Visit a Crumbling, Soviet-Era Floating 'Oil City'

Sail out into the western Caspian Sea and you'll soon encounter an incredible sight: spires of steel rising from the waves, connected with miles of decrepit pipes and wooden bridges. This is Neft Dashlari, an inhabited, Soviet-era structure that's said to be the "largest and oldest offshore oil city in the world." It remains a productive source of petroleum to this day, as well as a token of interest to esoteric-architecture fans or parents wanting to punish bad children with the worst theme-park vacation ever.

The crusty mega-platform, whose name translates to Oil Rocks or Oily Rock, stands roughly 40 miles east of Baku, Azerbaijan, on pillars mounted on the carcasses of sunken ships (including history's first oil tanker, the Swedish-built Zoraster). The Soviets built it in 1949 after engineers struck black gold thousands of feet beneath the Caspian's floor (Joseph Stalin came to rely heavily on the Caspian's energy resources during during World War II).