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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Ancient Places

Ancient places can be found all over the world. Their fascinating histories and impressive artifacts open intriguing glimpses to times past, and visiting such ancient places in the world can be an unforgettable experience.

Science is constantly discovering new archaeological places and uncovering more evidence into what we once thought we knew about our history, therefore offering new pieces to the ever changing puzzle of humanity’s past and altering how we interpret it. This section will present the most interesting archaeological sites all over the world, as well as new discoveries of ancient places that are worth paying a visit.

The Waitomo Glowworm Cave, New Zealand

Living Lights: Majestic Glowworm Cave of Waitomo is Like a Starry Night

The Waitomo Glowworm Cave is a magnificent subterranean cave system in Waitomo, New Zealand, which as its name suggests, is renowned for its glowworm population. The glowworms, sometimes referred to...
reation of Adam and deluge

A Blessed Event - A Doomed People. Questioning the Creation of the World: Part II

The famously disastrous Genesis flood was merely a local flood, argue critics of the literal interpretation of the Bible. Fundamentalists contest that the flood was indeed global. What is the truth...
Creation of Adam and deluge

Beneath a Celestial Dome, A Land Unlike Any Other in the History of Earth. Questioning the Global Flood: Part I

Critics of the literal interpretation of the Bible have argued that the Genesis flood was a local flood. This interpretation has been vehemently opposed by Biblical literalists and fundamentalists,...
A depiction of a tree of life or axis mundi.

The Axis Mundi: Sacred Sites Where Heaven Meets Earth

What do Mount Fuji in Japanese culture, the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, Mecca in Islam, and the Black Hills for the Sioux all have in common? They are all examples of a belief in the axis...
Face of the coffin in which the mummy of Ramesses II was found. (Credit: Petra Lether, designed by Anand Balaji)

Living God in a Wooden Box: In Whose Coffin was Ramesses II Buried?

Usermaatre Setepenre Ramesses II, the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, was one of ancient Egypt’s longest-reigning monarchs. In an astonishing sixty-seven regnal years – the glory days of...
Caves of Loltun, Mexico

Loltun Cave Art and Precious Clues to the Lost Mayan Civilization

There is a kid’s poem written by Jean Marzollo that begins: “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” It goes on speak about the challenges and wonders of Columbus’s voyage to...
A woman sits in an underground hotel room in Coober Pedy

80 Percent of This Town in Australia Lives Underground!

In the remote South Australian desert, where temperatures are known to reach 125 °F / 51 °C in the shade, lies a town named Coober Pedy (literally ‘white man’s hole’), where residents have dug...
 Santu Antine.

Santu Antine, Sardinia: A Megalithic House Built for a King?

A mysterious civilization built megalithic structures across the island of Sardinia in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The buildings are now known as nuraghes – and the impressive nuraghe called Santu...
Three of the mummies Leymebamba at the museum.

Peruvian Necropolis Destroyed by Looters and Tourists is Preserved by Salvage Archaeology

The Laguna de los Condores (aptly known also as the Laguna de las Momias) is an archaeological site where a great number of mummies were found. This site is located in Leymebamba, in the northern...
The ruins of the Ma’rib Dam.

The Ma’rib Dam: An Engineering Wonder of the Ancient World… Torn Apart by Rats?

The Ma’rib Dam is an engineering marvel of the ancient world that is located in central Yemen. This dam is easily one of the finest examples of masonry architecture in the Arabian Peninsula. Local...
Aerial view of an ancient irrigation system discovered in the foothills of Xinjiang, China.

Did Ancient Irrigation Technology Travel Silk Road?

Using satellite imaging and drone reconnaissance, archaeologists from Washington University in St. Louis have discovered an ancient irrigation system that allowed a farming community in arid...
Aerial view of Nahualac lake when dry. Image: Arturo Cruz, Terrasat Cartografía.

Has a Millennium Old ‘Floating’ Replica of the Aztec Cosmos Been Found In Mexico?

Mexican archaeologists claim to have unearthed a stone sanctuary in a small lake on the side of a volcano east of Mexico City that may have been created as a miniature model of the universe. Stone "...
Externsteine, north-eastern face, across Wiembecke pond.

Worship? Meditation? Sacrifice? What Ancient Ritual Activities Were Held at the Externsteine Sacred Stone Formation?

Externsteine is an unusual sandstone rock formation near Ostwestfalen-Lippe in the northwest of Germany. It is unique among other monolithic sites in Europe because it is a natural formation that has...
Arge Bam, Bam, Iran.

Castle in the Sand: Arg-e Bam as a Pillar of Middle-Eastern Longevity

Iran’s Arg-e Bam, Bam Citadel, once stood as a pillar of longevity in the Middle East. Created upon the beginnings of the Achaemenid Empire (6th-4th centuries BC), and building on the commercial...
Tingis Gate, Volubilis.

Valuable Volubilis: The Best-Preserved Roman Ruins in Morocco

It was time for the harvest and the inhabitants of Volubilis were busy in their fields. This was the prime moment for a local tribe to attack the rich administrative center. As the Roman soldier saw...
Sogmatar temple ruins

The Celestial Temple of Sogmatar: A Sacred Site Dedicated to Sin and the Planets

Ancient Arab accounts tell of a mysterious temple in eastern Anatolia dedicated to the planets. The ruins surrounding the modern village of Sogmatar used to be an important city during the...
Artist's rendering of the hof, a pagan temple, in Uppsala, Sweden.

The Heathen Hof: Resurrecting a Germanic Pagan Temple

A heathen hof, also referred to as a Germanic pagan temple, is the name given to a place of worship in the Germanic religion. These were pre-Christian temples found in various parts of Northern...
Mural from a Pompeii brothel.

The Grim Reality of the Brothels of Pompeii

Like the anxious men who began excavations at Pompeii in the 18th century and discovered more about the ancient Italians than they had bargained for – such as phallic-shaped lamps – historians of sex...
 Illustration of the "Emmons mask", a Mississippian culture carved cedarwood human face shaped object once covered in copper and painted with galena and used as part of a headdress

Adena Axis Mundi & Large Skeletal Remains: Travelling to the Realm of the Dead at Grave Creek Mound - Part II

The large Grave Creek Mound proved to be an irresistible attraction to early antiquarians and curiosity seekers. In 1823, John Haywood mentioned the impressive mound: “of a conical form, 75 feet high...
Illustration of the "Emmons mask", a Mississippian culture carved cedarwood human face shaped object once covered in copper and painted with galena and used as part of a headdress

Adena Axis Mundi & Large Skeletal Remains: Archaeology of the Grave Creek Mound - Part I

The City of Moundsville is located along the Ohio River in Marshall County, West Virginia. From the time of European settlement in the 1770s, Moundsville was regarded by antiquarians as one of the...
Pictorial representation of Pyramid in Teuchitlán Guachimontones Museum.

Were Mexico’s Circular Pyramids Really Made for a Flying Ceremony?

Guachimontones (known alternatively as Huachimontones) is an archaeological site located in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. This is an important site of the Teuchitlan tradition, which was a...
A soldier from the game Numantia. Credit: RECO Technology

Remembering Numantia: Videogame Reminds Us of Brave Warriors and Their Blood on Roman Hands

The forgotten war between the Romans and the Celtiberians may not ring any bells with most people today, but many historians rank it as one of the most significant wars of the Roman era...
A diver explores the Baiae Underwater Archaeological Site

Hedonistic ‘Sunken City of the Caesars’ Recaptured By Divers After 1,700 Years

The sunken city of the Caesars that was lost for over seventeen centuries under the blue waters of Italy's west coast, has been uncovered in impressive new pictures taken by divers who were permitted...
Plate 1: Australian eastern seaboard (Google Earth), Statue of Garuda (Hyougushi / Hideyuki KAMON from National Museum in Delhi, India/CC BY-SA 2.0) and Tamil inscriptions, Tamil Nadu. (Shivz Photography/CC BY 2.0) Deriv.

History’s Lost Transoceanic Voyages: Tamils and Sumerians Among the FIRST to Reach Australia and Antarctica?— PART II

Regarding interesting inscriptions and shapes found by satellite archaeology, revealing what might be ancient human occupation on the continent of Antarctica, author William James Veall writes that...

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