An ancient fortified mound raised over the millennia from settlements built one on top of the other.

This circular Iranian jail was once a political prison run by the country's secret police.

17th century mosque for Shah Abbas' harem.

This 17th-century structure is a beautiful testimony to traditional Persian architecture

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

A spectacular rainbow of stained glass makes the "Pink Mosque" one of the most beautiful in Iran.

Mirrors and glass shards cover every inch of this arrestingly beautiful mosque.

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.

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

This harsh mountain path was built as a strange attempt to improve the health of Turkmen citizens.

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

A fiery crater has been burning in the Karakum Desert since 1971.

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

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

The abandoned palace stands as a wounded but proud beacon of Afghan hope.

The last operating synagogue in Afghanistan is run by Zablon Simintov, the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan.

What was once supposed to be the symbol of a shining Afghan future is now a bombed-out ruin.

Once an impressive link to Afghanistan’s Buddhist past, now a sad reminder of intolerance towards other cultures.

Splashes of blue in an otherwise monotonous lunar landscape.

The old fire station features a mural that has more to it than first meets the eye.

Open-air museum with a large collection of Soviet-era statues.

The pyramid and dome deep inside the Dzūkija forest are believed to channel divine energy.