Are museums, castles, cathedrals, and battle sites the first locations you read about after selecting a vacation destination? Here are three places you, as a history lover, should consider for your next trip—plus one more to dream about for the future. They’re so under the radar, there will be no lines and few other people jockeying for position. Yet.
Photo: David Stanley [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia CommonsMerv: Discover mudbrick fortresses, decorative mausoleums, dry moats, and crumbling walls where one of the greatest cities in the world once stood in Turkmenistan.
Photo: Tylda [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia CommonsÎles du Salut: Spend the night with sea turtles, capuchin monkeys, and possibly ghosts at a notorious island prison off the coast of French Guiana.
Photo: Arad Mojtahedi [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia CommonsIsfahan: Hope to eventually be able to visit the mosques, the gardens, the palaces, and the arched bridges in one of the great cities in the world.
![Photo: David Stanley [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://travelcravingsdotcom1.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/great_kyz_kala.jpg)
![Photo: NorthernLight at the German language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], from Wikimedia Commons](https://travelcravingsdotcom1.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/redbay-labrador.jpg)
