The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.

Carnivorous plants, medieval aphrodisiacs, and the largest original wood structure glass conservatory in the western hemisphere.

This crumbling Death Valley mining complex was known for its use of giant, 20-mule team wagons.

The tragedy of the Japanese internment camps is remembered here by a stark "Soul Consoling Tower."

The "Prussian Versailles" that is as glorious today as when it was built.

An abandoned NSA listening post on Berlin's "Devil's Mountain."

The bunker where Hitler took his own life is hidden under this deliberately ordinary parking lot.

Smooth basaltic rocks tell a tale of ancient glacial waterfalls.

The lowest point in North America is home to an undrinkable pool surrounded by fields of geometric salt flats.

Standing in a state of "arrested decay," this ghost town allows for a detailed peek into Gold Rush life in an unusually harsh climate.

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