In the heart of the France's Loire Valley, where fairytale châteaux sprout like flowers along the riverbanks, one castle stands out—not for its age or history alone, but for its sheer audacity. **Château de Chambord** is a glorious architectural riddle dressed as a royal hunting lodge, a place where spiral staircases lead to nowhere and towers rise like chess pieces on a limestone board.

Tucked into the far reaches of the Vermilion Cliffs wilderness, right on the border of Arizona and Utah, lies a place that looks more like a psychedelic dream than a piece of Earth. The Wave—a wind-sculpted swirl of technicolor sandstone in USA’s Coyote Buttes North—isn't just a geological formation. It's a pilgrimage site for the lucky few.