Picnic on the seashore in the footsteps of ancient kings, protected by giant mythical cat beasts.

This enormous censer uses a pulley system installed over 400 years ago.

The clothes-washing king doubles as a community center with some unusual features, including an aviary filled with finches.

These chunky stone towers out in Lake Michigan are the key to Chicago’s drinking water.

Twice a year, this road is closed off to allow for the migration of thousands of snakes, reptiles and amphibians between cliffs and a swamp.

A 30-foot-tall goat tower in central Illinois is home to a herd of Swiss ungulates.

A hidden grotto on the grounds of the Kane County Government Center.

Man-made geyser that rises to the exact height of the Gateway Arch.

One of the last functioning antique elevators in Chicago.

In the Shawnee National Forest, amazing rock formations peer through the treeline.

The final resting place of the world's first nuclear reactor.

Once one of the world's great cities, Cahokia was a place of religious worship, trade and mass human sacrifice before being mysteriously abandoned.

What may be America's largest classic video game arcade lurks inconspicuously in a Chicago suburb.

This titanic Catholic church in Chicago is also a refuge of the fictional cult-favorite wizard detective Harry Dresden.

This surprising gem is a world-class archeological museum hidden at the University of Chicago.

A goddess-topped water fountain in Chicago was created thanks to the dreams of a thirsty newsboy.

A bloodstain from "the wound of the transverberation of the heart."

One of the largest pieces of scientific equipment ever carried on a NASA space shuttle sits in a Chicago alley.

The 30,000-volume library is one of the world's most impressive poetry collections.

One-of-a-kind preserved ruins of an abandoned 1880s church in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.

A strange and haunting monument of unknown origin in the historic Graceland Cemetery.

Home to a protest movement, a bombing, and a dramatic change in labor history.

This alley in downtown Chicago held the bodies of over 600 people after the fateful Iroquois Theatre fire.

The world's only known button museum.