Susa, Iran

SUSA (Iran)

Susa was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about 160 miles east of the Tigris River in Iran. It was one of the Ancient Near East's most important cities, the capital of Elam and the Achaemenid Empire. Famous as the site of the story of King Ahasuerus and Esther in the Bible, today it consists of three archaeological mounds covering about 4/10 of a square mile.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Medieval Samarra, Iraq

MEDIEVAL SAMARRA (Iraq)

In 836 the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 and 1261-1517) moved its capital to a 26-mile stretch of the Tigris River, about 80 miles north of the then-capital of Baghdad. The capital returned to Baghdad in 892; lavish palace complexes and the Great Mosque with its spiral minaret were largely abandoned starting in 940, leaving prime pickings for modern archaeologists.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

The Great Pyramid

THE GREAT PYRAMID (Giza, Egypt)

On a plateau outside of Cairo, Egypt, the Great Pyramid stands surrounded by other pyramids, temples, tombs, cemeteries, and the mysterious Great Sphinx. The only survivor of the Ancient World's Seven Wonders, it dates to the mid-third millennium BCE and stands over 450 feet high. The chambers inside once held tombs... and treasures!

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Petra

PETRA (Jordan)

Lying in a desert valley that runs to the Dead Sea, the one-time trading hub at Petra was occupied for centuries, but the most striking buildings date only to the 1st century CE, when it boasted 20,000 inhabitants. Abandoned over time, it was brought to world attention in 1812, and today is Jordan's most-visited tourist attraction.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Whale Valley

WHALE VALLEY (Wadi Al-Hitan, Egypt)

The dramatic landscape of Wadi Al-Hitan in Egypt's Western Desert is known as "Whale Valley" for its fossil evidence of the evolution of whales from land-based to ocean-going mammals. The many high-quality fossils allow paleontologists to observe transitional fossils of archaeocetes (the now-extinct "ancient whales") in the process of losing their hind legs.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)