This landmark of the Chicago silent film industry may not be in the picture business anymore but it still stands proudly.

This church houses the “incorrupt” body of its founding Bishop.

Haunting graffiti left by prisoners of the Spanish Inquisition.

This Arabesque Italian castle was built with a primitive, if ingenious, air-conditioning system.

An abandoned shopping gallery built during Fascist Italy tucked in the center of Palermo.

One man's fulfilled dream of living on an artificial island made of recycled plastic bottles.

No telescopes, no power, no gift shop: The Observatory of Chichen Itza, one of the world's oldest observatories, takes astronomy back to basics.

A magical sinkhole on the Yucatán Peninsula is adorned with mini waterfalls and hanging vines.

One of the world's largest pyramids stands within El Mirador, the "lost city of the Maya."

Ruins of a German Castle on top of a towering stone pillar.

A fake medieval village in the middle of Turin.

When this funny little building went up in the 19th century, most people thought it would simply fall over.

Nine centuries-old fortresses guard the walls of this medieval Romanian city.

The little-known final resting place of one of America's greatest writers.

The site of the first medieval crusade that pitted Christians against Christians.

The United States Capitol's former columns still stand.

The eerie ruins of a remote abandoned hamlet said to be founded by the survivors of a shipwreck.

Creek water that starts here has a 50/50 chance of ending up in the Atlantic or the Pacific.

This mining town boomed in the Atomic Age when uranium was gold, only to be abandoned when the industry collapsed.

Cycle the solar system—from the sun to Pluto—right here on earth.

A riverside park built around the ruins of a massive dam that collapsed in 1909.

A historic blockhouse and trading post give a glimpse into the early colonial history of South Carolina.

A mysterious, abandoned building rotting on the Brooklyn waterfront.

The home of possibly the least-loved U.S. president stands as a sort of unpopular Monticello.