Places dearestcatherine Wants to Go

Putrefaction plateaus in Iran, where the dead were sent for decontamination before going to their final resting place.

This amazingly preserved Gold Rush town is a historian's dream.

One man's real life disfigurement inspired a lasting local legend surrounding an eerie tunnel.

Besieged by war, this castle ruin has crumbled into a peaceful picnic spot.

Since 1874, this macabre collection has developed into a museum devoted to Scotland Yard's mementos of dastardly deeds.

An Italian crevasse filled with abandoned buildings gives visitors a look at the world without humans.

Once featuring over 60 miniature replicas of famous Chinese locations, the Splendid China theme park was completely abandoned and is now mostly rubble.

Over 100 concrete munitions bunkers are all that remain of a Pennsylvanian village seized by the US government.

On a barren hillside in the Yucca Valley, the recently restored Desert Christ Park has attracted pilgrims and kitsch hunters for over 50 years.

An abandoned stretch of highway, deteriorating next to the operational one.

"There's nothing there," and other lies the KGB told us.

A long abandoned hospital building on the outskirts of NYC.

The haunting, dilapidated remains of a former poorhouse on Staten Island's Greenbelt.

A fernery hidden by neglect is uncovered, and an ancient specimen along with it.

The resting place for anonymous victims of the Danube's dark waters.

A collection of housewares from recent Irish history adjoined by a tower from ancient Irish history.

The angel of death appears to weep black tears at this grave marker.

The tragic reality of a village riddled with rumors of haunts, chemical spills, and serial killers.

This hospital fell into ruins after failing to act as the advocate for the mentally ill it was designed to be.

This solitary monastery may hold the remains of Vlad the Impaler (but probably not).

This single room has survived the centuries with almost no deterioration.

The remains of diamond fever taken over by the desert.

The bones of an old zoo crumbling in the shadow of a new one.

Dilapidated ruins that once treated a notorious young serial killer, currently hosting vandals, squatters, and ghost hunters.