This famed Silk Road oasis was one of the largest cities in the world before it was destroyed by a Mongol horde.

A fiery crater has been burning in the Karakum Desert since 1971.

Whitewashed mosque contains the world's largest carpet.

On any given day this sprawling market houses literally tons of government-regulated gold, gems, and precious metals.

This indoor ski resort has a mountain contained inside a mall.

A unique configuration of blown glass can be found inside this hotel lobby.

This futuristic building is yet another architectural wonder in Dubai.

No building in the world leans as far as the so-called “Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi.”

A British general, a suggestive tree, a map of paradise.

A newspaper editor turned this abandoned island into a tortoise nature preserve that's now the world's smallest national park.

The remains of a 19th-century school and living quarters are perched atop a mountain surrounded by a thick tropical forest.

This vestige of Seychelles’s colonial past now resides in a busy intersection and didn’t chime for its first 96 years.

Rimmed by white crusts of salt on every edge, Lac Assal is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world.

A salt lake dotted with steaming limestone chimneys.

This cave located in the badlands of Somaliland contains some of the oldest cave art in Africa.

An extensive audio-only collection of cultural heritage saved from a genocide.

A MiG-17 fighter jet sits atop this memorial to the indiscriminate bombardment of Hargeisa.

Amid the ruins of the 1990s Somali Civil War, life goes on as normal.

A stark contrast between red sand dunes and the white sand beach immediately next to it can be seen along the southern Somali coast.

The building is a gigantic piece of art inspired by the shape of a desert rose.

Some of the ancient-looking huts among these strange rock formations aren't ancient at all, but built as part of a movie set.

Four steel monoliths stand in the Qatari desert, in a breathtaking work of large-scale art by Richard Serra.

An abandoned fishing village in pre-oil Qatar.

An art installation that will challenge your understanding of reality and perception.