Tunisia: Phoenicians to Romans, Mosaics to Mosques
2024-04-11 - 2024-04-23
Travel and learn with Archaeologist Dr. Nejib Ben Lazreg as you explore mosaics and mosques along with many other exciting sites and enjoy the fascinating culture that Tunisia has to offer.
Highlights Include:
• Visit all seven of Tunisia’s cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
• Explore fabled Carthage, including the Antonine Baths and the cisterns.
• Spend three full days in and around Tunis, including a visit to the Bardo Museum (pending its re-opening), featuring exquisite exhibits of Roman and Byzantine mosaics.
• See the beautiful Cape Bon coast and the Punic site of Kerkouane.
• Marvel at Bulla Regia, a well-preserved site featuring underground Roman villas, a museum, a Temple of Apollo, and a 2nd-century theater.
• Tour Dougga, established prior to the Romans, with its 3,500 seat theater; Temples of Saturn, Augustan Piety, and Mercury; and Capitol.
• Discover Kairouan, the fourth holiest city in the Muslim world, founded in A.D. 670, with its carpet, leather, brass, and spice vendors; and its Great Mosque with a three-tiered minaret.
• Visit El Djem, one of Tunisia’s most extraordinary sites, with a marvelous, 30,000-seat, ancient amphitheater and a museum that houses lovely mosaics.
• Visit the Roman city of Sbeitla (Sufetula), one of North Africa’s best-preserved Roman cities, including several stunning 2nd-century A.D. temples and mosaic-covered Byzantine baptisteries.
• Wander through Thuburbo Majus, a sprawling site occupied in turn by Berbers, Phoenicians, and Romans. The imperial remains include the Forum, Temple of Mercury, and sunken winter baths.

Türkiye: Ancient Splendors
2024-04-14 - 2024-04-27
Many of the most magnificent and best-preserved ancient Greek and Roman sites are found along Türkiye’s beautiful Aegean and Mediterranean coasts. Visit world-famous, plus little-visited yet spectacular, Greco-Roman sites, Byzantine churches, Crusader castles, and Ottoman palaces. Your engaging AIA lecturer/host, Yaşar Ersoy, teaches classical art and archaeology and has been doing fieldwork in Türkiye since 1980. Throughout the program he will offer illustrated talks and informal discussions about the sites you are visiting and their places within the larger ancient Mediterranean world. Along the way, you will enjoy delicious cuisine, comfortable accommodations, and the company of a small group of like-minded fellow travelers. An expert tour manager/local guide will handle logistics and smooth the way.
Highlights:
•Visit three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Historic Areas of Istanbul, including the 6th-century Byzantine church-turned-mosque of Hagia Sophia; Topkapi Palace, the imperial residence of the Ottoman sultans; and the 17th-century Blue Mosque, with thousands of dazzling Iznik tiles; Ephesus, the best-preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean, whose treasures include ancient villas with splendid frescoes and mosaics, and the 2nd-century A.D. Library of Celsus; Aphrodisias, whose Temple of Aphrodite, tetrapylon, and baths of Hadrian are unforgettable.
•Marvel at a variety of Greco-Roman sites, including: Didyma’s 7th-century B.C. Temple of Apollo, one of the leading oracles in the ancient world; and the 4th-century B.C. Temple of Athena at Priene, which became the classical model of Greek city planning;
Kibyra, with its magnificent stadium, odeon covered with a Medusa mosaic, late Roman bath, and underground tombs; Sagalassos, a rarely visited and recently excavated site at an elevation of 5,000 feet, with breathtaking views; Aspendos, with one of the best-preserved ancient theaters in the world, renowned for its acoustics; and Perge, with its splendid theater, stadium, and enormous Hellenistic and Roman gates.
•Explore spectacular museum collections, including Istanbul’s Archaeological Museum and Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art; Bodrum’s Underwater Archaeology Museum; and the Antalya Archaeological Museum.
•An optional extension to central Türkiye is also available, including three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia, Hattusha: the Hittite Capital, and the Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük; Ankara, with its superb Museum of Anatolian Civilizations; and Konya, the famous center of Sufi mystic Rumi and his followers.

Decorated Caves of the Pyrenees & the Rhone Valley
2024-04-18 - 2024-04-29
Discover a collection of magnificent but largely unheralded examples of Ice Age art while in the company of acclaimed paleoanthropologist and popular trip leader Ian Tattersall. Admire unusual, elegant bas-relief animal images in Basque caves, a profusion of hand prints at Gargas, and the famous panels of line-drawn and subtly shaded bison, horse, and ibex at Niaux. Visit the recently opened Cosquer Méditerranée, a replica of a heavily decorated, now submerged, prehistoric cave that was discovered in 1985. The trip concludes with a visit to the spectacular Chauvet Cave replica at Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, which expertly recreates the earliest, and perhaps most impressive, of the many masterpieces of Ice Age art dated to some 35,000 years ago. Enjoy fine food and delightful
accommodations while an expert tour manager handles all the logistics.
