This magnificent blue mosque in Afghanistan is surrounded by thousands of white doves.

Once an impressive link to Afghanistan’s Buddhist past, now a sad reminder of intolerance towards other cultures.

This monument honors the life of a long-suffering lion whose story captivated the world.

A mere stone's throw from Islamabad exists a spectacular display of three millennia of humanity's progress.

What was once supposed to be the symbol of a shining Afghan future is now a bombed-out ruin.

One of the last surviving ancient Buddhist sites in the region, it escaped the brunt of several Hun invasions thanks to its remote location.

Space-age minarets towering over Islamabad.

An otherwise ordinary park with a dark past.

A small United Arab Emirates territory within an Omani enclave within the United Arab Emirates.

No building in the world leans as far as the so-called “Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi.”

Built by George III to observe the transit of Venus, this Georgian gem is a unique survivor in the Arcadian landscape of Richmond upon Thames.

The controversial final resting place of the equally controversial first president of Turkmenistan.

An Art Nouveau gem hides beneath the layers of city grime obscuring this once-magnificent building.

A surprising and unconventional mosque hidden in the subsoil of Istanbul.

The legendary luxury train passage is commemorated with a charming museum inside its former eastern terminus.

Climb a steep hill in 90 seconds on the second-oldest urban subway in the world.

A gorgeous, Gaudí-esque stairway constructed in the city of Istanbul by a prominent Jewish family.

Taking the subway here means doing so over a bridge located in the middle of an estuary.

This harsh mountain path was built as a strange attempt to improve the health of Turkmen citizens.

A cemetery with goat-horn bedecked gravestones.

Sumptous memorial to a controversial independence.

A huge monument to a bizarre book written by Turkmenistan’s longstanding dictator.

A dictator's gold statue once rotated to face the sun on a 75-meter high marble tower.

Few people have ever heard of, let alone visited, one of Turkmenistan’s most impressive natural attractions.