A fiery crater has been burning in the Karakum Desert since 1971.

Crushed coral and crystals give the sand its signature coloration.

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

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the ruins of this ancient monastic community.

This "tower of death" has acted as an observatory, a religious hub, and an executioner's lair.

The first version of this stalwart construction appeared around 3,000 years ago.

A building facade covered with the statues of 11 giants of Tajik literature.

The world's second-tallest flagpole stands proud despite dropping rank.

The only quarter of the Old City not dedicated to a major world religion.

A "miracle" that seems to produce more holy fistfights than holy revelations.

Descend 2,030 years into the past in an ancient tunnel built to support Jerusalem's most famous wall.

The home of the Dead Sea Scrolls is an abstract modernist dream.

The controversial final resting place of the equally controversial first president of Turkmenistan.

Sumptous memorial to a controversial independence.

A huge monument to a bizarre book written by Turkmenistan’s longstanding dictator.

A dictator's gold statue once rotated to face the sun on a 75-meter high marble tower.

An eccentric dictator's take on a Turkmen version of Disneyland.

If you want to get married in the White Marble City of Ashgabat, you should do it in this surreal disco ball building.

This amazing example of Valencian Art Nouveau looks more like a cathedral than a public market.

Of the many chalices in the running for the Holy Grail, this one in Valencia Cathedral sure looks the part.

The largest Lenin statue in Central Asia was moved to an empty field rather than being destroyed.

This top-secret nuclear bunker hidden in a Bosnian mountain has been converted to a modern art exhibition space.

Final palace complex of the last of 29 Kokand rulers.

Witness traditional silk production in the Uzbek city that's been a hub of sericulture for over a thousand years.