The fantastic charm of England's oldest botanical garden has made it a place of writerly inspiration for centuries.

Ancient Egyptian wigs, South American feather headdresses, a bounty of anthropological artifacts in Oxford.

An Oxford museum where visitors can have tea with the Mad Hatter and climb through the wardrobe to a fantasy land.

The names Lúthien and Beren can be found inscribed on the shared grave of the famous writer and his beloved wife and muse.

Hamburgers are intensely proud of their tunnel beneath the river.

Once the tallest building in the world, this abandoned church is now a monument to the destruction of WWII.

Located near Cairo's El Korba district, the abandoned mansion continues to inspire mystery and rumor throughout the city.

Standing atop 2nd-century Roman ruins, this church is one of the oldest and most iconic in Old Cairo.

These Egyptian statues have survived for 3,400 years and were an acoustic wonder of the ancient world.

The maze-like transportation hub contains abandoned areas, derelict stores, and a resident bat colony.

The only quarter of the Old City not dedicated to a major world religion.

A "miracle" that seems to produce more holy fistfights than holy revelations.

The home of the Dead Sea Scrolls is an abstract modernist dream.

This family tattoo parlor has been inking religious pilgrims in the Middle East for 700 years.

A stunning gilt bronze relief denounced by Hitler as "degenerate art"—even though it was dedicated to the Nazi leader.

The birthplace of American international flight service has been turned into a celebrity's microbrewery.

This Swedish astronomical clock was in storage for almost a century before its glorious workings were put on display once more.

Swedish skyscraper with a 90° twist.

This chimerical bridge/tunnel appears to dead end right into the sea.

A tilted half-timbered house from 1672 is built into a salvaged segment of a medieval wall.

Twelve sweet, nutty, life-sized statues are housed in this second-story shrine to almond paste.

Dancing skeletal figures pay homage to a medieval mural destroyed during World War II.

The bells remain in a shattered heap exactly as they fell when the church was bombed in World War II.

The small alleys in Lübeck's Old Town are a result of medieval urban sprawl.