Enormous lake at the bottom of a unique cave system.

The highest point in North Carolina and the United States east of the Mississippi River, Mount Mitchell is named after argumentative explorer Elisha Mitchell.

A wonderful display of arts and crafts handmade by local artisans in the Southern Appalachians.

An early life spent in this "Old Kentucky Home" inspired the writings of North Carolina's most famous novelist.

This rare basilica nestled right in downtown Asheville is an architectural marvel, inside and out.

This giant iron playfully pays tribute to an early 20th-century architectural trend.

This research center for rare prosimians is studying how they sleep to help prolong human life.

In a pedestrian tunnel on North Carolina State’s campus resides an expressive and artistic free-for-all.

A piece of outsider public art accompanied by a strange urban legend.

Down the road from where the Wright brothers lifted off is another flight tribute practically hidden from sight in the woods.

Get up close and personal at this Fresnel Lens.

One of the oldest living oak trees in the Southeast.

The only working large-scale tea plantation in the United States.

Paths are maintained, but trees have taken over plots.

The ruins of this Thomas-Jefferson-designed mansion have been left to crumble since the Christmas Day they burnt down.

Nine of the very few concrete ships ever made in the U.S. are beautifully decaying off a Virginia pier.

A small Richmond island dotted with the remnants of hundreds of years of history.

A perfect circle of twenty-four mysterious holes dates back to prehistoric time.

A cement mixer-turned-kaleidoscope in downtown Norfolk offers different views of the city.

Heron, whitewater rapids, and urban industrialism all add to the beauty of this concrete nature walk.

An organ located deep within a cave, whose "pipes" are the geological features of the cave itself.

This old-fashioned carhop restaurant gave the world the waffle cone.

Knoxville’s architectural icon was the symbol of the 1982 World’s Fair, even catching the googly eye of Bart Simpson.

The Midwestern United States' tribute to Michelangelo is a foam statue sprayed with gaudy gold paint.