This ancient jade mask depicting the Zapotec bat god was found in the ruins of the pyramids of Monte Alban.

The turquoise-studded skull of a long-dead Aztec man sits within Mexico City’s Museum of Anthropology.

This enormous "cloth of the conquest" depicts the Norman invasion of England in mind-blowing detail.

This unassuming tree stump reportedly traces its roots to the famous pharaoh queen's reign.

A Christian monastery stands on what was once a holy Incan temple.

This demon atop the Notre-Dame de Paris looks utterly bored.

This elegant neoclassical garden is a peaceful oasis in the middle of the Nepalese capital.

This biographical museum honors the groundbreaking scientist at her birthplace in Warsaw.

Dating back to the fourth century, it's the oldest Hindu temple still in use in the Kathmandu Valley.

This colossal ancient sculpture of the monstrous Aztec rain god has a literally stormy history.

This exceptionally well-preserved ancient marvel also houses a small museum dedicated to Jordanian folk tradition.

Towering at a height of over 30 meters, this turn-of-the-18th-century landmark is the tallest temple in Nepal.

This singular Irish dolmen is more Frank Lloyd Wright than upright stonehenge.

The struggle of a small Dutch island against the sea.

The ancient latrines of the Greeks, in all their public glory.

This isthmus in the Bahamas narrowly separates the roiling Atlantic from the cool Bight of Eleuthera.

One of the deepest blue holes in the world.

Along the most northwestern point in Africa is an ancient cave surrounded by legends.

A sublime medieval path adorns the marble floor of one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in France.

This staircase in a lush tropical grotto was built by enslaved laborers and renamed to honor Queen Victoria's role in ending slavery in the British Empire.

The castle was reconstructed to fit Kaiser Wilhelm II's romanticized vision of the Middle Ages.

St. Mary's features one of the most spectacularly decorated cathedral interiors in all of Europe.

Legend has it that Napoleon Bonaparte fell in love with this Gothic church.

These sacred Mesoamerican ruins feature peculiar petroglyphs hidden in the stones.