Fortified homes of highland warriors that are still in use today.

Azerbaijani ghost town, decaying after a war left it an armed forces buffer zone.

This striking icon of the disputed Republic of Artsakh caused a stir at a Eurovision Song Contest.

Despite producing just a handful of movies, a brave and lyrical filmmaker has an entire museum dedicated to him.

A geological oddity topped with a 2,000-year-old pagan temple.

Centuries before the modern seismograph, Armenian monks measured quakes with this tilting pillar.

Modern-day cave dwellers carve elaborate homes out of volcanic debris.

In this tiny Iranian town playing on the roof isn't just encouraged, it's the only place to go.

This vast, water-filled underground labyrinth can only be toured by boat.

Putrefaction plateaus in Iran, where the dead were sent for decontamination before going to their final resting place.

The hottest, driest, and most scenic desert on Earth.

These little castles each held thousands of pigeons.

Marked by the hand of the explorer Henry Morton Stanley.

This ruined fortress was the stronghold for a persecuted medieval leader and his infamous Assassins.

London's smallest police station is barely the size of a phone booth.

Giant, friendly pelicans in Central London, the most unlikely of places.

The largest of London's subterranean rivers and once a mad, bad center of London life.

One of the few remaining casualties of the London Blitz, this destroyed church has become an enchanting public garden.

The former Nazi concentration camp stands as a museum to remember this dark chapter in European history.

Poland's oldest salt mine has nearly everything one needs to live underground forever.

One part local history, 99 parts gruesome haunted house.

A church of bones, decorated with 40,000 human skeletons.

Famously misunderstood wonder of the ancient world

Macabre astrological automaton clock dating to the late 1400s.