue in Central Asia was moved to an empty field rather than being destroyed.

The world's second-tallest flagpole stands proud despite dropping rank.

The first version of this stalwart construction appeared around 3,000 years ago.

Dedicated to a Bolshevik revolutionary, this museum is a true time capsule of the Soviet era.

An unusual monument to a gentle giant who became a Kyrgyz hero.

According to myth, there's a bloody explanation for the beautiful bright red color of this rock formation set amidst alpine vegetation.

This mysterious complex of abandoned yurts and fading murals was meant to be a center of science and spirituality in Kyrgyzstan.

A stunning blue-green lake located in the Terskey Alatau mountain range.

Time capsule of a museum, in which the Soviet Union remains alive and kicking.

Built entirely of interlocking pieces, construction of this Chinese Muslim house of worship required zero nails.

This retro, UFO-like structure is a remnant of the Soviet-era circus.

Lonely minaret stump of a destroyed city.

The controversial final resting place of the equally controversial first president of Turkmenistan.

The remains of a medieval city loom in one of the most isolated desert regions of Turkmenistan.

Sumptous memorial to a controversial independence.

A huge monument to a bizarre book written by Turkmenistan’s longstanding dictator.

A dictator's gold statue once rotated to face the sun on a 75-meter high marble tower.

An eccentric dictator's take on a Turkmen version of Disneyland.

If you want to get married in the White Marble City of Ashgabat, you should do it in this surreal disco ball building.

A cemetery with goat-horn bedecked gravestones.