One of the most easily accessible examples of the rare 1960s UFO houses.

Swarovski's museum/theme park is a fake diamond fantasia overlooked by a giant.

Visitors dip into a variety of pools of what was once ice.

These historic defenses ensured the city within would survive hundreds of years of occupations, sieges, and invasions.

This architecturally eclectic fortress witnessed centuries of bloody turmoil, including the massacre of its ruling clan.

A cylinder monument with a spectacular vista commemorates a friendship that some say never existed.

Take respite inside this jaw-dropping church while climbing the volcano where Georgia's Prometheus was once chained.

A small but hugely whimsical theater where marionettes play out the "The Battle of Stalingrad."

The charmingly disheveled clock tower of Tbilisi's puppet theater.

A cluster of historic bathhouses built on the famed hot springs that gave the Georgian capital its name.

This ancient Silk Road outpost overlooking the Wakhan Valley is miraculously still standing.

Beatlemania is still going strong... at least in Kazakhstan.

This Soviet statue is based on a piece of propaganda that's been elevated to national myth.

In Kazakhstan, a colorful cathedral with many lives once survived the most powerful earthquake in the region.

The world's second-tallest flagpole stands proud despite dropping rank.

This dark, damp, perilous tunnel is the only passage from north to south Tajikistan.

An outstanding piece of retro Sci-Fi architecture built into a sacred mountain.

Dedicated to a Bolshevik revolutionary, this museum is a true time capsule of the Soviet era.

This retro, UFO-like structure is a remnant of the Soviet-era circus.

Witness traditional silk production in the Uzbek city that's been a hub of sericulture for over a thousand years.

Ancient barriers wrap around what was once an important stop along the Silk Road.

This "tower of death" has acted as an observatory, a religious hub, and an executioner's lair.

The Avenue of Mausolea is a series of grand palatial tombs.

Light still pours into the ruins of this ancient Islamic observatory.