Ancient world travel

Ancient world travel

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Mesmerizing Mycenae

Window into the ancient world.

About 1.5 hours outside Athens, Mycenae is one of the essential stops for any visitor to Greece with an interest in ancient history. Arriving here, you're awed not just by the site and the ruins, ...

Up a Mangrove Channel in Micronesia

A "Heart of Darkness"–like kayaking experience.

“Whenever you come to a fork in the channel, go left,” the owner of my hotel said as he prepared a kayak for me to paddle into the Mutunnenea Channel in northeastern Kosrae, Micronesia. “Eventually ...

Chichén Itzá: It's the End of the World as We Know It

(And I feel fine.)

December 21, 2012, marked the milestone of not just another candle on my birthday cake, but also the Apocalypse: when the Maya's "Long Count" calendar indicated the end of a 5,126-year era. Forget America’s “fiscal ...

Cambodia's Khmer Legacy

Beyond the tourist sites are Buddhist shrines hidden in the jungle.

The temples of Cambodia arguably stand alone as the finest blending of art and architecture in the world. Most people are aware of the monumental achievements in building championed by the Greeks, Egyptians and Mayans. ...

Guatemala: My First Trip Abroad

Tikal, Lake Atitlan, Antigua and Rio Hondo.

Have you ever eaten a marshmallow melted by a volcano? Well, I have. Let me tell you how this happened. I’m eleven years old and I just took my first trip overseas to Guatemala. I ...

Xi'ian's Silent Army

Once in a great while, the simplest of acts, even performed inadvertently, can have far-reaching effects. In Xi'an, China, there is a massive army that has stood in silent formation for more than two-and-a-half thousand ...

Gila, Geronimo and More in New Mexico

Visit for the Gila River Festival, 9/13-16.

Along the Gila River built into five interconnected caves high in a canyon wall, in the 2.7-million-acre Gila National Forest and Wilderness Area, is a 700-year-old Mogollon pueblo designated as the Gila Cliff Dwellings National ...

Ethiopian Time Travel

The Omo River empties into Lake Turkana, not far from where Ethiopia, South Sudan and Kenya come together. The river valley is difficult to reach; from Addis Ababa the road trip takes the better part ...

Xunantunich Ruins, Belize

Over the river and through the trees lie the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. First unearthed in British Honduras at the turn of the last century, this ancient archeological site is one of the finest in ...

Delphi, Greece: In Search of Sibyls

I have a confession: I’m crazed about the ancient fortune-telling sibyls. So crazed that I’ve raced through the Vatican to see Michelangelo’s depiction of the sibyls on the Sistine Chapel and I’ve even flown to ...

Montezuma's Castle, Arizona

The Grand Canyon may be a geographical marvel that brings the state of Arizona immediate recognition, but just a few hundred miles south of that natural wonder is the lesser-known yet equally impressive Montezuma’s Castle. ...