Casas Grandes, Mexico

CASAS GRANDES (Mexico)

Spanish for "Great Houses," this site (also called Paquimé) in Chihuahua was built after 1130, enlarged after 1350, and abandoned around 1450. It was linked to Mogollon culture sites in Arizona and New Mexico, USA. At its height it had about 2,000 adobe rooms, ballcourts, platforms, mounds, and a market area. About 350 smaller settlement sites have been found in the area.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Darien, Panama

DARIEN (Panama)

"Central America" is a region, not a continent. Darien, in Panama, is a natural bridge spanning North and South America. It lies up against the border of Colombia (which is in South America); the rest of Panama and all countries of Central America are actually in North America. Balboa crossed the Isthmus here to become the first European to view the eastern edge of the Pacific.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Al Zubarah, Qatar

AL ZUBARAH (Qatar)

Ruins are all that remain of this originally nearly-1,000-acre fortified city on the NW coast of Qatar. Founded in the first half of the 18th century by the founder of Bahrain's Al Khalifa royal family, it was once a center of global trade between the Strait of Hormuz and the western arm of the Persian Gulf. Today it is Qatar's most substantial archaeological site.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Dinosaur Provincial Park

DINOSAUR PROVINCIAL PARK (near Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

East of Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the Red Deer River valley, the Park has badlands and an abundance of dinosaur fossils--in fact, one of the richest deposits in the world. Fifty-eight dinosaur species and over 500 specimens of plants and fish, birds, reptiles, and other animals have been found here; they are exhibited in museums around the globe.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)