The most metal church of all time was built in record time because of an international, pious pissing contest.

A gorgeous, Gaudí-esque stairway constructed in the city of Istanbul by a prominent Jewish family.

A sixth-century Byzantine cistern hidden below a modern carpet store.

The controversial final resting place of the equally controversial first president of Turkmenistan.

The remains of a medieval city loom in one of the most isolated desert regions of Turkmenistan.

A huge monument to a bizarre book written by Turkmenistan’s longstanding dictator.

Sumptous memorial to a controversial independence.

A dictator's gold statue once rotated to face the sun on a 75-meter high marble tower.

A memorial to the thousands of Turkmen soldiers and civilians who died in a bloody 1881 battle.

A cave covered with bizarre stalactites of cloth.

This harsh mountain path was built as a strange attempt to improve the health of Turkmen citizens.

An eccentric dictator's take on a Turkmen version of Disneyland.

Few people have ever heard of, let alone visited, one of Turkmenistan’s most impressive natural attractions.

If you want to get married in the White Marble City of Ashgabat, you should do it in this surreal disco ball building.

A cemetery with goat-horn bedecked gravestones.

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

This cavernous swimming spot doubles as a home to the largest known colony of bats in Central Asia.

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

One of the world's tallest statues is also one of its most hated.

Former estate of Lenin, now home to his death mask.

Home of the future Emperors of Russia.

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

Museum design and public transportation meet in this unique Russian train car.

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.