This concrete tangle of square pipes has stood as a proud thorn in the city's side since the '70s.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

The weathered grave of a medieval anchoress who walled herself up in a cell attached to a church.

The spot where Oxford garnered its name was also home to a medieval philosopher and includes a house covered in statues.

Ancient Egyptian wigs, South American feather headdresses, a bounty of anthropological artifacts in Oxford.

Home to the most complete dodo remains known - one head, and one foot.

Used as an example in one of the first dictionary entries for "museum" in 1706.

One of Europe's oldest libraries.

The fantastic charm of England's oldest botanical garden has made it a place of writerly inspiration for centuries.

Once close to extinction, there is no shortage of elephant seals on the beaches of Año Nuevo State Park.

A poignant memorial to a young boy whose death spurred a dramatic increase in organ donations in Italy—dubbed the "Nicholas Effect."

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

An vast warehouse of everyday treasures in Berkeley, CA.

From buttons to beads, flounces to fripperies, this textile museum and shop honors the history of needlework.

This unique graffiti art from the 1940s has become a staple of this local landscape in the remote California desert.

This beautiful, historic church looks like something out of a simpler past.

This monument to one of the largest science fiction games of all time bears the names of hundreds of thousands of players.

Iceland's tribute to its thankless civil servants.

A restaurant devoted to "trouser grip" wrestling, an ancient form of Viking wrestling that is Iceland's national sport.

The U.S. Navy's last diesel-electric submarine rests half-submerged in the middle of Portland.