Places Elena Amabili Wants to Go

A huge communist-era propaganda monument and mural that offers stunning views of the Mongolian capital.

This sprawling market is a one-stop shop for traditional Kazakh foods, from mare’s milk to sheep’s head.

Avenue of trees planted by cosmonauts before their space departures.

Former island in the Aral Sea used to be a top-secret Russian bio-weapons facility.

One of the most horrible legacies of the Cold War is a site where the Soviet Union tested nuclear bombs on civilians.

The remains of a monument in the remote Kazakhstani desert dedicated to the only men to die in outer space, the crew of the Soyuz 11 rocket.

The lovely lake that was naturally dammed, then naturally destroyed, then unnaturally saved.

An abandoned Soviet-era mining town in the mountains of South Kazakhstan.

A brilliant turquoise lake in the mountains.

World's oldest and largest space launch facility, once a secret missile testing site.

Rusting ships sit in a desert where a sea used to be.

Submerged trees jut ghost-like out of an idyllic turquoise mountain lake.

Complete town of 5,000 living out at sea on the world's first offshore oil platform.

This mysterious but iconic tapered tower appears in many Azeri fairytales and legends.

In oil-rich Azerbaijan, people bathe in the black stuff.

A shrine of fire worship built on top of a natural flame.

Home to nearly a third of the world's mud volcanoes, Azerbaijan is home to a messy, bubbling, and sometimes explosive landscape.

Mysterious hillside with a continuously burning natural fire.

This village was once a thriving Soviet uranium mining center, but is now semi-abandoned and desolate.

Dedicated to a Bolshevik revolutionary, this museum is a true time capsule of the Soviet era.

Extremely isolated Silk Road caravanserai in the middle of nowhere.

Time capsule of a museum, in which the Soviet Union remains alive and kicking.

A boulder carved into the shape of the cosmonaut's head.

Monumental sculptures guard many of the graves, transforming this necropolis into an open-air fine art museum.