Places Edited by Max Cortesi

Carved into a towering rock mountain in Al Ula, this once served as a religious and political center in Hegra.

This tilted minaret and mosque are a feat of modern engineering.

This site was once the religious, cultural, and trade center of Sri Lanka.

Hidden masterpieces in a small church in the medieval city of Bergamo.

Controversially restored in the 1970s, this giant 15th-century mosque is shrouded in legend.

The scorched Lisbon church that survived two earthquakes and a massive fire.

This sea stack in Cyprus is traditionally seen as the birthplace of the goddess Aphrodite.

The legendary fortress of a female Kurdish warrior leader.

Liechtenstein's royal family calls this medieval alpine castle home.

These abundant, over-the-top monuments are so widely scattered that they define the entire compact capital cityscape, often leading to jokes about whether there are more statues than residents.

An unfinished Serbian Orthodox church with 1,389 golden crosses planned to represent the Battle of Kosovo.

This abandoned IDGZ station was one of 49 troposcatter stations in the NATO ACE High network.

Established hundreds of years ago, Gandan remains the premier Buddhist monastery in Ulaanbaatar.

A shrine in Karachi is home to around 100 crocodiles that are regarded as sacred.

Designed in the Romanesque style, this structure was once a fortress monastery.

South of Bologna, a limestone grotto with a protruding waterfall and a floor full of cave pearls.

This trail was once used to smuggle cigarettes, sugar, and other black market goods between Italy and Switzerland.

Does this 10-foot-tall statue carved into a rock face depict a king afflicted by a skin condition or a Buddhist figure?

Once a highly polluted body of water has now been transformed into a gorgeous lagoon.

The walls of this tiny Italian church are entirely covered with frescoes.

A massive collection of petroglyphs dating back some 40,000 years.

The seat of the Mantua bishop holds many secrets within its walls.

A room filled with frescos that make it seem like the walls are crumbling down while giants die in despair.

All that remains of an ancient royal palace is a water channel that was used for drinking games.