This massive concrete sculpture is said to be the heaviest communist monument on Earth.

This fifth-century church is one of the oldest Christian sites in the Balkans.

This once-grandiose behemoth of a monument from the socialist era now sits quiet and closed up.

Featured in one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history.

Padlocks cover this rickety footbridge with love.

The largest catacomb system in the world.

Built in the Soviet era, this cableway system still runs gondolas from Odessa down to Otrada Beach.

Glowing orb in Minsk houses 8,600,000 items.

A sculpture of graceful storks sits atop this fountain in Independence Square.

Mysterious standing stone formations looks like a petrified forest.

An abandoned saucer-shaped monument in the Bulgarian mountains.

A magnificent, glittering building tucked into a tiny Bulgarian mountain town.

The remarkably well-preserved final resting place of a powerful ancient Thracian king.

"Holy Wisdom" overlooks the city that became its namesake.

A vast Communist-era exhibition space in the Bulgarian capital.

This ancient theater, restored in the 20th century, lives on as a venue for dramatic and musical performances.

A gigantic statue of a Russian soldier watches over the ancient city of Plovdiv, a prominent reminder of the Soviet period in Bulgaria.

One of the world’s only pink lakes where it's possible to take a dip.

These Stalin-era industrial 'death traps' hang lifeless above the city

A flamboyant five-story building in Bulgaria resembles a crawling snail.

Now a ruin, this grand resort was coveted by a communist autocrat and an eccentric Japanese golfer.

Space-age monument to an early 20th-century uprising.

The oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia has survived centuries of invasions, political shifts, and religious purges.

The grassy landscape is home to the world's last truly wild horses.