The hidden lair of an alchemist rediscovered in a 2002 flood.

Former prison camp dedicated to the victims of political repression.

Naked scientists race around the pole in the frigid cold to try to join Antarctica's exclusive 300 Club.

This abandoned Antarctic research station is a Soviet ghost frozen in time.

These passages carved from the Antarctic ice hold strange shrines to the harsh southernmost climes.

The world's northernmost flowers cling tenuously to life on desolate Kaffeklubben Island.

The "Gateway to the Arctic" connects Barrow's indigenous population with the sea and its traditional industry: whaling.

This ghostly Alaska village still clings to a steep cliffside despite having been abandoned for over 50 years.

Alaska Natives have lived on this tiny isolated island in the Bering Strait for over 5,000 years.

Siberian whale bones stand as cairns marking location of an ancient butcher yard.

A desert island with both a buried treasure and a famous castaway.

This beautiful eden was once the vacation home of Tahitian royals before Marlon Brando bought it.

Site of James Cook's historic observations of the 1769 transit of Venus.

The cafe that acts as the social hub for the small volcanic island of HMS Bounty fame.

The largest stone moai on Rapa Nui.

The world's most remote airport.

The ominously named cave is home to some remarkable ancient art.

This was once the center of the Birdman cult, and is now a World Heritage Site.

This urban drawbridge gained eternal pop culture fame when the Blues Brothers jumped it while it was raised.

This surprising gem is a world-class archeological museum hidden at the University of Chicago.

This modest post office sits on the site of H.H. Holmes' famous murder castle.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

This cheerfully-named branch of the Chicago River is the fetid result of years of blood, entrails, and meatpacking waste.

A theater sits abandoned on Roosevelt Road, once majestic in splendor, now majestic in decay.