Places Viator Wants to Go

This subterranean funicular is one of the world's smallest subways.

This "Jewish Sistine Chapel" was designed to reinvigorate Judaism's artistic legacy but was almost lost to misguided restoration.

A Biblically notable site over the ruins of an ancient city that is now a protected World Heritage site.

As the Dead Sea continues to deplete, massive sinkholes open along its banks.

This daunting 1st century fortress was purportedly the site of one of the most dramatic revolts of the Jewish-Roman wars.

The home of the Dead Sea Scrolls is an abstract modernist dream.

The bluer than blue waters in these natural Israeli caves are reached via the world's steepest cable car.

These numerous Israeli caves were dug out over hundreds years for reasons ranging from hideouts to burial sites.

Ancient rock-cut tomb? Definitely. That of a great Median king? Unlikely.

The surviving pieces of an ancient aqueduct that may have fed into the lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

An ancient sanctuary that has long been a holy site for the Chaldean Christian Church.

A boiling wellspring flowing with natural gas burns in a continual blaze.

This beautiful arched gate is all that remains of the fortress the ancient mountaintop town of Amadiya once was.

An ancient fortified mound raised over the millennia from settlements built one on top of the other.

9th century Abbasid mosque, damaged in modern warfare.

The sacred shrine of the Yazidis.

Celebrated as a center of civilization, the remains of the ancient city have been nearly destroyed by greed, egoism, and war.

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

Looking for a unifying history, Uzbekistan finds its answer in a 14th Century Turco-Mongol conqueror... despite the fact he wasn't Uzbek.

These "50 Fortresses" have been unearthed in the ancient oasis of Khwarezm.

Final palace complex of the last of 29 Kokand rulers.

Where Stoddart and Connolly suffered in the infamous Bug Pit.

An 18-meter-long sarcophagus of a constantly growing dead prophet.

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