Carved wooden houses of the Siberian merchants and Decembrist exiles, an hour from Lake Baikal.
The end of the Trans-Siberian, a hilly Pacific port with cable-stayed bridges and Korean-Russian food.
Subtropical Black Sea beaches and the 2014 Winter Olympics venues in the Caucasus above.
The Church on the Blood where the Romanovs died, on the border of Europe and Asia in the Urals.
The Kul Sharif mosque inside a Kremlin, the capital of Tatarstan where minarets and domes share a skyline.
The Khan's Palace of stained glass without a single nail, a Silk Road caravanserai and halva.
Armenia's 'little Switzerland': forests, the Haghartsin monastery and Soviet-era spa villas.
The 'city of love' on a hill above the Alazani valley, inside 18th-century walls in the Kakheti wine region.
Medieval defence towers in the high Svaneti valleys, the base for treks to Ushguli and glaciers.
The Bagrati cathedral, Gelati monastery and the Prometheus cave, in the capital of ancient Colchis.
The pool of sacred carp where Abraham was thrown into the fire, and Gobekli Tepe, the oldest temple on Earth, nearby.
Honey-coloured stone houses stepping down a hill above the Mesopotamian plain, with Syriac monasteries.
Lycian rock tombs above the harbour, the Blue Lagoon at Oludeniz and paragliding off Babadag.
The pistachio and baklava capital of Turkey and the Zeugma museum of Roman mosaics.
Rumi's tomb and the whirling dervishes, the Seljuk capital in the middle of Anatolia.
The Black Sea port of the Byzantine Comnenes, the Hagia Sophia of Trabzon and the Sumela monastery on a cliff.
The first Ottoman capital under Mount Uludag: the Green Mosque, the silk bazaar and Iskender kebab.
Ali Pasha's lakeside castle, a monastery island and silversmiths, at the foot of the Pindus mountains.
Venetian, French and British layers in one UNESCO old town, with cricket on the Spianada.
Crete's Venetian harbour with an Egyptian lighthouse, a covered market and the Samaria Gorge nearby.
The first capital of modern Greece: Venetian fortresses, a Bourtzi island castle and neoclassical lanes.
Nissi beach and the sea caves by day, the clubbing capital of the eastern Mediterranean by night.
Roman mosaics, the Tombs of the Kings and the rock where Aphrodite came ashore.
The ruined Art Nouveau casino on the Black Sea, a Roman mosaic and the beach resort of Mamaia.
Moldavia's old capital: the Palace of Culture, the Three Hierarchs church carved like lace and the oldest university in Romania.
Where the 1989 revolution began; Secession squares and the first European city lit by electric street lamps.
The birthplace of Vlad the Impaler inside the best-preserved inhabited medieval citadel in Europe.
Houses with eyes in the roofs, the Bridge of Lies and a Saxon centre that was Capital of Culture in 2007.
A Saxon walled town under Mount Tampa, the Black Church and Bran castle down the road.
Slovenia's only port, a Venetian old town around Tito square on what was once an island.
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