Places MeanderingMind Wants to Go

A failed utopia, shut down by a more legitimate nation.

A site of natural wonder and flying coconuts in Samoa.

The world is full of swimming holes, but few compare to Samoa’s idyllic To Sua ocean trench.

The ruins of an ancient island city built atop a coral reef in the South Pacific are spectacular and strange enough to have inspired H.P. Lovecraft.

The birthplace of both the Atomic Age and Godzilla, and the namesake of the bathing suit.

An enormous concrete structure built over a nuclear crater.

This living legend of maritime history is enjoying a second life.

The United Arab Emirates's biggest and oldest fort pays homage to a lost era.

The world's largest frame offers spectacular views of the city's past and present.

The world’s largest LED display, built over an F1 race circuit.

Feed it cash, get your very own gold bar.

Planned as the world’s first zero-carbon city, it had lofty ideals—but is only 5 percent completed and aiming for 50 percent carbon-neutral.

Billed as the "largest natural flower garden in the world" this Middle Eastern show field has little competition at 45 million flowers.

A faithful reproduction of Al-Jazari's enormous water clock.

An abandoned desert hamlet swallowed up by sand.

Witness traditional silk production in the Uzbek city that's been a hub of sericulture for over a thousand years.

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

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

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

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

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

A memorial to the thousands of Turkmen soldiers and civilians who died in a bloody 1881 battle.

The controversial final resting place of the equally controversial first president of Turkmenistan.

A dictator's gold statue once rotated to face the sun on a 75-meter high marble tower.