Places From the Backwoods Wants to Go

The ruins of an ancient island city built atop a coral reef in the South Pacific are spectacular and strange enough to have inspired H.P. Lovecraft.

Clap your hands at the base of the pyramid, and the song of a sacred Mayan bird will echo through the air.

The palace of the King of Kings, burned by Alexander the Great.

Site where Moses may have received the Ten Commandments.

An unfinished tomb carved into a giant boulder in the Arabian Desert.

More than 100 monumental tombs carved into rock are preserved at this ancient Nabataean site in the Arabian Desert.

Within the Saudi Arabian desert lies a 2,000-year-old ghost town made of stone and mud.

An abandoned 1920s school with a mysterious history.

A surprisingly large and sturdy ruin on the outskirts of a remote village.

This gem is often wrongly overshadowed by the larger, newer Metropolis church in Athens.

A 63-foot-tall swinging ball hypnotizes passersby, and proves to any remaining doubters that the Earth is spinning.

Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini fell in love with this lonely 13th-century tower while making his most famous film.

An ancient octagonal weather station named for the eight Greek gods of wind.

Long tunnels run under the ancient chariot racing circuit to the tower.

The tower in this 1,000-year-old mud-brick village seems to vibrate for no apparent reason.

The residents at this Yellowstone wildlife park will certify your cooler as "bear-proof."

An abandoned Depression-era zoo hidden just off the highway.

The often-overlooked ruins of one of the first buildings designed by famous landscape architect Frederick Olmsted.

The bears may be gone, but their old cages can still be found.

A deserted hodgepodge of experimental structures designed by nearby university students.

A preserved oasis with traditional Andalusian-style architecture and beautiful views of the Nile.

A "Texanic" (gigantic Texas) collection of Art Deco architecture at Dallas' historic Fair Park.

A little slice of Japan and its aesthetics in London's Holland Park.

Ralph Waldo Emerson spent two years living here decades before it became a Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park.