Places conordgallagher Wants to Go

This monument honors the life of a long-suffering lion whose story captivated the world.

Despite a history of destruction, this former citadel survives to document Afghanistan's oft overlooked history.

What was once supposed to be the symbol of a shining Afghan future is now a bombed-out ruin.

Rock-cut chamber at top of an outcroup, reached by a mountain stairway of forty steps.

Splashes of blue in an otherwise monotonous lunar landscape.

Highly unusual subterranean stupa and adjacent cave monastery.

Once an impressive link to Afghanistan’s Buddhist past, now a sad reminder of intolerance towards other cultures.

This magnificent blue mosque in Afghanistan is surrounded by thousands of white doves.

The largest covered bazaar in the world.

This remote mountain shrine is one of the most sacred Zoroastrian temples remaining in the world.

This mosque turned crypt is an amazing display of Persian-Islamic architecture.

This steamship has been beautifully rusting off the coast of an Iranian island since the 1960s.

Marked by the hand of the explorer Henry Morton Stanley.

Colorful mineral deposits turn these mountains into an Impressionist fantasy.

This 17th-century structure is a beautiful testimony to traditional Persian architecture

Iranian tombstones shaped like male and female sexual organs.

Two Chinese dragons guard the caves of this medieval temple in Iran.

Leaking natural gas never stops burning on this hill, making it an infinite inferno.

This circular Iranian jail was once a political prison run by the country's secret police.

Long before air conditioning, Persian architects found an ingenious way to cool off.

Named after a legendary garden called Eram in southern Arabia, built by order of Shaddad, an Arab king who wanted to compete with Paradise.

This lake in northwest Iran has started turning from green to red more frequently than scientists are comfortable with.

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

The tower in this 1,000-year-old mud-brick village seems to vibrate for no apparent reason.