2019 Tour

An imperial fortress city that incorporated cultural elements from the entire Mughal empire, only to be abandoned the year it was finished.

Thousands of exquisitely carved stone water storage wells, hundreds of stone steps fill this exquisite medieval stepwell.

The 953 windows undoubtedly make this the world's most beautiful screened porch.

The world's second-largest sundial, made entirely out of stone.

More than half of this Indian palace is drowned but it looks all the more spectacular for it.

On the Pakistan-India border the militaries perform an elaborate theater of aggression each and every night.

The largest dam in the world and the site of a potential disaster.

The largest Lenin statue in Central Asia was moved to an empty field rather than being destroyed.

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

This ancient village and its adjoining cemetery have a beautiful history of death and remembrance.

Stunning examples of Russia's 18th-century wooden architecture.

Dr. Strangelove-esque tours reveal the inside a bunker once reserved for Stalin himself.

An 18th century wonder of the world, lost in WWII, re-created at the Catherine Palace.

This building holds the embalmed remains of the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Palace where the nearly un-killable Rasputin was murdered.

Thirteen sculptures in central Moscow graphically depicting vices of the modern world.

Nightmarish example of the unintended consequences of weapons testing.

This Russian religious complex is a Frankenstein's chapel that includes influence from almost all the major faiths.

Museum celebrating the achievements of the Soviet space program.

A 250-year-old timepiece-automaton adorned with golden mechanical birds, which still sing to this day.

Moscow's other, lesser known kremlin is a fairytale-like cultural complex modeled after Old Russia.

The oldest museum in Russia is home to a fascinating collection of nearly two million anthropological artifacts and anatomical curiosities.

The reason for the strange contortions in the trunks of these "drunken" pine trees in Russia is still a mystery.

A dormant lightning machine equal to all the power in Russia.

A sculpture park of the tossed aside relics of the USSR, from Stalin to a massive Soviet emblem.

Some of the world's only freshwater seals live in one very special lake in Russia.

Stalin's march toward a more modern USSR flooded a monastery, leaving a unique and extravagant nautical marker, "The Flooded Belfry."

World's largest bell sits on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow.

This iconic Russian space museum sits on a landmark space production facility and houses the Vostok 1, the first manned spacecraft, that was also built here.

Former prison camp dedicated to the victims of political repression.

Five mile wide circular ring of rock in the Russian Far East is a curious geological oddity.

The Nazis lost more men trying to take this Russian-held Stalingrad apartment block than they did when taking Paris.

A 360 degree battlefield experience.

Rusting ships sit in a desert where a sea used to be.

World's oldest and largest space launch facility, once a secret missile testing site.

The lovely lake that was naturally dammed, then naturally destroyed, then unnaturally saved.

Nicknamed Kazakhstan's Grand Canyon, this natural wonder lies east of Almaty near the Chinese border.

"There's nothing there," and other lies the KGB told us.

The ruins of an Estonian prison are drowning in the quarry lake where the convicts were once forced to work.

Mysterious craters may have been home to an ancient cult.

A trio of giant wooden megaphones turn up nature's volume in this Estonian forest.

A decommissioned submarine base makes a great space for graffiti art.

Man-made mineral caves house massive bat colony.

This peculiar border irregularity is the only way to legally enter Russia without a visa.

Abandoned Soviet base once stocked with short and medium range missiles pointed at western Europe.

An old hill fort covered in over 100,000 crosses is a symbol of Lithuanian nationalism and beliefs.

A curious art park at the geographic center of Europe is home to 3,000 television sets and other wonders.

The walls and ceiling of this Polish church are decorated with thousands of skulls, with another 21,000 skeletons just below.