Formally known as the House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the monument at Buzludzha is like something out of a 1950s sci-fi movie. The saucer-shaped monument rises to a height of 107m, and was designed by the architect Georgi Stoilov. More than 60 Bulgarian artists collaborated on the design of murals for the site, and thousands of ‘volunteers’ were involved in the construction process, which took almost seven years to complete. In the 15 meter-high main hall of the memorial a 500 sq.m. fresco present portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and the Bulgarian communist leader Todor Zhivkov. The dome of the structure was covered with thirty tones of cooper. Two 12m stars of ruby glass was built-in on the top of the 70m high pylon of the monument that symbolizes a waving communist flag. The Soviet star which adorns the tower of Buzludzha was three times larger than that at the Kremlin. Built by the Bulgarian Communist regime in 1981, the 14,186,000 leva (£5.3million) Buzludzha Monument eventually became the headquarters for the Party. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the building fell into a state disrepair and the Bulgarian government has neither the funds to renovate or destroy the structure. It sits atop a 1441 metre peak in the Balkan mountains, surrounded by open space, hilly terrain and miles and miles of nothingness. Now the monument lies abandoned and ruined, its doors closed to the public.

credit: KamrenB Photography

Kilimanjaro is this the highest peak on the African continent. It is located in Northeast Tanzania, near the Kenya border. It is one of the world’s most accessible high summits for visitors around the world. Kilimanjaro is a volcano. Kilimanjaro consits of three distinct volcanic cones: Kibo 19,340 feet (5,895 meters), Mawenzi 16,896 feet (5,149 meters) and Shira 13,000 feet (3,962 meters). Kilimanjaro has 2.2 square kilometers of glacial ice and is losing it quickly due to global warming. Climbing Kilimanjaro is easy and requires no experience with climbing. You should only take care from improper acclimatization and altitude sickness.