Once the site of a Native American harvest festival, this humble clearing later played an invaluable role in the birth of jazz.

This cathedral dedicated to Louis IX, sainted King of France, holds many secrets.

The oldest operational cathedral in the U.S. has one shell of a way of projecting speakers' voices.

The second oldest continuously operating bar in Louisiana.

This symbolic piece of New Orleans architecture is also home to a few ghastly stories.

This 19th-century sugarcane plantation is one of the most well-preserved estates of its kind, including its original quarters for enslaved laborers.

This Garden District mansion was built to be bigger and grander than its original owner's former partner turned rival.

A little piece of Paris in the sultry south of the U.S.

A house of courtship where the Jazz Age's most storied lovers got their start.

This historic "City of the Dead" lies prominently in the center of New Orleans' famous Garden District.

A typical "Old South" manor, once owned by author Anne Rice, served as the setting for several of her witchcraft sagas.

This unique shop is full of memento mori art, antique medical equipment, secret society paraphernalia, and historical relics.

The first plantation museum in the United States to focus on the lives of enslaved people.

This knobby, drooping New Orleans oak is a favorite place both for climbing and for meeting giraffes.

The restaurant keeps a hidden séance room on the second floor and reserves a table for the spirit of the former owner each night.

The stone labyrinth in this New Orleans city park was laid to symbolize healing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

This distinctive Crescent City tradition dates back to the days of horse-drawn carriages.

This sinkhole in the Arizona desert is filled with carbonated, arsenic-rich water

A planet-hunting astrograph built in the 1920s to seek out the so-called "Planet X" beyond Uranus.

Arizona's first government hub is a rustic cabin now preserved as part of a historical museum.

The "lost friend” is the most famous of the six moai statues that were removed from Easter Island.

These markers are used to determine the ground stability of the Strip.

One of the world's tallest Ferris wheels takes visitors high above Las Vegas in a spinning party room.

Formerly the world's largest, this Willy Wonka-esque contraption runs 24/7.