The beloved statue at the National Academy of Sciences is oh so inviting to sit on.

Garments from across the globe call this hidden gem home.

The hippo that stands on this university campus was once a drunken flea market purchase.

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

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

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

Sumptous memorial to a controversial independence.

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

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

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

These "50 Fortresses" have been unearthed in the ancient oasis of Khwarezm.

Ancient serpentine sacrifice holder that has stood the test of time.

A marvel of Byzantine engineering under the streets of Istanbul.

Ancient barriers wrap around what was once an important stop along the Silk Road.

Where Stoddart and Connolly suffered in the infamous Bug Pit.

This "tower of death" has acted as an observatory, a religious hub, and an executioner's lair.

Controversially restored in the 1970s, this giant 15th-century mosque is shrouded in legend.

The Avenue of Mausolea is a series of grand palatial tombs.

An 18-meter-long sarcophagus of a constantly growing dead prophet.

Light still pours into the ruins of this ancient Islamic observatory.

Right beyond the Uzbekistan-Tajikistan border lies the oldest human settlement in Central Asia.

This dark, damp, perilous tunnel is the only passage from north to south Tajikistan.

A building facade covered with the statues of 11 giants of Tajik literature.

The world's second-tallest flagpole stands proud despite dropping rank.