This otherwise ordinary close on the Royal Mile constituted the end of the world for Edinburgh’s poorest residents.

This charming old building's loose connection with the Scottish Reformer is what saved it from demolition after it split apart.

Islanders once used this dramatic, otherworldly landscape to hide their cattle from Viking raiders.

William Blake claimed to have painted this gothic masterpiece after encountering this nightmarish being in a vision.

The first mosque in the world to receive electricity.

This enormous censer uses a pulley system installed over 400 years ago.

These ruins witnessed the final gathering of the failed Jacobite Rebellion.

This network of narrow, medieval passages has the most delightful name.

This macabre monument atop an ancient well gives a nod to a brutal episode in Scottish clan history.

The railway carts travelers to central Athens's highest peak, which offers stunning vistas of the city.

One of the most well-preserved temples of ancient Egypt.

This small 16th-century church in Athens is almost entirely surrounded by a modern building.

Ancient barriers wrap around what was once an important stop along the Silk Road.

This triumphal 16th-century arched gateway leads to the oldest street in Palermo.

The castle still holds traces of the abandoned Roman fort it was built atop.

Behind medieval walls in a corner of bustling Palermo is a breathtaking former mosque once inhabited by a wolf-taming hermit.

The unbelievably opulent home built for an infamous newspaperman.

Follow the original medieval paths that wind through this intriguing section of the city.

An ancient Viking village in North America that predates Columbus by 500 years.

A baffling beast so absurd a town councilman called it "intellectual vomit in technicolor."

Wooden sleds have replaced donkeys to cart goods around this utterly charming car-free village.

The palace window through which Protestant nobles flung two Catholic regents, thus sparking the Thirty Years' War.