It’s not hard to see why the historic Peabody Conservatory of Music’s library has been described as a “cathedral of books.”

A fountain standing as a testament to a doomed alliance.

A marvel of Byzantine engineering under the streets of Istanbul.

One of the largest wooden constructions in Europe was meant to be a casino, but soon became an orphanage.

Over the centuries, this island paradise has done it all, from providing monks with ecclesiastical respite to sheltering an exiled Leon Trotsky.

The world's last remaining store of its kind.

Eat like pre-Columbian Native Americans in this New Mexico restaurant within the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.

The 7,000-year-old calcium carbonate formation creates a magnificent natural bridge.

Bridges, terraces, and replicas of historic structures all built of rock and petrified wood by one man.

A life-sized mammoth sculpture marks the spot where the remains of a Columbian mammoth were discovered in 2005.

A peculiar mansion built by the troubled heir to the Winchester Rifle Company fortune.

When the big city meets the edge of the frontier, log skyscrapers are born.

In the midst of a residential town in Washington exists a property saturated with one man's artistic creations.

This super-sized skillet is a replica of a usable giant pan where a woman once skated on bacon.

Home of Jake the Alligator Man, the mummified remains of a cigar smoking, cross-dressing celebrity of the Northwestern coast.

This graveyard is the eternal home of many brave pioneers who settled the Great Northwest.

A Roman-style column in Oregon hides a spiral staircase inside.

Only known mainland rookery of the threatened Stellar sea lion.

Aqueducts have dramatically changed this old lake, now home to tufa towers and its very own species of tiny brine shrimp.

Rare and gorgeous birds abound in this protected wildlife sanctuary.

Home to the deepest rift anywhere on Earth.

Settled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1859, this abandoned frontier town has appeared in several films.

Version of the French Riviera destroyed by the sea.

The ghostly remains of an accidental sea.