The Motown Museum, the Henry Ford, Art Deco skyscrapers and a comeback story.
Graceland, Sun Studio where Elvis recorded, Beale Street blues and the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel.
Music City: the Grand Ole Opry, honky-tonks on Broadway and hot chicken.
The Alamo, four more Spanish missions and the River Walk below street level.
The live-music capital: SXSW, bats under the Congress bridge and breakfast tacos.
Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center and the most diverse food scene in the country.
The longest zipline in the world off Jebel Jais, mountains and quieter beaches than Dubai.
The Garden City oasis, camel market and Jebel Hafeet, the UAE's only UNESCO site.
The dhow-building yards, a lighthouse on the lagoon and the turtle beach at Ras al Jinz.
A round fort of 1668, the Friday goat market and the date-palm oasis at the foot of Jebel Akhdar.
Hegra, the Nabataean tombs of the southern Petra, and the Elephant Rock in a desert of sandstone.
The Prophet's Mosque with its green dome, the second holiest city of Islam.
The 6th-century mosaic map of the Holy Land on a church floor, and Mount Nebo next door.
A Crusader sea castle, a soap museum in an old khan and the vaulted souks of a Phoenician port.
The Phoenician city that invented purple dye, a Roman hippodrome and beaches on a peninsula.
Hot springs and the Sea of Galilee, 200 metres below sea level, with Capernaum along the shore.
A Crusader city under an Ottoman city: the Knights Halls, a Templar tunnel and hummus by the port.
The Basilica of the Annunciation, the largest church in the Middle East, and an Arab old-town market.
Coral reefs on the Red Sea, the Underwater Observatory and the desert of Timna, at Israel's southern tip.
The golden shrine of Imam Ali and Wadi al-Salam, the largest cemetery in the world.
The Venice of the East on the Shatt al-Arab, date palms and the gateway to the Mesopotamian marshes.
A bazaar city on the edge of the Lut desert, with the Ganjali Khan bathhouse and the Rayen citadel nearby.
The shrine of Imam Reza, the largest mosque complex in the world by area, and twenty million pilgrims a year.
Rosewater distilleries, the Fin garden and merchant houses with wind towers on the desert edge.
The largest covered bazaar in the world, a Blue Mosque and the carpet-weaving capital of Persia.
Alexander the Great's easternmost city, the Panjshanbe bazaar and the Syr Darya river.
A Russian wooden mosque built by Dungans, the Sunday animal market and treks to Altyn-Arashan hot springs.
The southern trading city, a Silk Road bazaar and the base for Aksu-Zhabagly nature reserve.
The mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, Timur's unfinished masterpiece and Kazakhstan's holiest site.
The Savitsky museum, a hidden collection of banned Soviet avant-garde art in the Karakalpak desert.
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