These ramparts, once lined with towers, were constructed in defense of Beaune.

Hundreds of hidden passageways weave through the old quarters of Lyon.

The world's first funicular powered by a steam engine.

For hundreds of years, automatons moving to metallic music have been marking the passage of time.

This ancient theater was once the home of fierce gladiatorial battles.

A unique underground structure dating back to the 1st century BC.

This unusual piece of Renaissance art depicting the bodily horror of crucifixion and skin disease may have been inspired by fungus-induced hallucinations.

This is the real-life “Phantom of the Opera” box from Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel.

The subterranean "lake" below the Paris opera house inspired the Phantom of the Opera's lair.

This modest marker near Notre Dame identifies the very center of Paris.

This demon atop the Notre-Dame de Paris looks utterly bored.

Site of a classic 19th-century physics experiment to prove the earth is rotating.

Medieval museum built over Roman baths that features famous tapestries of a lady and a unicorn.

If you look closely at the oldest bridge in Paris, you might notice hundreds of ugly faces leering from its sides.

This 18th-century sundial was designed to calculate the date of Easter each year.

Twelve grave-faced marble angels guard the emperor's tomb at Les Invalides.

One of the world's tallest Ferris wheels takes visitors high above Las Vegas in a spinning party room.

Flashy signs from Las Vegas’s past find their final resting place at this unusual graveyard.

The bullet-riddled wall from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, bloodstains enhanced for your viewing pleasure.

This little blue house pokes out over the campus of UC San Diego, seven stories high.

A museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction.

The key to turning shifting dunes into the green oasis of Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco's urban bison herd has persisted in the face of extinction, development, and disease.

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.