A building facade covered with the statues of 11 giants of Tajik literature.

An unusual monument to a gentle giant who became a Kyrgyz hero.

This ancient Silk Road outpost overlooking the Wakhan Valley is miraculously still standing.

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

Ancient barriers wrap around what was once an important stop along the Silk Road.

This temple located on a vertical drop of a rocky mountain houses relics from the Song Dynasty.

In Zanzibar, a historic 19th-century palace is a reminder of the world's shortest war.

Touching displays of wishes for peace from the Cold War era.

Where Stoddart and Connolly suffered in the infamous Bug Pit.

This "tower of death" has acted as an observatory, a religious hub, and an executioner's lair.

Once a bustling fishing port, this semi-ghost town is now more than 90 miles away from the shore.

An 18-meter-long sarcophagus of a constantly growing dead prophet.

Light still pours into the ruins of this ancient Islamic observatory.

The Avenue of Mausolea is a series of grand palatial tombs.

This stunning 15th-century royal hill fort preserves the age of chivalry in Rajasthan.

Where the father of Persian poetry is laid to rest.

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

This dark, damp, perilous tunnel is the only passage from north to south Tajikistan.

The world's second-tallest flagpole stands proud despite dropping rank.

A creepy, deserted mock Arabian village can be found in the middle of the Qatari desert.

Extremely isolated Silk Road caravanserai in the middle of nowhere.

A boulder carved into the shape of the cosmonaut's head.

Lonely minaret stump of a destroyed city.

Time capsule of a museum, in which the Soviet Union remains alive and kicking.