A 400-foot-tall tall map of Chicago makes this once-ignored building stand out.

Theater has had many different incarnations but has survived the ravages of time.

A military museum and library dedicated to the citizen soldier.

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

This alley in downtown Chicago held the bodies of over 600 people after the fateful Iroquois Theatre fire.

Each of these gorgeous, intricately decorated rooms is painstakingly crafted to the scale of 1 inch: 1 foot.

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

This awkward aquarium sculpture is one of the strangest statues in Chicago.

These mansions date back to Chicago's days as a brewer's paradise.

A gothic church spire sits atop this skyscraper, the tallest church in the world.

These unusual rooms on wheels are holdovers from the 1960s.

On Hilton Head Island this bronze King of the Sea rules all things briny—and lets you know if you’re late for lunch.

This building at the south end of the boardwalk was once home to the U.S. Life-Saving Service and the U.S. Coast Guard before being rescued itself.

One of the oldest active carousels in the country—but it might be missed by all but the keenest-eyed boardwalk strollers.

Once at the center of U.S. finance, the historic Trading Room was meticulously recreated piece by piece and rebuilt in the Art Institute.

The Kirkland Monument remembers a selfless Civil War hero who braved the battlefield to give water to his dying enemies.

This war hero's old shop remembers the fine line between medicine and quackery during the Revolutionary War.

This shop for all your super spy needs hides an educational secret.

A local prank turned town icon.

A retired firefighter created this contraption so he and his family wouldn't die if accidentally buried alive.

According to local myth this cemetery is half evil spirits, half good—split down the middle.

A 14th century bridge built as a fortress, where the devil lurks on one of its towers.

Ancient paintings known as the "Sistine Chapel of Cave Art."

Da Vinci's equestrian statue, 500 years in the making.