A beautiful oasis town dating back to the Roman period still serves as reprieve from the brutal summer sun in Libya.

This unique building in the main square stands out among the city's typically Baroque architecture.

These temples are among the oldest free-standing stone buildings in the world.

Built on a medieval synagogue, this church has a burial crypt, tunnel system, and Jewish ritual bath hiding deep underneath.

Behind medieval walls in a corner of bustling Palermo is a breathtaking former mosque once inhabited by a wolf-taming hermit.

This Arabesque Italian castle was built with a primitive, if ingenious, air-conditioning system.

A 16th-century horror show built in a lovely Italian garden.

An Italian crevasse filled with abandoned buildings gives visitors a look at the world without humans.

An ancient Phoenician citadel once stood at the site where Queen Dido first landed, according to legend.

The ancient heart of Tunis is an enormous maze of narrow streets and alleyways.

The best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa.

This dizzying span over the ancient Algerian city was once the highest suspension bridge in the world.

The abstract sandstone rock formations at this Algerian national park are rich with prehistoric art.

One of the best-preserved impact craters on the planet is located in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

A century-old stone hermitage overlooks this remote pass in the Hoggar mountains, surrounded by a landscape of eroded volcanic cores.

A site where “the ravages of the war are more striking…than any other place in contemporary Spain.”

This huge abandoned fortress hidden inside a mountain holds a world of subterranean secrets.

The eclectic observatory castle of a 19th-century astronomer and explorer.

This tiny hotel perched atop a 50-foot tower really puts things into perspective.

One of the great treasures of Neolithic art lies within this carefully constructed pile of rocks.

A unique military outpost carved into a rocky outcrop in the English Channel.

One of the world's smallest prisons boasts just two small cells.

The first island in the world designated a light-pollution-free astronomical observation point.

An intricately decorated tiny place of worship.