Places shadbolteben Wants to Go

Five ancient libraries, little changed for centuries, preserve a medieval archive of Quranic lore and civic documents

This overgrown mountain village has been abandoned for nearly a century.

This winding road through an Italian canyon may be the most scenic drive in the world.

According to the local folklore, the myriad colors of this lake are the result of a lovelorn wizard's blunder.

One of the most spectacular bridges in Spain spans a narrow chasm that divides the city of Ronda.

Mysterious Spanish catacombs of unknown origins.

Spanning the El Chorro gorge, this pathway used to be one of the most dangerous crossings in the world.

This once-grandiose behemoth of a monument from the socialist era now sits quiet and closed up.

An architectural marvel that spans the Arda River, and has stories of a haunted past.

The ceiling of Prohodna Cave in northern Bulgaria affords a peek at the sky via two deity-sized-eye-shaped holes.

The abandoned military base looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Hidden just under the waters around this Turkish island are the ruins of a once great city.

This churchyard arbor is surrounded by hundreds of gravestones placed there by author Thomas Hardy.

These fantastically named natural pools look like something out of a Scottish myth.

An abandoned desert hamlet swallowed up by sand.

An abandoned outdoor movie theater in the Sinai desert.

A harrowing trail up a mile-high mountain.

This village was once a thriving Soviet uranium mining center, but is now semi-abandoned and desolate.

This mysterious complex of abandoned yurts and fading murals was meant to be a center of science and spirituality in Kyrgyzstan.

Glacial lake that mysteriously empties itself every year.

Extremely isolated Silk Road caravanserai in the middle of nowhere.

Beautiful palace stands tall over the Fergana Valley.

Where Stoddart and Connolly suffered in the infamous Bug Pit.

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