Places Edited by Sommer Mathis

This picturesque lighthouse at the edge of the Irish Sea looks like a giant stone pencil.

A deserted island in southwest Japan that once sheltered persecuted Christians.

Thousands of artifacts tell Mongolia's military history, from the Bronze Age to the present.

This bright yellow bridge is a true engineering feat.

A crumbling mountain resort that looks like it was abandoned in an instant.

Play everything you see at a museum dedicated to a town's historic organ industry.

A forsaken wonder in the middle of the East Side neighborhood.

Three floors above a 2,000-year-old royal tomb is a rare collection of ancient porcelain pillows.

The colonial city's social history is reflected in its fanciful door knockers.

A lonely medieval monastery on an uninhabited island.

CERN's beautiful, bending sculpture is a tribute to the spread of knowledge.

Two massive and unstable sinkholes are yearning to unite, and their consummation could be catastrophic.

The ornate miniature mansions were built for Istanbul's feathered residents.

Every May, townspeople welcome summer with a bizarre pagan parade led by a man wrapped in garlands.

A mine fire has been burning under the deserted town since 1962, but this church is still going strong.

Reproductions of nine banned oil paintings coyly hidden behind a curtain in a New Mexico conference room.

The world’s largest Masonic temple was saved by the White Stripes.

The beloved fantasy novelist is buried near a church containing a whimsical etched glass window full of Narnia favorites.

The Bourbon royal family had this unique octagonal hunting "cottage" built on a tiny islet in Lake Fusaro.

The behemoth beasts engaged in an epic battle is the second-tallest statue in the contiguous United States.

Stretching almost 2,000 feet, this painting is one of the longest pieces of Buddhist artwork in the world.

The randomness of this wall of lava lamps helps encrypt up to 10 percent of the internet.

During the summer, surfers in Alaska take advantage of this inlet’s unusual water patterns.

Turn around and stick your head between your legs for the best view of this tree-covered sandbar.