This ominous Albanian fortress houses tanks and downed planes as a reminder of their victories over Western imperialism.

J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and other "Inklings" met at the Oxford pub to discuss the now legendary fantasy stories they were writing.

Mrs. Mallard and her brood are a beloved fixture in Boston Public Garden.

This fairy-tale, neo-Gothic church in the Azores is a world of magical realism.

There are plenty of wonderful panoramic vistas in Edinburgh, but not many are hidden smack in the middle of the Old Town.

This Transylvanian church has changed its denomination four times.

Where Venice's gondolas go for a tune-up.

This charming colonial alleyway is one of the oldest continuously used residential streets in the U.S.

A random tree outside a Budapest hotel has become a DIY shrine to the late singer.

Budapest's Communist-era statues, banished to the suburbs.

A black cat protests the City Guild in Riga's Old Town.

A 250-year-old timepiece-automaton adorned with golden mechanical birds, which still sing to this day.

A model village fit for an emperor.

An 18th century wonder of the world, lost in WWII, re-created at the Catherine Palace.

A 300-year-old tea shop that brought tea to the English people, not to mention the Queen herself.

An unusual round church in London with a Templar past.

The statue of John Harvard isn't actually John Harvard—or even, technically, the founder of the school.

A perfectly circular lake is formed by the crater of an ancient underwater volcano.

A surreal statue honoring Prague's favorite literary son.

Holy Hindu shrine in an enormous, monkey-filled limestone cavern.

Sacred waters rescued from the wrath of a volcano.

This sacred cave temple is home to thousands of bats and according to legend, a giant snake king.

One native village in Bali lays their dead at the foot of a holy tree whose natural fragrance seems to hide the stench as the bodies decompose.

Hindu temple of the dead home to hundreds of long-tailed macaques.