Places Sputnicktatorship Wants to Go

Intensely colorful calcite pools in Southern China.

Despite time, colonization, and the brutal New Mexican heat, these Pueblo ruins still stand.

Starship-temple contains 400 tons of drinking water and offers free Japanese lessons.

This medieval Italian town is a sheer (and beautiful) cliffside defense.

This crumbling folly looks like an enchanted left over from Middle Earth.

Modern megaliths form this work of cosmic, Celtic landscape art.

Double spiral staircases are not unheard of, but they are very rare.

An earthwork sculpture built by Robert Smithson in the Great Salt Lake only reemerges during drought.

Conspiracy theories and occult legends surround this mysterious natural rock formation.

This eccentrically decorated palace is replete with grottoes, fountains, tunnels, and caves.

The world's longest tunnel with an undersea section.

Defying all odds, this lonely little tree found a home on a log sticking out of a Canadian lake.

The ruins of this medieval tower are destined to crumble into the sea.

Flames have been burning within this mountain for more than 2,500 years.

This popular cave pool is truly magical, despite the crowds.

Few other hotels can rival the grandeur of the Castle in the Rockies.

An incredibly durable timepiece glows beneath shoppers' feet.

Finland's northernmost zoo is home to the country's only polar bears.

A stick-sprouting statue watching a duo of disembodied dancing deities.

This cairn marks the only place where Central European Time, Eastern European Time, and Further-eastern European Time meet.

This honeycomb-textured tafone looks like a petrified troll head.

One of the world's most unusual events combines headbanging and needlework.

A rare octagonal brick beacon on an isolated island in the Baltic.

A small island dotted with old, historic Finnish buildings.