When it comes to handsignals (and colonialism) rock always beats scissors.

The only Civil War battle in Washington D.C. took place near this highest natural point in the city.

An easily overlooked memorial to a Ukrainian famine-genocide that killed over 4 million people.

A gorgeous mural outside a beloved D.C. restaurant pays homage to famous Black Americans.

A museum cafe showcases Native American dishes and indigenous ingredients from across the Western Hemisphere.

Home to a vast and influential collection of Shakespeareana.

The most decorated dog of World War I is preserved in the Smithsonian.

A three-story tower of books about Abraham Lincoln is one of the more unusual monuments to the president.

A girls' boarding school inspired by the Chicago World's Fair, once abandoned, now restored to strange and scenic glory.

A tribute to the beloved, kind-hearted "homeless mayor" of Silver Spring.

Baltimore's classic clock tower was once topped by a rotating, 20-ton medicine bottle.

A fortified medieval basilica on the Caelian Hill preserves extraordinary frescoes and one of Rome's most beautiful hidden cloisters.

Ancient ruins hidden underneath a modern luxury hotel.

Architectureal fantasy quarter of Rome.

The best preserved Paleochristian basilica in Rome hides a number of oddities and secrets.

An alchemist's “magic door” stands in the middle of a Roman park.

Rome’s legendary peephole vista is also a former Crusader stronghold.

A small cell adjacent to this church was once the bedroom for a renowned saint.

Plaques on its facade commemorate the Tiber's most destructive deluges.

A statue representing a lost Roman profession that was vandalized for centuries.

A detailed pachyderm supports Rome's smallest Egyptian obelisk.

Brass cobblestones mark the places where individual Holocaust victims were taken from their homes.

The "Great Sewer" of ancient Rome is one of the oldest sewer systems in the world, and is still in use.

This ancient Roman arch misled treasure hunters for centuries.