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

These little castles each held thousands of pigeons.

The largest stone moai on Rapa Nui.

In the Middle Ages, villagers would sound this stone trumpet to boost fertility and coax fish to shore.

This was once the center of the Birdman cult, and is now a World Heritage Site.

The Yonaguni Monument, a natural formation or the Japanese Atlantis?

Constructed thousands of years ago, these stone circles offer incredible insight into the lives of the people who built them.

This beautiful Japanese garden is a memorial to the samurai who literally wrote the book on business as martial art.

Roots and stumps that lay inundated for two millennia are on display in Japan's city of three mysteries.

The magical, mossy forest that inspired Princess Mononoke.

An abandoned giant glass dome sits in the bay in “the Venice of the East.”

This picturesque island graveyard is the final resting place of dozens of notorious pirates.

The centuries-old trees lining both sides of this dirt road may become Madagascar's first natural monument.

Fabulous formations, weird and wonderful wildlife.

A geological bull's-eye visible from outer space.

The true jewel of Africa's west coast known as "Africa's Last Eden."

Nature’s skyscraper launches out of the terrain with attitude.

This nearly abandoned plantation was once witness to an eclipse that proved Einstein's theory of relativity.

The medieval castle built as headquarters for the Pope's secretive Knights Templar.

The ruins of an ancient island city built atop a coral reef in the South Pacific are spectacular and strange enough to have inspired H.P. Lovecraft.

The engineering wonder and pleasure dome of a much-maligned emperor still holds undiscovered secrets.

David Sedaris called it "The greatest shop in the world."

This immaculate and historic water garden culminates in a massive stone dining table with an inset fountain for chilling the wine of the Cardinal's guests.

The crypts of Capuchin friars decorated with the bones of over 4,000 friars, including an entire "crypt of pelvises."