Places MeanderingMind Wants to Go

A cave covered with bizarre stalactites of cloth.

Few people have ever heard of, let alone visited, one of Turkmenistan’s most impressive natural attractions.

An eccentric dictator's take on a Turkmen version of Disneyland.

If you want to get married in the White Marble City of Ashgabat, you should do it in this surreal disco ball building.

This famed Silk Road oasis was one of the largest cities in the world before it was destroyed by a Mongol horde.

This cavernous swimming spot doubles as a home to the largest known colony of bats in Central Asia.

This Turkish cave boasts some rather bizarre associations with the King of Mount Olympus.

The alleged house of the Virgin Mary is tucked away in a park and nature preserve on Mt. Koressos in Turkey and is holy to both Catholics and Muslims alike.

The best-preserved ancient theater in the world.

1513 Turkish world map, full of European state secrets and snarky commentary.

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

This medieval citadel once guarded the western entrance of the Pamir Highway.

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

The largest dam in the world and the site of a potential disaster.

This ornate mosque is said to hold the remains of Muhammad's granddaughter beneath its dome of pure gold.

What is left of the pillar of Saint Simeon, the voluntary martyr who climbed the column to give his sermons, remaining perched there for thirty-seven years.

A 1,500-year-old ghost settlement is slowly fading away.

Ruins of the Crusaders' headquarters.

Mysterious lost empire of the Silk Road.

This mesmerizing, colorful structure looks like a tent made from stained glass.

Village of slate houses, built on a white marble outcrop.

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

More than 100 monumental tombs carved into rock are preserved at this ancient Nabataean site in the Arabian Desert.

An unfinished tomb carved into a giant boulder in the Arabian Desert.