After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

This iconic L.A. bookshop is housed in an abandoned bank—both symbolic and chic.

The space-age building is home to one of the few remaining rotating restaurants in America, and the only one that inspired a 1980s sitcom.

The "world's biggest dinosaur" once housed a creationist museum in its abdomen.

Hike amid the palm trees that thrive among Southern California's Indio Hills.

The ghost town that ended up on Ebay.

A pair of large white marble lions guard this stretch of the Mojave Desert, and it is utterly mysterious how they got there.

The abandoned train depot now doubles as a well-placed rest stop for those who take the road less traveled.

Brightly colored 30-foot-tall totems light up the desert sky just outside Las Vegas.

A Norwegian-born sculptor created these soaring guardian angels at the entrance to Hoover Dam.

A giant open-air sculpture made of over 200 full-sized boats.

These banned cigarette vending machines now sell little pieces of pocket-sized art.

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

An Inca spa, military outpost or maybe… both?

Situated on a sacred Inca site, this 16th-century cathedral took nearly 100 years to build.

This geometric feat is a testament to the Incas' mesmerizing architectural abilities.

The little bear in the "funny kind of hat" has made his way from London back to Peru.

The large collection of pre-Columbian pottery might make you blush.

A painting in the historic Cathedral Basilica depicts Jesus and his disciples dining on a traditional Peruvian menu.

Now containing the bones of the actual conquistador, instead of someone else.

Death rituals and sacrifice inside a Peruvian megalith.

This Peruvian canyon is filled with geometric salt pools that have been being harvested since the Incan empire.

The stones of this Incan wall complex fit together so well you couldn't fit a piece of paper between some of them.

Huge stone depressions which may have acted as an Incan agricultural experiment.