Places Loec Wants to Go

The secret room where early Bolsheviks cranked out propaganda fliers on a smuggled printing press.

Luxury hotel turned into a refugee camp, then turned back into a luxury hotel.

Unusual building appears to be haphazardly built from randomly piled bricks.

Monks in the empyreal Alazani River valley have preserved their 1,000-year-old winemaking tradition.

The last standing example of an ancient district's teatime tradition.

Take respite inside this jaw-dropping church while climbing the volcano where Georgia's Prometheus was once chained.

Ancient rock-hewn town that witnessed key events of Georgian history.

Underground monastery and fortress.

An underground unique sacred place in the Kazakh steppe in which Sufism and nomadic tradition merge.

A remote, centuries-old underground mosque with a lunar aesthetic.

Jurassic clays where the dinosaurs once roamed.

These rugged, color-stained mountains hold the secrets of the Kazakh desert.

This small canyon is home to a treasure trove of geological oddities.

This was once the largest city in Kazakhstan, and a major stop on the Silk Road.

Avenue of trees planted by cosmonauts before their space departures.

In Kazakhstan, a colorful cathedral with many lives once survived the most powerful earthquake in the region.

Mysterious spherical rocks in the semi-desert of western Kazakhstan.

This unique wooden mosque resembling a Chinese pagoda was said to be built without the use of nails.

Nicknamed Kazakhstan's Grand Canyon, this natural wonder lies east of Almaty near the Chinese border.

This sprawling market is a one-stop shop for traditional Kazakh foods, from mare’s milk to sheep’s head.

An abandoned Soviet-era mining town in the mountains of South Kazakhstan.

The lovely lake that was naturally dammed, then naturally destroyed, then unnaturally saved.

World's oldest and largest space launch facility, once a secret missile testing site.

A brilliant turquoise lake in the mountains.