The stoutest tree in the world.

A Lovecraftian altar of nightmarish bronze chairs sits ominously on a boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta.

This church, buried halfway in lava rock, is all that remains of a Mexican village destroyed by a volcano.

The only castle in North America to ever house European sovereigns.

The winter home of millions of migrating monarch butterflies.

No telescopes, no power, no gift shop: The Observatory of Chichen Itza, one of the world's oldest observatories, takes astronomy back to basics.

These azure waters were thought to lead to the Mayan Underworld.

Every equinox this Maya pyramid puts on a spooky ancient light show.

A hidden treasure of an abandoned city lies deep in the jungles of Campeche, Mexico.

The enigmatic and seldom visited ruins of a Mayan city-state.

An elaborate Mayan city shrouded in alien conspiracy revealed the tomb of Pacal the Great.

A devastated ruin in the south of Belize where British explorers claimed to unearth the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull.

The ruins of an ancient Mayan city, beautifully preserved and only accessible by boat.

Ottoman-era houses lovingly preserved.

In the northernmost city in the world, it's illegal to be buried because it’s too cold for bodies to decompose.

The best place to send your postcards home from Antarctica.

The world's most remote permanent settlement on an active volcano.

Final resting place of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton.

This space-age looking obelisk rises over a city in the rainforest, meant to resemble the local castaña tree.

This small oxbow lake has rare giant river otters and some Seussian-sounding birds.

The world's largest clay lick, where parrots gather to snack.

This 140-year-old beacon off the Florida Keys marks the wreck of a Navy ship that once roamed the Caribbean hunting pirates.

Pillars made of 700 pieces of luggage climb to the ceiling of Sacramento Airport's baggage claim.

Mesoamerican monoliths and zoomorphic stones covered in royal visages, ancient mythology, and grand celestial events.