The world's first museum dedicated to the work of game-changing naturalist Charles Darwin.

A dormant lightning machine equal to all the power in Russia.

The deepest hole drilled in the name of science, where evidence of Precambrian life was found.

The coldest city in the world.

Hidden in a metro shop under a shopping mall, this small museum tells the story of one of the world's largest urban transit systems.

Dark, eerie exhibits make for a surreal exploration of the subconscious.

Siberian ghost town built by gulag prisoners.

This frozen-in-time summer home outside Moscow provides a look at Russian life in the 1950s.

A small part of Russia that does not touch any other part of Russia.

A Marxist summer camp full of fantastical statues lies tucked away and forgotten in the forests of Moscow.

Abandoned castle was once a grand example of Russian privilege, built exclusively to win a frivolous bet between noblemen.

Some of the world's only freshwater seals live in one very special lake in Russia.

A remote forest of stone pillars along the Lena river.

An early-20th-century "dacha" village of quaint cottages curiously located in a modern part of Moscow.

Once frequented by heavyweights of the Russian arts scene, this café is stuck in the 1800s.

Moscow's most popular cemetery includes the graves of numerous cosmonauts.

A 250-year-old timepiece-automaton adorned with golden mechanical birds, which still sing to this day.

Secret Soviet city once home to Russian cosmonauts and space training facilities.

Former headquarters of the KGB.

The villagers of the coldest inhabited place on Earth adjust to unique challenges presented by day-to-day living.

A sculpture park of the tossed aside relics of the USSR, from Stalin to a massive Soviet emblem.

The reason for the strange contortions in the trunks of these "drunken" pine trees in Russia is still a mystery.

Nightmarish example of the unintended consequences of weapons testing.

Thanks to a spelling mistake this bizarre beaver-tiger hybrid became the symbol of a Siberian town.