The golden Buddha statue at the Wat Muang Monastery is the tallest in Thailand, and the ninth-tallest in the world.

Thailand's distressed elephants find peace at this Chiang Mai sanctuary.

Modern design and unusual architecture make this mountaintop temple no ordinary Buddhist retreat.

This famous city eluded concrete detection until the early 2000's.

This remarkably well-preserved Egyptian plinth is pretty well traveled for a giant piece of stone.

The ornate miniature mansions were built for Istanbul's feathered residents.

A marvel of Byzantine engineering under the streets of Istanbul.

A king's pet, a pope's gift, an artist's inspiration, and a tragic shipwreck.

New Zealand's only running funicular railway.

Major tourist destination known for its bubbling mud-pools and hot thermal springs.

Dolphins, ancient clams and hundreds of waterfalls make this one of the world's top tourist destinations.

The fully functional, submerged Vanuatu Post Office is definitely one of a kind.

It took 28 years to build this massive statue of the Hindu god Vishnu riding a mythical bird.

This Balinese sea temple is thought to be guarded by the hundreds of monkeys that live around it.

Hindu temple of the dead home to hundreds of long-tailed macaques.

A gift from the Soviet Union in the 1980s, this is the only statue of the Soviet dictator in Southeast Asia.

Ho Chi Minh's perfectly preserved body has been on display here since 1975.

Monument to a brutal, ineffectual US bombing campaign and a sobering reminder of the human cost of the Vietnam War.

The spot where the two men ate together now stands enclosed in glass.

Twice a day a speeding train passes only inches from the homes of this residential neighborhood.

Meant to be a lavish presidential home, the palace became a symbol of the fall of South Vietnam.

A nightmare for the claustrophobic lies hidden in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam's largest Buddha statue depicts a female sage.

This spectacular bridge supported by two gigantic hands looks like something out of a fantasy universe.