Places Edited by Eric Grundhauser

Climb inside an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times its normal size.

Not merely a museum – but a whirring powerhouse that offers a subterranean peek into the heart and soul of cable car operations.

The largest collection of Indigenous Australian artifacts in the world, and the rare museum where wood-and-glass cabinets have trumped interactive exhibits.

Site of the greatest known waterfall that ever existed.

The deepest lake in the United States, and once the site of epic destruction that lives on in legends.

A chapel on a volcanic core, marking the end of a successful journey.

The second generation of a mighty volcano rises from the sea.

The fossilized remains of ancient California redwoods.

Da Vinci's equestrian statue, 500 years in the making.

A Turkish monastery tucked into a cliff wall.

Deep in the Thar desert, a temple crawling with thousands of holy rats.

This Funeral Hearse Museum represents the finest in cadaver transportation.

Picturesque intersection of witchcraft and ancient Christianity.

This 1,300 year old monastery built atop a single rock was once only accessible depending on the whims of the tide.

A museum which takes visitors to the côté obscure of Paris.

Enormous pendulum helps keep Taiwan's tallest building from swaying.

Ruins of the laboratory where a mysterious doctor invented an embalming fluid and stored his mummies.

A bizarre collection of gifts to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il from the despots of the world.

A beautiful opera house in the heart of Amazonia has recently restarted performances after a 90-year hiatus.

Hidden out of public view in the National Library of Israel is a collection of "Stalag's," 1960s Nazi themed porno paperbacks written and consumed by Israelis.

Soaring over the Niagara Whirlpool since 1916.

One of the first historical sites of an alternative universe was installed in the town of Paris, Illinois—which is now home to an annual spelling bee of Kcymaerxthaereal words.

A Prada store in the West Texas desert that is never open for business.

The short-lived history of a new republic and British control in West Florida.