Places stenaavel Wants to Go

This vast, water-filled underground labyrinth can only be toured by boat.

One of the world's largest salt caves is filled with fragile salt sculptures, salt rivers, and huge salt megadomes.

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

A sophisticated astronomical tower built by one of the greatest Persian scholars of the Islamic Golden Age.

A 1,500-year-old, 3-story subterranean city where ancient Persians took refuge in times of war.

Iran's colorful terraces are a rare geological masterpiece.

Ancient structures used to make and preserve ice in the deserts of Persia.

This beautiful system of tunnels built into natural rock serves as a centuries old plumbing system.

The history of Mar Behnam Monastery is that of violence, intolerance, resiliency, and spirituality.

A surreal monument depicting a five-armed giant supporting a toppling cylinder seal.

The legendary fortress of a female Kurdish warrior leader.

Qshla Koya is an Ottoman fortress located on a hillock in the central quarter of Koya.

This former monument to an invented Iraqi victory was turned into a military camp during the subsequent invasion.

A 2200 year old vessel may have been able to keep a charge.

A bloody history is captured in this former prison turned museum.

This ancient stone bridge is a hub for daredevils.

An ancient sanctuary that has long been a holy site for the Chaldean Christian Church.

This beautiful arched gate is all that remains of the fortress the ancient mountaintop town of Amadiya once was.

Ancient rock-cut tomb? Definitely. That of a great Median king? Unlikely.

An ancient fortified mound raised over the millennia from settlements built one on top of the other.

The sacred shrine of the Yazidis.

A giant bisected onion dome remembers the Iraqis who died in the Iran-Iraq War.

A shrine on the shores of the Tigris.

9th century Abbasid mosque, damaged in modern warfare.