Over 50 exquisite hand-painted Renaissance maps decorate a Medici storage room.

The world's most active stratovolcano is almost always erupting.

This memorial commemorating fallen Swiss Guards of the French Revolution has been called the saddest stone in the world.

This hill made entirely of ancient Roman jars was simply a garbage dump to the people of the time.

This ritzy Italian market is built around a statue of an unforgiven heretic who was burned for his belief in an endless universe.

Old batteries and frog skeletons reside in this lakeside monument to Alessandro Volta.

2300-year-old Roman road connecting the empire.

Officially named the "Loneliest Road in America," this barren stretch of Nevada road offers almost nothing but sky and open fields.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

Oh, just a motel on the edge of the desert decorated with thousands of clowns conveniently located next to an abandoned graveyard.

There's nothing creepier than a cemetery next to a clown motel.

An abandoned Jazz Age dream home and con man's hideout in Death Valley.

A massive volcanic plug is now a protected area that hosts a number of bird species.

A hotel and restaurant serving as the mecca of kitsch.

A desert ghost town—occupied for only 12 years—was once home to more than 500 silver mines.

Museum dedicated to the preservation of surf culture.

Megachurch turned Catholic church comprised of 10,000 glass panes.

A Swedenborgian glass church surrounded by redwoods sits perched atop a massive landslide area.

The remnants of a failed socialist commune can still be found just off a California highway.

A giant donut stands as a popular symbol of Los Angeles iconography.

An historic and oft-filmed spot for musclebound iron pumpers on the Pacific coast.

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

A second generation sun-powered marvel lights up the night.