Places colingross Wants to Go

This ancient fortress in Iran was once the oldest and largest treasury in the world.

This 170-year-old Swiss guesthouse built into the side of a mountain is best accessed by a cable car.

It's always game time at Stockholm's only museum devoted solely to video games.

A museum dedicated to the German scientist who revealed the significance of the mysterious Peruvian Nazca Lines.

The mystery of Brazil's "Land of Twins" has led to wild theories such as Nazi genetic experiments.

A meandering boardwalk across the bogland leads to a "stairway to heaven" with sublime views.

Local lore says the devil built this beautiful medieval bridge to help a fleeing bandit.

This jaw-dropping 19th-century bridge uses its reflection to form what appears to be a perfect circle.

A tiny collection of traditional Japanese woodblock prints, open only when the owner feels like it.

The Yonaguni Monument, a natural formation or the Japanese Atlantis?

The giant figure on the back of this turtle-shaped temple actually hides a memorial pendulum.

A shrine contains nearly 200 statues of the Buddhist deity Jizo, dressed in bibs by parents who have lost a child.

A Japanese cat island also populated by the descendants of a band of banished samurai.

A giant robo-cockroach building devours Tokyo.

A 59-ft. robot statue looks over the citizens of earthquake-ravaged Kobe.

Founded over a thousand years ago, this shrine is said to be built on the site of a warlord's harem prison.

Thirty architectural gems from the 19th- and early 20th-century Tokyo were restored and relocated to this space.

The Buddhist temples of Yamadera, built into a mountain side, feature a viewing deck with sweeping views.

Unusual hexagonal rocks formed by cooling lava named for their resemblance to traditional Japanese tatami mats.

The tallest bronze seated statue of the Buddha in Japan.

This sawtooth mountain range still bears the strangely lovely marks of its history as a medieval quarry.

A rare festival blending religion, blacksmiths, vagina dentata, sex workers, and the straight-up facts of life.

Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome.

This ancient temple is set up to take you on a pilgrimage of self.