STRUCTURES stuck together with stone, wood, metal and whoknowswhat.
Enver Hoxha's paranoid communist regime covered the Albanian countryside with nuclear bunkers. 1000s died in the construction.
The regime also built vast shelters for government members, to run the state for six months if need be.
Long before the communists, Greeks had built shops, theatre, basilica, homes and more at Butrint, now in Albania's south.
Yugoslavia built heaps of memorials called "spomenik" across the now defunct country.
Some where just massive, like Mitrovica, Kosovo's Miners' Memorial.
The Illinden Monument (to the 1903 uprising, Macedonia) were boundary-pushing architectural feats.
Others were just lame. Berane, Montenegro.
Kosovo's war of independence destroyed much of ancient Gjakova's bazaar, but it has been faitfully restored.
Kosovo's National Library, in the capital, Pristina, is brutalist architecture at its best.
99 domes cover the building, which was completed in 1982.
Various theories about its design exist. One says it was to symbolise peace between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
Residencies and cafes line the river through Prizren, Kosovo, a cool little town in Kosovo.
Prizren is packed with historic buildings, from mosques to cathedral and this hamam (public bath).
Plenty of Ottoman era buildings survive in the Macedonian capital, Skopje. Kursumli An was a caravan sarai.
Stari Bar is one of many ancient cities in Montenegro.
A familiar site to generations of Thais and backpackers, Bangkok's centrally located Hua Lamphong railway station is no longer in use. SAD!
The centre of Phuket Town contains many heritage buildings.
Phuket shares many similarities with Phuket, both being old Chinese trading ports.
Prachuap Khiri Khan has been largely spared the curse of developers afflicting most of southern Thailand.
Bamboo walls and more at a tea shop by the lake, Sangkhlaburi, Thailand.
Still home to a princess, this Hyderabad home is crumbling as the family can't maintain it. A common story.
A symbol of Hyderabad, Char Minar means "Four Pillars". The building itself is nothing special, but the area compelling.
The sparkling interior of Chowmahalla Palace, Hyderabdad.
The rear garden of Chowmahalla, which has a strange "no camera" policy. But mobiles are ok!
Entrance to the King's home, in Longwa, an ethnic Konyak town in India's Nagaland.
People wonder in and out of the house quite freely. The King and his wife paid us no attention when we visited.
One of South Korea's prettiest sights, the Donggung Palace lit up over Wolji Pond, Gyeongju.
The historic "Gaeksa" government building in Jeonju, South Korea.
Although lacking the fame and scale, the 1627 Ibrahim Roza Mausoleum in Bijapur, India, was the inpsiration for the Taj Mahal.
Another mausoleum in Bijapur, Gol Gombaz is from the same era, and has one of the highest domes in India.
The ancient monuments of Hampi are among the most famous in India, and the elephant stables one of the most elegant buildings there.
Looking out from the verandah of Mysore's Amba Vilas Palace, surprisingly the second most visited sight in India.
Commonly known as just Mysore Palace, it is one of many palaces in the historic city, and probably the most over-the-top of them all.
A sweeper is dwarfed by the arches of Madurai, India's Thirumalai Nayakkar Palace, built in 1636.
Sadly, no photos are allowed inside Azerbaijan's Palace of The Shaki Khans.
Also in Sheki, from the same era, the incorrectly named Winter Palace, ornate and small, but hardly worth the admission price.
The largest caravansarai in the Caucasus region, traders from far and wide stayed here in Sheki as they moved between Europe and the east.
Saudi Arabia's Jeddah has been trading with the world for millenia. One of the cities most (only?) interestin districts is Al Balad, where multi-storey buildings stand in various states of repair.
Taif, in the central west of Saudi Arabia remains the centre of the world's rose petal trade, supplying the world's perfumeries. In the 19th and 20th centuries, wealthy merchants built many fine mansions. Almost none are open to the public, due to neglect.
Is it technically a building? Carved from rock centuries ago by the Nabataeans, Qasr Al-Farid, aka "The Lonely Castle, stand apart from the other tombs, in the Saudi desert.