Japanese national treasure originally built in 593 CE.

This enormous "shamoji" means more to the people of Miyajima than just a way getting rice onto a plate.

Nine Gardens in one—with tea service.

This pair of small sea rocks has been "wed" using rope and ancient Shinto tradition.

This ancient temple is set up to take you on a pilgrimage of self.

The legendary birthplace of the Japanese maneki-neko is dotted with hundreds of lucky beckoning cats.

On the outskirts of a desert trading village high on the Andean plain, steel giants have been destroyed by salt winds.

A museum founded to reflect on and remember the human rights abuses under Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

A beautiful deserted greenhouse in the middle of a park.

The mortal remains of an estimated 70,000 people lie in the basement of a monastery in Lima, Peru.

A swing to dangle you off the very edge.

A dangling church built over a Colombian gorge.

Storied crypts fill the most famous cemetery in Colombia.

Only gap in the 30,000-mile span of roads called the Pan-American Highway.

A 10 million-ton rock once worshiped by the Tahamies Indians, accessed by an astounding staircase.

The youngest volcano in Central America.

Hidden deep in the Guatemalan jungle is a turquoise paradise of natural pools, caves, and waterfalls.

Sparkling, calcite-covered skeletons of children who may have been sacrificed to appease an angry god.

An Aztec temple, the largest man-made pyramid in the world, sits buried in earth with a Spanish church set on top.

High atop a Mexican rainforest mountain, this ancient pyramid once drew pilgrims countries away.

An elaborate Mayan city shrouded in alien conspiracy revealed the tomb of Pacal the Great.

These azure waters were thought to lead to the Mayan Underworld.

Every equinox this Maya pyramid puts on a spooky ancient light show.

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