Places Sputnicktatorship Wants to Go

The vertical-axis windmills of ancient Persia have been grinding flour for 1,000 years and counting.

This scenic fortress dates back at least 2,400 years to the time of Magna Graecia.

These magnificent city walls rise from the barren sun-baked Spanish plains like something straight out of a fairytale.

The world’s tallest outdoor lift stretches along the stone pillars that inspired the floating mountains in the movie “Avatar.”

This expansive bridge in the Canadian wilderness was originally just built for friends.

Wild lights and sound effects turn a walk through some caves into an eye-popping 1960s tourist attraction.

San Francisco Bay's ghost town.

A half-mile long and three stories high, this bridge over the Des Moines River Valley mimics a descent into a mine shaft.

The world's northernmost flowers cling tenuously to life on desolate Kaffeklubben Island.

Thanks to modern navigational tools we now know that the true prime meridian runs through a park next door.

A 90-year-old underground water reservoir offers a more industrial kind of tranquility.

This high point in the Great Smoky Mountains is said to be home to the chief of all bears.

Despite being one of the most photographed vistas in the Rockies these twin peaks are rightfully known as the "Deadly Bells."

Isolated atop this Balinese sea crag is a lovely Hindu temple that is said to be guarded by sea snakes.

The first park built over a freeway is a brutalist masterwork.

These towering spires and glowing walls are carefully crafted from hundreds of thousands of icicles.

Earth's tallest volcano is sacred to Native Hawaiians, and home to a dozen world-class observatories.

A gothic palace of endless stalagmites and pseudoscorpions waits within one of the world's most beautiful caves.

This salt marsh in Southern France is as pink as the flamingos that inhabit it.

Hundreds of drawings left by the land's previous inhabitants remain mysterious.

A magical sinkhole on the Yucatán Peninsula is adorned with mini waterfalls and hanging vines.

Dramatic sea stacks adorn the coast of this small village on the Adriatic coast.

There might not be much left of these Irish ruins, but their linguistic legacy is still going strong.

This massive geographical sculpture is so subtle, it's possible to pass by it without noticing.