Places MeanderingMind Wants to Go

The lovely lake that was naturally dammed, then naturally destroyed, then unnaturally saved.

An abandoned Soviet-era mining town in the mountains of South Kazakhstan.

A brilliant turquoise lake in the mountains.

A Stalinist prison camp for the wives and children of men accused of betraying the Soviet state is now a memorial museum.

Local lore says this 700-year-old tree has sacred and medicinal properties.

A modern tower, symbolizing the legend of a golden egg on top of the tree of life.

In Kazakhstan, a colorful cathedral with many lives once survived the most powerful earthquake in the region.

Nicknamed Kazakhstan's Grand Canyon, this natural wonder lies east of Almaty near the Chinese border.

Mysterious spherical rocks in the semi-desert of western Kazakhstan.

The remains of a monument in the remote Kazakhstani desert dedicated to the only men to die in outer space, the crew of the Soyuz 11 rocket.

Iconic pyramid from famed British architect Norman Foster designed to represent all of the world's religious faiths.

World's oldest and largest space launch facility, once a secret missile testing site.

Rusting ships sit in a desert where a sea used to be.

Granny Smiths and Fujis can both be traced back to Kazakhstan, where apples still grow wild.

Submerged trees jut ghost-like out of an idyllic turquoise mountain lake.

A boiling wellspring flowing with natural gas burns in a continual blaze.

A shrine on the shores of the Tigris.

This beautiful arched gate is all that remains of the fortress the ancient mountaintop town of Amadiya once was.

9th century Abbasid mosque, damaged in modern warfare.

The sacred shrine of the Yazidis.

Celebrated as a center of civilization, the remains of the ancient city have been nearly destroyed by greed, egoism, and war.

Lived-in building, bedecked with an astonishing array of mirror mosaics.

Leaking natural gas never stops burning on this hill, making it an infinite inferno.

One of the world's largest shopping malls covers an area of 15 million square feet—and it's still set to grow.