An unrealized Taoist palace left abandoned in a Houston suburb.

Artist James Turrell's ode to dawn and dusk on the campus of Rice University.

A taste of Middle Earth, in the middle of the Bayou City.

A 90-year-old underground water reservoir offers a more industrial kind of tranquility.

A little bit Wonkatania, a little bit pink elephant.

A school-themed restaurant where gastronomy is the core curriculum.

There is an unmarked red button hidden over Houston's Buffalo Bayou that is just begging to pushed...

One part antique store, one part curiosities hodge-podge.

Museum dedicated to literary greats of the Romantic Period is also the home in which Keats met his untimely end.

One of several skulls claiming to belong to the beheaded St. John the Baptist is on display at this Roman church.

This hidden Art Nouveau courtyard is an opulent feast for the eyes.

A master of trompe-l'oeil creates a stunning, tourist-fooling dome out of a flat ceiling.

The yawning maw of this pagan visage is said to bite off the hands of liars.

Hundreds of lucky felines haunt the ruins where Caesar was murdered.

Art and armour fill every inch of this rich kid's Italian villa.

A copy of the famous statue can be found in this Florence piazza, along with one of the most breathtaking views of the city below.

A medieval weapon rumored to have been used by the brilliant poet himself.

This strange bovine gargoyle is said to have been put in as a passive aggressive form of revenge.

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel, where they were hidden for nearly 500 years.

The middle finger of modernity.

A sinister pyramid in the Frari contains the heart of the famous neoclassical sculptor.

Ordinary art transforms to extraordinary thanks to locals' quirky sense of humor.

This museum in a Paris apartment gives a unique look at the iconic French singer's life.

Original cabaret handbills, posters, and feline artwork are a purrfect highlight of the Museum of Montmartre.