In 806, Kobo Daishi began meditating on Mount Misen. The Buddhist monk lit this holy fire, which has been kept burning for 1,200 years.

Japanese national treasure originally built in 593 CE.

Largest graveyard in all of Japan surrounds a famous mausoleum.

A shining sculpture made of 3,115 lights, the number of visible stars in the Northern Hemisphere.

This massive stained-glass masterpiece is thought to be the largest Tiffany dome in existence.

A gorgeous garden oasis with winding paths, stone bridges, and a troubling history.

An amazing stag sculpture constructed entirely of discarded materials.

One part antique store, one part curiosities hodge-podge.

This unique structure in suburban Austin is made up entirely of other people's castaways, and constantly changing.

A small and quirky museum hidden inside a fence.

A bronze kitty adorns the grave of the polar explorer who brought the original feline to the Antarctic.

A lakeside garden in the Southern Alps full of whimsical artwork and thousands of beautiful flowers.

This strange geological landscape erupts with sudden bursts of water.

A Maori village obliterated by an 1886 volcanic eruption.

This electric green sulphur lake in New Zealand looks like a cartoonish radioactive dump site.

One man's dream has turned into this naturally growing chapel made of almost nothing but trees.

Surrounded by ash fields in Iceland, an impossibly verdant valley looks like something out of a fairytale.

The largest whale museum in Europe allows visitors to walk among life-size giants.

Climb right into the heart of this colorful Iceland volcano.

The most powerful waterfall in all of Europe.

Walk in the footsteps of the gods and straddle two tectonic plates.

This futuristically sylvan church is a glass-enclosed marvel of modern architecture.

It took 40 years to build this Eden-like garden in Marrakech, later restored by Yves Saint-Laurent.

One of the world's oldest and most massive living organisms is a grove of quaking aspens.