Places vasconcelloscynthia Wants to Go

An unusual monument to a gentle giant who became a Kyrgyz hero.

These oldest of these "embroidered stones" were carved 4,000 years ago in a high mountain valley.

According to myth, there's a bloody explanation for the beautiful bright red color of this rock formation set amidst alpine vegetation.

Built entirely of interlocking pieces, construction of this Chinese Muslim house of worship required zero nails.

This mysterious complex of abandoned yurts and fading murals was meant to be a center of science and spirituality in Kyrgyzstan.

Lonely minaret stump of a destroyed city.

This village was once a thriving Soviet uranium mining center, but is now semi-abandoned and desolate.

On the shores of Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul Lake, a family cooks a feast that tells the sad tale of a people's exile.

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

Glacial lake that mysteriously empties itself every year.

A stunning blue-green lake located in the Terskey Alatau mountain range.

A boulder carved into the shape of the cosmonaut's head.

Time capsule of a museum, in which the Soviet Union remains alive and kicking.

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

Extremely isolated Silk Road caravanserai in the middle of nowhere.

World's oldest and largest space launch facility, once a secret missile testing site.

The lovely lake that was naturally dammed, then naturally destroyed, then unnaturally saved.

An abandoned Soviet-era mining town in the mountains of South Kazakhstan.

Nicknamed Kazakhstan's Grand Canyon, this natural wonder lies east of Almaty near the Chinese border.

A brilliant turquoise lake in the mountains.

Rusting ships sit in a desert where a sea used to be.

Granny Smiths and Fujis can both be traced back to Kazakhstan, where apples still grow wild.

Submerged trees jut ghost-like out of an idyllic turquoise mountain lake.

Legend says these stone structures are where the doomed citizens of a vanished village sent themselves to die.