Centuries-old Persian tile work decorating the Blue Mosque in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif

Etchmiadzin Cathedral; the oldest cathedral in the world's oldest predominantly Christian nation

Old meets new in this photo of the 15th century Shirvanshah Palace in front of the modern Flame Towers in Baku

The skyline of Manama, the capital of Bahrain

The ancient ruins of Somapura Mahavihara, among the best-known Buddhist monasteries on the Indian subcontinent

The Tiger's Nest, a Buddhist monastery set within the cliffs of the Paro Valley

The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, widely considered one of the most beautiful mosques in Asia, at night

Angkor Wat, a Hindu temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world

The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity in the Qing Dynasty-era Summer Palace on the outskirts of Beijing

The Ganesh Gate entrance to the hilltop Amer Fort in Jaipur, Rajasthan

Prambanan, a group of Hindu temples near Yogyakarta on the island of Java

Interior of the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, built in Isfahan during the rule of the Safavid Dynasty

The restored façade of the Ziggurat of Ur, a Mesopotamian temple thought to date back to the 21st century BCE

View of the surrounding landscape from the plateau of the Masada, an ancient fortification built in the Negev Desert

Himeji Castle, a feudal-era fortification built atop a hill near Kobe

A mountain in the Wadi Rum, a valley cut into sandstone and granite rock in southwestern Jordan

The Baiterek Tower, an example of the master-planned, modern architecture characteristic of Astana

Heaven Lake, situated in the summit caldera of Paektu Mountain in the Changbai Mountains

A green tea field in Boseong County in the South Jeolla Province

The Kuwait Towers holding freshwater as they hang over the Kuwait City seashore on the Persian Gulf’s northern end

A hilly landscape on the outskirts of Osh, the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan

Golden decorations adorning the outer walls of the Xieng Thong Buddhist temple in Luang Prabang

The Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek, one of the most well-preserved Roman temple ruins

The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, formerly the tallest buildings in the world

A beach on Bathala, a small island in the Ari Atoll

Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, located just outside of Ulaanbaatar, is home to a Buddhist monastery, hot springs, rock formations, and a lot of mountains

Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda, a sacred site believed to contain several Buddhist relics

Boudhanath, a stupa in the Kathmandu Valley famed for its motif of the Eyes of Buddha

The Wadi Shab, a gorge in the Ash Sharqiyah Region in northeastern Oman

The entrance to the Lahore Fort, a citadel built during the Mughal era

The shoreline at the port of Gaza City on the Levantine Sea

The Chocolate Hills on the island of Bohol, which turn brown during the dry season

The hazy skyline of Doha, one of the most distinct cities in the world, with its many unique skyscrapers such as the Burj Doha.

The sun setting on the Rub' al Khali, the largest uninterrupted sand desert in the world

Gardens by the Bay, a futuristic urban park in front of the Marina Bay Sands resort

Lush jungles of Horton Plains National Park, as seen from the 4,000 feet (1200 m) drop of the World's End cliff

The treasury of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world

The sun sets over Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, with the Taipei 101 towering over the city

A vista of the Pamir Mountains, nicknamed the "Roof of the World" due to their immense height

The Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary, located in the Thanon Thong Chai Range in northern Thailand

A beach near Adara, a town on Atauro Island, created by the erosion of submarine volcanoes

The terraced limestone hot springs of Pamukkale in the hilled reaches of the southwestern Büyük Menderes River valley

The Darvaza Crater, a reserve of natural gas in the Karakum Desert that was accidentally incinerated in the 1980s and has been burning ever since

The skyline of Dubai, crowned by Earth’s tallest building: the flower-shaped Burj Khalifa

The Kalân Mosque in Bukhara, a historic Silk Road city home to 140 architectural monuments

The limestone islets of Hạ Long Bay jutting out of the Gulf of Tonkin

The 16th-century skyscrapers of Shibam, a city in the valleys of the Hadhramaut region