#11 Coolest Place - Registan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in the world and home to one the most amazing sites. Registan was built here about 600 years ago as a major stop on the Silk Route and was later the blueprint for the Taj Mahal. Samarkand is essentially a city of blue domed, mosaic-filled Taj Mahals. It has an exceptional culture, people and history - it is worth spending a week here and Bukara. Some of the the best carpets in the world are avaliable here.

We almost crossed the border to buy carpets in Afghanistan, but ran out of time, as we needed to fly out of the capital Tashent, to meet our girlfriends in Istanbul. It was very fortunate as that was the day the Taliban made it over the mountains, and killed several hundred people and virtually every westerner.

Ulug Beg was the ruler here in the 1400's and built this astronomical observatory in 1428. He was responsible for the most accurate star catalog of the time. The roof of the onservatory is painted with constellations (above).

The List - Top 45 Coolest Places in the World

#2 - Bayonne Temple in Angkor Wat, Siem Riep, Cambodia

After 70 countries, hundreds of sites and 12 years of traveling, here is the ranked list of our coolest places in the world.

1 The Country of Myanmar
2 Angkor Wat, Cambodia (photo above)
3 Rock Cut City of Petra, Jordan
4 Dinosaur Expeditions
5 Moai of Easter Island
6 Underground Cities of Cappadocia, Turkey

7 Sossusvlei and the Namib Desert, Namibia
8 Cure Salee Festival of the Wodaabe in InGall, Niger
9 Helicopter to Mount Everest
10 Djenne Mosque and the Dogon, Mali
11 Registan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan
12 Rock Cut Churches of Lalibela, Ethipoia
13 In the Amazon with the Shuar, Ecuador
14 Tsechu Parties of Bhutan
15 Wildebeest Migration, Tanzania
16 Burning Man Festival, USA
17 Buddhist Temples of Tibet
18 Sahara Desert
19 African Safari, Botswana and Tanzania
20 Temples of Luxor, Egypt
21 Cuba
22 India - Taj Mahal and Rajasthan
23 Voodoo in Haiti
24 Machu Picchu, Peru
25 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
26 Nepal
27 Borobodur and Prambanan Temples, Indonesia
28 Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina
29 Temple of Jupiter in Lebanon
30 Waking Up On Top of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
31 The Wild Wall, China
32 Morocco
33 Victoria Falls, Zambia and Zimbabwe
34 Fjords of Norway
35 Iguazu Falls, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay
36 Syria
37 Anasazi Cliff Dwellings, USA
38 Patagonia, Chile
39 Climb Cotopaxi, Ecuador
40 Terracotta Warriors of Xian, China
41 Grand Canyon, USA
42 Ephesus, Turkey
43 Moscow, Russia
44 IRA and Loyalist Graffiti in Northern Ireland
45 Alaska, USA

#6 - The Underground Cities of Cappadocia in Turkey, Held Up to 70,000 People

RANKINGS
So how did we rank them? We know we are biased and here’s what mattered:

• Novelty and surprise like Cappadocia and Easter Island.


• The combination of a stunning place and great history like Registan or Angkor Wat.


• Highly unique and very interesting cultures, like the Bhutanese, the Wodaabe and the Shuar Indians of the Amazon.


• Amazing visual beauty like Petra and Myanmar.


• Completely unique and "hard to get access to" situations like dinosaur hunting in Niger and dancing with a samba school in Carnival at the Sambadrome.


• We chose to rank many great natural areas like the Grand Canyon and Iguazu Falls much lower than great cultural and historical places.


• We strongly prefer places and cultures that are very different from the US and Europe.


• We are a generally underwhelmed by sites that are overpromoted and highly commercialized, like the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal, and rank them a lot lower than many people would.