Stop 1 · Jordan
Petra
Its builders engineered dams and cisterns that let 20,000 people live in a desert canyon. Only a fraction of the site has ever been excavated.
Ruined cities abandoned to the wilderness
No one lives in any of these places today. Each was a thriving city, each was left behind, and each was found again by the outside world centuries later.
The five stops
Stop 2 · Peru
Machu Picchu
Its stones are cut so precisely that no mortar was used. Local farmers knew about it all along — Hiram Bingham was simply the one who told the world.
Stop 3 · Cambodia
Angkor
Lidar surveys since 2012 revealed a vast grid of canals and suburbs under the forest — probably the largest pre-industrial city on earth.
Stop 4 · Syria
Palmyra
Its Aramaic name, Tadmor, is still the name of the modern village beside it. Much of what was destroyed in 2015 is documented well enough to reconstruct.
Stop 5 · Mexico
Chichén Itzá
There are no rivers in this part of the peninsula — the city existed because of its cenotes, natural wells in the limestone.
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