An illegally built ramshackle mansion tucked in the middle of Brooklyn is now being turned into condominiums.

This tiny church near Sleepy Hollow contains Henri Matisse's last work, a rose window, and nine windows by Marc Chagall.

The centuries-old trees are draped with Spanish moss to make them look like wizened elders.

A striking 500-year-old mansion provides an unexpectedly sublime home for live deer and a menagerie of exotic stuffed animals.

The enormous 250-room Vanderbilt mansion conceals hidden doors and secret passageways.

One of the only single-person private gravesites in New York City.

The wooden octagon in which Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee were born can still be visited in upstate New York.

The largest Buddha statue in the Western Hemisphere is just 50 miles north of NYC.

The shared home of a utopian commune that practiced "free love" a century before the hippies.

Walking around West Harlem reveals a scavenger hunt of beautiful bird murals.

This hilltop warren of monastic dwellings is the result of centuries worth of Mongol attacks.

A collaborative art project that transformed a neighborhood in NYC's Queens.

The mysterious image is believed to show Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon, in a beautiful blue dress.

No telescopes, no power, no gift shop: The Observatory of Chichen Itza, one of the world's oldest observatories, takes astronomy back to basics.

High atop a Mexican rainforest mountain, this ancient pyramid once drew pilgrims countries away.

Eternal flame said to be a Hindu Goddesses fiery tounge.

A palatial sculpture park was built illegally and in secret by a self-taught artist over 36 years.

Obscure and obsolete publications are given new life as works of art.

Where the four original members of the Ramones hung out and revolutionized punk rock.

This Dutch Colonial home is the oldest remaining farmhouse in Manhattan.

A mysterious statue of a leather jacket-clad rebel leans coolly on an odd yellow clock.

Underwater art project will double as a massive artificial coral reef to help regenerate the damaged ecosystem.

An Aztec temple, the largest man-made pyramid in the world, sits buried in earth with a Spanish church set on top.

What was once a trend-setting, phrase-coining icon of architectural splendor is now a rotting, forgotten hulk.