Off the shore of the tiny island of Pohnpei, in the middle of the western Pacific Ocean, lies one of the most extraordinary and least-known ancient cities on earth. Nan

Across the Tigris from the modern city of Mosul lie the ruins of Nineveh, once the greatest city on earth and the capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire. For a

In a peaceful green valley in the western Peloponnese of Greece lies Olympia, the sanctuary where, for over a thousand years, the greatest athletic festival of the ancient world was

Where the flat plains of the Gulf coast meet the first forested hills of Chiapas in southern Mexico, the Maya city of Palenque nestles against a green mountainside, its white

In the middle of the Syrian desert, far from any coast, a forest of stone columns rises from the sand. This is Palmyra, an ancient caravan city that grew fabulously

On a high plain in southern Iran stands a simple, dignified stone tomb, its stepped base rising to a small gabled chamber. This is the tomb of Cyrus the Great,

Crowning a steep hill above the town of Bergama in western Turkey, the ancient city of Pergamon was one of the most brilliant capitals of the Greek world. From this

On a great stone terrace in the highlands of southern Iran stand the ruins of Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the mighty Persian Empire. Its soaring columns, monumental gateways and

Hidden among the desert mountains of southern Jordan lies a city carved not from blocks of stone but into the living rock itself. Petra, the ancient capital of the Nabataeans,

On an island in the Nile near Aswan stands one of the most romantic of all Egyptian temples: Philae, the sanctuary of the goddess Isis. Rising straight from the water,