Focus on Archaeology

Sauntering down a street in Bogotá’s La Candelaria neighborhood.
A stroll through La Candelaria, one of Bogotá, Colombia’s, oldest neighborhoods
Sites along Hong Kong’s Ping Shan Heritage Trail
Visitors climb the grand staircase to the remaining façade of São Paulo Church —

For more than four-and-a-half centuries Macau has occupied a unique position both in its geographical location at the mouth of the Pearl River in the South China Sea and as a link between Europe and China.

Founded by Portuguese in 1557, Macau was the first European colony on Chinese territory. It served not only as Europe’s gateway into China but as China’s “window” on the outside world that it had often shunned in the past.

Mixture of two cultures...

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Bay of Bones archaeological site on Lake Ohrid, Macedonia

by Julie Skurdenis (part 3 of 3 on Balkans)

My husband, Paul, and I had visited Lake Ohrid on a trip to Albania in 2008. We loved what we saw then. Since Lake Ohrid is shared by both Albania and Macedonia, we decided we wanted to see the Macedonian side of the lake as well on our tour of Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro arranged by Bestway Tours & Safaris.

Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest lakes on Earth, together with Baikal in Russia and Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru...

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The Patriarchate of Peć — Kosovo.

by Julie Skurdenis (part 2 of 3 on the Balkans)

The small country of Kosovo, in Eastern Europe, has seen its share of turmoil in recent years, especially since the breakup of Yugoslavia that began in the 1990s.

When Serbia emerged from the old Yugoslavia (more accurately, it “reemerged,” since Serbia once existed as an independent kingdom in the Middle Ages), Kosovo was part of this “new” Serbia, a political fact that changed in February 2008 when...

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Five Roman sites in Serbia (1 of 3 on Balkan countries)

by Julie Skurdenis

Buenos Aires’ history stretches back almost 500 years. In 1536 King Carlos I of Spain sent Pedro de Mendoza to the Rio de la Plata in what is now northeastern Argentina to establish a fort. This fort was the first site of what eventually became Buenos Aires.

Forty-four years later, Juan de Garay “refounded” the city just a mile and a half from the original site, naming it Ciudad de la Santisima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa Maria de los Buenos...

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by Julie Skurdenis (Second of two parts)

I traveled with my husband, Paul, on a private tour of the three Caucasus countries of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia in May/June 2010. Last month I wrote about the top archaeological site visited in Azerbaijan and in Georgia and selected a handful of other highlights in each country as well. Armenia remains.

In Azerbaijan, the archaeological site selected was a mountainous area riddled with caves containing petroglyphs. In Georgia it...

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