This medieval manuscript collection has some of the most obscure and ancient texts in the world.

Giant stone letters dedicated to the founder of Armenia's alphabet.

This ancient monastery complex was transformed from an island to a peninsula when the lake was partially drained.

This Armenian monastery was carved out of cliffs and named after the spear used to stab Jesus.

The most visited pilgrimage site in Armenia once held a saint in a pit for 13 years.

A geological oddity topped with a 2,000-year-old pagan temple.

At this rare mosque in Tbilisi, Sunni and Shia Muslims pray side by side.

Monks in the empyreal Alazani River valley have preserved their 1,000-year-old winemaking tradition.

A museum glorifying the life of Stalin, located in the city of his birth.

This architecturally eclectic fortress witnessed centuries of bloody turmoil, including the massacre of its ruling clan.

A cluster of historic bathhouses built on the famed hot springs that gave the Georgian capital its name.

Unusual building appears to be haphazardly built from randomly piled bricks.

Take respite inside this jaw-dropping church while climbing the volcano where Georgia's Prometheus was once chained.

The charmingly disheveled clock tower of Tbilisi's puppet theater.

Ancient rock-hewn town that witnessed key events of Georgian history.

Underground monastery and fortress.

This effigy of Peter the Great is greatly disproportionate.

Thousands of biblical and pagan images are carved into this small 12th-century church.

Russia's own leaning tower was built on a tragic historical fable.

300-year-old villagers houses and traditional churches preserve a nearly lost piece of Russian history.

The mummified remains of Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, Russia's most important Buddhist.

This massive monument honors the first human in space.

This massive glowering Lenin head gazes out over eastern Siberia.

The Nazis lost more men trying to take this Russian-held Stalingrad apartment block than they did when taking Paris.