Compiled bykpo

The breathtaking city of Petra was a vibrant trading hub that vanished from most maps in the seventh century A.D.

It lay beneath a thousand years of dust and debris when, in 1812, a Swiss scholar disguised as a Bedouin trader identified the ruins as the

ancient Nabataean capital.

Spread throughout a series of remote desert canyons in southern Jordan, Petra arose more than 2,000 years ago at the crossroads of key

caravan trade routes between Arabia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.

The Nabataeans carved most of the sprawling city's buildings, including temples, tombs, and theaters, directly into the region's

towering red sandstone cliffs.

Here, a Bedouin walks his camel past Petra's most famous building, AlKhazneh, or the Treasury

The earliest Maya began to settle the dense rain forests of southwestern

Mexico and Guatemala some 3,000 years ago.

For nearly 1,400 years, settlements arose throughout the region, with some, like

Tikal and Palenque (shown here), expanding into large,

vibrant city-states.

Although the archaeological discovery of Machu Picchu came nearly a hundred years ago, historians

are still unsure of the function of thisancient Inca citadel.

The Inca had no system of writing and left no written records, and

archaeologists have been left to piece together bits of evidence as to why Machu Picchu was built,

what purpose it served, and why it was so quickly vacated.

Myth, folklore, mystery, and intrigue surround the ancient city of Troy like no other ruin on Earth.

Once thought to be purely imaginary, a prop in Homer's epic poem The Iliad,excavations in northwestern Turkey in 1871 eventually proved that the city indeed

existed.

In 1871, German adventurer Heinrich Schliemannbegan digging at Hisarlik, Turkey,

(shown here) in search of the fabled city.

His roughshod excavation wrought havoc on the site, but revealed nine ancient cities,

each built on top of the next and dating back some 5,000 years.

At the time, most archaeologists were skeptical that Troy was among the ruins, but evidence since the discovery suggests the Trojan capital indeed lies within

the site.

The Indus Valley civilization was entirely unknown

until 1921, when excavations in what would become Pakistan revealed the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro

(shown here).

This mysterious culture emerged nearly 4,500 yearsago and thrived for a thousand years,

profiting from the highly fertile lands of the Indus River floodplain and trade with the civilizations of

nearby Mesopotamia.

There is evidence that the ancient city of Palmyra, also known as Tadmor,

was in existence as far back as the 19th century B.C. Its importance grew around 300 B.C.

As trading caravans began using it as a way stationbetween Mesopotamia and Persia.

Palmyra's strategic location and prosperity attractedthe interest of the Romans,

Who took control of the city in the first century A.D.

The city of Tanis is relatively unknown among Egypt's wealth of historical sites,

though it yielded one of the greatest archeological troves ever found.

Once the capital of all Egypt, Tanis's royal tombs have yielded artifacts

on par with the treasures of Tutankhamun.

7.Once thought (erroneously) to be a city of the

biblicalQueen of Sheba, Great Zimbabwe

stands as the most important archaeological site yetfound in sub-Saharan Africa.

Though historians are still seeking answers about the

origin and purpose of the city,evidence suggests the Shona, ancestors of the

modern Bantu, built it beginning aroundA.D. 1250 and that it served as a spiritual center.

Nimrud in northern Iraq was once the capital of the Assyrian empire.Feared as

bloodthirsty and vicious, the Assyrians arose aroundthe 14th century B.C. And

dominated the Middle East for a thousand years.Nimrud and the Assyrian Empire declined rapidly

around 612 B.C., after Nimrud's sistercity, Nineveh, fell to the Babylonians.

The ancient city of Persepolis in modern-day Iran wasone of four capitals of the

sprawling Persian Empire. Built beginning around 520B.C., the city was a showcase for

the empire's staggering wealth, with grandarchitecture, extravagant works of silver and

gold, and extensive relief sculptures such as this oneportraying envoys with offerings for

the king.The height of Persian rule lasted from about 550 B.C.

Until 330 B.C., when Alexanderthe Great overthrew the ruling Archaemenid dynasty

and burned Persepolis to theGround.

Over centuries of study, archaeologists have

discovered many truths about the famedStonehenge monument in southern

England. Butdespite these advances, the basicquestions of who built this iconic

structure and whyhave remained unanswered.

More than 600 cliff dwellings made by the ancestral Pueblo people, also known as the Anasazi,

are scattered throughout Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado (shown here).

The Anasazi arrived in the region as early as A.D. 550,building their homes and cultivating crops on the soaring mesa tops.

Around

1150, though, they began to movetheir dwellings to the alcoves within the canyon walls.

Most houses were quite small, But a few reached enormous proportions, housing up 250

people.