Ottoman-era houses lovingly preserved.

Five sultans and their families rest in eternal splendor, teeming with overlooked beauty and drama.

An abused and forgotten metropolis, abandoned for centuries.

In this historic region, homes and churches are carved into ancient volcanic rock formations.

Visitors to this Belgium graveyard are greeted by the grieving stone parents of the young men lost to war.

The compass on its front was a handy tool for 17th-century merchants who needed to know the direction of the wind.

Stocking up on the world's best beer requires a pilgrimage to a monastery drive-through.

A man throwing a giant severed hand towers over Antwerp’s main square.

The world's tallest boat lift stands as a massive piece of industrial tourism.

A taxus-tree to which Julius Caesar reputedly tied his horse.

A 141-foot wave of crashing lumber guards the entrance to the Grand Place in Mons.

This memorial museum chronicles the apocalyptic destruction of the First World War.

Head underground and take a tour of the city's working sewer system, and see the underground river Senne, which defined Brussels for centuries before being covered in the 19th century.

What was once a bustling mining installation is now a bustling hub of contemporary art.

A moving memorial to the fallen and missing from WWI trenches.

The Belgian library displays burned books that were salvaged from the fires of both world wars.

This whimsical statue dumps water on its head to symbolize knowledge flowing into his brain. Or maybe booze.

Housing the groundbreaking maps and globes of Gerard Mercator.

This recently restored crypt was once plagued by liquefying coffins and exploding caskets.

This giant urban staircase was built to keep the city's brave fighting men from getting waylaid in the red light district.

An open-air sewer system that was covered piece-by-piece over 300 years.

The highest point in Belgium is a staircase to nowhere.

The "stairway to heaven" lookout tower was built to resist weather, arson, and the laws of physics.

Rare wooden escalators lead deep down into an otherwise staggeringly monotonous tiled tunnel.