This ornate Victorian marketplace was the setting for Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron in the Harry Potter films.

A terrific purveyor of natural history objects and curios.

During prohibition, corrupt city officials ran drinking dens under the streets of Downtown Los Angeles.

A huge musical instrument played by the ocean.

The most southerly spot on New Zealand's South Island is home to surreally shaped, permanently mangled trees.

These phallic stone spires once served as Tolkien's Paths of the Dead.

A strange machine made to evaluate the world economy using water and lots of tubes.

The world's only complete colossal squid specimen is on display at the Te Papa Museum.

A bronze kitty adorns the grave of the polar explorer who brought the original feline to the Antarctic.

Anyone wanting to know what a dwarven mine sounds like need only visit the tunnels of this New Zealand artillery compound.

This aluminum “stairway to heaven” has impaled at least a couple of birds.