Places maurverick Wants to Go

The world's third-largest crystal sphere has sat in the Penn Museum since 1927 with the exception of one outlandish theft.

Huge masonic hall in Philadelphia with lavishly themed rooms.

The taxidermied remains of Charles Dickens' pet raven, which helped inspire one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poems.

Hundreds of medieval Islamic gravestones decorate the mountainous landscape in the largest cemetery in Turkey.

This set of hot springs also comes with fantastic views.

Home to the deepest rift anywhere on Earth.

This remnant of an ancient Persian city is considered to be the world's largest single-span brick vault arch.

The home of Iraq's former prime minister now houses historical manuscripts.

The legendary fortress of a female Kurdish warrior leader.

This former monument to an invented Iraqi victory was turned into a military camp during the subsequent invasion.

Giant reed houses made in the marshes of Southern Iraq.

A shrine on the shores of the Tigris.

A 605-page Quran penned in the blood of a dictator is locked away in a mosque.

The sacred shrine of the Yazidis.

9th century Abbasid mosque, damaged in modern warfare.

Ancient rock-cut tomb? Definitely. That of a great Median king? Unlikely.

This beautiful Croatian fortress is haunted by legends of forbidden love.

A chain of 16 wondrous lakes formed as a result of the gradual dissolution of soluble layers of bedrock.

Modern museum, designed for Jihadi tourists.

A patchwork of ruins from various civilizations in one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities.

A monumental underground karstic wonderland is also the water source for over a million citizens of Beirut.

After this one-of-a-kind palace was built the architect's hands are said to have been cut off to keep it that way.

This remote mountain shrine is one of the most sacred Zoroastrian temples remaining in the world.

This mosque turned crypt is an amazing display of Persian-Islamic architecture.