Places James Gage Wants to Go

Rising from the sea like a stone monster.

The oldest church in Iceland is one of the few to feature ornate decoration.

A little-visited waterfall in an otherworldly landscape.

If a glacial river suddenly diving into a sheer chasm via a dramatic, multi-stage waterfall isn't peak Iceland, it's certainly close.

This giant underground cave chamber can only be accessed through a small opening at the top.

Nature's water park in the Wadi Bani Awf valley is full of pools flanked with cliffs and natural water slides.

Groups of prehistoric tombs that dot the mountains of northern Oman.

This bazaar is one of the oldest in the Arabian world.

A sinkhole and now a swimming hole, too, full of dazzling turquoise water.

An imposing Omani fortress surrounded by date palm trees.

An ancient sanctuary that has long been a holy site for the Chaldean Christian Church.

The surviving pieces of an ancient aqueduct that may have fed into the lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

A boiling wellspring flowing with natural gas burns in a continual blaze.

Giant reed houses made in the marshes of Southern Iraq.

A 605-page Quran penned in the blood of a dictator is locked away in a mosque.

A shrine on the shores of the Tigris.

This beautiful arched gate is all that remains of the fortress the ancient mountaintop town of Amadiya once was.

An ancient fortified mound raised over the millennia from settlements built one on top of the other.

Long before air conditioning, Persian architects found an ingenious way to cool off.

This lake in northwest Iran has started turning from green to red more frequently than scientists are comfortable with.

A historic trade hub teeming with gorgeous architecture, colorful goods, and vibrant designs.

This ancient fortress in Iran was once the oldest and largest treasury in the world.

Marked by the hand of the explorer Henry Morton Stanley.

Iranian tombstones shaped like male and female sexual organs.