An unusual abandoned church damaged in World War II sits in a small village outside Moscow.

A former military outpost of Ivan the Terrible, the 16th-century church contains some of the rarest examples of Eastern Orthodox mural paintings.

Site of the world's largest nuclear explosion.

Russian researchers who have been excavating ancient squirrel burrows may have brought a 32,000-year-old plant back to life.

This 15th-century cave complex is one of the very few monasteries to stay open throughout World War II and the Soviet regime.

Thanks to a spelling mistake this bizarre beaver-tiger hybrid became the symbol of a Siberian town.

The mummified remains of Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, Russia's most important Buddhist.

Europe's highest peak is a key pillar of the Seven Summits mountaineering challenge.

The California secessionist movement has its own foreign embassy, in Russia of all places.

Dark, eerie exhibits make for a surreal exploration of the subconscious.

This massive glowering Lenin head gazes out over eastern Siberia.

A uniquely authentic display of traditional Russian culture.

What was once the base for Russia's first nature reserve is now a ghost town, right on the shore of Lake Baikal.

A 360 degree battlefield experience.

Siberian whale bones stand as cairns marking location of an ancient butcher yard.

The giant Siberian crater known locally as the "doorway to the underworld" is expanding every year.

An abandoned town of skeletal wooden homes.

Stalin's secret bunker.

A city block packed with whimsical sculptures that seem to be plucked from a tiled fantasy world.

This remote lake in Siberia supposedly contains a fearsome sea monster.

Church built on the site where the last tsar of Russia and his family were killed.

Unusual, mushroom-like rock formations caused by weathering and water erosion, set to disappear, according to geologists.

Two islands just 4 km apart separated by an International Border and Date Line.

Monastery, army base, and infamous Soviet Gulag in the far Russian north.