Beautiful palace stands tall over the Fergana Valley.

People have been scribbling on this massive chunk of granite for more than 1,500 years.

A jagged silhouette of shamanistic stone heaps rises from the shore of this dazzling mile-high lake.

Mongolian Buddhists believe this monastery in the Gobi desert to be the center of the world's spiritual energy.

A huge communist-era propaganda monument and mural that offers stunning views of the Mongolian capital.

The oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia has survived centuries of invasions, political shifts, and religious purges.

One of the most ethnically diverse spots on the planet.

Looking for a unifying history, Uzbekistan finds its answer in a 14th Century Turco-Mongol conqueror... despite the fact he wasn't Uzbek.

Touching displays of wishes for peace from the Cold War era.

Final palace complex of the last of 29 Kokand rulers.

These "50 Fortresses" have been unearthed in the ancient oasis of Khwarezm.

This "tower of death" has acted as an observatory, a religious hub, and an executioner's lair.

Light still pours into the ruins of this ancient Islamic observatory.

The Avenue of Mausolea is a series of grand palatial tombs.

She asked for a potato cellar and over the next 23 years he gave her a network of holy caves.

This series of Armenian caves held the oldest brain, shoe, and winery in the world.

Right up until the 20th century this network of man-made caves was the biggest village in Eastern Armenia.

An eccentric dictator's take on a Turkmen version of Disneyland.

A dictator's gold statue once rotated to face the sun on a 75-meter high marble tower.

A huge monument to a bizarre book written by Turkmenistan’s longstanding dictator.

Sumptous memorial to a controversial independence.

If you want to get married in the White Marble City of Ashgabat, you should do it in this surreal disco ball building.

A cemetery with goat-horn bedecked gravestones.

A fiery crater has been burning in the Karakum Desert since 1971.