Places Edited by Max Cortesi

A strip of neutral ground where the people of Tajikistan and Afghanistan come together to trade.

One of the world's tallest waterfalls wasn't revealed to the world at large until 2006.

An ancient necropolis of magnificent tombs.

A perfectly preserved hill village where the buildings are painted like white lace.

A spiral staircase twists to the top of this unusual Czech lookout tower.

An eerie former warehouse turned cistern turned movie set.

The haunting ruins of a military fortress turned astronomical observatory sit on a Sarajevo mountaintop.

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

This giant Christ statue was a failed attempt by Indonesia to dissuade East Timor from demanding independence.

A 19th-century fortress and collection of artifacts offer a tour of Saudi history.

Once an indicator of social class, the color blue has come to define this city on the edge of the Thar Desert.

Designed by Buckminster Fuller, this relic of the 67 Expo survived fire and ice.

Within the Saudi Arabian desert lies a 2,000-year-old ghost town made of stone and mud.

The mystery of the Putim Ossuary involves a tricorn hat.

Serbia's master of striking memorials erected a forgotten, hidden gem in the hills outside a tiny village.

Catering to broken dolls for almost 200 years, this repair shop is now a charnel house of doll parts.

This Sri Lankan cemetery is the final resting place of sci-fi legend Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

These 17th-century mummies are no longer naturally preserved, but remain on display today.

The largest Lenin statue in Central Asia was moved to an empty field rather than being destroyed.

This ancient city—home to nine civilizations—is soon to be buried under 200 feet of water.

These giant mummies are set ominously into a Peruvian cliffside and topped with real human skulls.

A mere stone's throw from Islamabad exists a spectacular display of three millennia of humanity's progress.

This giant volcanic crater holds its very own field of salt.

Italy's curious field of mud volcanoes is named for being both gross AND salty.