The abandoned military base looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The mile-long pier stretches from a ruined fortress out into the Baltic.

These enlarged egg sculptures represent the native birds of eastern Iceland.

A modern Nordic Pompeii on the Icelandic island of Heimaey.

Twisted girders are all that remain of an Icelandic bridge that was wiped out by a combination of volcanic heat and glacial floods.

The picturesque birthplace of Icelandic democracy is drenched in the blood of its brutal past.

Iceland's largest geothermal mud pool is a little bit haunted and a little bit dangerous.

This black church sits alone among a field of lava rock.

This stunning concert hall has become a symbol of Iceland's national recovery.

The summer tourists on these cliffs are thousands of seabirds.

The oldest hall in Iceland was written of in the Sagas and features a centuries-old escape tunnel.

This mountain fissure hides a secret path to a secluded mossy grotto within the rock itself.

A formerly glacier-tipped volcano that inspired none other than Jules Verne.

The largest whale museum in Europe allows visitors to walk among life-size giants.

This replica Viking village was created for a film that was never shot and is now open to visitors.

Three columns of volcanic rock shoot out of the ocean.

This wrecked airplane has been sitting on a black sand beach since the 1970s.

If a glacial river suddenly diving into a sheer chasm via a dramatic, multi-stage waterfall isn't peak Iceland, it's certainly close.

A winding, blood-red tunnel of hardened lava navigable by foot.

Iceland's "Smoky Valley" is a beautiful river that is shrouded in a constant cover of steam clouds.

An encyclopedic collection of mammal penises.

Walk in the footsteps of the gods and straddle two tectonic plates.

This eye-popping Icelandic crater lake is surrounded by red volcanic rock.

Iceland's largest lagoon is home to stunning multi-colored icebergs.