ruins

Dubbed the "Pompeii of the East," Jerash is a ruined Greco-Roman city 80 miles north of Amman. The impressive ruins include Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and ancient Islamic structures.

Perched atop a hill with a sheer drop on three sides, the town of Kerak is dominated by the largest and best-preserved of the Crusader castles in the region.

This important archaeological site was declared a World Heritage Site in 2004. Its structures date from the 3rd to 9th centuries and most have not yet been excavated, but magnificent Byzantine mosaics

The Ellora Caves are a magnificent complex of 34 Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples extending over more than 2 kilometers in central India.

The oldest monument in Marrakesh (c. 1100) and the only Almoravid building remaining in Morocco, this attractive domed structure was highly influential on Moroccan architecture.

Palmyra was once a great and powerful Roman city, as its impressive ruins attest. Substantial ruins of temples to Bel and Baal can be seen here, as well as towers tombs and a castle.

The ruins of St. Augustine's Abbey on the outskirts of Canterbury include the grave of the saint and a substantial crypt. The visitor center displays Early Christian artifacts found at the site.

Located near Avebury, this is the largest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe. It was created around 2660 BC and stands 130 feet high. Its purpose remains mysterious.

One wall is all that remains of the New Minster founded by St Aethelflaed in 900, which contained the holy relics of St Oswald of Northumbria. It became an Augustinian priory in 1152.

Byland Abbey is one of the three great Cistercian monasteries of North Yorkshire, with Fountains and Rievaulx. Although the community had a rocky start, its abbey church was once the largest in England.

The picturesque wreck of the steel barque Peter Iredale, which ran aground in 1906 en route to the Columbia River, can be seen up close on the beach in Warrenton, Oregon.

Built by Lord William Lovell in the 1440s, Minster Lovell Hall now stands in picturesque ruins between the parish church and a quiet river.