This hunter-gatherer architecture is believed to be the oldest religious complex known.

Formerly known as the Malay Quarter, Bo Kaap is a colorfully-painted suburb located in the “Mother City” of South Africa.

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

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.

Where commuters walk through remnants of an ancient Greek necropolis.

This church houses the tomb—but not the remains—of St. Nicholas, the likely progenitor to Santa Claus.

For patriotic Russians, this memorial honoring the Soviet soldiers who died liberating Berlin in 1945 is the most sacred location outside of Russia.

One of the most exquisite Lycian hilltop citadels in Turkey.

A new sculpture calls attention to climate change in the centuries-old city it threatens.

The final resting place of the famous violinist, after his corpse was denied a proper Catholic burial for decades.

Hidden just under the waters around this Turkish island are the ruins of a once great city.

A Turkish ghost town abandoned in a population exchange with Greece.

These tombs were built into the side of a mountain so that ancient angels could reach the dead.

This grand manse has been transformed into a museum devoted to one of the founders of Fantastic Realism.

Its front wall is striped with a menagerie of fantastic beasts and magnificent monsters.

An ancient fortification lives on in this Chinese city.

The largest catacomb system in the world.

Featured in one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history.

This effigy of Peter the Great is greatly disproportionate.

Perhaps the tiniest sculpture in Saint Petersburg is a little bronze finch inspired by a song.

An ever-growing literary collection housed in the apartment where the Russian author penned his final novel.

One of the world's heaviest musical instruments towers within a popular urban park.

A monument to the three wars that led to German unification towers within a Berlin traffic circle.