Places dbone Wants to Go

Siberian whale bones stand as cairns marking location of an ancient butcher yard.

Some Moscow residents once claimed the bizarre, contorted mass of metal on top of the building was used to manipulate minds.

The world's tallest statue of a woman wields the world's tallest sword and is at risk of toppling over.

Gigantic natural towers in a Russian plateau.

Stalin's prisoner-built rail line sits in ruin, never having a single car ride its tracks.

A city block packed with whimsical sculptures that seem to be plucked from a tiled fantasy world.

This cuddly rodent has a place of honor at a Russian institute for genetic research.

Church built on the site where the last tsar of Russia and his family were killed.

Unusual, mushroom-like rock formations caused by weathering and water erosion, set to disappear, according to geologists.

This nostalgic Russian museum is full of USSR cultural artifacts from the 1970s and 80s.

An ever-growing literary collection housed in the apartment where the Russian author penned his final novel.

Specimens collected by the author of "Lolita" and self-taught lepidopterist are exhibited in his childhood home.

No one knows why ancient labyrinths were built on this tiny northern island.

A dormant lightning machine equal to all the power in Russia.

The coldest city in the world.

Hidden in a metro shop under a shopping mall, this small museum tells the story of one of the world's largest urban transit systems.

Siberian ghost town built by gulag prisoners.

The deepest hole drilled in the name of science, where evidence of Precambrian life was found.

A Marxist summer camp full of fantastical statues lies tucked away and forgotten in the forests of Moscow.

This frozen-in-time summer home outside Moscow provides a look at Russian life in the 1950s.

The tallest hotel in Europe.

Once frequented by heavyweights of the Russian arts scene, this café is stuck in the 1800s.

An early-20th-century "dacha" village of quaint cottages curiously located in a modern part of Moscow.

Abandoned castle was once a grand example of Russian privilege, built exclusively to win a frivolous bet between noblemen.