Follies

A lone tower rises above the cliffs in a city park, offering fantastic views of the Connecticut landscape.

This 18th-century folly is one of Europe's rare "garden mosques."

This imposing 20th-century castle was abandoned before it was ever completed.

This mysterious hilltop collection of Druid carvings isn't quite what it seems.

An abandoned tower once used to study the cosmos hides within a thicket of greenery.

This tallest folly in the world began its life as an elaborate factory chimney.

Although it appears ancient and mysterious, the quirky folly was actually built 200 years ago by an eccentric estate owner.

The unusual lighthouse looms over waves of prairies with no sea in sight.

The nearly 200-year-old folly has a secret spiral staircase hidden in one of its pillars.

This eccentric folly house was designed by Romanian thinker Bogdan-Petriceicu Hasdeu, with a helping hand from his deceased daughter's spirit.

This folly built to commemorate an aristocratic victory over Catholic rebellion plays tricks on the eye.

A folly built to satisfy a gentleman's bet that he could drive his horses through the eye of a needle.

An oversized, oddly designed pedestrian overpass has drawn comparisons to a commode for pachyderms.

The hidden "ballroom" under a mansion lake was built by a criminal who ate a cyanide pill during his trial.

The most magnificent bottle house in a town strangely full of them.

The ruins of a Duke's bucolic dream, where camels once roamed alongside "Dutch" windmills and faux-Italian vineyards.

A broken man's homemade, seaworthy ship rests in the middle of the Canadian prairie.