The neighborhood church casts a breast-shaped shadow that locals have come to call the “two o’clock titty.”

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

This private residence was the template for one of the most beloved television homes of all time.

The oldest burial ground in the city, final resting place of city founders, Ohlone natives and murderers alike.

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.

Staircase winds down the side of Telegraph Hill through gardens, wild parrots flying overhead.

A collection of 20th-century automata, penny arcade games, and musical contraptions.

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

San Francisco's newly reopened hands-on science museum.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.

A walk-in working camera obscura produces 360-degree live images of the San Francisco coast.

The only theatre in the world constructed specifically for sound movement.

An artsy hidden staircase leads to breathtaking views of San Francisco.

A fairytale-like medieval church perched atop a rocky cliff on Italy's "Coast of the Gods."

A medieval wash house where people washed clothes in a river allegedly formed by the tears of a mourning nymph.

Every inch of this chapel is covered in craftsmanship from across the world.

Thousands of well-dressed mummies below a monastery.

The vast, legendary catacombs hold secrets much stranger than stacked bones.

An ancient capital city that dates back 3,000 years old and harbors many surprises.

Gladiators battle and chariots race daily in the ruins of a once-great Roman city.

An ancient tunnel in Jerusalem built to redirect water in the event of a siege is one of history’s great architectural innovations.