Places Edited by Allison Meier

A lovers' beach, tucked below the surface of the island, provides a safe haven for romance.

Natural stone arches form a walkable "cathedral" at low tide, then disappear entirely when the water returns.

Festival of Perpetual Life and Rebirth.

Both church and state get put to the torch in this annual festival in the "Bonfire Capital of the World."

Earth's tallest volcano is sacred to Native Hawaiians, and home to a dozen world-class observatories.

An ordinary pond with fish from out of this world.

Skulls from the plague of 1656 and World War II bombings are united by a cult dedicated to caring for the ancient dead.

The largest and most famous wax anatomical collection anywhere in the world.

On Japan's Tashirojima Island, cats are king.

An 80-year-old house built out of newspapers.

One of the world's southernmost bars.

The beautiful baroque library of the Hapsburg empire.

A city built from mud and known as the "Manhattan of the desert."

The closest thing to Mars on Earth.

Fire meets ice at the southernmost volcano on Earth.

The world's largest neutrino telescope searches for secrets of the universe at the South Pole.

There is an art, a science, and certainly a responsibility to occupying the Big Red Chair, and this is where it's learned.

A Saint Nicholas-themed ghost town in the Mojave desert.

The home made famous by the 1983 holiday classic is now a perfectly preserved shrine to the movie.

A fantastic Christmas tradition where defecation meets the manger.

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

These giant mummies are set ominously into a Peruvian cliffside and topped with real human skulls.

A bronze kitty adorns the grave of the polar explorer who brought the original feline to the Antarctic.

This fantastical waterfall is hidden in a cave located in a cracked cliff.