Standing in the colonnade of the Temple of Hera at Paestum, in southern Italy, I was completely alone. No tourists, no guides, no ticket takers — just me and a row of Doric columns that had been standing for 2,500 years, built by Greek colonists who had sailed across the Mediterranean and decided to stay. The silence was broken only by birdsong and the distant sound of a tractor in a nearby field. I had Guide two hours from Naples to reach Paestum, passing the more famous ruins of Pompeii along the way, and I had the place almost entirely to myself. That experience — the solitude, the scale, the sense of direct connection to people who lived two and a half millennia ago — is what ancient ruins offer at their best, and it's the reason I've built trips around archaeological sites for the past decade.
Petra, Jordan: The Rose-Red City
Petra, the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom from the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, is one of the most spectacular archaeological sites in the world. The city is carved directly into the rose-red sandstone cliffs of southern Jordan, and the approach through the Siq — a narrow, 1.2-kilometer gorge between cliffs that rise up to 80 meters on either side — builds anticipation in a way that no other archaeological site does. You walk through the Siq for about forty-five minutes, the cliffs narrowing until you can almost touch both walls, and then the gorge opens suddenly to reveal the Treasury (Al-Khazneh), a 40-meter-tall facade carved with Corinthian columns, friezes, and figures that is one of the most iconic sights in the Middle East.
This standard one-day ticket to Petra costs 50 Jordanian dinars ($70) and is valid for a single day. A two-day ticket costs 55 dinars ($77) and is strongly recommended — Petra is enormous, and trying to see it in one day means rushing through some of the most impressive sites. I spent two full days at Petra and still didn't see everything. The main sites beyond the Treasury include the Street of Facades (a row of tomb facades carved into the cliff face), the Theater (seating 4,000 people, carved into the rock), the Monastery (Ad Deir, a massive facade similar to the Treasury but larger and less ornate, reached by climbing 800 rock-cut steps), and the Royal Tombs (a group of elaborate tomb facades with ornate interiors). The Monastery is a forty-five-minute climb from the city center, and the view from the plaza in front of it — looking out over the Wadi Araba desert — is one of the most dramatic in Jordan.
I stayed at the Petra Moon Hotel, a five-minute walk from the main entrance, for 40 dinars ($56) per night including breakfast. The hotel arranged a guide named Mahmoud for my first day, which cost 50 dinars ($70) for a full-day tour. Mahmoud was a Bedouin from the area and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the site's history, geology, and flora. He pointed out details I would have missed entirely — the water channel carved into the floor of the Siq that fed the city's water supply, the Nabataean inscriptions on the cliff walls, the evidence of earlier structures that the Nabataeans incorporated into their own buildings. A guide is not strictly necessary at Petra, but I'd recommend one for at least the first morning.
Machu Picchu, Peru: The Lost City
Machu Picchu, the 15th-century Inca citadel perched on a ridge above the Urubamba River in Peru, is the most famous archaeological site in South America, and it deserves every bit of its reputation. The site was built by the Inca emperor Pachacuti as a royal estate and religious center, and it was abandoned about a century after the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. It was brought to international attention by Hiram Bingham in 1911, and it has been the subject of archaeological investigation and conservation ever since. The setting — surrounded by cloud forested mountains with the river far below — is as extraordinary as the ruins themselves.
Access to Machu Picchu is controlled by a ticketing system that limits the number of daily visitors to 4,044. Tickets must be purchased in advance through the government's official website (machupicchu.gob.pe) or through authorized tour operators. I bought my ticket three months ahead for 152 soles ($41), which included entry to the site and access to the standard circuit (a route that covers the main structures in about three to four hours). Tickets for the additional circuits (including the climb to Huayna Picchu, the steep peak that overlooks the site) sell out months in advance and cost an additional 200 soles ($54). I visited in late April, at the end of the rainy season, and the site was misty and atmospheric — the clouds rolled through the ruins like waves, revealing and concealing different sections of the city in turn.
I reached Machu Picchu by hiking the Inca Trail, a four-day, three-night trek through the Andes that ends at the Sun Gate (Inti Punku) overlooking Machu Picchu. The trail is limited to 500 trekkers per day (including guides and porters), and permits must be booked through an authorized tour operator months in advance. I booked through a company called Alpaca Expeditions, which charged $750 per person for the four-day trek, including all meals, camping equipment, a guide, and porters. The trek was physically demanding — the highest pass, Dead Woman's Pass, reaches 4,215 meters — but the experience of walking through cloud forest and emerging at the Sun Gate to see Machu Picchu spread out below is one of the most rewarding moments of any trip I've taken.
Angkor, Cambodia: The Temple City
A Angkor Archaeological Park, near Siem Reap in northwestern Cambodia, contains the remains of the Khmer Empire, which flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries CE. The park covers more than 400 square kilometers and contains more than 1,000 temples, ranging from small, ruined structures to the massive Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. I spent four days exploring Angkor and saw perhaps a quarter of the park's temples — the scale of the site is such that a thorough visit would take weeks.
Angkor Wat, built in the early 12th century by King Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, is the most famous and most visited temple in the park. The temple is surrounded by a moat 1.5 kilometers wide and covers an area of about 200 hectares. The bas-relief galleries, which extend for more than 600 meters along the outer walls, depict scenes from Hindu mythology and Khmer history with an extraordinary level of detail. I arrived at 5 AM to watch the sunrise over the temple's five towers — a scene that is reproduced on Cambodia's national flag — and found the experience both beautiful and surprisingly peaceful, despite the crowds. The temple is best photographed in the early morning, when the light is soft and the stone glows a warm amber color.
One one-day pass to Angkor costs $37, a three-day pass costs $62, and a seven-day pass costs $72. I bought the three-day pass, which was sufficient for a thorough visit to the major temples. Transportation within the park is by tuk-tuk ($15 to $20 per day) or by bicycle ($2 to $3 per day rental). I used a tuk-tuk Guide named Mr. Vannak, who picked me up at my hotel at 5 AM each morning and drove me between temples throughout the day. Beyond Angkor Wat, the temples I'd most recommend are: Bayon (known for its massive stone faces), Ta Prohm (where giant tree roots have grown over and through the stone structures), Banteay Srei (a small, exquisitely carved temple about twenty-five kilometers from the main park), and Preah Khan (a large, atmospheric temple complex that is less visited than the major sites).
Pompeii and Herculaneum, Italy: Frozen in Time
The volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under meters of ash and mud, preserving them in an extraordinary state that allows visitors to walk through Roman streets, enter Roman houses, and see Roman life with a directness that no other archaeological site can match. Pompeii is the larger and more famous of the two sites, but Herculaneum, though smaller, is in many ways better preserved — the mud that buried Herculaneum preserved wooden structures, organic materials, and even upper floors that were destroyed in Pompeii by the ash and the later looting.
The Pompeii entrance ticket costs 18 euros and is valid for one day. The site is enormous — the excavated area covers 66 hectares, with more than 1,500 buildings — and seeing even the highlights takes a full day. I'd recommend hiring a guide at the entrance (about 80 euros for a two-hour tour) for an initial orientation, then exploring on your own. The most striking areas include the Forum (the civic and religious center of the city), the Amphitheater (the oldest stone amphitheater in the world, seating 20,000), the House of the Vettii (a wealthy merchant's house with remarkably preserved frescoes), and the Garden of the Fugitives (where plaster casts of thirteen victims of the eruption were made from the cavities left by their bodies in the hardened ash).
Herculaneum, about ten kilometers from Pompeii, is accessible with the same ticket. The site is much smaller — the excavated area covers about 4.5 hectares — but the preservation is superior. I could see wooden beams, doors, and even carbonized furniture in the houses. The House of the Deer, named for a marble statue of deer found in the garden, has a second-floor balcony that is still intact — something you won't find at Pompeii. The ticket office at Herculaneum also sells a combined ticket for Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Villa of the Mysteries (a villa just outside Pompeii with remarkable frescoes depicting a Dionysian mystery cult) for 22 euros, valid for two days. I'd recommend visiting Herculaneum in the morning, when the light is good and the crowds are thin, and Pompeii in the afternoon.
Tikal, Guatemala: City of the Maya
Tikal, in the Peten region of northern Guatemala, was one of the largest and most powerful cities of the Maya civilization, with a population that may have reached 100,000 at its peak in the 8th century CE. The site is set in a tropical rainforest that has grown over and around the ruins, and the experience of emerging from the jungle to find a massive pyramid rising above the canopy is one of the most dramatic moments in Mesoamerican archaeology. The site covers about 16 square kilometers and contains more than 3,000 structures, of which only a fraction have been excavated.
The entrance fee to Tikal is 150 quetzales ($20) for foreign visitors, and the site is open from 6 AM to 6 PM. I arrived at 6 AM and had the Grand Plaza — the ceremonial center of the city, flanked by Temple I (the Temple of the Great Jaguar) and Temple II (the Temple of the Mask) — almost entirely to myself for the first hour. The climb to the top of Temple IV, the tallest pyramid at Tikal at 64 meters, provides a panoramic view of the site and the surrounding jungle canopy. From the top, you can see the tops of other pyramids poking through the trees in every direction, and the scale of the city becomes apparent in a way that is impossible to grasp from the ground. The howler monkeys that inhabit the canopy provide a constant soundtrack of deep, guttural calls that add to the atmosphere.
I stayed at the Hotel Tikal Inn, inside the national park about a ten-minute walk from the site entrance, for $45 per night. Staying inside the park allows you to enter the site before the day-trippers arrive and to stay after they leave. The hotel is basic but comfortable, with clean rooms, hot water, and a restaurant that serves Guatemalan and international food. The park also has three campgrounds for budget travelers, with basic facilities (showers and toilets) for about $5 per night. The nearest town with full services is Flores, about an hour's Shape south, connected to the park by a paved road with frequent shuttle service.
Planning Your Archaeological Travels
Visiting archaeological sites effectively requires more preparation than most other types of travel. Before visiting any site, I spend an evening reading about its history, layout, and key structures. The 'Ancient Peoples and Places' series published by Thames and Hudson provides accessible introductions to most major archaeological sites. For specific sites, I've found that academic articles on JSTOR (accessible through many public libraries) provide more detailed and current information than guidebooks, which can be years out of date. Understanding what you're looking at transforms the experience from walking through old stones to walking through a living city.
Timing matters enormously. The best times to visit most archaeological sites are early morning (when the light is good and the crowds are thin) and late afternoon (when the light is warm and the crowds have thinned). Midday is the worst time — the light is flat, the heat is intense (at tropical sites like Angkor and Tikal), and the crowds are at their peak. I plan my days around early starts and midday breaks, visiting sites from 6 AM to 10 AM and again from 3 PM to 5 PM. This schedule also aligns with the soft light around sunrise and sunset, which produces the most flattering light for architectural photography.
Guides are worth the investment at most major sites. A good guide provides context, history, and specific details that you would miss on your own — the significance of a particular carving, the function of a particular structure, the story behind a particular artifact. At Petra, my guide pointed out the water management system that allowed the Nabataeans to thrive in the desert. At Angkor, a guide explained the symbolism of the bas-reliefs at the Bayon temple. At Tikal, a guide identified the calls of specific bird species and explained the relationship between the Maya and the jungle ecosystem. I budget $20 to $50 per day for guides and consider it an essential part of the experience.
