A serene desert oasis speckled with ancient artifacts.

A sprawling ancient Jewish cemetery with over 30 rock-hewn burial caves.

A 2,000-year-old wine press hidden in an overlooked park in Tel Aviv.

The most peaceful "country" in the Middle East.

This family tattoo parlor has been inking religious pilgrims in the Middle East for 700 years.

This daunting 1st century fortress was purportedly the site of one of the most dramatic revolts of the Jewish-Roman wars.

A patchwork of ruins from various civilizations in one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities.

The largest hewn stone in history.

What is left of the pillar of Saint Simeon, the voluntary martyr who climbed the column to give his sermons, remaining perched there for thirty-seven years.

The Syrian headquarters of alleged hashish-smoking assassins.

A 1,500-year-old ghost settlement is slowly fading away.

Mysterious lost empire of the Silk Road.

An ancient sanctuary that has long been a holy site for the Chaldean Christian Church.

A boiling wellspring flowing with natural gas burns in a continual blaze.

Ancient rock-cut tomb? Definitely. That of a great Median king? Unlikely.

This beautiful arched gate is all that remains of the fortress the ancient mountaintop town of Amadiya once was.

9th century Abbasid mosque, damaged in modern warfare.

The sacred shrine of the Yazidis.

Celebrated as a center of civilization, the remains of the ancient city have been nearly destroyed by greed, egoism, and war.

Two Chinese dragons guard the caves of this medieval temple in Iran.

This ancient fortress in Iran was once the oldest and largest treasury in the world.

The ancient necropolis houses the immense rock-cut tombs of four Persian kings.

Modern-day cave dwellers carve elaborate homes out of volcanic debris.

A sophisticated astronomical tower built by one of the greatest Persian scholars of the Islamic Golden Age.