A graceful natural rock formation stands astride the point where the Gulf of California meets the Pacific Ocean.

This iconic 1,000-year-old medieval castle is a favorite of the film industry, most notably as the location for Hogwarts in Harry Potter.

Hidden behind a wall for decades, this masonic lodge was only rediscovered during renovations.

Abstract dinosaur models in London.

The gloomy ruins that inspired Bram Stoker to bring Dracula to life.

London's old-school healing garden.

400-year-old garden, restored to beauty.

A Victorian natural history and ethnographic museum with wonderful turn-of-the-century, science-book-esque evolution displays.

The remains of Crystal Palace Great Exhibition of 1851.

This tangled English forest looks like something right out of a fairytale.

A island reachable by a causeway at low tide is possibly one of the earliest Western European locations to be identified in text.

Famously misunderstood wonder of the ancient world

This 1920s Dutch barge is now a floating bookstore.

The sign at the garden gate reads: "These Plants Can Kill."

This ornate Victorian marketplace was the setting for Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron in the Harry Potter films.

The mysterious, fantastical woodland inspiration for "The Lord of the Rings."

This shop and gallery is a modern-day cabinet of curiosities, unassumingly positioned along an urban thoroughfare.

One of the few remaining casualties of the London Blitz, this destroyed church has become an enchanting public garden.

Rome is now home to a stunning food museum and library.

In Rome’s Jewish ghetto, a 200-year-old bakery still makes the neighborhood’s historic sweets.

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

Rome's semi-secret peephole vista is also a former Crusader stronghold.

An alchemist's "magic door" stands in the middle of a Roman park.

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